Speak Out to Break Biases in the Global Business Landscape

When the pandemic hit, I noticed something very distinct about online calls compared to meeting in real life. I’m a people person, I like to gauge the room, perhaps speak to participants before. Essentially do a recon and be armed with context around the meeting.

This isn’t possible online, and I was reminded of a lesson I’ve learned throughout my career; the need to speak up. Early in my career, my natural inclination was to sit back and observe and then speak rather than make proactive points early in the conversation.

The need to speak up is even more pertinent now. This year’s IWD reminds us that progress in gender equality is still painfully slow. Alarmingly the pandemic has made the battle for equality even tougher. The World Economic Forum (WEF) reported last year that the pandemic has actually widened gender inequality across Asia and the world. Currently, the WEF predict it will take another 135 years for the world to achieve true gender parity versus 99 years which was the prediction prior to the pandemic.

In addition, a report by Catalyst shares that nearly 50% of women business leaders find it hard to speak up during Zoom calls and 1 in 3 can feel ignored or overlooked on calls.

Working in a multinational, I had to make conscious decisions to overcome my natural inclinations, especially when the general image of a leader is one is extroverted, extremely vocal, frequently challenging views. Although this image doesn’t necessarily match reality, it is one that is pervasive in popular, culture, in media, in the workplace.

Unfortunately, research shows that when women do this, they can be perceived negatively compared to men.

In a study asking U.S. Naval Academy students to rate attributes from negative to positive, women received more negative attributes and these attributes tended to be those we associate with women. This spills over into the workplace.

We expect leaders and females to act in certain ways and those may not be compatible in our mind despite clearly being compatible in reality.

This year, International Women’s Day featured the theme #breakthebias. To quote directly from the IWD mission: Whether deliberate or unconscious, bias makes it difficult for women to move ahead. Knowing that bias exists isn’t enough. Action is needed to level the playing field and the first step is to speak out.

McKinsey research shows that companies leading the way in executive diversity were 25% more likely to have above-average profitability than companies lagging behind, while companies with more than 30% female executives were more likely to outperform companies that are predominately male.

Bias, no matter how minor, conscious or unconscious can be powerfully harmful. And sometimes we don’t notice things until they’re made apparent to us.

It’s one thing to recognize the numbers and statistics, it’s another to think about how we address the issue. For me, I believe that to #breakthebias requires us to #speakup first. It was this insight that helped me get past my own self-consciousness and doubt, and ultimately change the way others perceived me.

It took work.

While there’s no way that I can compare my own journey to today’s challenge of gender bias, forcing myself to speak up has been a valuable lesson in making clear to me what is needed to drive change and overcome unfair perceptions and stereotyping in society today.

It may not be in our natures to speak out, but we cannot defer to others so easily. Opportunities to be heard are more fleeting today as airtime is limited on Zoom calls. As a leader I need to sway opinion, fight for resource or more support, I had to be heard and then be bullet-proof in my case. Part of speaking up can lay in preparing better allowing one to be consistent and confident in what you say.

One area that has helped is engaging in public speaking as you have to prepare beforehand. It also helps to overcome nervousness about speaking up. Everyone feels nerves and uncertainty in such situations. Sportspeople often say how nerves is a good sign – nerves help focus them on the task at hand. So they put in hours of practice to perform.

And leadership takes different forms, leadership also means giving others the opportunity and confidence to speak up as well. I’ve come to believe modern leadership isn’t being the orchestra conductor at the center of the attention, but a jazz leader allowing each individual to sound out their part.

The goal is to make operating at the edge of discomfort a normal state of affairs. It’s tough to start but it gets easier. Pushing myself helped me become concise, more consistent, more credible with audience and peers. Regardless of bias or past perceptions, respect and parity can still be earned.

At HP we’ve made it a core mission to drive greater equality for women and people of all backgrounds. Today, our Executive Leadership Team (ELT) is made up of 50% total minorities, 33% women and 25% underrepresented minorities. For women, the opportunities at HP for career advancement are growing each year. Our Women in Leadership Lab (WILL) is a 7-month leadership program aimed at providing women with the appropriate hard and soft skills to take on leadership roles, as well as rotations across our functions and business units.

But this is just the beginning. More can be done and more must be done to break our own biases and those of society. But it all starts with each of us today. What bias do you or those close to you face? And what can you do to overcome it?

This March, on International Women’s Month. Let’s #SpeakUp. But let’s also recognize that leadership comes in many forms and that we need to recognize and work on our own biases while working to collectively #breakthebias.