Nudging the system to progress equity and equality!

March 8th? is International Women’s Day and I am experiencing it for the first time in my new role at LinkedIn! What is different for me this year is the encouragement to share my voice and my experience as a female leader on our platform.?

Being given the space and encouragement to have a voice on equity, equality and inclusion on this day is a case in point in itself and it gives a signal to me about what matters at LinkedIn.

This year we, #EmbraceEquity…

Equity means recognizing that we do not all start from the same place and must acknowledge and make adjustments to imbalances. We can all challenge gender stereotypes, call out discrimination, draw attention to bias, and seek out inclusion.

What does this mean to me?

In my professional life to date both as a female executive and as a learning professional who has been involved in many development programs for female leaders I have seen one theme popping up again and again: Lack of confidence!?

Lack of confidence for women in sharing their voice, naming their experience, believing in themselves and their abilities, etc.?

…. And the same applies for other minority groups!?

…. And the same can also apply to sponsors and allies.?

One practice that has been helping me for the last few years is the concept of ‘naming’.?

‘Naming’ my experience in the here and now:

… in relation to myself and what is going on for me,?

… in relation to the organizational system I work in,?

… and in relation to the societal system I live in.?

Why is this important to me?

When I was born my mother gave up a successful career in a global organisation to be at home with the children. This was the right thing to do as a woman in the 70ies, wasn’t it? Even though she never said it out loud, I knew she would have preferred to stay working. When she went back to work when I was a teenager she had to accept a job that was below her capabilities - just because she had been out of work for so long. This experience significantly impacted her in her life.?

This is the context I grew up with and I promised myself that would not happen to me!

Now I am a mother of two beautiful boys and a couple of years back we decided as a family that my husband would take a career break and stay at home with the kids. What a great step forward in equality! What I realised in the process of making this decision is that I was the person who was struggling most with it. It should be the woman who stays at home, right? It should be me, not my husband. I was afraid to not fulfill my role as a mother and this was holding me back to agree to this decision. I realised that I was stuck in a similar role understanding as my mother was. A familiar family and cultural script being passed on from generation to generation! Different from what was possible for my mother, I “named” this struggle first to myself, then to my husband and also with trusted friends and family members. Naming it gave me the opportunity to work through it and develop the confidence to move ahead. Being ok with the change to the traditional role understanding and embracing my role as the main earner in the family.?

My husband had to go through a similar process for himself. The change needs to start with ourselves!

I wish my mother would have been able to ‘name’ her experience when she decided to give up work.

Creating space for reflection and for naming has made a huge difference for me - both in how I lead myself and how I lead others.?

This is my current experience and learning and I know that everyone’s experience and context is different. And what worked for me, might not be the reality of others.?

The practice of ‘naming’, however, is something that we all might be able to adopt. It's a small step forward to help nudge the system(s) we operate in in order to help us move forward on the journey towards equity, equality and inclusion.?

Will you join me?? #EmbraceEquity #EmbraceEquality