Image source @ Visual China
Text | Financial Storyteller
"Interview secretary, go to the left side of the queue", seeing the only lady in the candidate line, the recruiter was a little surprised.
"I came to apply for the technical department", Jin Yanping is very confident.
The recruiter glanced up at her and refused simply, "We want men."
Hearing the sexism outside the other party's words, Jin Yanping was a little unconvinced, "You haven't read my resume, how do you know I'm not suitable?!" ”
At her insistence, the other party turned to Leader for advice before calling her in for an interview — and in the end, her boldness paid off, and the next morning, she received an acceptance letter.
This is Jin Yanping, who graduated from college, has a job search experience more than ten years ago, and now she has become a middle-level manager of the enterprise.
More than a decade later, women's workplace status has continued to improve, but the dilemma they face has not completely disappeared: some enterprises discriminate against women of the right age for marriage and childbearing; industry and departmental prejudices still exist; female managers have narrow promotion channels, and the proportion is still low.
A previous McKinsey study showed that in China, grassroots jobs are basically half male and female. But in management, women's visibility has plummeted, with 22 percent in middle management, 11 percent in senior management, 10 percent on boards, and even rarer in female CEOs, at 2 percent.
Although the situation is still grim, more and more companies are trying to change – and Jin Yanping has experienced this change firsthand.
In the distribution industry where she worked, women used to be in the "minority" in both the technical department and the management team, and the former owner's engineering delivery department had more than 30 employees with only two women.
Until she joined the current owner, she finally became a "majority", there are many female managers here, and once the department held a management meeting, and the proportion of female participants even exceeded 2/3.
In addition to the improvement of the workplace environment, it also depends on women's self-awakening. Yu Quan, who has served as an executive in a major Internet factory in China and the United States, believes that most women are accustomed to setting limits on themselves in the workplace, and they should take the initiative to "break the shell", strive for opportunities, and break prejudice.
How can female managers break through the predicament and reach the peak of the workplace? How should companies change and build a fair environment?
To this end, "Financial Stories" interviewed several female middle and senior managers, trying to peek into the leopard: Jin Yanping, director of the World's Top 500 company that broke through the ceiling and transformed from a technical backbone to a manager; Wang Zhen, the founder of the company who tried to break investors' prejudice against female entrepreneurs; yu Quan, who has served as an executive in a large Chinese and American Internet factory and continued to increase the proportion of female employees in the team.
Becoming a "majority" in the new company, I can finally remove the defensive "armor"
Yanping Jin, Business Director, Schneider Electric
Jin Yanping, who has always been bold and confident, did not expect that she would also have a day of "instigation".
It was July 2019, and she received a phone call that lasted for hours. The caller, Vice President of Schneider Electric and Head of Digital Energy Efficiency Business China, invited her to form a team of digital energy efficiency architects.
Jin Yanping retreated - the previous company, all because of talent, tended to promote employees with corresponding professional experience, in the former owner's home, she once applied for a transfer to the position of product manager, but was rejected, on the grounds that the superiors believed that she did not have relevant experience.
The new position thrown by the vice president is very tempting, but also challenging.
The challenge first comes from the strangeness of the technical level - Jin Yanping previously focused on the weak current field below 36 volts, while the new department had to focus on the strong current scene of 220 volts.
Another challenge was that the team of architects in the digital energy efficiency department, a pioneering department from 0 to 1, needed to link the entire core power distribution business of Schneider Electric. Can Jin Yanping, who has just arrived, be able to strategize and do a good job of one-to-many coordination fulcrum?
"The personnel should be small, the wrong personnel is big", Jin Yanping asked the boss three times in a row, "I don't understand the technology in this field, are you sure I can do it?" ”
The boss's answer is always, "Sure, because you have a lot of industry experience and values fit."
This surprised Jin Yanping a little – in the field of power distribution, women rarely have the opportunity to serve as Leader. She also remembers that at the annual summary meeting of the former owner, there were more than a dozen management members standing on the stage, only 2 women, or HR and finance personnel.
With repeated encouragement from the vice president, Jin Yanping decided to give it a try.
In order to reassure her as much as possible, on the first day of her new job, the vice president stood in front of the office blackboard and spent 5 hours explaining the positioning of the architect team and how to win cross-departmental trust.
Walking out of the office, it was already one o'clock in the morning, and the outside was plunged into a deep night, but Jin Yanping's heart was bright.
But the challenge was still on her face — she didn't understand or pick up what the technician said during the meeting.
At the same time, she also had to challenge the technicians hard, "If your application technology cannot be converted into the output value and performance of the contract, it is an empty shell, you have to have more customer thinking, and the architect should be a service provider." ”
After three months of arduous exploration, she found a solution - starting from the terminal, according to customer needs and application scenarios, backwards the industry integrated solution, and then handed over to the team to achieve, "this is what a Leader should do, dare to subvert, but also dare to be customer-oriented, grasp the right course, rather than all aspects."
The allocation of internal resources is another difficulty that Jin Yanping is facing.
The team of architects led by her, just established, will be docked with the company's core strength business departments, and conflicts will ensue - the sales model of the core strength business pays more attention to sales channels, while the digitalization of power distribution emphasizes more on making customers pay for "I want to use, I love to use".
As a female manager, when collaborating across departments, shouldn't she be gentle and introverted, and get used to liking and showing kindness?
Jin Yanping did not agree, "I am a person with horns, maybe others will think that I have low emotional intelligence, and some words are like a thorn." ”
She does not want to care too much about the label of "female", and become a "pseudo-middle-level", "the so-called pseudo-manager is not to make a decision, and then dare not take responsibility, I often tell the boss, internal management will we not sing praises, can we talk about the problem directly?! ”
It turns out that her directness does not lead to "resistance", but works well, "the company is very inclusive, encouraging everyone to collide and discuss, rather than just emphasizing top-down execution.".
When aligning the plan across departments, Jin Yanping will give the general manager of the business unit a "preventive shot" in advance, "I will pull the product manager under you to a meeting later, and I may challenge them."
The other party usually smiles, "It's okay, it's okay for you to discipline them for me."
When collaborating, she will not be ruthless, "I will directly tell the business department, the customer thinks you are not working on this thing, and then analyze why it is not working." 」 If it weren't for their tolerance and support, I probably wouldn't have been able to do it at all. ”
After several months of running-in, she also completed the transformation from a technical backbone to a manager.
Jin Yanping, who initially managed the team, was not good at dispatching troops and dispatching generals, and everything was personally experienced, but it led to the team members doing nothing;
In the second stage, she tried to unreservedly share her abilities with the team and lead them to grow together, "the team members are not my 'hands', but another 'brain' of independent thinking."
In the end, the team members who have passed the run-in period have established a high degree of trust with Jin Yanping, and the two sides have complementary capabilities and synergy, "There may be some technologies I still don't understand, but I can rely on the team."
Along the way, Jin Yanping believes that the first half of her career has relied on personal struggles. In the weak distribution industry, the proportion of female practitioners is very low, and there are few women in the leadership, as a minority, Jin Yanping, who claims to be "very strong in survival", forced herself very tightly, "My requirements for myself are to upgrade one level a year."
After entering Schneider Electric, she finally became a "majority". There are many female managers here – by the end of 2019, the proportion of female managers at the level of director and above in China has reached 32%.
But in fact, if gender equality in the workplace is not implemented, women in the workplace who are forced to wear defensive armor will have to work hard by relying on personal struggle alone.
Korn Ferry, a well-known consulting firm, conducted a four-month survey of female CEOs, and two-thirds of them said that they "never considered becoming CEOs" until they had continued encouragement from their superiors and the company gave them the opportunity to promote them.
And large enterprises have also come to the forefront of gender equality. Citibank, for example, plans to increase the percentage of women in the middle to 40 percent. By 2025, the proportion of female managers in Schneider Electric is expected to reach 40%, and the proportion of female leadership is expected to increase to 30%.
In this equal and relaxed environment, there is no sense of tension and uneasiness as a "minority", Jin Yanping, whose mentality is becoming more and more relaxed, is unloading her defensive armor, intending to start a dual-engine life, insisting on sports and fitness, balancing life and work, "abundant physical strength and energy, but also part of leadership, here, I have not seen my own career ceiling, need to reserve long-term combat value."
Jin Yanping intends to switch to "twin engine" mode
Nine years after starting a business, selling a house to continue "life", I changed from "princess" to "warrior"
Wang Zhen Is the founder of Easy To Ask Doctor
"A man is alone, drifting in the endless sea".
In the first year of entrepreneurship, Wang Zhen woke up at three o'clock in the morning almost every day, and she described herself as a teenager in "Young Pie", with vast seas and no direction.
Wang Zhen originally did not need to work so hard - she graduated from a famous university in clinical medicine, was once a doctor in a third-class hospital, because she did not want to see the head of the day, so she resigned and left, jumped to a foreign pharmaceutical company as a salesman, and promoted all the way to an annual salary of one million.
Before starting a business, Wang Zhen lived a comfortable and relaxed life
In 2012, Wang Zhen, who loved to toss, gave up the high salary of pharmaceutical companies and devoted himself to the Internet medical industry to start a business.
There are experiences and feelings, but it is still not easy to start a business.
Financing is the first hurdle.
The unspoken rules of sexism in the venture capital world loom from time to time, and female CEOs are often treated as "outliers." Some investors believe that compared with men's rationality, women tend to focus on sensibility and the pattern is not enough, resulting in a low ceiling for entrepreneurial projects.
"In fact, whether I admit it or not, sexism exists," Wang Zhen thought very clearly.
Prejudice seems to be justified – According to Heidesgral, only 13% of the new CEOs of global public companies will be women in 2021.
"If there are few female CEOs, are women not good, or have women had too few opportunities in the past?" Wang Zhen felt that it was the latter.
She keeps her biases out of her proud self-esteem and stays away from sexist investors as soon as she encounters them.
No financing was found, the company's realization model was immature, and after a long period of income, the company's capital chain was broken, and once from more than 60 people to 12 people.
At the most difficult time, Wang Zhen sold a suite, mortgaged a suite, and turned over more than 10 million funds.
When this decision was made, Wang Zhen held a family meeting. Her family advised her not to do it, either to rest or to go back to a foreign company.
Wang Zhen did not want to give up. She told her family that if she gave her 6 months, she would be able to support the company. As a result, in less than four months, she got back an order with a total price of 4 million yuan.
After the business model was gradually opened, Wang Zhen devoted himself to the hard work of All in, and also ushered in the favor of investors. At the end of last year, the company completed a Series A financing round.
After the epidemic, many companies are laying off employees, and her company has expanded slightly.
This entrepreneurial tug-of-war, which lasted eight or nine years, also completely changed Wang Zhen.
Before starting a business, Wang Zhen, who took a high salary in a foreign company, was a "big miss" princess in the eyes of his friends, "on a big platform, accustomed to big strokes".
But entrepreneurship has sharpened Wang Zhen into an indomitable female warrior, "when you are about to starve to death, whether it is a steamed bun, you will not pick it, and you must live desperately like a warrior."
Becoming a "female warrior" is Wang Zhen's active choice
Even in her spare time, Wang Zhen is also deliberately honing her will, and her love of diving, cycling, and hiking is mostly related to strength.
In this regard, Wang Zhen gladly accepted, "This is also an inevitable process of transformation from professional managers to entrepreneurs, on the battlefield, there is no distinction between men and women."
As a woman, Wang Zhen is also more able to treat female job seekers equally when recruiting, and now the company's female employees account for one-third.
After the state advocated three children, HR once suggested that she should not be tilted in gender, after all, the startup company is tight and can't stand female employees taking maternity leave.
Wang Zhen felt that there was no need, "Female employees are also very good, they should be given more opportunities."
Of course, overall, compared to eight or nine years ago, female entrepreneurs are becoming more and more common. According to the White Paper on Gender Equality and Women's Development in China released by the State Council, the proportion of female entrepreneurs in China has risen from 20% to 25% in the past decade. In some areas, women are gradually occupying the home field, such as the proportion of female entrepreneurs in new brands has reached 40%.
In recent years, Wang Zhen has also had nearly 10 female friends come out to start a business.
Despite the hardships, Wang Zhen has never regretted, "If I go this road from the beginning, I will still choose to start a business, I hope that one day, let those investors who discriminate against women regret it, they look away." 」
From small transparency to vice president of the big factory, I have been taking the initiative to "break the shell"
Yu Quan, Vice President of Ant Group
"There are not many women who take the initiative to break the boundaries, but more self-limits."
Yu Quan, who has served as a manager in a major Chinese and American Internet factory, believes that whether it is the United States or China, women actually have many opportunities for promotion, but "first you have to break your own shell."
There is a set of data that impressed her, just 5-10 years into the workplace, girls tend to rate their ability lower than men. When a boy's ability is 5 points, they usually give themselves an 8, while when the girl's ability is 5 points, they often think that they only have 2 points.
Now that she is an executive, she was once a small transparent worker who was not confident.
Yu Quan, who is an executive of a large factory
Yu Quan, who is 1.55 meters tall, was originally introverted, and in the pile of white male colleagues above 1.85 meters in the American company, he had no self-confidence, did not dare to speak at the meeting, covered his mouth when he smiled, and did not have any aura.
At an inter-departmental meeting, there were more than a dozen participants, and only Yu Quan was a girl. She was originally the host, but throughout the meeting, Yu Quan almost did not say a word, "They are ten times more professional than me, I feel that everything is wrong, and finally the boss said a few words for me."
Initially, she tried to learn about the most popular rugby for male colleagues as a way to "fit in". When they went to the ball game, Yu Quan signed up, "I'll go too!" ”
But the process is painful, "just forcing yourself to do something you don't like."
Is "hard integration" really a good idea? Yu Quan, who studied economics, finally figured it out, "Do you say it is more cost-effective to spend 10 hours studying rugby and then integrating into it, or do you spend 2 hours on some common topics and spend another 8 hours to do a good job?" ”
"First of all, girls can't completely mingle with boys, and there is a difference in interests between men and women; secondly, integration does not mean that eating and activities are together, as long as you become an interesting person, a valuable person, so that everyone is willing to communicate with you is enough." 」
In Yu Quan's view, "many women do not dare to break through their own boundaries, affecting promotion, not because they do not have a chance, but they do not stand up, fight for themselves, and even dare not accept when the opportunity comes." Yu Quan, who had just entered the workplace, once wanted to "lie flat".
In the American company, when the boss wanted to promote her to The Sensor manager, she said, "Don't promote me, I want to do it", she believes that promotion requires dealing with complex interpersonal relationships, she is not good at, "This idea is actually a kind of self-limit, transform yourself, in order to grow."
The process of transformation is very painful. Yu Quan set a framework for himself, first changing the parts that can be controlled, and continuing to break the shell of "unconfidence".
At each meeting, Yu Quan forced himself to speak, at least three times. Develop the habit of weekly review, whether there is a feeling of panic this week, if it is very comfortable, it will certainly not "break through yourself".
Even, Yu Quan once searched very extremely in his heart, what he was most afraid of, the answer was that he was most afraid of being drowned, because he could not swim. Then she went to report for a diving lesson and pushed the limits of her fears.
The balance between femininity and leadership is also a common problem for female managers.
Yu Quan was also asked, "Do female leaders have to be strong?" ”。 She thinks the starting point of this question is wrong, there are many strong male Leaders, why not ask men questions? Why can men be strong and women not? That's bias.
Such biases abound, and when Roz Brewer, CEO of Walgreens, a Fortune 500 company, goes to a seminar, other male CEOs will always ask curiously, "Are you in charge of the company's marketing or retail?" ”
Brewer always yells back, "I'm responsible for everything because I'm the CEO!" ”
At other large gatherings, some male elites even mistook her for a waiter.
"Gender equality can only be truly achieved when gender differences are not emphasized," Yu Quan believes.
After coming to work for Ant Group, she found that half of the partners in the company were girls, "In terms of leadership, there is no difference between men and women." ”
Now, Yu Quan's gender awareness is getting weaker and weaker. In the past meetings, Yu Quan would pay special attention to how this conference room was only a girl? Now after the meeting, she found out, "Just now I was the only girl who was 'arguing' with a bunch of boys."
As a female leader, she is also interested in increasing the proportion of women in the team, in the first year of the ant, she set up a Flag, which is still written on the opposite wall - to become a CRO (chief risk officer) of the "Whampoa Military Academy", "you look at our office area, you will find that at least half of the 'military school' is girls."
Yu Quan and female colleagues together
For example, the two strategic post girls who were first recruited by Yu Quan can now stand alone and begin to lead a team of dozens of people.
"Only by continuing to break boundaries and maintaining a sustained sense of ambition can we live up to the opportunities that this era brings to women," Yu Quan concluded.
Interview Notes
Behind their bright smiles, they all gritted their teeth and walked a long way.
Lu Yingde, the female CEO who has been at the helm of Pepsi For 12 years, once said, "Female CEO may be one of the hardest and loneliest jobs in the world." When you become CEO and you're a 'female CEO,' you're treated differently. ”
Women's career growth, both rely on the subjective enterprising of individuals, the pursuit of dreams without giving up, self-breakthrough continuous iteration, but also inseparable from the improvement of the external environment, as a leading large company in the industry, must make an example, abandon gender bias and stereotypes, and provide more opportunities for women to grow and promote.
Some large companies regard gender equality as a basic value, and cultivating the soil to eliminate gender bias from top to bottom has become a long-term inertia of the company.
In terms of mechanism, a sound development plan for female leaders has been established to help women overcome multiple obstacles, clarify development paths, and prepare for management positions through business practice and management training.
Technological innovation is also involved – in 2020, some companies deployED AI platforms around the world to meet internal talent supply and demand, matching profiles through capabilities and experiences, rather than focusing on gender differences.
In the future, there will be more and more enterprises, advocating and landing gender equality, so that women's career promotion, less barriers, more opportunities, so that female entrepreneurs, female CEOs, and female managers are no longer "minorities".