6 Reasons Now Is The Time To Power Up For Big RE: REthink, REwire, REcreate Your Career
Gloria Feldt, Co-founder and President of Take The Lead, introducing the 2020 Power Up Conference.
The summer of 2022 marks the third summer of COVID-related work complications for millions of women from remote work adjustments to childcare urgencies to workplace shutdowns, reorganizations and layoffs.
“The summer of 2022 marks the third summer of COVID-related work complications for millions of women from #remotework adjustments to #childcare urgencies to workplace shutdowns, reorganizations and layoffs. #PowerUpConference ”
The National Women’s Law Center reports that between February 2020 and January of this year, 1.1 million women left the workforce. Some reinvented themselves as entrepreneurs, others reshaped their lives outside of their careers. Research shows this cultural time, space and economic reality supports shifts that not only bring change, but transformation.
For so many in different fields and levels of leadership, the last two years of the Great Resignation morphed into the Great Reset, the Great Redesign or the Great Reshuffle. The disruption wrought by the pandemic and the economic fallout is out of everyone’s control, but can be met and reshaped with individual strategies and intention to take back control of one’s life and career.
As Take The Lead gears up for the Power Up Concert & Conference 2022, “The Big RE: REthink, REwire, REcreate,” August 25-26, it is relevant to examine the temperature of the workplace culture broadly, to take action, learn how precisely to manifest a new future and to know why it is essential to not only try, but succeed.
“As @Takeleadwomen gears up for the #PowerUp Concert & Conference 2022, “The Big RE: REthink, REwire, REcreate,” August 25-26, it is relevant to examine the temperature of the #workplace culture, to take action, and learn how to manifest a new #future. ”
Watch more here on reasons to attend The Big RE
“The conference is for those who feel they have a particular need, are really stuck where they are, can’t really decide what they want their next step to be and they need some fresh thinking to help them get there. Or they know they can benefit from simply hearing new ideas, getting new information and getting new inspiration that will help them no matter what,” says Gloria Feldt, co-founder and president of Take The Lead.
Where millions of women are now in the realm of work, leadership and career is the ideal space in time to pursue a re-shifting. Here are six reasons why that is the case.
Read more in Take The Lead on Power Up 2022 Conference chair
The numbers show it’s time to change. In the new Women In The Workplace U.S. Statistics: 2022 Survey from Up City, more than 600 women in the United States report on what has changed since 2020 and now. More than 40% of women either chose to or were forced to make a career change at some point, while 55% of women noted that they still work fully in person in 2022. A majority, or 66% of women haven’t recently taken any paid time off due to mental health challenges and 55% of women ages 55 and up disclosed that they don’t feel comfortable disclosing any mental health challenges at work.
“ In the new Women In The Workplace U.S. Statistics: 2022 Survey from Up City, since 2020, 40% of women either chose to or were forced to make a #careerchange at some point. #PowerUpConference #TheBigRe”
On the positive side, 38% of women who work in a hybrid setting said that they’ve had an overall positive experience. But on the negative side, little has changed, as 26% of respondents stated that sexual harassment hasn’t improved in the workplace. “Heidi Sullivan, SVP of Product & Marketing at UpCity, says that while improvements for women in the workplace have increased drastically over the years, women still feel improvements to the work experience can be made with attention to the delegation of tasks, pay scale, and advancement opportunities—and that flexibility can truly make a difference,” Up City reports.
Read more in Take The Lead on the Big RE
Make your own hybrid model. If you have been downsized or reassigned duties, or even if you are feeling overwhelmed by all that is on your plate, aim to recreate your workday with a model of remote and in-person work where you need it most. Communicate to colleagues how you want to spend your time to best achieve your goals. Can you use your time away from the office to pursue additional freelance work? Can you be more efficient without commuting as often?
“Make your own hybrid model. If you have been downsized or reassigned duties, aim to recreate your #workday with a model of remote and in-person work where you need it most. #careeradvice ”
Harsh Lambah writes in YourStory, “As the world comes around to working despite and around COVID-19, it is clear that the world of work has reached a seminal moment. While the seeds for the demise of old-fashioned office life were sown decades ago, it took a global pandemic to prove what many of us already knew: that digital connectivity means we can be productive from anywhere, any time. The hybrid model is not only transforming working life but is also playing a decisive role in enabling gendered divisions of labor to fade away. As this happens, a greater number of employers are embracing ‘the whole person’ at work via hybrid strategies that are flexible enough to allow for parents’ evenings and medical appointments, but clear enough to ensure productivity is maintained or even improved.”
Read more in Take The Lead about Power Up 2020
Change to get recognition, fair pay. The chaos that COVID brought to many organizations and companies fell heavily on the shoulders of Black women, research shows. CNBC reports that a new survey, “Black Women Thriving,” from Every Level Leadership of 1,431 Black women, reports “75% of Black women say their organization does not take full advantage of their skills. Plus, 63% say they don’t see a path to advance their career within their current organization, and as a result, 71% say they’d quit for a new job in order to get a pay raise or promotion,” CNBC reports.
“Change to get recognition, #fairpay. The chaos that #COVID brought to many organizations and companies fell heavily on the shoulders of #Blackwomen, research shows. ”
Read more in Take The Lead on power of networking
Be the role model you needed. If you look around the office—or the Zoom screen—and do not see other women like yourself, then it is possibly the right time to shift to an organization or to create your own entrepreneurial opportunity where there is better representation, equity and chance for upward mobility. A new LinkedIn study in the United Kingdom shows “43% of women believe they would be more successful if they had a role model in the workplace. The research revealed that 67% of women do have someone they look up to in life, but more than half (55%) agree that there is a lack of relatable role models in the workplace,” the HR Director reports. Additionally, “just 25% of C-suite roles in the UK are held by women, despite them occupying 46% of entry level positions. The data also shows that men are 21% more likely to be promoted into a leadership position than women. This presents a new challenge to businesses when it comes to the retention of talent. One in four women admitted that they have changed jobs because there were no relatable role models to look up to or inspire them in their previous role.”
“Be the #rolemodel you needed. If you do not see other women like yourself, then it is possibly the right time to create your own entrepreneurial opportunity where there is better #representation, equity and chance for #upwardmobility.”
Read more in Take The Lead on Power Up 2021
The bias is real, so change the culture or create your own powerful space. With the recent news of Gap, Inc. CEO and board member Sonia Syngal stepping down, women at the top in major Fortune 500 companies are even more rare. Her experience is not isolated. Even when getting all the way to the top with a seat on the board of directors, many women report they are navigating a judgmental, gender-biased space. In a new study, “Managing the Double Bind: Women Directors’ Participation Tactics in the Gendered Boardroom,” co-authored by Morela Hernandez, professor at the University of Michigan Ford School of Public Policy and faculty director of the school’s Leadership Initiative, researchers found that women who are on boards of directors in the U.S. still face troubling gendered stereotypes, judgments and bias. As a result they develop strategic tactics such as “warmth-based tactics (asking and connecting) to diversify conversations, while competence-based tactics (asserting and qualifying) were used to amplify expertise. Hybrid tactics (waiting and checking) were used to clarify perspectives,” the University of Michigan reports.
The authors note, “A troubling outcome of our work is that women must never stop adapting to gendered expectations. This reality might fuel women’s resistance to taking on advisory positions and explain the disproportionate levels of burnout that women experience from having to regulate their behavior constantly. This may manifest as higher turnover among women in advisory positions, which could signal women ‘opting-out’ of leadership opportunities.” Reimagining how to approach the boardroom dynamics, or moving to a board of directors where equity is respected, are options.
Start something. As early as 2021, a McKinsey & Co. report showed the enormous changes for women at work initiated by COVID. “One in four women are considering leaving the workforce or downshifting their careers versus one in five men. While all women have been impacted, three major groups have experienced some of the largest challenges: working mothers, women in senior management positions, and Black women. This disparity came across as particularly stark with parents of kids under ten: the rate at which women in this group were considering leaving was ten percentage points higher than for men. And women in heterosexual dual-career couples who have children also reported larger increases in their time spent on household responsibilities since the pandemic began.”
“Start something. As early as 2021, a @McKinsey report showed the enormous changes for #women at work initiated by #COVID: “One in four women are considering leaving the workforce or downshifting their careers versus one in five men.””
This may be the perfect environment to start your own business. Kelly Knight, Integrator at EOS Worldwide, writes in Fast Company, “You need a business development plan for parts A, B, and C of your company’s future. Build uncertainty into your first business plan, and don’t expect that plan to carry you through your start-up phase. The risk multiplier applies to reviewing that plan, too: Tap multiple reviewers for feedback, and review your plan frequently to keep dialing it in. About 20% of businesses fail within the first year, and about half fail by year five. As a female business owner, your job is to stay adaptive to change and keep your footing for more exponential growth.”
Register here for Power Up Concert & Conference: The BIG Re: REthink, REwire, Recreate.
