Stepping into the Vancouver Convention Centre, you feel the excitement as eager conference delegates rush past you while happily heading to grab breakfast. This year, Premier Christy Clark welcomed business leaders and members of the next generation to the WeForShe Conference for a day of inspiration, preparation, and action. With many powerful minds gathered together to lead the discussion of equality, we got ready to be inspired by 5 key concepts mentioned during the conference.
1.“We are moving in the right direction, but not at the right speed.” – Dr. Miklós Dietz
At the heart of this conference stems the belief of equality and diversity leading the workforce. Although resources such as the United Kingdom’s Equality Guidelines have been provided to help streamline this process, as Dr. Dietz Managing Partner at McKinsey & Company (Vancouver) explains, the rate of change is simply not happening fast enough. As he exhibits some surprising data drawn from 2015 during his presentation, that this inequality is especially apparent at senior management levels. Ultimately, it is up to individuals such as you and I, to take action and start this discussion within our community.
2. Sponsors are just as important as mentors
In order to make your way up to the top, I have always been told to find a mentor that can help us grow our skills, capabilities, and network. Mentorship is an invaluable experience that involves passing along knowledge from one generation to the next. Professional sponsorship on the other hand, happens when an individual endorses someone to their friends or co-workers for a specific job opportunity. While mentorship provides you with a direct link to professional growth, sponsorship provides a direct link for career advancement.
3. Give your community a voice
Do your decisions affect people around you? Make sure your decisions will be well-received by involving your community in the decision making process. During the WeForShe conference, we were asked to discuss tactics that can help enable an environment for equality and diversity in the workplace. There is nothing more empowering to members of your community, than to know that their suggestions are being heard, recorded, then interpreted by the leaders of an organization (in our case, the Canadian government) and put into action.
4. 60% of jobs in the future will require 20% of skills that exist today – Nicole Verkindt
According to Workopolis, some of the highest-paying and most in demand jobs of March 2016, consist of positions that didn’t exist 20 years ago. With the continuous development of technology, this shocking statistic mentioned during the conference emphasizes the rate of change within the job markets. A need to develop transferrable skills and a forward-looking long-term mindset has never been more important to the future of your career.
5. Diversity is a driver of economic sustainability
A concept that was communicated throughout multiple speakers, is the fact that diversity drives profitability. How so? The best teams are made up with people that compliment other team members rather than replicating qualities that are already present. Diversity entails different perspectives, cultural understanding, a variety of experiences, and adaptability. When encountering business problems, the most effective plans take into consideration the values of all stakeholders (including those not directly involved in the business process). Having a variety of different experiences helps strengthen the likelihood that your solution will meet the needs of all your stakeholders and be accepted positively.
Biography:
Driven by technology, innovation, and laughter, Bailey Wong is in her fourth year at Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business. Concentrating in Marketing, Management Information Systems, and Entrepreneurship, her creative mind never settles as she is always looking for ways to get involved. Bailey is currently involved as a mentor in the BASS Mentorship Program, and is a Co-President of the Young Women in Business student organization at SFU. If any of these concepts inspired you, feel free to reach out to her for a coffee chat at Baileyw@sfu.ca !