QUESTIONNAIRE EXAMPLES

CELEBRATING CHAMPIONS OF WOMEN IN BUSINESS

QUESTIONNAIRE EXAMPLES This document provides sample responses for the 2014 Catalyst Canada Honours Supplementary Questionnaire as a guide to the type of information that the evaluation committee is looking for in each section of the form. Nominees are evaluated on specific, visible actions and impacts that have occurred in their current roles; past roles will be considered as secondary context. Measurable results should be provided wherever possible. Each question must be answered in 500 words or less.

MENTORING AND SPONSORING WOMEN

Mentoring refers to a relationship between two people for the primary purpose of developing the mentee’s career. Sponsorship occurs when an influential individual, usually someone at a more senior level, helps a protégé acquire particular assignments, promotions, or positions.

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1. Provide a count of your current and past mentees and protégés and their demographic information. Do not include current mentees and protégés in the past mentee and protégé columns.

Current Mentees

Current Protégés

M A S

Aboriginal Women

1

1

Aboriginal Men

0

0

Visible Minority Women

1

1

Visible Minority Men

1

0

White Women

2

1

White Men

1

0

Total

6

3

Past Mentees

Please indicate timeframe:

Past Protégés

Please indicate timeframe:

12 years

12 years

0

0

1

0

3

1

2

1

8

3

3

1

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List any other diversity dimensions reflected by your mentees or protégés, as well as the number of mentees or protégés. For example: two mentees with disabilities; one protégé identifies as LGBT. Examples: • •

Two past protégés and one current protégée identify as LGBT One past mentee had a disability

PRODUCING TANGIBLE RESULTS 2.

Describe how individual women have advanced, developed skills, and/or gained visibility by your having provided one or more of the following opportunities to them: • High-profile assignments or work. • High-profile client relationships or client-facing responsibilities. • Writing or speaking opportunities. • Board positions. • Leadership positions. • Other leadership or advancement opportunities.

Examples:

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•

One of our Vice Presidents, who is a woman and a visible minority, expressed interest in sitting on a board. I connected her with a mentor through the Women On Board program, and subsequently sponsored her onto Catalyst’s Corporate Board Resource, indicating that she was a ‘board-ready’ woman based on her background and experience with highly visible assignments, international work experience in two countries, and P/L responsibility for $30 million in her line of business. Within six months, she became a Director on a corporate board. The visibility she has gained through these board assignments has helped to raise her profile, resulting directly in two high-profile industry speaking opportunities, and indirectly, one new client to our organization. In addition, the experience and new skills she has acquired through her board experience have directly contributed to her capability in her VP role within our organization: she now chairs our Quarterly Global Business Strategy sessions, her P/L accountability has increased by 15%, and she sponsors three individuals (one direct report and two indirect reports, one of which is a visible minority).

•

I provided a talented woman associate with high-profile work for important firm clients and helped her to gain experience and visibility, introductions to key clients, and a reputation for high performance, all of which strengthened her relationships with partners who have decision-making authority. These achievements helped to profile her during partner discussions, and she has since been accepted into partnership.

3.

Describe how you influenced the diversity of any teams, practice groups, or business lines you work closely with, including your team of direct reports. Highlight people with diverse identities, such as women, Aboriginal individuals, people with disabilities, LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) individuals, or visible minorities. Please provide metrics where possible. Examples may include your influence on the following: • Hiring. • Promotion and/or sponsorship. • High-profile projects. • Participation in development or leadership programs.

M A S

Examples: •

As part of our leadership strategy, I rolled out diversity measures throughout my line of business focusing on women and visible minorities. In championing the diversity agenda, I have been instrumental in setting a business-wide agenda, creating a diversity leadership council within the business, creating a strategy for that council, driving diversity goals into performance measures for senior leadership, and increasing visibility of these goals by creating and utilizing a quarterly dashboard to measure progress. Under my leadership, when hiring for roles at senior manager levels and above in my business, I require a diverse slate of candidates (50% women, 25% visible minorities) and in situations where a diverse individual is not hired, a debrief discussion is held to discuss why and to talk with those candidates not chosen to help set them up for success in future. Since implementing the above, my business line has seen an increase in representation from 25% to 27% senior women leaders and 12% to 15% visible minority women. My direct report team now consists of 10 women (vs. 6 last year), and four are visible minorities (vs. one last year).

•

When I took on my current role, my direct report team of 40 consisted primarily of men. I began mentoring and sponsoring five junior women on the team to help them gain important experience and visibility within the organization. Over the past four years, three senior positions have become available, and two of these have been filled by women who I sponsored, including one visible minority. These women have gone on to lead their own business groups. QUESTIONNAIRE EXAMPLES

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INFLUENCING OTHERS & CHALLENGING THE STATUS QUO 4. Describe how your championship has challenged individual assumptions (e.g., stereotypes, biases) and organizational culture (i.e., unwritten rules or policies and practices) that directly or indirectly impede diversity and inclusion. Discuss whether you experienced any pushback and how you responded. Examples: •

A department head position—which historically had only ever been filled by men—opened up, and I insisted on a diverse slate of candidates, despite expectations from colleagues that a specific male candidate would get the job. Later, in a talent review meeting, when someone senior to me pushed again for the male candidate, I pointed out to him that he was holding the women candidates up to higher experience expectations than he was the men. It was risky but it paid off. In the end we promoted a visible minority woman who has incredible potential, and she’s thriving in the role.

•

After promoting a woman into a senior-level position in my organization, I experienced pushback from a male colleague who believed the promotion occurred to meet a quota. I talked with him privately and took the opportunity to reiterate the organization’s policy and commitment to promoting the most qualified person. The outcome was his increased understanding and appreciation for the importance of building a diverse team in his business unit.

M A S

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5. Describe how you persuade others in Canadian business to champion women’s advancement. Examples: •

I have spent time gathering data to support the business case for advancing women in Canadian business. This business case includes data on how diversity would help our organization increase revenue by attracting new customers and finding new markets, retaining customer loyalty, and improving the success of cross-cultural negotiations.

•

Over the course of several months, I met one-on-one with senior managers to explain the difference between mentorship and sponsorship. As I explained sponsorship, I described how it benefits everyone, including protégés, sponsors, and the organization. As an added incentive, I explained how sponsorship has compensation and advancement benefits for sponsors and positions them to be seen as leaders who are committed to the organization’s success by developing others.

6. Describe how you have influenced and engaged men in workplace equality and gender diversity initiatives. Examples: •

Of the 10 people I currently mentor, five are women. I require all my mentees to mentor someone of the opposite sex. At almost every meeting, we have intentional conversations about what they, and myself, have learned from the experience.

•

Over the course of a year, I co-hosted a series of webinars across Canada with other male executives to better understand the barriers to getting men involved in workplace fairness and gender equality. As a result of the webinars, I reached out to 15 men who were either my level or one below and had a series of one-on-one conversations with each one about inclusion and equality. The men were at various stages of the diversity journey. Through our discussions, some difficult conversations, and the research I shared, 11 of the men have taken specific actions toward increasing gender equality in the teams or in their offices. For example, one man hired a qualified woman he hadn’t considered before and credits his increased awareness; another started a Lean In book club with other men; and another scheduled an unconscious bias expert to coach his senior leadership team at their annual retreat.

QUESTIONNAIRE EXAMPLES

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CATEGORY-SPECIFIC QUESTIONS 7. Please answer the question that corresponds to your Honours Category. Company/Firm Leader Describe how you hold senior leaders accountable for diversity and inclusion within your organization, including any influence you have had on your organization’s board. Examples: •

Four years ago, during performance reviews, I asked every member of my senior executive team to create a robust pipeline of diverse leaders within their departments. Two male senior leaders have since retired and have been succeeded by women leaders, whose talents were developed within their departments.

•

When I became the CEO, there were zero women on our board. As a consumer packaged goods company, over 60% of our consumers are women, so I made fixing this imbalance a top priority. Every time a board seat has opened up I have worked with our nominating chair to ensure that we are finding talented women to fill the vacancy. We have used formal programs, like the Catalyst Corporate Board Resource, but I also asked every member of the board to put forward the name of one woman to our nominating chair. We now have two women serving on our board.

M A S

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Business Leader Describe how you have influenced diversity and inclusion policies or practices at your organization, and how those changes have positively affected women’s advancement. Examples: •

When asked by a male partner in the resources practice to recommend individuals to assist on a file, I recommended two high-potential women. In following up later, I learned that the two women had exceeded his performance expectations, and the partner not only asked them to work on his next file, but recommended their work to another partner.

•

I insisted that we offer an international opportunity to a senior executive woman because she was the most qualified person for the job. This was against the recommendation of some individuals on my executive team who assumed that family responsibilities would prevent her from accepting and fulfilling the role. She did accept, and has been excellent in the new position.

HR/Diversity Leader Describe how your efforts have led to sustainable culture change within your organization and/or industry. Examples: •

When I became head of HR, I saw that there was a general belief among many senior leaders that as a tech firm we didn’t need to worry about recruiting women, because the pool of female engineers was not significant. I made it my goal to speak to each leader at the company to help them understand why diverse recruitment is necessary, and how the company would benefit from bringing in different viewpoints and experiences. I also won support for establishing a requirement for diverse slates for hiring. The conversation around the table in reference to diverse talent has reached a new level, indicating that leaders now truly understand why diversity matters to the company.

•

One of the unwritten rules at our law firm had always been the need to socialize with partners and other associates outside of working hours if you wanted to get ahead and someday make partner yourself. Often, social activities involved a full day of golf on the weekends, or late night poker games at a partner’s house. When I became leader of the diversity initiative, I pointed out to several partners who would host these events that these activities were not fully inclusive of all the lawyers, especially some of the female lawyers at the firm, either because of the time that they took place or the activity itself. The partners, who hadn’t realized that some lawyers may have felt excluded, have since changed their social activities to occur closer to office hours and have diversified they types of activities to include things like wine tastings, book signings with guest authors, and weekend gatherings that include families. QUESTIONNAIRE EXAMPLES

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PARTICIPATING IN PROGRAMS/INITIATIVES

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8. List the gender-related programs and/or initiatives that you actively participate in inside and outside your organization. For each, briefly describe your specific role, the frequency of your participation, and the impact these activities have had. Use additional rows if required.

M A S

Organization/Association

Role

Duration

Impact

Internal Women’s ERG

Leader

2.5 years

Hosted quarterly meetings to brainstorm work-life effectiveness solutions that work for women in my firm. We have raised the returnto-work rate after maternity leave from 60 to 80 percent.

Information Technology Conference

Speaker

3 years

Speak at annual conference about advancing women in technology. Educated over 300 senior leaders about the business case for building a pipeline of women recruits and leaders.

Women in Business Network

Mentor

5 years

Mentored a woman business student at a local university. She is now responsible for a large business unit that has double its quarterly profits.

QUESTIONS?

Contact Catalyst Canada at +1 416 645 5869 or [email protected].

ABOUT CATALYST

Founded in 1962, Catalyst is the leading nonprofit organization expanding opportunities for women and business. With offices in the United States, Canada, Europe, India, and Australia, and more than 600 members, Catalyst is the trusted resource for research, information, and advice about women at work.

QUESTIONNAIRE EXAMPLES

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