Women in Financial Services
Senior Leaders - “Are you a fox or an owl, a sheep or a donkey?”
Mark.Freed / 26 May 2017
We were excited to host a workshop for Senior Female Leaders with Fiona Murden an experienced Occupational Psychologist and Executive Coach. Many thanks to Bank of Montreal who kindly hosted the event for us in their city office.
The topic ‘Becoming a better version of yourself’, was an intriguing title for the 10 senior women in the room. We were fascinated to hear Fiona’s insights into the impacts of neuroscience and perceptions of position and power, and how these could help us become better leaders.
Did you know that we can mould our brain to react differently to situations, and we can manage our emotions by adopting certain techniques, enabling us to be better prepared in meetings or difficult conversations?
Now many of us shy away from playing the political game at work. If I asked you “Are you a fox or an owl, a sheep or a donkey?”, you will probably think I’d lost the plot! However, Fiona showed us the importance of recognising the different power positions that align themselves between high or low levels of being political savvy and levels of integrity. Many of us recognised the value of the wise owl with high emotional intelligence, being open with information, not afraid of being disliked and having a strong network. Many of us also recognised those with ‘fox’ tendencies in our organisations! We certainly didn’t want to be a sheep, if there was a fox about!
Achieving success can be achieved through small changes in perception. Understanding the impact we make in the workplace, and shifting our position and power will enable us to find this success.
Our next Gender Promotion event ‘Aspiring Leaders’ event will be hosted by Legal and General on Thursday 22nd June. Please consider your colleagues/friends and bring them along. To register please click here
We look forward to seeing you.
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