saturday 12 march 2016 how would you treat pregnant … · insignificant behaviours is to do what...
TRANSCRIPT
By DAN [email protected]
LEADERS who bring up every little failure, issue, or shortcoming are irritating nags. They can’t let it go.
When you blab on about triviali-ties, talented people want to pull their hair out. Or they want to grab yours.
Leaders who dig into small issues waste their talent on trivialities.
1 Mind your business. Insecurity expresses itself as
a need to know everything.Arrogance makes you believe you
can fix people. Meddling inspires apprehen-
sion—apprehension slows progress.
2 Establish priorities. Leaders without priori-
ties chase rabbits and discourage teams. The only way to let go of insignificant behaviours is to do what matters now.
You aren’t worthy to lead until you know what matters now.
3 Lean toward silence with a smile.
Most extroverted leaders talk too much. The only thing worse than an excited extrovert is a cloistered introvert.
At least you know what the extrovert thinks. Both create anxi-ety.
4 Establish reporting only where issues matter.
5 Protect your headspace. On a scale of one to 10, how
much does this issue matter? Let others worry about six or seven.
Bring it Up if:1. The failure is about character.
Being on time doesn’t take a high IQ (intelligence quotient).
2. You expect others to take action. Stop expressing opinions.
Are you simply blabbing on because you’re in love with your own voice, or do you expect something to change?
3. You hear excuses, rather than responsibility.
4. It’s a pattern. Once is fine—three times, it’s time to talk.
5. Others fall below their capa-bilities.
l What are their strengths?l Are they able?
l How much improvement is possible?
6. They aspire to be better? Don’t pour yourself into those who don’t care.
7. You can adjust their role away from failure or weak-ness.
Bonus: Bring it up, if they’re working to improve, but per-sistently frustrated.
n Dan Rockwell is a coach, speaker and is freakishly interested in leadership. He is an author of a world-renown most socially shared leadership blog, Leadership Freak. Not sure when to bring it up or when to let go, write to us at [email protected]. Let’s talk!
www.leaderonomics.com | Saturday 12 March 2016 5
How would You TreaT PregnanT emPloYees? By NINA TI and LIM LAY [email protected]
A woman who lost her job because she fell pregnant was dealt a huge blow recently when the Shah Alam High Court decided
to dramatically reduce the amount of damages awarded to her case five years ago.
In what observers are calling a land-mark case, Noorfadilla Ahmad Saikin’s awarded amount of RM300,000 in damages (in 2011) was slashed to a paltry RM30,000 on February 15th.
Despite all our concerted efforts to bring more women back into the workforce —through the implementa-tion of diversity and inclusion initia-tives nationwide—this latest twist in a hotly debated legal saga is a reminder that equality in the workplace is still elusive, and that women can expect resistance if they choose to combine family and career.
Are We going BAckWArds?
While major industry players are working hard to change mindsets on women empowerment and equality, it looks like the ‘powers that be’ could
be the biggest offender in reversing these efforts.
In Noorfadilla’s case, the govern-ment retracted her placement as a temporary teacher in 2009 when edu-cation officers discovered that she was expecting after two weeks of starting work.
To add insult to injury, the judi-cial commissioner remarked that Noorfadilla had not been completely honest because she did not disclose her pregnancy during the job inter-view.
She was also inappropriately positioned as “profiting” from the RM300,000 award for damages.
Why was her position (as a vic-tim of pregnancy discrimination) removed? Why deny her the right to be employed because she is an expect-ing mother?
oUr thoUghtsJob nature and company culture
play a role in determining how organi-sations work toward treating their pregnant employees. It’s definitely going to be different from one organi-sation to another.
Where people lack knowledge in handling this issue fairly at their work-place, employers need to be better
equipped and adequately trained on gender sensitisation.
In our opinion, the one thing that business and human resources lead-ers need to remember is this: Don’t force a pregnant employee to choose between career and family.
Put yourselves in her shoes. Then,
commit yourselves to work something out so she can still have the best of both worlds and achieve a balance between the two.
YoUr tUrnFor all business decision-makers out
there, what would you do?
n We would love to hear your thoughts on this matter. To share your women-friendly and pregnant-friendly best practices with us, please e-mail us at [email protected]. Where applicable, we can consider publishing your response. So, keep the conversation going!
wHen To Bring iT uP—wHen To leT iT go