LIKEABILITY VERSUS COMPETENCY BIASCatalyst is the leading research and advisory organisation working with businesses and the professions to build inclusive environments and expand opportunities for women at work. As an independent, nonprofit membership organisation, Catalyst conducts research on all aspects of women’s career advancement.
The Double-Bind Dilemma for Women in Leadership: Damned if You Do, Doomed if You Don’t. "Despite the numerous business contributions of women leaders, men are still largely seen as the leaders by default. It’s what researchers call the “think-leader-think-male” mindset. As “atypical leaders,” women are often perceived as going against the norms of leadership or those of femininity. Caught between impossible choices, those who try to conform to traditional—i.e., masculine—leadership behaviours are damned if they do, doomed if they don’t." Time: 10 minutes |
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GROWTH MINDSETCarol Dweck is an American psychologist. She is Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. She is known for her work on the mindset psychological trait. According to her, individuals can be placed on a continuum according to their implicit views of where ability comes from.
Watch her definition of fixed and growth mindsets from her Ted talk. Time: 10 min If you prefer visual data to understand growth and fixed mindsets, access infographics
Time: 1 minute |
Know yourself
Explore self-awareness resources tailored to your individual needs.
We invite you to pick a self-assessment tool which best fits your intentions.
We invite you to pick a self-assessment tool which best fits your intentions.
YOUR CORE VALUES
Determine your values
In your own words, how would you define your values?
How they were formed?
Our values are the things that we believe are important in the way we live and work.
They (should) determine our priorities, and, deep down, they're probably the measures we use to tell if our life is turning out the way we want it to.
When the things that we do and the way we behave match our values, life is usually good – we're satisfied and content.
This is why making a conscious effort to identify our values is so important.
How they were formed?
Our values are the things that we believe are important in the way we live and work.
They (should) determine our priorities, and, deep down, they're probably the measures we use to tell if our life is turning out the way we want it to.
When the things that we do and the way we behave match our values, life is usually good – we're satisfied and content.
This is why making a conscious effort to identify our values is so important.
Time: 20 minutes
Values represent our core beliefs. What is important to us? What drives us? These create the building blocks for everything we do. These create our base. Everything grows from here. At their heart, they are fundamental “policies” that define who we are.
There are times when people need to make big decisions, and need to access their values base to know the best way forward for them. Sometimes, people are either not aware of their values, or haven’t “visited” them for some time, and need to go back to the basics, to their core, to reflect.
Things become important to us when we believe they will take us in the direction of that ultimate goal in life: happiness as a state of being. So, establishing, or re-iterating values for a life crossroads or a career crossroads can be very useful.
There are times when people need to make big decisions, and need to access their values base to know the best way forward for them. Sometimes, people are either not aware of their values, or haven’t “visited” them for some time, and need to go back to the basics, to their core, to reflect.
Things become important to us when we believe they will take us in the direction of that ultimate goal in life: happiness as a state of being. So, establishing, or re-iterating values for a life crossroads or a career crossroads can be very useful.
Values are “fundamental attitudes guiding our mental processes and behaviour” that “produce the belief that life is meaningful and serve as a measure of how meaningful one’s actions are, that is, consistent with that person’s value system” (Vyskocilova et al., 2015)
Thank you for trusting this empowerment program. Congrats on participating in this unique & breakthrough experience. I admire your courage in moving forward on this journey towards your new sense of self. I wish I can help you find your authentic pathway for your career and well being. The program is designed to offer you a transformative experience. I'm grateful for your feedback while you make progress towards revealing your true and mindful self.
Your journey to empowerment
Inquiry & self-reflection
Finding your voice means changing your stories about yourself & sticking to your true self. No doubt, you will resist, and it will take time. We invite you to start your journal & reflect on your journey. You'll get the most of your experience by noticing what's here and how it evolves over time. Be mindful! Your journey to empowerment
We invite you to assess your current level of self-empowerment. By visualising & tracking your inner state, you build accountability for your career & well being. |
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Authentic step by authentic step
Be kind to yourself and savour your journey. This program is a catalyst and the skills you develop will support you for the rest of your life. Embrace a beginner's mindset and meditate. We're in this together
By participating in the program, you contribute to building a circle of inquiry & trust amongst like-minded women. We support each other, and we check on each other. Enjoy your individual journey supported by the collective. |
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Tools tailored to your needs for a bespoke experience
We invite you to embrace all the aspects of the program:
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Your self-inquiry menuHow are you doing on your self-inquiry journey? Self-awareness comes with time and experience. It is not an art form we learn in a single day. It is a lifetime pursuit of trial and error, mastered over time. Once you attain this ability to constantly increase your self-awareness, you project your uniqueness into the world.
Two activities are essential to this program:
On your self-inquiry journey, you can also explore other strategies. For example, we invite you to meditate regularly and journal. |
Peer discovery interviewQ&AWHAT IS A PEER DISCOVERY INTERVIEW? The peer-discovery interview is conducted in pair. It focuses on your past, present and future career background, and begins with your childhood and education. The interview focuses on the different choices you have made to date and that you plan to make in the future. The process of telling your story and listening to someone's else story helps you analyse your patterns and how they've evolved over time.
WHY ARE DOING A PEER DISCOVERY INTERVIEW? The aim of this interview is to help both you and your partner to understand the different factors which guide and influence a career, enabling you to identify the main patterns or recurring themes that arise from the events that have taken place in your life and the reasons that underpin them. HOW DO WE MAKE THE MOST OF IT? For each situation, we ask you to analyse the reasons that helped you to make these decisions or specific actions, and how you felt while making these choices. The interview has been purposely built within a chronological framework. It enables you to piece together your past to enable you to define the different patterns and the reasons that governed your choices. Your partner and you should be keeping an eye out for these patterns throughout the interview. |
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE? Each interview will go for about 3 hours.
WHICH QUESTIONS SHOULD I ASK? During the interview, you may be asked “what did you do or decide?” before the question of “why?” or “how/ what did you feel in relation to that?” Please answer all the questions. The questions are in the interview guide. DO WE HAVE TO EXACTLY FOLLOW THE TOPICS? Be relaxed and don’t be afraid of deviating to other topics that may arise. WHAT IS MY ROLE WHEN I"M THE INTERVIEWER? As a partner, you are there to help the person you are interviewing to draw up a picture of her career profile so that you can identify the main patterns and themes together. You are invited to reflect on your career at the same time. WHEN SHOULD WE DO THE PEER DISCOVERY INTERVIEW? The interview must be conducted by the 27th of August 2020. It takes time to process, analyse and reflect on a career. The insights will form over time. We recommend that you complete the interview a few days before the next workshop. |
Career anchorsDid you know? Edgar Schein is a Swiss-born American academic, a former business professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, who has left a notable imprint on many topics pertaining to leadership, including personal development and organisational culture. One of his most well-known concepts is the idea of career anchors. Schein suggested that each and every individual possessed specific and unique ‘anchors’; one’s perception of one’s own values, talents, abilities and motives, which form the basis of individual roles and development. Schein's original research in the 1970s identified five possible constructs upon which anchors are generally based, though this was expanded to eight following further research in the 1980s. These constructs describe the priorities individuals who possess different sets of talents, capabilities and personalities possess, and can thus be used as a basis for planning development and career changes around. |
Women Leadership
by Julia Gillard, Helen Clark and Jacinda Ardern
Women and Leadership, co-authored by Julia Gillard and acclaimed development economist Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, combines research with interviews with some of the world’s extraordinary women leaders. They spoke with Jacinda Ardern, Hillary Clinton, Michelle Bachelet, Joyce Banda, and more, to examine the influence of gender on women’s access to positions of leadership, the perceptions of them as leaders, the trajectory of their leadership and the circumstances in which it comes to an end. Julia talks to Jacqueline Maley about her advocacy and research, the radical shift required to close the gender gap, and her inspirational new book that she hopes will provide women with a road map of essential knowledge and an action agenda for change.
Time: 60 minutes |
UN Women National Committee Aotearoa brought together Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and former Prime Minister Helen Clark to have a frank and honest conversation about gender equality.
The feminist title, evening up the odds, and getting women to their next-level are all topics the pair discussed, as well as enjoying some light-hearted, more candid moments. Reflecting on some personal experiences from both Clark and Ardern, they remind us that we need push past the self-doubt we sometimes have and step up. Time: 27 minutes |