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Hey there and happy International Women's Day. It's Maureen China here, founder of the Mindsites Academy, neurocoach to executives, leaders, entrepreneurs, and a neuroleadership trainer. And I have such a great passion for using insights from neuroscience to help you deliver results, drive behavior change by creating new habits using emotional intelligence. I am absolutely excited to be back again today with a new episode of Lead to Excel podcast. And you can guess what my topic will be today. The theme for this year's International Women's Day is Break the Bias. So, without wasting any more time, hope you're ready. Let's do this. I'll start with this quote by Peter Drucker that says, When you hire a hand, it comes with a head and a heart attached. Deep within our subconscious, we all harbor biases that we consciously act on. And this is why we are still talking about women, especially black women, being significantly outnumbered at senior leadership levels in organizations. Many women are ready to take the helm of companies, to serve on boards, to run for office, so it's time to promote them. Open the doors, support them to sit comfortably at the table. The workplace needs to move away from trying to fit women into the current model that was designed for men, and now create an equitable workplace that caters for all. A good place to start is to have an open dialogue and transparency about creating an equitable workplace. I remember when I started my menopause in my early 40s. I'll be in a meeting and suddenly break out into this massive sweat. People kept staring at me. I felt so uncomfortable and I really couldn't talk to anyone. I did not feel comfortable. I did not feel confident to share what I was going through with anyone. I remember going through a lot of emotions and moods, sometimes bursting into tears and not knowing why. And I couldn't share this with anyone at work. I couldn't tell my manager because I didn't feel that he will understand. And I've asked myself the question a lot of times why couldn't I share it with anyone? It just wasn't talked about. The unfortunate thing is a lot of organizations don't even realize the impact that it has on a lot of women going through it. You know, it can actually affect performance because it does take its toll. It took me a while to actually figure out what was going on. I'm going to do a podcast on menopause at work soon because it's something we need to be talking about more. So even though women are the majority in industries such as law, higher education, health, they still experience too many biases, such as constrained communication, in which they have to be mindful when expressing authority, downplay their accomplishments, they are not acknowledged for their contributions, and frequently get interrupted by men when speaking. An article I read recently rightly stated that many organizations still had a boys' club mentality where decisions were made mostly by men. What makes me so sad is that now more than before, I'm seeing too many female leaders being held responsible for problems outside their control by even fellow women. And this is a vicious circle where many women are trying to prove themselves, not make mistakes, they become risk averse and push their expectations onto other women they lead, and the circle continues. Unfortunately, this has led to too many female leaders limiting their aspirations to higher roles. When workplaces are not supportive of allowing women and men bring their true self to work, where they can combine work with family, you end up missing out on the best of them. Research done by Connie Lee and published in the Cardoso Journal of Law and Gender reported the impact of implicit bias on female lawyers. Law firms have one of the highest levels of exclusion and workplace harassment when compared to other industries relating to women. So what can be done? Talking about law firms, one thing that they can do to alleviate these ongoing challenges is to implement flexible work schedules, telecommuting and job sharing, for example. Law firms and organizations generally should openly communicate these policies, encourage their use, and examine ways to enforce these policies that actually improve work-life balance. Additionally, they should create and support women's initiatives to address the institutional barriers in law firms and organizations. It's time to replace competition with cooperation. The belief that progress can only be made at the expense of others creates behavior patterns that disincentivizes workers from helping or supporting their colleagues. Modeling and encouraging cooperation and incentivizing collaboration and teamwork will increase performance and create a culture and work environment of growth and well-being. Another solution is to measure success by performance and not by time spent. Because many people still think presentedism is a measure of performance, engagement and dedication, and many managers are still too scared to give their people control and responsibility to choose when they work. But it's important to realize that measuring performance by time in the office or time spent online is not relevant, as we've just witnessed, and it's women that end up suffering from these consequences. A great way is to give employees clear goals and clear metrics of how success will be measured, but then allow them to creatively and freely find ways to achieve it. Don't micromanage them because their brain will see it as a threat and you lose the very reason you employed them, their creative brain and skills. Unfortunately, you also lose good talent, which will be mostly women. So while remote work isn't an option for all jobs, flexibility can still be given where possible. When people feel included, they will speak up and go the extra mile, which boosts organizational performance. Transparent and inclusive decision making leads to increased employee trust, happiness, and engagement, and it fosters innovative thinking, which every organization needs. As a leader, ensure that everyone has a voice in meetings and that all perspectives are heard and considered. Gender equity isn't just about representation, it has to include inclusiveness and feeling a sense of belonging. And as I described earlier, when I started Menopause, the big issue I had and the reason why I couldn't feel I could talk to anyone was the fact that I did not have a sense of belonging. I did not have a sense that I will be supported because I had seen where women were discriminated against when they left to have babies or they were that childbearing age. So let's talk about office politics. This is the ability to successfully navigate the unwritten rules of how things get done through whom and achieve your career goals. A client called me recently about how a male colleague she had always had a good working relationship with suddenly changed when a new position came up. And he decided that he wanted to manage the projects that she had been managing for years. And he went on to very confidently tell her that he needed those projects for his career progression, and he deserved it, and he was going to make sure he got them. It completely shocked my client, and she did not know what to do or how to even deal with a situation like that. And she also suspects that he was already speaking to the male CEO. Her question to me was why is he selfishly thinking of himself and not the organization or the customers? Many women avoid and dislike office politics because they see it as dirty or dishonest and stressful. Because after all, quote, my work should speak for itself. An office politics is inauthentic. And yet, by nature, humans are social beings, and having political skills matters. As studies have shown that being able to successfully use these skills is critical to career advancement. It will often make you stretch beyond your natural behavior preferences and behavior patterns, but you can achieve it strategically. Using our brain mapping diagnostic and neurocoaching at the Mindsight Academy, I help many women navigate this journey in a way that reduces the discomfort and maximizes career advancement. So if you want to talk about this more, please get in touch. Just send me an email to Maureen at the MindsightAcademy.com. Anyone believing that their work should speak for itself is adopting a very narrow mindset. The mindset that assumes that others can fully appreciate and comprehend the part that you are playing in a larger organization puzzle, which really is not realistic because they are also running their own race. So you need to shift from it inauthentic to I'm being paid to have a point of view and share it. Being authentic requires two things. Self-awareness is one of them. Self-awareness is knowing who you are, what drives you, what's your worth, and what's your expression, which is your ability to consciously align your behavior with your awareness. Self-awareness is your ability to act intentionally in a way that serves the context and not being reactive to what's happening around you. It's about knowing your true worth. When I work with people on making a shift away from this mindset, I help them discern their purpose and values using our source higher e-toolkit bundle, which is also on the Mindsite Academy website. And it enables them to make choices in alignment with themselves. Rather than reacting to what you don't like, make a conscious decision to be a role model for the leadership behavior that you want. Another point I'll mention here is that a lot of women are penalized for being ambitious, especially women from minority groups. But the personal and psychological toll of not striving to fulfill your potential and not stretching to reach your goals is equally detrimental. To rise higher in your career or business as a female leader, you need to gather resources and allies and ensure that you have the support in your personal and professional life before undertaking any action. It's very important to have a clear vision of where you are going, with a clear purpose and clear values. Having a growth mindset with a belief that your skills can be developed through hard work, good strategies, and positive relationships will help shield you from negative stereotypes. A study by Walton and Cohen found that when black university students were taught to have a growth mindset, they were less likely to internalize negative stereotypes directed at them, and thereby they then had better outcomes in their studies. This is exactly why I did not hesitate when Kent Business School at the University of Kent contacted me last year to run an emotional intelligence and leadership session for the Black and Asian and other minority students at the university who were in their final years. We are running it again this year. Last year, all the 16 students in the first cohort completed with a 2-1 or higher degree. On this same study by Walton and Cohen, they found that students with a fixed mindset, seeing themselves as unable to change, are more prone to suffer the effects of negative stereotyping. My goal is to help women see that in spite of the reality that women and racialized minorities face relating to discrimination, negative stereotypes, and hostilities, you have choices which provide you with more flexibility and resilience, or less depending on what you choose. Developing a growth mindset that frames the challenge or obstacle as an opportunity to learn and grow, preparing yourself by having self-awareness, gathering allies and resources, and developing high emotional intelligence can be a powerful protection and motivator from the backlash that you may face. I see many women wanting to thrive in their businesses or get into very senior leadership positions, but have not spent time identifying their limiting beliefs about different situations to enable them to truly advance their careers. The mindset you bring to any situation, especially one that can be experienced as negative and aversive, is critical to your success. So are you ready to identify and shift your mindset to give you more power over your experiences and possibilities? Then it's time to start taking action. As we celebrate International Women's Day, it's worth remembering that women don't need power. They have always been powerful. It's time to open the door and embrace us. If you're a female leader that wants to increase in confidence, master how to navigate obstacles, and effectively create a space that empowers others, I will soon be running a program for you. So if you're interested, send me an email at morin at the mindsightacademy.com. And if you're an organization that wants to know how to build these skills for women and how men can truly be allies and supports, I would love to support you to achieve your goals as well. So finally, I'm going to end with this Italian proverb. A candle loses nothing when it lights another candle. Thank you again for tuning in to this podcast. I hope you've got lots of things to really take away, work on, share, and start pushing to shift that mindset and create the life, the career, or the business that you want. Okay, three things before we finish today. Have you subscribed to this podcast? If you haven't, make sure you click that subscribe button wherever you listen to this podcast. Because once you subscribe, you will not miss an episode. And as usual, if you have a topic you would love me to speak about or bring a guest on, do let me know by leaving a review. Finally, do have a fantastic week and remember that you are limitless. So I look forward to seeing you in our next episode. Bye for now.