Broadening your recruitment pool often involves working on your corporate culture and internal management style. Anne Betton, transformation leader and founder of Anastasens, is particularly interested in the issue of female leadership in order to succeed in opening her organization to more women.
Anne Betton is convinced: women will change the business world! The founder of Anastasens, after 25 years of consulting experience in large international firms, assists management teams in their transformation with a view to increasing the commitment and cohesion of teams.
Transformations that involve digital technology but also and above all the corporate culture itself! In this sense, she considers that talking about diversity and inclusion means allowing other forms of management to express themselves.
As opposed to the hero culture, with the leader who knows which way to go, I think our organizations need “feminine” attributes – which can be found in both men and women by the way. Namely, listening, vulnerability, a sense of teamwork (being able to rely on others) and co-construction,” she argues.
Problem: while this type of impetus must come from the top, only 8% of CEOs in the Forbes Fortune 500 are women and their proportion in the boards of directors of companies in Ontario barely reaches 16% (the ratio being 20% in Québec). The question is: how can we address this issue to attract more women?
The challenge is to succeed in opening up the reflection to bring something different into the organization,” confides Anne Betton, who has, in the course of her experience, met many leaders in very male-dominated fields, such as technology for example.
A sincere commitment that must come from above
This is the purpose of a conference-workshop that she has designed to bring out ideas and proposals to initiate change. It must be said that the labor shortage is an opportunity: attracting women means broadening your recruitment pool!
According to Anne Betton, everything starts with management. If there isn’t this questioning, this openness and this will to put this issue on the agenda, it’s not going well.
Management has a key role to play in driving change. Many of my clients are men who see this as a strategic issue,” she says.
Moreover, the pitfall she sees in this area is the disconnect between the messages and speeches on the one hand and the reality on the ground on the other.
It really has to be a sincere concern of the company that touches its values. If it is not embodied, it will not be credible and if it is not credible, it will not last. In short: if you reflect what you exude, you will attract the people you want”, explains the consultant.
In this sense, she specifies that female leadership does not necessarily mean female leadership. Of course, there must be a representation of this diversity, otherwise it is not credible. But it is less a question of gender than of energy and values.
In her workshops, Anne Betton uses co-construction a lot to find solutions specific to the company.
We often neglect the intelligence that we have in a company. I try to bring to light the talents that are often ignored”, she assures. “This is often preferable: these people know the existing culture and are thus able to propose the most applicable solutions to attract women… but also other minorities!”
