We have never shown the real Gild Collective workshop experience here. Admittedly, Kelsey and I are often too busy preparing and facilitating the experiences to pause, reflect, and photograph our surroundings, but this week we tried to do just that.
Before Convincing Employees that Women’s Initiatives are Worth Their Time, Convince Their Leaders
Busy. Overwhelmed. Buried under work. Treading water. Barely surviving.
These are phrases that we hear our friends (and ourselves) use on a regular basis when we discuss our jobs. When we combine the stress we feel at work with our personal responsibilities outside of the office, it can often feel like too much to juggle. More organizations than ever are trying to serve their female employees through women’s initiatives, many of which aim to help tackle the constant state of “overwhelmed” that many women are stuck in. These initiatives have the best intentions, and even call in outside resources to plan amazing programming for their female workforce. However, organizers still tell us that one of their biggest challenges in getting women engaged is convincing them that women’s initiatives are worth their time– time that, as we know, is a precious and limited resource.
Women's Initiatives: How to Start A Women's Initiative
If you’re new to this series, you may want to check out our recent posts about women’s initiatives: What Are They? and When Do You Need a Women’s Initiative? before digging in here. If you already know that your organization needs to…
What Matters to Women in the Workplace: Communication, Leadership Development, and Unconscious Bias
Bringing Passion Together: The Women’s Initiative Roundtable
5 ways to stay above the political fray at work
"White House" by HarshLight is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
“This has been an exhausting, stressful, and sometimes downright weird election for all of us.”
When President Obama spoke these words on November 8th, it felt like the one thing that the entire country could agree upon. Regardless of party affiliation, we could not wait for the turmoil of the divisive election season to be past us. There was hope on the horizon.
President Obama was right- the sun did rise the next morning. But here we are, almost four months later, and the dust still has not settled. Things feel even more tense than before. We are becoming even quicker to assume what is happening in someone else’s mind or heart, and if or why they stand a certain way on an issue (political or otherwise), all based on (how we assume that) they voted.
This is especially true for women’s issues, which were so overtly immersed in every aspect of the 2016 election that it now feels like women themselves are the political issue.
If we aren’t careful, we will take these assumptions, emotions, and opinions into the workplace, where gender equality is not a new fight. The conversation around gender equality at work cannot be seen as a product of the 2016 election cycle, because it isn’t. To lump women’s issues in the workplace with a political mess is unfair, because it silences the many rational voices that have been advancing this issue and the women it affects for decades, even centuries.
Now more than ever it is important that we separate gender equality from any party affiliation, and to remember that when women advance professionally that we all benefit. Gender inequality at work is not political, it is factual. The pay gap is real. Women are disadvantaged in corporate America as it relates to promotions and have less access to senior leadership. We are increasingly underrepresented along the corporate pipeline, and women of color are least represented of all.
Image from the 2016 Women in the Workplace Report. We recommend you read it!
The best way to separate the fight for gender equality in the workplace from any other political fight is to keep politics out of the professional setting at all cost. It is, after all, the most basic etiquette rule: Don’t discuss sex, religion, or politics. But this is 2017. All etiquette has gone out of the window, and people are fighting about politics with no holds barred with their colleagues, friends and family, and any stranger on the internet that will engage.
If you, like me, are deeply addicted to checking news sites and feel passionately about many political issues our country is facing, it is important to take a step back for your professional safety (and sanity). Here are a few of the ways that have been helpful for me over the past four months.
Five Ways Remain Calm, Cool, and Collected in Today’s Political Climate
(so we can focus on closing the wage gap and fighting for gender quality in the workplace)
Get involved outside of work. If you feel strongly about something, take action. Get involved on a local level, give to an organization that is advancing your cause, or write to your elected officials. This will empower you and fulfill you, which will leave you less likely to complain about the things you can’t change.
Let others know if they are crossing a line (professionally). If you are in a conversation at work that turns political, it is okay to let the person you are talking to know that now isn’t the time. If you don’t want the conversation to continue it is well within your rights to say so. If someone begins to cross the line in political argument territory, simply tell them that you prefer not to discuss politics at work. It’s a professional, straight to the point comment that will allow you to veer the conversation in a new direction.
Take digital breaks. If reading the news makes you sweat and audibly curse, it’s best not to read it at work. Turn off the news alerts on your phone, and trust that one of your coworkers will tell you if something that truly cannot wait happens. If you aren’t reading it, you are less likely to talk about it.
Remember that we all come to work with a different worldview. We all come to the table with different life experiences behind us. Actively remember this on a daily basis, especially when you are in a challenging conversation that could become frustrating. Then, read #5:
Take a deep breath, walk away, and carefully consider if it’s worth it. If things escalate, simply take a deep breath, remove yourself from the conversation, and think about it for a bit. Did someone ignore your request to change the subject from politics and say something offensive? If so, it is probably worth your time and reputation to alert the appropriate person in your office hierarchy. If someone simply expressed an opinion that you strongly disagree with, but meant you no harm, it probably isn’t. Although, it might be worth sending them a nice email reiterating point #2.
That’s it. It’s all I’ve got to get me through this strange political climate. As a woman that makes her living by empowering women at work, it is extremely important to me that we keep the fight for gender equality at work out of the political fight.
If you are interested in focusing on the positive changes that your women’s initiative can make now to help close the equality gap, let’s talk. There’s a lot we can do if we work together!
Why Your Resolution “Failure” is an Opportunity for True Success
Photo by Mizuno K
New Year’s resolutions have been around for awhile. 4,000 years, to be specific. Ever since the Babylonians started making promises to their gods in exchange for a favorable year, we have been making deals with ourselves that in the new year we will be different- that we will be “better”. We have had 4,000 years to get really good at making New Year’s resolutions, and still only about 8% of us actually stick to them.
In fact, we are only three days into the second month of this “new year” and already I have heard several friends say that they have “given up”. I even had a friend describe herself as a “complete failure” because she hadn’t kept her resolution to go to the gym four times a week so far this year.
Sure, not achieving a goal that you have set for yourself is frustrating, and it’s natural to feel dejected. Just like anytime we are feeling like we have failed, we have a choice: we can let the feeling of failure overcome us and become a part of who we are, or we can objectively examine our situation and use it as yet another opportunity for self improvement.
If you find yourself feeling like you have failed on your quest for self-improvement in 2017, I would encourage you to ask yourself these few questions:
Why did I “fail”?
Let’s talk about the friend I mentioned earlier that feels like a “complete failure” just weeks into the new year. I asked her why she thought she had “failed” and she responded that she had only made it to the gym four times in a week once so far. At the time, she only had three weeks of data (out of the 52 that make up a year). When I reminded her that she still had 49 weeks to improve her score, it didn’t seem to help at all. She had already resolved herself to be a “complete failure” just three weeks in.
So, I tried another approach. I began to ask her, as I suggest that you do with yourself, what she had been doing over those three weeks. It turns out that things had really picked up at work in the new year (as they often do) and she had been working 11 hour days. On top of that, she had also been sick with a terrible cold. She didn’t feel as though she could take off work, so she was exhausted when she got home from work and opted for sleep rather than early morning workouts.
In other words, she absolutely hadn’t “failed” at anything. At all.
Is what I resolved to do something that will actually make me “better”?
At the end of December, Bustle surveyed 822 millennials (97% of which identified as female) how they feel about New Year’s resolutions. The results showed that millennial women overwhelmingly focus their resolutions in two areas: to lose weight and exercise more, and to become a better, happier person.
Based on my experience as a woman for the 29.5 years I’ve been alive, I can say with certainty that many women equate the ideas of losing weight to becoming a better, happier person. And while I am a proponent of exercise for many reasons, I also believe strongly that the association between “thinness” and “happiness” is one of the biggest issues plaguing women today.
So, ask yourself- is what you resolved something that will actually make you “better”? If your reasoning behind exercising more or focusing on eating healthy foods is to improve your mood, sleep, or overall quality of life, then yes- that counts as “better”. But if all you want is to fit into smaller jeans, I can tell you from personal experience that you will never be good enough.
Would you make that resolution for your best friend?
Perhaps the most powerful statistic that came from Bustle’s survey was the answer to their question: “What New Year’s resolution would you make for your best friend?”
Source: Bustle
Ask yourself this same question. Was what you resolved for your friend the same thing you resolved for yourself? Was it even in the same “resolution family”? According to Bustle, only two women of the 822 surveyed reported that they would want their friend to lose weight in 2017. In fact, most women want their friends to practice self care, be kinder to themselves, to go after what they want at work, and to stand up for themselves.
New research tells us that women often fight for others harder than they do themselves at work. We also know how much easier it can be to tell our friends they are special, beautiful, smart, and strong than it is to tell ourselves those same things.
But isn’t that what New Year’s resolutions are all about? Making ourselves better? If your resolution for your friend is kinder than the one you have for yourself, it might be time to change your thinking. You haven’t failed because you didn’t keep your resolution. You have only failed by choosing the wrong resolution at the beginning.
It’s no longer January 1- who cares? Now is as good a time as any to resolve to be better. Be better to yourself, kinder to yourself, and more forgiving with yourself. New year, new you- and you deserve it.
If you’re interested in spreading confidence and self-love with the women you work with, let us know.
What IS a vision board, anyway?
It has come to my attention that Saturday, January 14th is “National Vision Board Day”. Like most other nationally recognized “Days”, I don’t really care how or why vision boards have their own day. Like National Dog Day, National Donut Day, or National Sibling Day, I will blindly celebrate without question, and encourage my friends to do the same.
The workshops are coming! The workshops are coming!
I have a secret to tell you.
When you start a company, there are an overwhelming number of decisions to be made. And somehow… even the ones that seem simple leave you unsure. We have made a lot of changes to Gild since we began a year and a half ago. Some have been wins, some… not so much.
But every step of the way, we have learned. We learned some basics about what our customers like and what they don’t like, and we learned that sometimes customers can be tricky. We learned that sometimes being the first female team to go through an accelerator can have its unique challenges.
But more importantly, after crafting with over 1,300 women, we learned that we are not alone in those challenges.
And while that is comforting, it is also disturbing. Hearing the stories of the challenges women face in the workplace made us ask ourselves:
What can we do to help?
With that question, we made the first decision for the business that truly felt like a no-brainer. Gild Collective now offers creative workshops focused on women’s leadership in the workplace.
We’re coming into offices (or offsites!) and guiding groups through discussion and exercises that focus on the issues that deserve exploration and action:
- Building confidence
- Fostering mentorships & relationships
- Overcoming unjust moments
Each workshop ends with a creative project that not only serves as a bonding experience, but also gives each participant a takeaway that they can wear or display to remind them to live and lead with greater confidence and passion.
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So that’s it, the workshops have arrived! If you think your organization could benefit from a little heart to heart on women’s empowerment, reach out. We’d love to work with you. And now, I shall leave you with some videos detailing even more of the who, what, why, where, how of it all.
Remember, you are amazing. Go take on the world!
Gild Collective Founder Spotlight: Rachel
Hi, I’m Rachel, and I am SO excited to meet you!
I am the Chief Creative Officer at GILD Collective, which means that I have the best job on earth: designing the projects! It is literally my DUTY to scour Pinterest, home decor and DIY blogs, and online craft supply retailers until I have found the inspiration I need to create an awesome project that you can complete at a GILD party. Then, I actually get to do the projects, usually at least a few times a piece! First I have to test them, and then we have to photograph the step by step photos and take videos (my least favorite part- we all think our voice sounds strange played back, right?!). It’s all a dream come true, really, and I’m pretty thankful!
So, how did I get here? The path was a little twisted, to say the least…
I have spent the last 28 years chasing fulfillment. I was born and raised in Cincinnati, where I was lucky enough to live in several amazing neighborhoods and attend one of the best high schools in the country. No matter where I went or what I did, I never felt like I “fit” anywhere: I wasn’t particularly athletic, I wasn’t the smartest person in class, and I was too afraid to show my creativity.
Thinking that a change of scenery was my answer, I escaped to college in northeast Ohio. While I grew tremendously in college, I never found a way to fully engage. When I graduated, I realized that I had spent four years studying for a career (fashion merchandising) that I had no real desire to go into. I was frustrated.
I took my “change of scenery” theory to an extreme after graduation when I moved to New Zealand, totally on my own, on a 12 month working holiday visa. Professionally speaking, I did not find my calling on the other side of the world. Personally, I learned what would become the most influential lesson of my life thus far: I don’t have to have everything figured out in order to take huge risks. Those risks often take you closer to where you are meant to go, so embrace them.
For the five years (holy crap!!!) since I returned from New Zealand, I have continued to chase the fulfillment I had been seeking my whole life. Two nephews, two pets, a master’s degree (plus some amazing friends), and a fiancė later, I was back in Cincinnati working for a small college. I advised and coached (mainly) female students on achieving their success, and I loved it. There is nothing better than seeing one of your students achieve something they didn’t think was possible.
Then, everything changed. I started to spend my evenings and weekends hard at work creating things for my wedding: signage, centerpieces, and personalized decor. Other people marveled at my “patience” for doing everything myself, which truly confused me. It was not a burden to be doing these things. In fact, I was happier than I ever had been. I was creating something, and for the first time in my life, I was not afraid of what other people might think. I had finally found my creative confidence, through all of my formative and diverse life experiences.
When the wedding was over, I experienced a bit of a post-wedding sadness that I couldn’t quite shake. It was not over the passing of the day itself. Rather, it was the lack of necessity to keep creating things. I could not go back to a life where I wasn’t creative. I knew I would never be fulfilled without it. So, I made other excuses to exercise the left side of the brain: I opened an Etsy shop and began a DIY event design business.
When it became time to leave my job at the college, the most amazing thing happened: I knew exactly what I wanted to do next. I knew exactly what I needed to find the fulfillment I had been looking for for 28 years. I needed to combine my passion and need to create with the pure joy I found by inspiring women to be their most confident selves. And thanks to my experience in New Zealand, I was not afraid to take a huge risk.
Thus, GILD Collective was born.
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