engineers can be fasionable_we 14 seminar_gruiz-funes

Please sit next to somebody you have not met before this session

Gabrielle Ruiz-Funes | October 2014

Engineers can be Fashionable: embracing your femininity in a male-dominated fieldGabrielle Ruiz-Funes | October 23, 2014


ITW’s Enterprise Strategy at Work

Be social…Introduce yourselfIn 1 to 2 sentences, describe yourself to a stranger


ITW’s Enterprise Strategy at Work Gabrielle Ruiz-Funes | October 2014

What we will cover

The role that Fashion plays in branding and how we inherently challenge the status quo

How our feminine style is critical for diversity of thought and an asset to our individual and team success

Who we are, how we define ourselves, and what elements feminine attributes make us unique

Embracing our own individuality and practicing openness to the uniqueness of others


Fashion

How to interpret this term

●How you wear you

●Standing out in a way that allows you to be comfortable

●Not brands or trends

●No “what not to wear” here!


Who Are You?

● What is your definition of personal success?

● What is your definition of professional success?

● What are your strengths?

● What are your weaknesses?

● What are your previous successes

● What impact do you have today?

● What are your values and boundaries?

● What do you do? What is your expertise?

● What drives you?


We are complex individuals!



What is a Personal Brand?

● How people experience YOU

● Your brand is how you succinctly communicate who you are

● How others perceive you, your actions, and your presentation

● The alignment of you, your actions, and your presentation with your goals (personal, career, etc.).

● Dynamic and situational


Why is branding important?

● Support your path

● Make your identity meaningful by building common ground

● Know your values

● Make the choices you need to be comfortable

● Goal: feeling comfortable as yourself in your environment

Delivering your brand clearly and consistently will create

a memorable experience in the minds of those you interact with


Your Brand

COMMUNICATION

CHARACTER

PERCEPTION

The Brand Molecule


Peeling back the Onion

Fashion

Value

Personality Elements

You

CHARACTER



What is femininity?A set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with girls and women. Femininity is socially constructed, but made up of both socially-defined and biologically-created factors.

CHARACTER



CHARACTER: Femininity is part of who you are

●Expressed characteristics

●Intrinsic attributes

●Part of who we are

●Natural attributes credible and valuable

●Consider our view of femininity as part of our professional brand


CHARACTER: Describe your femininity

Gentle

Emotional

Passive

Sensitivity

Quiet

graceful

Weak

Empathetic

Nurturing

Soft

Deference

Accepting

Dominant

Aggressive

Assertive

Stoic

Hard

Powerful

Strong

Brave

Loud

Analytical

Bold

Confident

Emotional

Analytical


CHARACTER: What is your feminine style?

●What does femininity mean to you?

●How does your femininity influence who you are?

●How is your femininity expressed implicitly?

●What are some words you use to describe your femininity?


CHARACTER

“We hold ourselves back in ways both big and small, by lacking self-

confidence, by not raising our hands…We internalize the negative messages

we get throughout our lives—the messages that say it’s wrong to be

outspoken, aggressive, more powerful than men.”

― Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead


What is your value proposition?

Fashion

Value


You

CHARACTER



CHARACTER: Deriving value of femininity

● The more you harness your feminine style the more you are maximizing your value and contribution


CHARACTER: Individual task performance

High output per hour worked

On-time task completion

Error-free work

Quality work


CHARACTER: Female biology and the bottom line

Women’s brains

● May be optimized for combining analytical and

intuitive thinking

Groups that perform better on tasks

– Members have strong social skills

– Conversation reflects more members' ideas

Collective intelligence rises in the presence of

feminine attributes

Feminine biology lends itself to network thinking


CHARACTER: Network Performance

Introduction of improved processes

Implementation of new product or service ideas

Improved working methods, techniques, or tools

Transfer great ideas from other parts of the organization

Transfer skills and knowledge


CHARACTER: High Performing Teams

Individual Task Performance

• High output

• On-time task completion

• Error-free work

• Quality work

Network Performance

• Improving processes

• Implementing new ideas

• Improving work methods

• Transfer ideas

• Transfer skills and knowledge

= Enterprise Contributor

+


CHARACTER: High Performing Teams

Individual Task Performance

• High output

• On-time task completion

• Error-free work

• Quality work

Network Performance

• Improving processes

• Implementing new ideas

• Improving work methods

• Transfer ideas

• Transfer skills and knowledge

30%Fortune 500 Company

employees

+


CHARACTER: The Value of feminine attributes

$942,000,000change in year-over year revenue growth


Character: The transitive property

● If feminine attributes reflect the attributes that describe network contributors

● If network contributors are in short supply

● If network contributors have a significant and positive impact on financial gains…

Your feminine attributes are a credible component of your value proposition


Feminine characteristics are equally credible to masculine attributes and essential to individual, network, and enterprise performance

CHARACTER



How do you wear you?

Fashion

Value


You

CHARACTER



CHARACTER: What is your feminine style?

●How is your femininity expressed explicitly?

●How does your personal fashion express your value to others?

●What part of your expressed femininity gives you confidence?


The ConundrumHow do we get others to take our work and value seriously, when we present a challenge to the “package” of an engineer that they are prepared to receive?



Your Brand

COMMUNICATION

CHARACTER

PERCEPTION

The Brand Molecule


What do you have to say?Fashion

VERBAL

NON-VERBALVIRTUAL IDENTITY

COMMUNICATION



Fashion

VERBAL


COMMUNICATION: How people communicate

●Natural strength

●Written communication to assert ourselves

●Your feminine style in consensus building

●Showcase analytical skills

VERBAL


Fashion

VERBAL



NON-VERBAL

●Reinforce our confidence and send signals to others

●Body language

●Wired to more correctly identify unspoken messages conveyed in facial expressions, postures and tones of voice


Fashion

VERBAL




●[email protected]


COMMUNICATION: Men and women in the workplace

● Different means of communication

– Conversation etiquette: Women like to be invited to a conversation

– Feeling and showing appreciation: Women share praise and like to be acknowledged as part of a team

● Different responses under stress

● In order to know communicate your value and your brand, knowing how your verbal/non-verbal messages are likely to be received helps you curate.


COMMUNICATION: Communicating through Fashion

● Fashion is self-expressive

● You are expressing your actual identity in part through your Fashion

● The perception of your identity usually comes initially through Fashion

– And as women in this field, it is continuously part of our identity in the eyes of others

Fashion

VERBAL


Fashion


Your Brand

COMMUNICATION

CHARACTER

PERCEPTION

The Brand Molecule


Perception mattersFashion

Environment

Associated Brands

PERCEPTION



PERCEPTION: Who is the business leader?

Business leaders in ITW’s Food Equipment Group


PERCEPTION: Who holds the highest position?


Sue Stark

Group President

Mary Beth Siddons

Group President

Lei Schlitz

Group President


PERCEPTION: Who holds the engineering degree?


Sue Stark

Group President

Mary Beth Siddons

Group President

Lei Schlitz

Group President

Lei Schlitz

Group President

PhD Mechanical Engineering


Fashion

Environment

Associated Brands

PERCEPTION: Associated Brands

● What do associated brands tell somebody about you?

● Do the they align with yours?

Associated Brands


PERCEPTION: Downplaying femininity

● This is a common feeling

● If we feel as though we are in an environment that coerces us to downplay or sacrifice femininity, the question is why?

– External influence – we are challenging those just by showing up

– Internal – do we internalize to gender scripts that dictate a certain “package” for engineers who are female?

● We have to first examine our own perspective

● Important to work in an environment where you can feel comfortable being yourself

Fashion

Environment

Associated Brands

Environment


Fashion

Environment

Associated Brands

PERCEPTION: What does Fashion say about competence?

● What narratives do we use to assess value?

● False association between Fashion and competence

● Don’t let other peoples’ perceptions of you cause you to view your feminine traits as inferior or secondary

Fashion


PERCEPTION: The Importance of Packaging

FashionFashionFashion

It’s okay to be noticed!

Empowers Communicates Sets Precedence


Determine your emotional appeal

● Think broadly about your personality and how it affects the experience someone will have with you.

● How do I make people feel?

● How do people benefit by working with me?

● What words do others use to describe me?

● How does my feminine style enhance peoples’ experience with me?

Adapted from: Marrs, Meghan. "The First Step To Building Your Personal Brand."


Determine Your Description

● In As an individual, yours might be an industry (“healthcare” or “education”), or it might be a tangible skill (“creative” or “strategic”).

●What field or industry am I in (or do I want to be in)?

●What are the words I would use to describe my work?

●Who is my target audience?



Determine Your Function

● Write down what, exactly, you do (or will do). It might be something that directly relates to your career: writing, graphic design, or financial planning, for example. Or, it might be something more broad, like Disney’s “entertainment.” Are you a manager, a creator, an organizer? A connector of people?

● Questions to Consider:

● What service do I have to offer people?

● What do I do that makes me stand out from everyone else?

● How does my feminine style contribute to my success and the success of those around me?

Self-reflection is critical and continuous



Who are you?

● Your brand mantra should communicate clearly who you are

● Keep it simple

● Be memorable

● Inspire yourself, inspire others.



PERCEPTION: The Moment of Truth

● Share your branding statement with your partner

● Compare your brand with how your partner perceived your brand

● What was their perception?

● Did your brand statement align with your partners’ impression of you?

● How you communicated your brand initially? How you thought you communicated who you were, is that reflected in your brand


Re-visiting your branding statement

● The process is iterative!

● Is the power of your femininity reflected in your branding statement?

● Being true to yourself and your brand, would you dress differently to the way you dress now? Would you have a different branding statement?

● What elements of you are missing from your brand?

● What feminine assets do you currently downplay at work? Why?

● What elements of your femininity do you need to consciously incorporate into your brand?

● Am I in a work environment where the culture allows me to be comfortable as my authentic self?

Your Brand


Does what you say align with who you are?Your brand is a personal manifesto.



I challenge you…To consciously make your style of femininity part of your personal brand

Use your branding statement as a mantra



Go get ‘em

YOU are challenging the status quo

YOU are a key player in achieving diversity of thought and success for your enterprise

YOU have innate attributes that are credible and powerful

YOU are an individual with a unique brand and feminine style


The success of every single woman is the inspiration for another.Diane Von Furstenburg



Credits

Evans, Lisa. "Are We Speaking A Different Language? Men And Women's Communication Blind Spots." Fast Company. MansuetoVentures, LLC., 11 June 2014. <http://www.fastcompany.com/3031631/strong-female-lead/are-we-speaking-a-different-language-men-and-womens-communication-blind-s>.

Ingalhalikara, Madhura. "Sex Differences in the Structural Connectome of the Human Brain." Sex Differences in the Structural Connectome of the Human Brain. PNAS, 2 Dec. 2013.

Jantz, Gregory. "Brain Differences Between Genders." Psychology Today: Health, Help, Happiness + Find a Therapist. Sussex Directories, Inc., 27 Feb. 2014. <http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hope-relationships/201402/brain-differences-between-genders>.

Mangelsdorf, Martha. "What Makes Teams Smart | MIT Sloan Management Review." MIT Sloan Management Review RSS. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 4 Oct. 2010. <http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/what-makes-teams-smart/>.

Marrs, Meghan. "The First Step To Building Your Personal Brand." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 10 Feb. 2012. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/dailymuse/2012/02/14/the-first-step-to-building-your-personal-brand/>.

The Performance Transformation: Strategies to Build a Workforce of Enterprise Contributors. Rep. Chicago: CEB Corporate Leadership Council, 2014.

Vedantam, Shankar. "How Stereotypes Can Drive Women To Quit Science."NPR. NPR, 12 July 2012. <http://www.npr.org/2012/07/12/156664337/stereotype-threat-why-women-quit-science-jobs>.

Icons made by Scott de Jonge, Freepik from <www.flaticon.com> licensed by Creative Commons by 3.0.

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engineers can be fasionable_we 14 seminar_gruiz-funes

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