Articles and Newsletters

As passionate advocates for gender equality, we often write about why and how women should be given an equal opportunity at all levels of leadership. In doing so we also often address how biased thinking based on traditional gender roles can hold women back. When we talk about men, we typically focus on how they can, and need to, support women in reaching gender equality.

While specific female development programs are a must to help women climb the corporate ladder, we also need to create a system that supports gender equality. For this, we all have to work together, we must ally with men, include them in the conversation and engage them in making the changes.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve held several workshops, with participants from various cultural backgrounds, on addressing gender bias to create inclusive organisations. In all our sessions, when we’ve shown participants the image above, it has led to a debate on affirmative action – whether it works, whether it benefits minorities and whether we recommend affirmative action for companies. This article addresses some of these questions.

One of the main requirements to create a truly inclusive work environment is to have a safe space for all individuals to thrive. This can be created at both the individual and company level. This article focuses on what individuals can do to support their LGBTQ+ team members.

One of the main requirements to create a truly inclusive work environment is to have a safe space for all individuals to thrive. This can be created at both the individual and company level. This article focuses on what companies can do to support their LGBTQ+ staff.

The most recent Global Gender Gap report states that due to the pandemic we have taken a step back in Economic Participation and Opportunity for women. If we continue on our current trajectory, it will now take 257 years to close this gap ! We need to take action NOW to speed up the process and move closer to achieving gender equality in our lifetimes. During our first annual Inclusive Leadership Forum we asked our speakers and panellists to address the challenges associated with reaching gender equality. This article is based on comments from senior leaders at Keppel Data Centres and Google, our guest speaker Juliet Bourke, and from ourselves at Developing Global Leaders Asia.

With 8 an auspicious number for the Chinese we present to you 8 expat tips for Chinese New Year. These tips will help you navigate this special celebration.

Have you been in cross-cultural meetings where there has been an imbalance in participation with some people contributing more than others? There can be various explanations for this including differing personalities, experience levels, opinions, language skills and interest levels. Alternatively, there may also be cultural explanations due to different communication styles and patterns across cultures. In this article, you will find a series of helpful steps to ensure you have effective, balanced cross-cultural meetings.

Biases are learnt associations that are automatic, unintentional, deeply ingrained, and influence our behaviour. We pick them up from our environment, such as family members, teachers and media. According to psychologists , we are particularly sensitive to these messages in our early childhood years as we simply absorb the world around us without questioning it . This explains why experiments with kindergarten aged children show that they already ‘know’ what colour of people are ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Therefore our responsibility is enormous. We need to ensure that the next generations know that all people deserve respect and equal and fair treatment from everyone.

Virtual work and virtual networking are the new norm for the foreseeable future, this article explores the importance of networking for your career and provides a few virtual networking tips.