Group HR Director Clare Martin looks at the importance of International Women's Day in recognising and celebrating the achievements of women across all industries.
Despite many years of effort and changes to global board policies, progress to close the gender gap remains slow. In fact, reports last year highlight that no country will achieve gender equality by 2030, which is disappointing.
Targets help create some focus and get organisations thinking about solutions, but as I have said before there is so silver bullet. The culture in an organisation has to be one in which the value of diversity is not only seen but really believed; it should never be a tick box exercise.
Over the past five years in JMG, we have taken many actions to encourage more women into our industry and then retain that talent, so females can potentially rise to the top based on their capabilities. We are nowhere near done yet; we still have lots to do. One of my biggest learnings in the past five years is that you have to be relentless in making change happen and constantly strive for more.
Over the past five years in JMG, we have taken many actions to encourage more women into our industry and then retain that talent, so females can potentially rise to the top based on their capabilities. We are nowhere near done yet; we still have lots to do. One of my biggest learnings in the past five years is that you have to be relentless in making change happen and constantly strive for more.
However, what we do have is leadership teams that really believe in the value of diversity.Whilst we achieved last year 30% of women in management roles, we still only have me on the Board and no current ready pipeline for operational board positions.
This confirms we’ve still got lots of change to make and different approaches to consider, but I wonder how quickly their impact will be realised? What we need is more dramatic change and action.
I recently attended a workshop as part of the Retail Week Be Inspired initiative, which inspired me to think that we really need to redefine what makes a great leader in a commercial setting that is completely different to what it was even three years ago. I am not just talking about Automotive, this is relevant to all sectors
We need to remove the myth that there is such a thing as a perfect, well-rounded leader, and expect to find them. No person is an island; the best performance in a business comes from teamwork and collaboration, so why would we expect a leader to be skilled and amazing at everything? It’s impossible.Throughout my career I have never met one leader who ticks every ‘ideal leadership competence’.
Imagine how many more women we could see in leadership positions if we just focused on people’s strengths not their weaknesses? Consider this: how many times have you sat in a performance review with your manager and quickly breezed through the highlights, the good bits, to then talk about what areas you need to develop, where you have gaps in your skills? Often a disproportionate amount of time that can be spent in this area.
We often observe females in particular, focusing on what we are not good at and believe me I am no different.In the past six months I have been lucky to meet some very successful and inspirational women who have talked to me about changing my narrative.One described as me as sabotaging my whole career by focusing on what I am not good in relation to taking the next step in my career, instead of focusing on my strengths and successes and how they align to the new business environment.
We have to change our narrative and it’s not about becoming arrogant, it’s about focusing on the strengths that we have, that are really required for future leaders operating in a VUCA world (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) where there’s significant importance of emotional intelligence in how we respond to customers and colleagues alike.
An Olympic athlete doesn’t one day decide to switch from being the best runner in the world to playing football (that is unless you’re Usain Bolt). They focus on ‘how can I do the thing I do best, but 5-10% better?’ What are my strengths and how do I exercise/train more to be better at them? Putting that in the context of career management, the answer is to collaborate to plug the skills gaps you have and put energy and focus into where you want to go and use your strengths to get there. Asking for help is not a weakness, nobody is perfect.
Perhaps if more organisations allowed for this to be their approach to talent management, we might see more women progress quicker through the ranks as we celebrate the talent and skills they have, rather than comparing them to male colleagues as a means of bench marking leadership traits.
That’s why this year for our own Women in JMG event to mark International Women’s Day, our theme is ‘Playing to your strengths’, as we encourage all colleagues to identify theirs and shout about their brilliance so it can be recognised. Our event is being held on 16th March.
