How to be successful at Threads V2 (and smashing the patriarchy on the way)
A short read with an IWD theme and an evergreen topic written by Kate Rand, Chief People Officer
A Precursor to this post: Threads is not a “corporate”, so I’m not going to talk to you as if we are. I’ve written this document with the audience in mind of the current and future Threads community. If you want to talk about any of this in more detail, reach out to me and let’s grab a coffee and chat about it. First up, we have to talk about the patriarchy. It is the undercurrent of our entire ecosystem. Systems of oppression come in groups, please don’t think I’m writing this saying women have it the worst, or that I’m not aware of my own white privilege. Whenever I talk about the experience of women and less represented groups, I am talking about people of colour, the LGBTQIA community, those with disabilities, mental illness, low socio-economic, the prejudice against particular religious beliefs, all of it. We can’t get away from the othering of all less represented groups and the tragic impact this has on their success in the workplace.
We’re getting in our own way.
We’re a majority-female growth business with a female founder operating in a male-dominated world. Business, as it is today, was designed by men for men to succeed in. Being a female-led business is one of the top reasons many of you choose Threads. It’s also one of the reasons we all have to work harder for our success and often have to battle preconceived bias about how women and less represented groups should behave in society, and in business. Female founders are rare; out of the billions of pounds of funding invested annually, less than 3% goes to female founders. Female and minority leaders have to navigate much higher scrutiny than male counterparts, every action assessed looking for signs of over-emotion; unlike male counterparts, women must balance the fine line of justifying how much emotion to display and what emotion to display because the audience will be evaluating them. And to top it off, we are doing this to ourselves, not just our peers. We make our own working lives hard because of the way society has taught us to perceive less-represented groups' behaviours through the lenses created by the patriarchy.
So, you haven’t joined an easy business, and although we all hold some privilege, you likely do not have an easy career path ahead of you if you are anyone but the majority, but Threads should be a place to experience the power of a business not run by the majority. We are responsible for challenging bias and stereotypes and not labelling ambitious women and minority groups’ business decisions with the words society will have us believe are true. An ambitious woman is not aggressive nor “cold” because she asks someone to stay until the work is done, nor should it be questioned that she “wants to have it all” if that’s what she chooses.
How we behave and our actions are perceived differently than if our male counterparts took these actions. This is true for women, and even more so those from less represented groups (7 deadly sins of women and girls), and it compounds. A Muslim woman leader is fighting so much intersectional prejudice and bias in the workplace. This perception isn’t something we can change overnight. Still, suppose we are not aware of its impact. In that case, it will hinder our collective ability to make tough business decisions and unnecessarily judge the decisions of our peers and leaders based on the socially acceptable behaviour we expect. You’ll waste so much energy overthinking and second-guessing our leaders. As a society we have learned to trust women leaders less than male leaders, despite them scoring higher than men on most leadership skills. We’ve been conditioned by society to view what are necessary business decisions as “aggressive” when a woman makes them and “strong” when a male counterpart does the same. Even more so for women of colour who are labelled “angry” for speaking up or a gay man for being dramatic when he raises a concern. It is so deeply ingrained in every single one of us, we aren’t even aware of it. The next time someone whips out the “aggressive” label- have a think about it. Are they saying it to a person of colour or a woman because they spoke their mind?
What does this mean for success?
To help Threads be successful, and in turn, yourself and your peers learn to be aware of the bias. If you think a decision or action made by a peer is personal or harsh, ask yourself what you’d feel if a white male colleague did the same. If you hold back your opinions because you’re afraid of being called difficult or challenging, ask yourself if you’d think that of a white male colleague if they said it. A study found that female leaders who asked their teams to do extra work or work outside of their hours were perceived much more negatively than male leaders. How does that translate in a female-focused growth business? Badly. There are many hypotheses for this behaviour, but what I am interested in is making you aware of this inherent bias because it will hinder our growth and, ultimately, our success as a business.
We all have learned behaviours that are our way of surviving in this male-designed world of business. Female leaders are often seen as inhuman or cold because they are afraid to show their feelings. If they show their feelings, they are accused of being emotional, yet the research shows us that women make great leaders because they care and nurture. How do you win that one?
All of this is hindering our success and your success at Threads. We’re starting on the backfoot. It means you are pre programmed by society to view actions that relate to entrepreneurship and growing successful businesses as inappropriate for women to make, and will judge yourselves and your peers through a lens you don’t even realise you have. Let today be the first day you become aware of that lens and challenge your responses. Above all, to be successful, have unconditional positive regard for your peers and yourself and celebrate ambition, confidence, drive and vision in each other.
