Wali Zahid talk on 'Dealing with Glass Ceiling' at a recent women's conference at Karachi Marriott

1. Dealing with glass ceiling
Wali Zahid | ceo, Skill City Bahrain
Conference on Framework of Respectful Workplace
Karachi Marriott: 3 July 2013
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2. Who’s Wali?
 Asian businesses have known Wali for 20-year work on
business leadership and executive coaching
 Wali leads the longest-running Train-The-Trainer workshop |
13th year | 16+ Asian locations | 1,000+ trainers trained
 Taught MBA courses at IBA, ZABIST, CBM, UMT, IIU, Dow
 A disruptor and a future-trends watcher
 Was called by two ministers-in-waiting to consult on
how to turn around state-owned enterprises in June ‘13
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3. Who’s Wali?...
 Our reputation in C-Level leadership and Train
The Trainer has overshadowed our women
leadership work
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4. Who’s Wali?...
 Led ‘Women in Leadership’ and ‘Young Women in Leadership’
(WIL, Y-WIL) workshops (both in mix-gender, and all-female
environments) in Pakistan and Afghanistan for British Council,
IRM/NRSP/HRDN, IbnSina Afghanistan, LCWU, Jinnah
Women University and AKDN organisations
 Member, BOG @ Pakistan Society for Training & Dev which
runs WIBCON (women in business conference) every year
 Member, Advisory, Lahore College Women University (LCWU)
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5. Ministry of Women Development
 Conceived, developed and delivered a ninemonth Management Foundation Programme
with Gender Dimension for Pakistan’s
Ministry of Women Development and run it
successfully several times during 2006-2008
on behalf of GIZ, the German foundation
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6. Leads CEO leadership workshop
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7. 2050 interview
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8. Women make better laeaders
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9. CEO Summit with CM Shahbaz
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10. Two parts of the talk
1. What is glass ceiling?
2. How you can deal with it in an era of
technology
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11. Two things before that
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12. What do you think of Pakistan 2050?
 Think of one word that describes your picture
of Pakistan in 2050
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13. What do you think of women in 2050?
 Think of one word that describes your picture
of women’s role in 2050 world
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14. In reality
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15. Pakistan in 2050
 Pakistan is one of the top 20 economies in the
world in 2050*
*Goldman
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Sachs
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16. World in 2010
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17. World in 2050
Goldman Sachs: Jan 2012 report
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18. Women will dominate in 2050
 By 2050, an unprecedented number of women
will be in positions of power *
*Alvin Toffler of Future Shock fame
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19. These two pieces will…
…take away the sting of glass ceiling from this
audience’s mind
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20. Two key learnings
1. A world full of opportunities for women to
shine, progress, dominate!
2. A country that is going to be the 20th largest
economy!
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21. Part 1
What is glass ceiling?
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22. What is glass ceiling?
 A metaphor for the invisible barrier that
prevents women from reaching the upper
parts of management
 Created by invisible (unsaid, unseen) forces
of culture, habit and power that serve to
keep women ‘in their place.’
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23. My contention!
 These barriers may not be real!
 Only in the mind of women!
 There will always be the determined women
who will refuse to accept glass ceiling
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24. US data: Life above glass ceiling
 Evidence suggests that life above the glass ceiling is quite
different for men and women (Ryan & Haslam, 2007, AMR).
 In particular, women are given
 different opportunities (riskier, more precarious)
 different rewards (fewer, less contingent on performance)
 different reception (their arrival is greeted with skepticism,
and seen as a signal of decline)
 These are likely to be a source of stress and disidentification
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25. Two factors may decide
1. Locus of control
 Internal
 External
2. Cultural context
 High-context, e.g. Pakistan, Arab world
 Low-context, e.g. Swiss, Germany, Scandinavia
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26. So…
If you are a person operating from
 Internal locus of control
 In a low-context culture
glass ceiling may not mean much to you!
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27. Part 2
How to break glass ceiling
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28. 5 tips
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29. Tips to break glass ceiling…1
 Work alone is not enough!
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30. How women are promoted
Ashridge UK Research: What takes you ahead at job?
Performance (work)
Image (reputation)
Exposure (visibility)
10%
30%
60%
 Learning: What does this tell you?
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31. Tips to break glass ceiling…2
 Work on your reputation & visibility





Volunteer for roles outside your job
Speak at meetings
Propose solutions, not just problems
Represent team or company at outside events
Seek regular, ongoing 360 feedback
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32. Tips to break glass ceiling…3
 Develop political awareness – become a
360 degree helper (not just self-centric!)
 Need to be in ‘Wise’ quadrant (next slide)
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33. 4 styles of political behaviour
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34. Tips to break glass ceiling…4
 Demonstrate high EQ behaviours
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35. Your EQ behaviours
High EQ
• Bouncing back
• Listening
• Empathising
• Risking
• Flexing
• Including
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Low EQ
• Blaming
• Unforgiving
• Defending
• Stonewalling
• Judging
• Excluding
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36. Tips to break glass ceiling…5
 Watch out career & leadership derailers
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37. Executive derailments
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
Arrogance: you think you’re right and everyone else is wrong
Melodrama: you need to be the centre of attention
Volatility: you’re subject to mood swings
Excessive caution: you’re afraid to make decisions
Habitual distrust: you focus on the negatives
Aloofness: you’re disengaged and disconnected
Mischievousness: you believe that rules are made to be broken
Eccentricity: you try to be different just for the sake of it
Passive resistance: what you say is not what you really believe
Perfectionism: you get the little things right & big things wrong
Eagerness to please: you try to win the popularity contest
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Source: David Dotlitch: Why CEOs Fail?
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38. 5 tips to break glass ceiling
In summary:
1. Work alone is not enough!
2. Work on your reputation & visibility
3. Develop political awareness
4. Demonstrate high EQ behaviours
5. Watch out career & leadership derailers
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39. Thank you!
Wali Zahid
skillcity@live.com
www.skillcity.co
+92 300 820 1 88 9
+971 50 2 55 3 88 7
+973 3416 0522
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