Female leaders make B.C. companies a 'complete community'
Credit to Author: Randy Shore| Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2019 13:35:38 +0000
Minerva B.C. is training agents of change and 20 years into its mission these proponents of gender equity are getting serious traction.
This year’s Face of Leadership report identifies some “shining stars” among B.C.’s biggest companies, firms that are embracing female leadership in senior management and even the board room.
The B.C. Lottery Corp. leads the way with six female directors (75 per cent of the board) and two new senior executive managers.
Diversity is woven into the corporation’s DNA, with strong internal mentoring programs aimed at women regardless of their job title, said BCLC interim CEO Greg Moore.
Companies that drag their feet on gender equity are losing an opportunity to create a “complete community,” he said. “They are not reaching their full potential until they go down this path.”
Kim Steinberg, BCLC’s manager of player health advancement and outreach, was selected to attend Minerva’s six-month Women Leading The Way leadership program, one of nine women from BCLC to date.
“What I gained most was a well-rounded perspective on what leadership means and also what type of leader I am,” she said. “The first part is self-discovery, learning what our strengths are, what our values are and how we can use that to become better leaders.”
The key is to develop a leadership style that is authentic, that is built on your strengths and personal values.
“I ended up using that same sort of exercise with my team at BCLC to learn a little more about each other and how our values align,” she explained. “We had a lot of shared values, which makes sense because we are all working in a role where we are helping people, making sure they are taken care of.”
What the course does not do is teach women to think and act like men. And that means that workplace culture sometimes gets an overhaul when women step into leadership roles.
Tina Strehlke, CEO of Minerva B.C., a non-profit organization that works toward achieving gender parity.
“We see a lot of women who are working in male-dominated spaces and they are trying to navigate that in an authentic way,” said Minerva B.C. CEO Tina Strehlke. “One of our participants framed it as, ‘Why can’t I be hard and soft?’”
“We tend to characterize leadership in a certain way because so many leaders have historically been male,” she said. “Once you bring more women into the workplace, you start to see more variety in leadership styles.”
It’s important to create a culture and a working environment that makes space for people who haven’t been the dominant group.
B.C.’s construction industry has launched The Builders Code, which is intended to retain women in the workforce, she noted.
“It makes safety a priority, and not just physical safety but psychological safety,” she said. “So that has to address bullying and harassment and more subtle messages.”
“We hear from women a lot, ‘I get tired of the conversation stopping when I enter the room.’ They feel reminded that they are different or somehow don’t belong.”
Many of the companies leading B.C. in gender equity are among the 28 signatories to Minerva’s Diversity Pledge to support the advancement of women into leadership positions.
“We are starting to see more companies crack the 30-per-cent mark and that is often what they have set as an aspirational goal because at that point female leaders stop being seen as a token appointment or a special interest group,” said Strehlke.
Like managing your carbon footprint, promoting diversity is seen by many investors as essential to the health of your company.
“Employees are putting pressure on their employers, too, because they want meaning and social justice, not just a paycheque,” she said.
B.C.’s financial services sector has the highest percentage of women serving on boards of directors (49 per cent) and in senior management roles (29 per cent). They are led by Minerva pledge signatories HSBC, ICBC and Pacific Blue Cross.
In the consumer discretionary and staples sector, the B.C. Lottery Corp. is followed by Lululemon, where half of the board positions and half of senior management jobs are filled by women.
Providence Healthcare renewed its commitment to gender equity by adding four female directors since last year for a total of six (38 per cent). Three women serve as senior executive managers, which is 37 per cent of its leadership positions, although that is well below the 67-per-cent benchmark for Canadian healthcare companies, the report notes.
The industrial sector posted the poorest gender equity scores, although one company that had pledged to improve made real headway. Finning has four female directors and three women on its senior management team.
Newmont Goldcorp led the materials and energy sector with six female directors (40 per cent) and four women in senior management roles (40 per cent). Teck Resources and Interfor each have women serving as directors.