Chief of Staff to the President of Microsoft Asia | Chief Strategy & Operations | Founder LeanIn Women In Tech | Mentor & Coach | Public Speaker | Podcast Host
Had the absolute pleasure to join Cisco and Logicalis #IWD event in #Singapore and give a keynote on “Sheroes - Trailblazing with Grace” As an engineer and a math geek, I wanted to ground us on the numbers, make sense of the statistics then wrap up with a call for action to the leaders and how they empower women in the workplace. Three numbers I took time with the audience to absorb: 48%, 36% and 28%. - 48% is the percentage of women at entry level when they join the workforce - 36% is the same percentage but at mid-level mgmt. We drop 12pts - 28%, you guessed it, is the women percentage at the C-suite We start as half of the workforce and along the way, we don’t become half of the senior leadership. I can spend hours addressing the reasons, justifications and root causes. The annual research paper from Lean In does an amazing job there. In the keynote, my call for action was for the leaders: - Entry and junior talent look up to the leaders. If the leaders are their authentic selves, the younger generation of talent will be too. Gen Z grew up speaking their minds and being authentic, they’ll be the happiest at work when they can bring their whole selves to work - Middle mgmt diverse talent need nurturing. They don’t want to be the ‘diversity hire’. They’re ambitious, hardworking and want to be recognised for their talent and impact. Sponsorship, coaching and visibility is what they need from their leaders to grow and progress - C-level is simple: we need more diverse leaders at the C-suite. Representation matters. The diverse talent across the workforce will look up to leaders with whom they have shared life experiences, who look and sound like them The panel that followed was absolutely phenomenal with Dave West, Chong-Win Lee, Jacqueline Guichelaar and Dewi Sanly moderated by Arissa Wong Thank you Arissa Wong for inviting me speak in this incredible event. It was great to interact with the students and younger talent, the leaders of the future. Dave West, Chong-Win Lee, Bee Kheng Tay, Jacqueline Guichelaar, Dewi Sanly, Arissa Wong, Annella Heytens, IHRP-MP, CCP, GRP, Miki Tsusaka, Ahmed Mazhari, Stijn Nauwelaerts, Puneet Chandok, Steven Miller
Thanks for reminding us Imane that it’s NOT a pipeline issue: “we start as half of the workforce”, let’s keep it like that up to the C-suite.
Imane Jamal Eddine - thank you greatly for joining this conversation, conducting the keynote, and partnering with us (Cisco and Logicalis) on empowering women in workplace. Arigato gozaimasu
Thank you Imane Jamal Eddine for the wonderful keynote. You certainly have an inspiring story 👍🏽
Thanks for joining us & being such an inspiring Shero! 🙌🏼 Looking forward to more collaboration in future :)
People before Business. Learning before Growth. Passion before Opportunity.
4moAmazing things happen when women help other women...thank you for doing amazing things! 💓