Case Study: Midwest Communications

Early in 2019, two members of the sales and marketing team at Midwest Communications (specifically Midwest Radio) approached us to begin a partnership. Their goal was specific: to elevate and empower the women of their local Southern Indiana community. They knew that their listeners and sponsors consisted of many small business owners and growing professionals that wanted and needed professional and personal development, and they wanted to ensure they could find it.

Together we designed a series of four workshops to take place across 2019, with the final session wrapping up in October.

Case Study: MillerCoors Women in Beer

We had so much fun with the Great Lakes Region chapter of Women in Beer at MillerCoors during their two-day annual meeting! After surveying the group on their interest in various topics, we landed the topic of Mapping Career Strategy.

After the session, one participant shared, “I thought it was a great way to sit down and map out what our individual priorities are including work and personal life.”

We know this group is serving as accountability partners for one another as they head into a busy time of year and look forward to hearing how everyone has achieved their objectives!

Case Study: Ohio Banker's League Women in Banking Conference

Gild Collective was invited to lead two breakout sessions during the Women in Banking Conference from the Ohio Banker’s League. We were so excited to share two critical topics with this audience—Mapping Career Strategy and Developing Solutions for Gender Issues.

We’re so glad we could participate in the Women in Banking Conference and look forward to the next one!

The Importance of Discomfort – Identifying & Owning My White Privilege

A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to attend the Racial Equity Institute’s (REI) Phase 1 Racial Equity Workshop. The Greater Cincinnati Foundation (GCF) invited REI to Cincinnati offer several (free!) sessions of this Phase 1 workshop as a part of their Racial Equity Matters series, “illustrating their commitment to conversations about racial equity that build connections and move us forward with enhanced insights and shared purpose.” The two-day session, facilitated by REI trainers Suzanne Plihcik, Matt Bell, and George Clopton, delivered on that commitment and so much more.

Case Study: Ursuline Academy Building Confidence in Your Future

In September 2019 we were invited to create a workshop session for Ursuline Academy as a part of an event to welcome prospective 7th and 8th grade students to the institution. As a proud alumna of Ursuline myself, I (Rachel) was thrilled at the opportunity to give back as well as to work with young women at such a pivotal point in their lives.

Case Study: WE Lead Class 14

In September 2019 we had the honor of facilitating our third Women Excel, or WE Lead. WE Lead is a 10 month executive leadership program for women in the Greater Cincinnati region, presented by the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber. Participants in WE Lead are ambitious, high-achieving, passionate, and frankly, really interesting women that we always have a blast working with.

Case Study: Women's Leadership Conference Northeast Ohio

Gild Collective was invited to lead a breakout session at the 2019 Women’s Leadership Conference Northeast Ohio. The short session provided a high-level overview and understanding of unconscious bias in the workplace.

The event gathered over 700 women from across Northeast Ohio and drew the attention of news outlets covering the inspirational event.

The 2020 WLCNEO will take place on September 22, 2020 and tickets are available. We can’t wait to attend once again!

What I’m Reading: Invisible Women

I recently heard journalist Caroline Criado Perez interviewed on the podcast 99% Invisible. It just so happens that the podcast is aptly named for this episode which dives into Perez’s latest book: Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men. The book explores the data gap in research and design—how so many of our systems and the products we use each day fail to consider women in their basic design. Designing for men is often the default and the range of outcomes can vary from lost time to lost lives.

Case Study: Midwest Communications

Earlier this year we were invited to develop and facilitate a women’s leadership speaking series for Midwest Communications– specifically their Southern Indiana division of Midwest Radio. Midwest Radio owns and operates the premier radio stations of the Southern Indiana Region, and play an integral role in growing and fostering community in Evansville, Indiana and the surrounding areas. Specifically, Midwest Radio is dedicated to elevating their female community, who play a valuable role for their stations.

Case Study: McKinsey & Company Women in Operations Mapping Career Strategy Workshop

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During McKinsey & Company’s annual Women in Operations Day, Gild Collective was invited to deliver a short session on Mapping Career Strategy. We took advantage of a rare chunk of time—even just an hour—to focus on ourselves, or leadership purpose, and how that translates to our big objectives and strategies for achieving them in the year ahead. With a structure in place for how to break directional goals into manageable pieces, participants left the session with a clear strategy and opportunities to hold one another accountable in the process.

Case Study: AAR Unconscious Bias Training

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In August, we returned to AAR to support the women’s initiative in hosting an unconscious bias training for the organization. During the session, participants at all levels of the organization gathered to have an open dialog about bias. We began with a focus on recognizing our own biases—even when they might surprise us—and recognizing the need to interrupt bias in the workplace to create more inclusive teams. The rest of the session introduced bias interrupters that participants can implement in their daily work to reduce the impact of bias. This awareness and new tools for addressing bias were put into practice the following week, when the initiative led interactive sessions with LeanIn.org's 50 Ways to Fight Bias cards as a guide for discussion.

We’re so glad we could work with AAR on setting the foundation for such an important topic.

Case Study: Tech Company Leadership Program

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Last December, we delivered a 2-day program to under-represented minority women at a large technology company and were invited back to share the leadership program with a broader audience of mid-level participants within the organization.

While objectives shifted slightly between the programs, we focused on developing a concrete career strategy map and layering in additional tools to help participants achieve their goals. This included clearly recognizing strengths, identifying areas of opportunity, and creating a personal board of directors to support and advocate for participants.

Across the three programs delivered to-date, we continued to track pre- and post- session benchmarking feedback. On average across the sessions, we saw an increase in agreement on key indicators:

  • My company values me and my contributions: +6%

  • My company supports me in defining my career plan: +18%

  • There are opportunities for me to progress in my organization: +15%

  • I possess the tools needed to achieve my career goals: +35%

  • I have a clear vision for my role at my company in the next 2 years: +20%

We’re looking forward to taking this program to more participants in 2020!

The Chant Heard Around the World: Lessons from the U.S. Women’s National Team Fight for Equal Pay

When the U.S. Women’s National Team won the World Cup yesterday (their second in a row) there was understandably a LOT of cheering. Post game, the message that rose to drown out all others was a chant heard loud and clear for all to hear: “EQUAL PAY!” 

On a Mission

A few months ago, we started working with Stacy Kessler, a consultant who helps entrepreneurs find clarity in their business strategy. After a lot of whiteboarding, deep discussion and tweaking, we developed four elements to drive Gild Collective in its fifth year (!)—our vision, mission, purpose and core values.

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What I'm Reading: “How Not to Hate Your Husband After Kids”

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Last month I wrote about the invisible workload that women carry and how I personally try to counteract it, which prompted a slew of messages from friends sharing their stories and perspectives. One of these friends, a great friend of mine from high school and new mom of a perfect baby boy, sent me a recommendation to check out a book she was reading: Jancee Dunn’s How Not to Hate Your Husband After Kids. While I can confidently say that I have never hated my husband, my baby is only 18 months– there is still plenty of time for resentment to fester. In the spirit of research, I dove right in, and I’m glad that I did. 

Case Study: UC Emergency Medicine Women's Initiative

We continued our work with the Emergency Medicine Department at the University of Cincinnati with a session for the department’s women’s initiative. Our workshop topic was Developing Solutions for Gender Issues and during the session we worked through the topics that rose to the top for participants in a pre-sessions survey. The topics we covered were on work / life balance or integration, advocating for others, and building confidence.

Lack of Visibility of Women in Leadership: Why Does it Matter?

We know that women are underrepresented in leadership across the board in this country. In the 2018 Women in the Workplace study our suspicions were confirmed when we learned that across industries progress toward gender equity in leadership has stalled nationwide. The chart below shows that women make up only 22% of the “C-Suite” level positions in this country, with women of color drastically less represented than that at only 4%.

Emotional Labor: Lightening the Invisible Workload

My simplest description of emotional labor is to call it “invisible work”: The work that goes into managing households and relationships to make them run smoothly. It was first introduced and has been studied for many years as a workplace issue in sociology as the process of managing feelings and expressions to fulfill the emotional requirements of a job. Of course the idea of managing feelings and expressions and fulfilling emotional requirements applies to the “jobs” we do at home as well, and the “invisible work” I described of managing households and relationships applies to the workplace. These two definitions complement and intertwine with one another and bleed into almost all aspects of life for many women. I can, of course, speak to emotional labor best from my personal worldview, which is that of a white, middle-class, heterosexual wife, mother, and business owner. Women of color, trans women, female immigrants, lesbian women, bisexual women, and impoverished women must navigate the complexities of marginalization (often several layers of it at once) along with their emotional labor. I cannot begin to understand the level of exhaustion that must bring.