CELEBRATING 2023 INTERNATIONAL WOMENS DAY
In true Core HR fashion, we made the resident male of the office write the article for International Womens Day! And for good reason - he’s an amazing advocate for us all and always celebrates our successes no matter the day!
I have been honoured to be asked to write a piece to celebrate International Women’s Day. In truth, I felt unqualified to do so, what would I know? But from a place of humility and appreciation, let’s celebrate this important day together.
The story that comes to mind to frame up my personal appreciation for this day comes from a workplace some years ago. I was the newbie and a colleague, on meeting me, gestures towards herself and the three other women I was to be working with, and says “you’re stuck with a bunch of us bossy women now, hope you don’t mind that”. I replied (no creative license here) “I’ve spent my career surrounding myself in amazing women, and not planning on changing that today”. There were smiles all around, mutual respect was built immediately and a fruitful friendship and working relationship was born.
But, moral of the story, there is no exaggeration or lie here. I’ve been so lucky in my career to have learnt from, been mentored, managed and supported by a host to talented and capable women. I won’t name them, both for fear of missing someone out and for not having enough words available to do it justice. But I’ll just say this, you all know who you are, and thank you.
For my part, I’m spending International Women’s Day visiting client offices both virtually and face to face to join in their festivities and recognise the amazing women in their teams. I am excited to do so. Seeing businesses and organisations take the time to recognise the role our often underrepresented female colleagues play in leadership and other key roles is a key step in inspiring and demonstrating the path for others to follow.
Here are some of the great things I’ve seen this International Women’s Day.
· A morning tea for the team. In an increasingly remote workforce for many, any opportunity to get the team together is welcome for collaboration, relationship building and developing a sense of community. To meet with purpose, particularly for a purpose so valuable is this, is awesome.
· Sharing stories of the success in our team. How many amazing employees do you have whose stories and careers could inspire others to pursue their dreams to tackle a challenge they didn’t know was possible? In New Zealand we are particularly bad at sharing these success stories and it shouldn’t be forgotten how much value and power there is in doing so.
· Making it bigger than one day. Celebrating and recognising the day is important, but what are you doing to put women’s participation as a key part of the Diversity and Inclusion strategy of your organisation? There is so many opportunities across customer, people and commercial activities of a business to implement strategies to develop and promote women’s talent. Use your HR and D and I specialists to help implement programmes that will have long term success in supporting the greater cause.
I hope you take the time to celebrate IWD together!
