Employee Spotlight: Women in Leadership
By Shona Mulligan, Talent Scout at Runtastic with the assistance of some fantastic girls at Runtastic
As a staff, we’re the sum of our components. We see ourselves as a robust worldwide staff that works exhausting to domesticate an inclusive setting. Since we’re so pleased with our gifted, artistic, and progressive staff, we would like the remainder of the world to get to know us too! We have created an Employee Spotlight weblog collection, the place individuals from all around the world can rise up shut and private with a few of us Runtastics.
In our first Employee Spotlight weblog, we get to know a handful of the ladies in management positions at Runtastic and listen to about their opinions and challenges on being a lady in management.
“Who run the world…Girls!” This well-known quote from a Beyoncé track kicked off our final weblog publish devoted to girls in management and, whereas I’ll all the time be a Beyoncé fan, I imagine we’d like a various and inclusive staff, made up of a variety of genders, ages, nationalities, experiences, abilities, opinions, and expertise with a purpose to correctly run the world, I imply, Runtastic!
Representation is Key
While at present at Runtastic 26% of management positions are held by girls, solely 12% of those are worldwide girls. As you’ll probably discover, the ladies featured on this weblog, though some are worldwide, are nonetheless labeled as white girls. We are conscious that we’re missing by way of intersectionality and illustration of individuals of shade and are working to enhance this with a purpose to guarantee our leaders are consultant of our staff members. Our Head of Social Media Marketing, Amanda feedback on the significance of illustration:
“When we talk about women in leadership roles, we cannot underestimate the value of representation. From the beginning of my career, I have almost always been led by outstandingly unshakeable women who I could look up to, and this was no different than when I joined the Runtastic family a couple of years ago. Ultimately, this representation removed any hindrance in my mind of what I could achieve in my lifetime, which I am incredibly thankful for.
With that being said, the greatest challenge that we face in our company, industry, and society is promoting intersectional representation of women in leadership roles, which is why one of my main goals as a leader is to both professionally & personally amplify the voices of all women and challenge the current adidas & Runtastic discourse surrounding diversity topics as a whole.”
Leading with Kindness
It is a identified reality that ladies battle to be represented in management roles, however many additionally battle as soon as they get into management positions; they battle for his or her opinion to be taken as critically as their counterparts and they’re inspired to be “mean” with a purpose to be taken critically. Our Head of Communications Paula, says we have to set an instance of what a frontrunner can and may appear like:
“Let’s dispel some myths: Being nice doesn’t make you a bad leader. It doesn’t make you a doormat, it doesn’t mean you can’t say ‘no’ and it also doesn’t mean you can’t make difficult decisions.
I think the year 2020 is a year as good as any to throw that old-fashioned way of thinking out the window. What it does mean to be a woman in leadership who is also kind and empathetic is that you are there for your team, you can offer support when needed, and you can put yourself in someone else’s shoes before passing judgment. I am convinced that you can be kind, empathetic, understanding, and patient all while leading your team to success. As a matter of fact, I am convinced you must be all these things in order to be a good leader.
Let’s collectively rid ourselves of this notion that nice women don’t make good leaders. Nice women, and men, are the future of a happy, thriving, and successful workplace. Let’s set an example.”
We Learn From Each Other
However, as a frontrunner, it is usually essential to face your floor and to succeed in out for assist out of your friends when wanted, and to place your staff first. Our Head of CRM, Edit, shares her experiences as she grew into her management place:
“It is really rare that one has an incremental way to become a leader. In a really short period of time, the everyday routine has changed for me.
We are human, and people-pleasing is a phenomenon that is always in the air. Once you are a leader it can get to completely different levels. As I was aligning with more people on a daily basis, I realized I was falling victim to it. I had to face it really fast that it was not helping my team members nor me at the end of the day. You can imagine it resulted in last-minute tasks and a tremendous amount of overtime. I believe that our values and time dedicated to effective communication are the North Star in situations like that.
Leadership is a journey that is hard to be accomplished alone. My fellow team leads are really open and supportive which helped my transition, especially the internal mentoring program that we have at Runtastic.”
We Must Embrace Change
While altering your function and taking up management obligations could be a problem in itself, doing this whereas your staff is present process large adjustments additionally poses a brand new set of challenges. Lisa, our Head of Content Planning feedback on how she dealt with these calls for:
“Taking on a new challenge as team lead at the beginning of this year was a big step in my journey at Runtastic. But my role was not the only thing that changed. I had the chance to form a new team with my colleagues and be part of the restructuring of our content area. So it was a time of change for many of us.
We worked together on bringing in and combining different views and ideas, building a new common ground, rewriting our rules – this is for sure not always easy! But I also believe that this let us grow as a team – forming something new. It’s important to recognize and understand how different change feels and is experienced by each team member. Everyone needs and feels supported in a different way. Everyone IS different – and that’s the best part of working in a diverse team in which everyone contributes their previous experiences and knowledge coming from different areas.
Change is a great learning opportunity on so many levels (personal, professional, emotional), and in many cases it just makes you get things done. So this showed me once again that change is what makes us move and what brings us forward even if the new can seem quite intimidating in the beginning.”
Women shouldn’t maintain again
I’m within the lucky place of getting a robust, form, empathetic feminine chief, who shares her actual experiences with us as a staff, challenges us to empower ourselves, and all the time encourages us to observe our passions. Babsi, our Head of HR feedback on the significance of not holding again as a lady within the office:
“When I got promoted to my first leadership role at Runtastic, I got lots of positive feedback and encouragement. What got stuck in my head though was unfortunately a cynical comment from someone (outside the company) that I don’t even know personally, along the lines‚ ‘it’s easy to slip into a leadership role if the company is small’. I told myself that person probably has their own little burden to carry and their envy hinders them from acknowledging how hard I’ve worked, that I’m smart, and know what I am doing.
I’ve had the experience that people who ask what I do are often surprised when I tell them that I lead the HR department – I wonder whether they’d be as surprised if I were a man.
I think it takes female role models for women not to hold back applying for a leadership role. That’s why it’s super important to me to always be authentic with my team, tell them about the challenges I face, the struggles I have, but also share my successes with them.
My absolute favorite part of being a leader is empowering my team. Seeing how they develop and shine makes me proud and is super motivating for me.”
As a world girl, not but in a management function, I can say with confidence that Runtastic is on the precise path to creating an inclusive and consultant management staff and setting the stage for a extra numerous staff sooner or later…watch this house!
