Durban - The private sector pay gap in South Africa is 35.5 percent, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap report of October 2013.
Essentially, this means women earn in a year what men earn in eight months.
We’re also only a quarter of top decision makers in South African business, according to the Grant Thornton International Business Report 2014.
In her book, Play to Win, What Women Can Learn From Men In Business, author and businesswoman Donna Rachelson highlights the statistics we’ve all come to know so well.
She has held a number of marketing director positions in organisations such as Nando’s, the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants, as well as marketing management positions at Standard Bank South Africa and African Explosives and Chemicals Limited.
Rachelson makes a point we’d rather not hear, which is: it’s a man’s world. Men surely have a lot to learn from women – we’re emotionally intelligent, great at building relationships, compassionate and driven. But to beat our counterparts we need to know what it is they’re doing to stay ahead of us.
This is not to say that you should act like a man, only that it helps to understand how they think and play the game.
Here are a few nuggets from the book:
* For men, business is a game. You need to treat it as one too. The basic play is that you strategise to make money. It’s like playing Monopoly. You’ve got to let it go – don’t take it all so seriously. Business is about leveraging and assembling the right team and understanding the business model so that you can implement the strategy and make money. And then it becomes fun.
* Women are judged on their personality, be it: “abrasive”, “judgemental” or “strident”, while men are judged on their competence. So while it may be true that women take criticism more personally – probably because we’re socialised to be people pleasers, and to keep the peace – we often bear the brunt of more personal criticism.
The trick is in identifying the difference between criticism of your work – genuine feedback on what you do – and criticism of who you are. Always deal with the behaviour (as it applies to work), rather than the person.
* She adds that it’s important to walk the floor at work, and ensure people in the company know who you are and what you do. Don’t just restrict yourself to the few square metres your desk inhabits. Introduce yourself to others, find out what they do, let them know what you’re about. Find ways to raise your visibility.
* It can be hard to look at yourself and your achievements objectively. But there are ways of ensuring you get noticed. Update your boss on your progress. When there is a victory, be the first to announce it. Remember that being visible is half the battle. You can’t play if you can’t be seen.
* Ditch the small incremental moves. Khanyi Dhlomo went from beauty editor to editor of South Africa’s True Love magazine when she was just 22. Within a year of her appointment, True Love’s circulation doubled from 70 000 to 140 000 and the magazine became the most widely read women’s magazine in the country. If you’re not pushing the limits of your career comfort zone, you’re wasting opportunities.
* Find a sponsor – not a mentor. That means someone who will advocate for you, and it’s most likely to be a man. “Men are a catalyst to our transformation. The individuals who contributed to my success were mostly men,” says Jo-Ann de Wet, operations director at McDonald’s, and one of the many SA businesswomen who share their opinion in the book.
She says: “There are many men who serve as cheerleaders of women.”
According to the Harvard Business Review study called “The Sponsor Effect”, women in the upper echelons of business management who have a sponsor are at least 22 percent more likely to take risks like asking for an assignment that will stretch them, or asking for a raise.
* Assemble your tribe. Taking risks and giant leaps into the future is difficult. You will be assailed by self-doubt, and there will be external doubters, and there will be days when you think you can’t do what you have set out to do. But you can. Assemble a tribe of family and friends who will support you and cheer you on, and who have no doubts at all about your abilities. Those are the people who will truly help you to get where you want to go.
* “If you stop learning you will become irrelevant, and that learning can take many different forms,” comments Fahmeeda Cassim-Surtee, sales director at DStv Media Sales. “It can be in the form of extra study. It can be in the form of extra skills, but most importantly for me, the learning can come from other people in the organisation.”
* Women’s language is more tentative. A man will say: “I think we should do X to solve the problem.” In contrast, a woman will say: “I’m not sure if this is the best solution, but maybe we should try X.”
Do you see the difference? We also use what linguists call tag questions: “The meeting is tomorrow, isn’t it?” or “That’s the way we should go, don’t you agree?” instead of just asking an outright question or making a firm statement.
Men are to the point and say what they need to say as forcefully as they think is necessary.
Trish Wilson, partner in charge of accounting and financial advisory at Deloitte & Touche, points out that women don’t just need to learn to speak up – they also need to learn to speak out. “It’s also about how quietly you speak – speak up! Don’t be apologetic. Say something. Be bold!”
* Women need to understand that it’s vital to have networks and trusted advisers who can introduce you to others in your field and help you to get a foot in the door. It really is about who you know, not what you know. And once you have your foot in the door, thanks to a friend’s recommendation, it’s a lot easier to achieve your objectives.
* Become comfortable with being uncomfortable: then you are growing. If you are comfortable, you are not being stretched. More importantly, though, you can’t function effectively when half your brain is offline, observing what you’re doing, and worrying and thinking about how others are responding to what you are doing. You need to be focused on the job at hand.
* Begin with the end in mind, and behave as if you have already achieved it.
“See the biggest picture,” says Monica Singer, chief executive of Strate. “Surround yourself with the best people. When I first started in this business I didn’t know everything. But I see myself as the conductor of the orchestra So I started learning – because the people who worked with me did know. Don’t get in the way, and learn what you need to learn.”
* Dress and behave like the savvy, smart and successful young professional you aim to be, starting today. Not only will it help others take you more seriously – more importantly, it will help you to take you more seriously.
Stay in the game… never stop learning
“What glass ceiling?” asks leading South African businesswoman, Hixonia Nyasulu.
Urging women to challenge old notions of who they are and how they perform at work, Nyasulu says for most women the concept of a glass ceiling (barriers in place to keep women from climbing the corporate ladder) does not exist.
Women in the working world are not held back because of their gender, but the reality is that they leave before it even comes to that, she says.
“These days employers battle to hold on to women in senior management who leave for personal reasons such as marriage or children.”
She says progress for the fairer sex is all about climbing the slippery ladder.
Here is the advice she offers for staying in the game, which she’s accrued from experience in the big leagues:
Be known for something
Leave your gender and race out of it; be good at a particular task/area of your work. You could be good with numbers, a good leader or what many companies value as “good with people”, ie are emotionally intelligent.
Do a self-assessment
Who are you? What are your strengths and weaknesses? Once you think you’ve figured this out, ask others – whose opinion you value – how they see you. Be sure to listen to what they say.
Astronauts call it the overview effect, a term coined when they reached the moon and found themselves in awe of the Earth and what it looked like from the outside.
We need to be able to access ourselves – the people around us are our astronauts.
Pay attention to your packaging
Yes, that’s what we’re calling it. Your packaging must be appropriate for the work you do. All you need to worry about is whether or not when your employer looks at you he/she sees someone who dresses and carries themselves appropriately for the job they want you to do.
Your executive presence is drawn from a host of characteristics; this is one entirely in your control.
Surface your successes with humility
Most of us see “selling ourselves” as negative, but you have to surface your successes. Do this by showing rather than boasting about your experience.
“We” is profoundly better than “I/me” in the boardroom and done respectfully, asking probing questions, will show your knowledge.
Start sentences with, “I suggest…” or “I have found that sometimes… helps” rather than telling.
You’ll find that tea station conversations follow meetings at which you’ve surfaced your knowledge and this is when people may ask outright, “So where did you say you worked?”
Reach new frontiers
Never stop learning. Admit you don’t know.
Resist the urge to stay a big fish in a small pond. Know when you’ve outgrown your pond.
When you start to feel like you’re a big deal, its time to grow. Force yourself to move out of your comfort zone.
On occasion throw yourself into the ocean – you’ll have the pleasure of learning from amazing people.
Peer groups
Join a mainstream group for your profession. If you’re a scientist or CA join those groups – avoid smaller gatherings.
Build a reputation
It’s so important that your reputation speaks for you when you’re not in the room. It’s one of the few things for which you control all the variables. It’s yours and it’s your best currency so build it.
q Nyasulu is the founder and executive chairwoman of Ayavuna Women’s Investments. She is also a non-executive director of Unilever and Sasol Limited. She is a member of the Sugar Division Board for Tongaat Hulett Group and a director at Glodinia Holdings. Nyasulu holds BA in Psychology (Hons) and a BA in Social Work. She was guest speaker at The Mercury Women’s Breakfast.
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