Women in Leadership: Ryerson University

Transcription

1 Women in Leadership: Ryerson University Delivered by COU President and CEO Bonnie M. Patterson Friday, April 10, 2015 Thank you for the opportunity to be here today. Ryerson is a very special place to me, and when I look out at the crowd it is comforting to see both individuals who I know and respect and many new faces that are helping to move the institution forward. I also want to thank the organizers of these gatherings. As women, we need leadership networks like this one that we can draw on for insight, encouragement, and inspiration. Rarely does a speaker get carte blanche on a topic, and so I ve thought a lot over the last few weeks about what I could share that would be useful to so many accomplished women in the audience. The more I thought about it, the more I demonstrated to myself one of the challenges many women have: the lack of confidence that what we say will be of value. Page 1 of 5

2 I got over that feeling quickly, but it reminded me of the first direct hit that I took as a leader that really opened my eyes it was here at Ryerson. When I took up the position as Dean of Business, the Ryerson s alumni magazine did a cover story about my appointment and on the front cover was my picture. It was one of those photographs where you could tell from the size of the glasses I wore to the curly perm that it was taken a long time ago! A couple of weeks after the mailing went out, I received back in the mail a copy of the magazine with a handwritten message scrawled across my face that read a biz school run by a woman, count me out! I keep that scrawled magazine cover in my keeper file, as a reminder. It s gratifying to feel that this type of response would be rare today. Defining Success and Harvesting Opportunities What does success mean to you? In my experience, success is not a one-size-fits-all. In a recent Harvard Business Review study of executives, researchers compared how leaders define their personal and professional wins. It was interesting to see elements that were very similar for men and women: Professional success was defined by large numbers of male and female executives as working with a good team, happiness and enjoyment in the workplace, and work/life balance. Personal success was commonly defined by factors like living a life of meaning and feeling no regrets, whether coming from a male or female leader. There were, however, noteworthy differences between female and male executives. Professionally, these were in elements such as: The importance of individual achievement (doubly important for women), Making a difference (a third higher for women), Respect from others (four times more important for women), Passion for your work (five times more important for women than men), On the personal definition of success, interestingly financial success didn t hit the charts for women, and yet was in the Top-20 per cent for men in defining their success. New experiences for personal growth and rewarding relationships were doubly important for men than women. And, finally, executives of both sexes consider the tension between work and family to be primarily a women s problem. My take away from that survey isn t profound - it demonstrates that there are measurable differences in how we see ourselves as successful. So, my first reflection on leadership is really to encourage you as women to aspire to your own goals, not what others expect. Page 2 of 5

3 The second is the importance of following your passion, whether through your job or in your life. Find it and pursue it. As I said in my convocation speech here at Ryerson in October: I m fortunate. My passion is for education and its transforming and equalizing power. Education has provided me with choices that I otherwise would not have had as I ve gone through my life and career. My source of inspiration, and the early influence on my life, was a teacher who lit the flame of curiosity, compassion, and the value of learning. Learning is - in its simplest terms - about developing a toolkit. My movement within the university sector has been about harvesting opportunities. (I could also have said seizing opportunities, but the so often used Latin expression carpe diem is more properly translated by harvest, and I like the agricultural metaphor.) Sometimes, my opportunities came through being at the right place, at the right time the right place in both my personal and professional life. This year is my 40 th year working in the academy that started on a one-year contract as a lecturer at Western, filling in for a maternity leave. After six years there, I found my way to Ryerson because I was in a commuting marriage that took me to the Toronto airport a lot and was co-authoring a book with a colleague at Ryerson. When a position became available, she encouraged me to apply. I had just got tenure, predominantly on the basis of teaching quality a rare occurrence at the time and my colleagues and friends thought I was nuts! I think it is important to lay the ground work for opportunities and, when they come, harvest them make the most of opportunities using the toolkit you build for yourself by continually learning; accept projects that stretch your skill set and experience, to add new tools and lay the ground work for future opportunities. In this regard, I encourage you to develop your network of peers and choose to invest in them with time and authentic engagement. Friends and colleagues need to be tended and will support you in your leadership quest and experience. They can give advice, and be relied on to give honest feedback. I have a Rolodex of people with different experiences than me in a host of areas they can provide wise counsel from their experience, which is another tool in a different toolkit. Keep an Eye Out for Unseen Barriers My own career, and everyone s here today, is evidence of the possible. But more can be done. Globally, in business, about 22 per cent of senior leadership positions are held by women. Canada sits just above that average, with women representing 25 per cent of senior executives, unchanged since a decade ago. This number shrinks dramatically when you reach the C-Suite, where women represent just nine per cent of CFOs and CEOs. Universities are not immune to the leaky pipeline: while women represent 58 per cent of undergraduate students, and parity in graduate school, women represent 42 per cent at Page 3 of 5

4 the Assistant Professor level, 36 per cent Associate level, and 22 per cent at the full Professor rank. And only 2 of 20 university presidents in this province are women. So what is the issue? We need more adequate role models for women. With few women in leadership positions, it can be hard to find role models. It is also hard for others to see how an effective female leader might operate, and not just women portraying masculine roles and characteristics. It is important to make yourself available, and feed into the network. Of course, implicit social expectations and biases do remain in everyone male and female alike. A recent study from the National Academy of Sciences found that hiring managers of both genders are twice as likely to hire a man as a woman with the same skillset. Why? There is a deeply-ingrained and largely unconscious preference for masculine style leadership among both men and women. Male candidates tended to boast about their abilities and accomplishments, while women downplayed their talents and achievements. Moreover, it s hard for women to appropriate male stereotypes: when women boast about their skills they re perceived negatively, instead of confident and ambitious. Consider, too, how certain social pressures say, around family and care-giving can lead us to misjudge our own expectations. A recent interview of North American business leaders revealed that while half of women expected to do the majority of childcare, three-quarters of women actually ended up doing it; and while less than onequarter of women expected their husband s career to take precedence, it actually took precedence in 40 per cent of cases. Implicit biases and social pressures like these operate like an invisible hand, guiding our choices subconsciously I encourage you to become self-aware of your own assumptions and preconceptions. I want to return now to a point a raised earlier in several different contexts: taking risks. Leadership pushes you to take smart risks and to be an effective and experienced leader you need to be willing to get outside of your comfort zone. Remember that failure comes with success. Failure is a stepping stone to success. Sometimes you fall down, but you always have to get back up. Do you remember the Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire song from the Swing-era song - I love it it goes, you need to pick yourself up and dust yourself off, and start all over again. Taking calculated risks and expanding yourself is key to seeding the ground, developing your toolkit, finding and feeding into your network, and harvesting opportunities. To close, let me give you my Top-10 bits of advice to empower your success: 1. Understand what you are deeply passionate about: In Joseph Conrad s words, find your bliss. All the skill in the world won t always deliver. Do what you love to do, express your passion, create space to innovate and stand out, and remember: if you can t find passion in your work, pursue it through your hobbies or your volunteer efforts Page 4 of 5

5 2. Be open to opportunities: They come from places you don t expect. Carpe Diem - harvest the day. 3. Work on your personal brand: Cultivate an online presence that shows who you are, both as a person and professionally. Craft a customized digital space. 4. Don t expect perfection for yourself or others around you: We can t do everything at peak performance all the time. Don t emulate Wonder Woman, but rather think about what would be wonderful for you. 5. Consider entrepreneurship: What would you do if you were not afraid? Know your risk tolerance, and see what smart risks you are willing to take. 6. Believe you will be successful: Your full to do list will never be done; learn how to be okay with that. In turn, that faith in yourself reinforces your confidence faith in yourself is important; it can help you stay focused on your own goals and communicate your ideas clearly. If you need to build that confidence, be a volunteer; it presents an easier space where you can speak up with fewer risks. 7. Take care of yourself physically and mentally: Schedule time for you, and don t cancel on yourself. I m forever working on this one, but I know intuitively that it s important. 8. Know failure goes hand-in-hand with success: Failure is a stepping stone to success. Sometimes you fall down, but get back up. 9. Know how to foster genuine relationships and keep them strong. Your support network is key. 10. Learn a few extra skills. Take small risks, get outside your comfort zone stretch yourself. Thank you for inviting me here today and for listening. Page 5 of 5