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#Leadership : #WorkPlace -We Need to Change the Conversation Around Motherhood and Work.

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Motherhood, by definition, is all-encompassing. But that doesn’t mean it’s the only thing that defines you. I’m an entrepreneur, and I’m always pushing boundaries. I’m also a mother.

While I love my sons fiercely, motherhood is not my only defining trait. Like many mothers, I am so much more. We’re badass career women, dreamers, creators, partners, homemakers, business builders, mentors, and leaders. The role of “mother” is one I’ll never outgrow, but I’ll always remember that there was a point when all of us were something else. It’s something that society often forgets when we become a mom.

THE CHALLENGES OF BEING A MOTHER TODAY

Some things will never change about motherhood. But many things make 2019 a different time to be a parent than previous generations. For starters, we have more tools and information at our disposal. In the U.S., we have more laws in place to protect our time while pregnant, take leave from work, and breastfeed than in previous generations. But we still lag behind the rest of the developed world, and those rights don’t speak to the core of the challenges inherent for mothers, especially those that choose to work.

The isolation and identity shift that come each time a mother has a baby has a profound impact on her life.  As an entrepreneur in the parent-tech space, I am fortunate to hear from moms and dads alike about their experiences navigating newborn and infant feeding. I’ve listened to moms whisper about why their job wouldn’t accommodate pumping milk, which forced them to stop breastfeeding before they were ready. I’ve spoken to moms who are on mute during work conference calls so that their coworkers wouldn’t hear the whir of the pump on the background. I’ve also heard dads talk about cleaning pumping parts or hearing the noise emanating from offices at work.

For others–the “lucky” ones who’ve cobbled together an arrangement that works– it’s an ongoing series of hacks. The challenges are universal and affect women at all income levels, though there is undoubtedly a considerable disparity between women in blue collar and white collar jobs. Even stay-at-home moms often choose to isolate themselves during pumping time, and we shouldn’t minimize or ignore the effort and strain involved in this forced isolation.

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WE’VE MADE PROGRESS, BUT WE STILL HAVE A LOT OF WORK TO DO

Despite the progress in paid parental leave law and offices adding lactation rooms, moms who breastfeed still face a stark gender pay gap. Moms give up breastfeeding because they can’t find time to pump on the job. Some moms speak up about breastfeeding rights and face retaliation, or even lose their jobs.

We need to make the motherhood experience better for moms. For too long, we’ve overlooked the fact that moms are people too–with unique needs–and a fully formed person from well before they had children. Here are three ways we can do that.

1. WE NEED TO SHIFT THE CONVERSATION

What’s working for moms and what isn’t? What support do moms need to make the choices they want? If moms want to breastfeed and keep working, what is holding them back? Do the right tools even exist yet? Are we doing all we can to ensure advances in technology are reaching every woman?

The challenges around breast pumps weren’t even really part of the conversation before 2014. We’ve made plenty of progress since then, but there is still a massive opportunity to do better. Statistics help and uplifting stories do wonders for the soul, but we need to continue to raise our voices on these topics. More importantly, we can’t leave this work and conversation to mothers alone. There are real-world impacts here, in terms of societal benefits, economic improvements, and something that has the potential to impact an entire generation. There is plenty of evidence that shows how offering paid parental leave helps companies retain and attract the best people. Creating a culture that is inclusive to all employees–including working mothers–makes companies more innovative.

2. WE NEED TO FOCUS ON MEETING THE NEEDS OF MOMS

I know I’m biased because I run a company that is building new parent-tech products, but we need to stop making outdated assumptions about mothers. Companies also need to ask moms what they actually want before designing products for them.

Let’s take the breast pump as an example of a piece of technology that isn’t getting the job done. No one wants to hear the whir of the pump through cubicle walls or over the phone, and not everyone wants to strip down in their workplace. A quiet pump, controllable by an app, with a small enough breast shield to fit in a nursing bra, goes a long way toward easing that experience.

3. WE NEED TO STOP SEEING PARENTING AS A MOTHER’S ISSUE

Parenting should concern dads, partners, grandparents, workplaces, healthcare experts, and legislators. There are many issues surrounding parenting that transcend party lines: returning to work, childcare, feeding, and work-life balance. We can’t isolate mothers as the ones to be the primary beneficiaries and victims here. Too often, we minimize the experience of dads and partners. Creating better products for mothers helps the entire family–as does closing the pay gap between working mothers and working fathers. If we want more parents to feel supported in their choices during the early childhood years, then we have to deepen the pool of people who feel invited to sit at the decision-making table.

We’re living in an age of unprecedented flow of information and adaptation of technology. More people feel empowered to come up with creative solutions to the obstacles of parenting. But we can’t do it alone. To make significant progress, we have to work together and change the conversation. That means seeing mothers as more than just mothers, and acknowledging that their identity outside of being a parent is just as important.

Author: Samantha Rudolph is the cofounder and CEO of Babyation. 

 

FastCompany.com | May 29, 2019

#CareerAdvice : #JobSearch -How to Tell if a #CompanysCulture Is Real, or Just Lip Service. A Must REad!

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As company culture becomes increasingly important to job seekers, promises from employers like flexible work schedules and bottom-up management are becoming commonplace.

Yet while these descriptions sound nice on paper, sustaining a positive environment in the office isn’t always easy. As a job seeker, how can you tell whether the assurances an employer makes about their company culture don’t stop at the job description?

By doing your research before you click “submit” on a job application or accept an offer, you can truly understand the work environment of a future employer and dodge any unwanted surprises before your first day.

1. Be Critical of What a Company Promises

Check both the “mission and values” and “employee benefits” sections of company websites and see how much detail they provide. Companies with good benefits and strong values will take the time explain how they move forward with their aspirations and what, in particular, they offer to employees. For example, Patagonia doesn’t just call itself a sustainable company — job seekers can read in depth about the company’s investments in reducing its green footprint on the company website. Corporate blogs are also great places to investigate company culture, as often those are where a company will go more in depth about how they execute their goals. On the other hand, if a company is vague and provides no game plan, then there’s a good chance it’s only talk.

Starting a New Job? Here’s How to Evaluate Company Culture

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2. See How the Glassdoor Reviews Stack Up

While an employer can promise change, employees are ultimately going to be the best judges of their work environments. Reading Glassdoor reviews gives you insider access into the workplace, so you can determine whether employer incentives actually come to fruition. See how often employees mention perks you’re interested in (e.g. parental benefits, PTO) and if employees have had uniform experiences. If there’s little similarity between reviews, then it might be a red flag that the experience isn’t quite what an employer has promised. For even more information, reach out to current or former employees via LinkedIn or mutual connections to grab some coffee and chat about their experiences.

3. Look at External Rankings

If companies are truly the cream of the crop for company culture, other organizations will validate them. Here at Glassdoor, we release an annual Best Places to Work list based on employee reviews. Other organizations provide rankings for more specific aspects of company culture. For example, the Corporate Equality Index from the Human Rights Campaign rates companies based on LGBTQ inclusivity in the workplace, and FertilityIQ advises job seekers on the employers with the best fertility benefits. Through external rankings, you can get an expert opinion on how a company’s culture really stacks up compared to the competition.

4. Ask the Right Questions in Your Interview

An interview can be the perfect place to learn more about culture from a direct source within the company. In order to get the answers you want, however, you have to be careful about how you phrase your questions. As Henry Goldbeck, President of Goldbeck Recruiting, notes, “If you are asking… about the culture, [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][recruiters] will know that and attempt to tell you what you want to hear.” Inquiries such as “How long have you been with the company?” or “What do people on the team that I’d be joining do for lunch every day?” give you insights into the office environment without triggering a recruiter’s automatic people-pleasing response.

12 Interview Questions You Should Ask to Uncover Company Culture

5. Take a Walk Around the Office

If you’re in later rounds of interviews, ask if you can have a tour of the office to see firsthand what a position at the company would look like. This will give you an opportunity to meet your potential team, get a peek at office amenities and see how you like the work environment before you make any commitments.

 

GlassDoor.com | March 8, 2019 | Posted by 

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#CareerAdvice : #ChangeManagement – How to Deal with These 4 Types of #ChangesAtWork …From Getting a #Promotion, #CompanyRestructure, #Layoffs, to Working with a New Boss.

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When it comes to your career (or life, really) very few things are certain. There is one thing you can count on for sure though. Throughout your professional life, you’ll continue to encounter change, big or small, positive and negative, voluntary and involuntary.

When you experience these changes–you have two choices. You can either actively resist it, or you can accept it and figure out what you can learn from, and how to, leverage the situation. In most cases, the latter is usually the smart option. As Jennifer Harvey Berger previously wrote for Fast Company, in a world that’s only going to become more complex, “shifting your mindset is the only way to not only cope but also make the journey more fun and successful.”

Here are five of the most common changes you can expect to see at work, and how to deal with it so you can continue to thrive in the workplace.

GETTING A PROMOTION

Congratulations! After over-delivering on project after project, and exceeding all your goals that you set with your manager when you started your job, your employer is finally rewarding you with a change in title and an increase in compensation. You’re exhilarated, but you’re also a little confused. What do you do now?

First off, start with figuring out what you will no longer take on, time coach Elizabeth Grace Saunders wrote in a previous Fast Company article. Assuming that your promotion comes with more responsibilities, you will probably need to learn how to master your new tasks, and you won’t be able to do that efficiently if you have to do that on top of your old job. This requires trusting other people, which can be difficult if you have controlling tendencies. But as Saunders pointed out, the higher you move up, the more you have to depend on others. So start to learn to let go of your micro-managing tendencies, and trust that you’re not the only one who knows how to do everything.

It might be counterintuitive to prioritize personal well-being like sleep and exercise. But as Saunders noted, when you are required to perform at a high level, you need to be stricter about making these things a priority. After all, they have a major impact on your productivity. That’s not something you can compromise when you’re required to perform at the next level, Saunders said.

Related: Should you ever accept a promotion without a raise? 

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COMPANY RESTRUCTURING

Very few things make employees as anxious as a company reorganization. Regardless of whether or not you survive the re-org, you’re sure to face some big changes. The first step, whatever the outcome, is to acknowledge what you went through, Neil Lewis, co-founder of Working Transitions, told Gwen Moran in a 2017 Fast Company article. If you survived the re-org and felt “survivor guilt,” give yourself permission to feel them. Then slowly rebuild your confidence by assessing what kind of opportunities you can take on to grow, and whether there are any gaps in your skills that you can fill. Lewis also urged that you shouldn’t be afraid of reaching out to your colleagues who have left the organization. After all, they’re a crucial part of your professional network.

If the re-org results in a layoff, The Muse’s Jenni Maier recommends that as soon as you’ve had time to process the news, let your network know you’re looking. When Maier was laid off from her role, she desperately wanted to keep it quiet, but because she was unhappy with (and wanted to change) her situation, she decided to be open about the fact that she was back in the job market. She wrote, “The majority of the interviews I went on after being laid off came from friends-of-friend leads. Leads I never got before I lost my job because no one knew I wanted them. And the position I ended up getting at The Muse? That “in” came from a former manager’s friend.”

Related: Take these steps to boost morale after layoffs

GETTING A NEW BOSS

Your happiness and success in your job has a lot to do with the relationship that you have with your boss. You might spend a long time building this relationship, but people move on, and one day, they might leave. You find yourself reporting to someone new, and you want to establish their trust and respect, quickly.

How do you do it in a way that doesn’t come off as bragging? As Gwen Moran previously wrote in Fast Company, the first step you should take is to build in some “networking” time with your boss–whether it’s coffee, or scheduling some time in a calendar for focused discussion. This way, you can start to learn their goals, working styles and any new ideas they might have, and work to amend your priorities where appropriate. Be proactive in terms of identifying where they might need help–that’s an easy way for you to secure some quick wins to help them shine, which builds goodwill quickly.

A CHANGE IN COMPANY CULTURE AND PROCESSES

Sometimes what the company looks like when you joined looks nothing like the company you’re still working at 2 years later. This especially common in a startup–which tends to start without structures and systems in place. As the company scales, those things become necessary, and sometimes, it can change the company culture, entrepreneur Matt Barba previously wrote for Fast Company.

The first step is acknowledging that structure isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and simply accept the fact that it comes with company growth. If you feel like there are some cultures that the company used to have that you want to reinstate–there are ways you can do that without needing approvals from the higher-ups. As SYPartners’ principal Joshua-Michéle Ross said at the 2017 Fast Company Innovation Festival, you can create deep transformations with tiny steps. He went on to say that one of the ways to do this is to create “rituals that solve a problem.” In the case of Airbnb, for example, the home-sharing company found itself with far too many internal meeting as the company grew. Their solution? they started filming the meetings and editing them into digestible content–which solved a problem and got rid of unnecessary bureaucracy.

Your brain might be averse to change, but with time and a shift in perspective, you can learn to accept it. And if you train yourself to be comfortable with uncertainty, you might just see opportunities as a result of those changes that you might not have had otherwise.

ANISA PURBASARI HORTON  is the Assistant Editor for Fast Company’s Leadership section. She covers everything from personal development, entrepreneurship and the future of work.

 

FastCompany.com | August 6, 2018

 

#Leadership : How To Build A #Community Around Your Business (And Why You Should)…You already Onboard #NewHires . Why Not Do the Same with Customers, Users, Fans, and other Stakeholders?

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Whether you know it or not, your business has a community. It could be a formal membership–maybe you offer a subscription-based product, for instance–or just a collection of loyal fans or customers that you should be treating like a community, if you want to stand apart from your competitors.

How you treat new community members within the first 30 to 60 days will determine whether or not you keep them in the fold. And for every growing business, customer retention is the holy grail: According to Bain researchers, increasing customer retention by just 5% can boost profits by as much as 25%–95%. For this reason, I geek out on the onboarding experience we offer our clients. Here are some favorite strategies every business, large or small, should consider trying out.

Related: The Hard-To-Nail Formula That Makes Building A Startup Easier

CONNECT WITH MEMBERS’ “PYRAMIDS OF INFLUENCE”

Most brands don’t think beyond collecting phone numbers and email addresses. At The Community Company, which helps brands build communities around their products and services, we find we’re able to boost engagement by at least 25% just by requesting contact information, not just for our immediate clients, but also for the people who impact how they spend their time or money. In other words, to turn customers into community members–and to grow the community overall–ask not just, “Who are you?” but also, “Who do you know?”

For example, a personal assistant can help you get an entrepreneur’s attention for a task that needs completing or a benefit you’re offering. We’ve also found that community members’ public relations and marketing people are often eager to take advantage of our services. It’s not about nagging your existing customers to do word-of-mouth marketing on your behalf–it’s about asking for an opportunity to leverage relationships that already exist. To cultivate them further, consider sending these influencers handwritten notes to make them feel valued and connected to you.

OFFER INSTANT OPPORTUNITIES

After a member joins your community, its your job to keep them engaged. Don’t bombard them with emails. Opt for few strategically spaced-out messages on how to navigate your platform or take advantage of special features. And if you have additional products or services, now is the time to offer them.

At Young Entrepreneur Council, for example, we immediately direct new members to a web page featuring deals and discounts we’ve negotiated, knowing that they’re most excited about reaping the benefits of membership after they first join. But you need to think of this as an onboarding process–a means of helping people who’ve already opted into your services figure out how to get the most out of them. We’re careful to avoid the hard sell (or, worse, the upsell), which is always counterproductive.

Related:Your Startup’s MVP Isn’t Working, But Here’s What Might

ASK OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS . . .

The one question our Member Concierge team is prohibited from asking members is, “How can I help you?” It’s well-intentioned but rarely gets a response with any meaningful data. People often feel too vulnerable to ask for help, or simply don’t know all the ways you might be able to lend a hand. If you’re dealing with a group of ambitious executives, better questions (depending on what kinds of products you offer, of course) might be, “What are you working on right now that you’re really excited about?” or, “What skills do you have that may be useful to your fellow community members?”

These open-ended questions will give your members a chance to build social capital in your group. The responses will also give you meaningful insights into your new members, particularly if you learn to read between the lines. Connecting the dots is a fundamental element of any community-building effort.

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. . . AND SPECIFIC ONES

After all, the more information your members share with you, the better you’ll be able to serve them. So don’t hesitate to get into particulars (the worst that can happen is a community member declines to respond).

If you have a community of business owners, you might ask them to share revenue (or at least a range), or ask if they have venture funding. Even a less confidential metric, such as number of employees, will allow you to estimate the size of their company. For, say, a community of rock climbers, you may ask how advanced their climbing skills are, what their most challenging climbs have been, or where they plan to climb next.

All this can help you arrange offline interactions among your most passionate fans. You should also ask your new members where they frequently travel. If you’ve got members who bounce between new York and Los Angeles quite a bit, wouldn’t it be to everyone’s advantage to connect those members with one another?

Collecting this kind of information–always with consent from your members, of course–allows you to make connections between people in your group, know what additional services you can offer them, and how to communicate with them as an ongoing member of your community. You can’t do most of that just by tweaking a sales funnel.

Ryan Paugh is the COO of The Community Company, an organization that builds community-driven programs for media companies and global brands. He is also the coauthor of Superconnector: Stop Networking and Start Building Business Relationships That Matter.

 

FastCompany.com | May 3, 2018 | Ryan Paugh

#Leadership : Three Ways To Improve Your #InterviewProcess So You Can Make Better And Faster #HiringDecisions …These Things Might Not be Rocket Science, But they are Surprisingly Not Done with as Much Consistency or Rigor as you Might Think.

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Interviewing may not be the most effective way to evaluate candidates, but it is still the most common. There are other better predictors of job success, but some of those methods require more resources to manage than your company many have.

If the interview is all you’ve got, it doesn’t mean that you are relegated to a life of bad hires or lots of first year turnover. It just means that you have to get really good at interviewing.

Some of that comes down to building your skills as an interviewer, which can only really happen with a lot of real skills practice (Effectively “probing” a candidate for more information is easy in concept but is far from easy in reality).

Beyond building your skills, some of it comes down to building the right interview process.

The Point Of The Interview

As my wife frequently complains about, I’ll start with a bold statement of the obvious:

The purpose of the interview is to facilitate a discussion with the candidate so that you leave that discussion with the right information you need to make a hiring decision.

I’m certainly not going to win any business innovation awards for that statement. Here’s the thing, though. Everything that happens in the interview should directly help you achieve that purpose. Unfortunately, in my work with clients on their interview process, there are often parts of the process that aren’t actually helping them achieve that purpose, or there are key parts of the process that could help but are missing.

Three Ways To Improve Your Interview Process

These aren’t rocket science concepts, but doing them well requires some focus and diligence:

1. Have a pre-interview preparation meeting with whoever is involved in the interview

This important step is often overlooked. It is understandable. Business life is always busy. Many of us are cramming interviews into already over-booked calendars.

The problem of not taking a few minutes for a team preparation meeting is that it doesn’t give you and other interviewers the opportunity to get aligned on what you are all looking for. This often results in different expectations of the candidate, how he or she answered the questions, and ultimately whether the candidate was what we were looking for.

When combined, these often cause frustration with the process, delays in making hiring decisions, bad hires, or letting good candidates move right past you.

A good preparation meeting gets in front of these problems. Here are three key things to do during your preparation meeting:

  • Do a quick group review of the candidate and the resume
  • Do an overview of the role the candidate is interviewing for
  • Get alignment on the key questions you want to ask – both technical and cultural – and what kinds of answers you are looking for

To do it well only takes a few minutes but is invaluable in going into the interview aligned and focused.

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What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

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2. Have a post-interview calibration discussion with all of the interviewers

Post interview calibration sessions often don’t happen for the same reason that pre-interview preparation meetings get pushed aside. It feels like we just don’t have enough time. The interview is over, and you’re running to the next meeting (or interview).

When you don’t do them, though, you miss valuable opportunities to get multiple perspectives about the candidate from co-workers who sit in different roles. You also lose the opportunity to sort out and gain alignment on what was good or bad about a candidate so that you can apply that to others you are interviewing for the same role.

Without calibration, I’ve seen clients continue to miss opportunities to refine their candidate search process or criteria for who makes it to the face to face interview stage. And all of this equates to an unnecessarily elongated interviewing process, frustrated interviewers, and a belief that interview process just isn’t working.

3. Focus the interview on personal attributes and culture fit

There’s an important quote from Jim Collins, business consultant and author of the New York Times Bestselling book, “Good-to-Great.” In his work around what separated great companies from good companies, he noted:

“In determining the right people, the good-to-great companies placed greater weight on character attributes than on specific educational background, practical skills, specialized knowledge, or work experience.”

Even with that, many interviews today still focus primarily on technical skills, knowledge, and abilities. This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t care about those things because there are certainly required baseline capabilities to do the job. You can, and should, still assess those.

But use the bulk of the interview to focus on assessing attributes like learning agility, interpersonal effectiveness, and cultural fit, which have been shown to be much better predictors of short and long-term job success.

Join Shark Tank’s Daymond John, MailChimp’s Ben Chestnut, Drybar’s Alli Webb, Boxed’s Chieh Huang, Harry’s Jeff Raider, and hundreds of scrappy and trailblazing entrepreneurs at this year’s Grow Your Company Conference in New Orleans, May 30-June 1. To learn more and to register visit Growco Conference.
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.
PUBLISHED ON: APR 25, 2018

Inc.com |

By James Sudakow

Author, ‘Picking the Low-Hanging Fruit … and Other Stupid Stuff We Say in the Corporate World’