BAN BOSSY

Monday, March 10, 2014

Good morning,

On the heels of International Women’s Day, which was Saturday, three dynamic women, Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Girl Scouts of America CEO Anna Maria Chavez, are rolling out a campaign to deliver a powerful message.  They are coming together and launching a public service campaign to ban the word bossy, a negative label, they say, which is too often applied to young girls, and one of the many ways we discourage speaking up.

Starting at a young age, the hope is to help parents and teachers empower girls to stand up and speak out.  This is great for our daughters, nieces and granddaughters who will follow in our footsteps, but there are things managers can do today to help women already in the workplace.

LeanIn.org and the Girls Scouts of the USA have partnered together and developed a brochure for  “Leadership Tips for Managers”  to help Ban Bossy.  Their Top 10 Tips are listed below:

1. Push Back on the “Likeability Penalty” – Listen for the language of the likeability penalty.  When a woman is described as “aggressive,” “too ambitious,” “out for herself,” or “not well liked,” there’s a good chance there is a penalty in action.
2. Get Everyone to Sit at the Table & Participate – It’s important to make sure everyone speaks up and is heard.  Start by watching where your team sits in meetings and make sure women as well as men sit front and center.  Set a precedent that every voice counts and establish a no interruptions rule to reinforce it.
3. Evaluate Performance Fairly – Awareness begets fairness.  Make sure everyone on your team is aware of the gender bias in evaluating performance.  Set expectations up front and make sure goals are understood and measurable.  When we’re accountable for our decisions, we’re more motivated to think through them carefully.
4. Give Women Credit – Make sure women get the credit they deserve and look for opportunities to celebrate their success.
5. Pay Women Fairly – Audit compensation across your team; remember fair pay begins with evaluating performance correctly and giving everyone full credit for their contributions.
6. Encourage Women to Negotiate – Communicate to all members of your team – especially women –  that it is important for them to ask for what they want and deserve.  We are all prone to penalize women when they negotiate.  Be conscious of this dynamic and correct for it; you’ll set a good example for others.
7. Distribute Work Equally – Audit who’s doing service work and make sure it’s distributed equally.
8. Encourage Women to Pursue Opportunities – Push back when a woman says she’s “not ready” or “not qualified.”  Remind her what she has already accomplished and how quickly she’s progressing.
9. Let Your Team Know You’ll Support Them Through Pregnancy – It’s not illegal to talk about pregnancy, only to discriminate based on it.  Let the women – and men – on your team know you will support their decision to start a family.
10. Mentor & Sponsor Women – We need more male managers to mentor and sponsor junior women, and we should reward them when they do.  Men end up gravitating toward other men, and since there are more men in senior roles, women miss out.

The group is also encouraging all to join the campaign and post “I will #banbossy” on Facebook and Twitter.  For more information and to download a brochure, go to www.banbossy.comNone of these tips should be a surprise to any of us, but it’s always a good reminder when we are checking the box to make sure we are doing all we can to help and support women in the workplace.

And a final tip from me, Pay It Forward.   When someone helps and supports you in your career and business, do it for another.  Maybe, just maybe, we will make a difference sooner rather than later.