Women in Engineering Blog

10 Deadly Sins of Communication

I read about the ten deadly sins of communication in the book “Crystal Clear Communication” by Kris Cole (ISBN: 0-7248-0538-9) and found it so helpful and interesting I thought it was worth sharing around. Essentially the ten deadly sins are potential communication blockers. Most of them disadvantage the listener but a few (namely being vague and diverting) disadvantage the speaker. Below is a brief summary of the ten deadly sins with a bit of my interpretation thrown in. Perhaps they will help you determine communication blockers you may be using. I was unaware of a few that I was using – it can be really hard to stop them at times but just being aware of them can help!

1. Evaluating: This means giving non-specific or very general      feedback. To avoid this, ensure compliments do not come across as      patronising flattery and be specific in your comments.

2. Moralising: This is characterised by preaching, blaming, shaming      or dragging up the past. If you find you do this, try to find solutions      and focus on the future!

3. Playing psychologist or labelling: I am sure we have all been annoyed      at some stage by someone saying to us “Your problem is … “ or “You are too      sensitive”. The simple rule to avoid labelling is not to diagnose other’s      behaviour.

4. Making sarcastic remarks: This one needs no further      explanation. The result of being sarcastic can be perceived as name      calling. The simple way to avoid this is to say what you mean rather than hiding      it in a sarcastic remark.

5. Commanding: The result of commanding is that it blocks      further discussion and may de-humanise the listener. Avoid this by asking and not telling.

6. Railroading: This is a more subtle form of commanding      and is characterised by talking too quickly so as not to give others a      chance to speak. To avoid railroading, ensure you look for approval of      listeners before determining if they agree with you and maybe give them      some time to walk away and have a think about what you have just said.

7. Threatening: This may be direct (“You’d better      ..”) or a more subtle message. The result of being threatening is that the      listener may look for ways to disobey. To avoid being threatening, explain      why something needs to happen in a way that doesn’t feel like an “or      else”.

8. Giving unsolicited advice: This is when you force your opinions      on others. To avoid this, wait for others to request for advice, that way      they will listen. If you feel it necessary to give unsolicited advice, ask      for permission first. Eg. “Do you mind if I make a suggestion?”

9. Being vague: To avoid being too vague, get to the      point and be specific. Make it cleanly and clearly and don’t expect the      listener to “take a hint”.

10. Diverting: This means trivialising a person’s comments and      most often occurs if a person begins to reveal something emotional or      personal. If you work with this person often, take the time to listen - sympathising      with another person is meaningless if you use comments such as. “.. Every      cloud has a silver lining”.

These communication dont’s are general things to avoid in your day-to-day dealing with others. You may have a good understanding with some friends and colleagues and the odd sarcastic remark will have no ill effect. There are also some times where using one of these communication mechanisms is essential, for example, when safety is at stake. After all, you couldn’t expect a commanding officer in the Navy to say “Could you please fire that missile when you get a chance?”

Engineers With Bumps!

According to all the latest books and magazines, “having a bump” is the new way of saying “pregnant” – and I thought engineers were the main culprits of making up new words! Now I have to learn a new set of “bump jargon” words, some of which I still fail to understand and wonder how many out there actually do (like “bumpology!?”) – but I digress from the main question I want to answer in this blog which is:

How has being pregnant affected my job as an engineer?

For me, the simple answer is not much – apart from trying not to schedule meetings around obstetrician appointments and ultrasounds, and perhaps the odd sleep in or two. Come to think of it though, this isn’t really any different to engineers who have the odd sporting injury – and how many engineers haven’t had the odd sleep in or two after a hard night out partying/drinking? I must admit though, as a software engineer I do spend a lot of my time sitting down.

Having said that, there is something quite surreal about sitting in a technical meeting while some little person is kicking and prodding you from the inside! I can’t wait until someone is looking over at my belly when little Thumper does his/her triple summersault – the look on their face would be priceless!

I am also lucky to not have experienced the effect known as “baby brain”. Sometimes I actually think the opposite has happened as I seem to be able to see through problems and get to solutions easier! Perhaps it’s all those multi-vitamins I am now taking!

I am sure there are many women out there who have had their own and varied experiences as an Engineer with a Bump, so please write a comment on this blog and tell us about them!

Reflection: What’s your current attitude to your work?

How are you feeling about your work at the moment?

It’s easy to slump into the view expressed below:

 “... if people are highly successful in their professions they lose their senses. Sight goes. They have no time to look at pictures. Sound goes. They have no time to listen to music. Speech goes. They have no time for conversation. They lose their sense of proportion – the relations between one thing and another. Humanity goes. Money making becomes so important that they must work by night as well as by day. Health goes. And so competitive do they become that they will not share themselves. What then remains of a human being who has lost sight, and sound, and sense of proportion? Only a cripple in a cave.[1]”

And there is some truth in it – there are plenty of people spending a lot of time working and not doing other things – but it’s not the whole truth.

Another view is that:

“You may regard ‘personal development’ as something that happens outside work hours. This isn’t so. The complexity if the contemporary workplace offers outstanding opportunities for personal and social growth. ...

· You have to learn to get along with a wide range of people, some of whom you may not especially like.

· You have to learn to compromise, postpone gratification, resolve conflicts, take criticism and cope with disappointments and injustices.

· You have to get on with your work whether or not you “feel like it”.

· You have to be able to support other people and meet a variety of expectations.

· You have to test your creativity, flexibility, resilience and persistence.”[2]

So it’s not all bad!

Both authors are highly recommended reading, Virginia Woolf for intelligent, thoughtful takes on gender issues (from long before it was studied in universities) and Stephanie Dowrick for intelligent, thoughtful takes on relationships and the self. And both on what a good life is, or could be.

Vanessa King, WIE

Committe

,

Tasmania

---

[1] Virginia Woolf, “Three Guineas”, first published 1938 (p197 of “A Room of One’s Own / Three Guineas”, Penguin, 1993)

[2] Stephanie Dowrick, “Choosing Happiness: Life & Soul Essentials” (p 126, Allen & Unwin, 2005)

The Art of Attraction

As an introvert trapped in an extravert’s body, I’ve sold my soul to some extent and raised my hand as a volunteer for a number of roles that aim to promote engineering as a premier career. I’ve shamelessly spilled the sales pitch of my university degree to prospective students, I’ve exuberantly encouraged recent graduate to apply for a job with my employer, and I’ve talked until exhaustion to many-a-school-kid about why they should become an engineer and not a doctor or a lawyer. My need to promote my profession has slowly evolved into an addiction. So, in an effort to assure myself that I am not suffering from some chronic illness, I have to really ask, “why am I doing this? What is engineering anyway?”

School kids and grown adults alike will tell you that the engineer is the one with the hard hat on and plans under HIS arm (or something along those lines). They build bridges, approve plans for your new home and generally tend to have ‘the knack’ with stuff. There are no sexy dramas on TV about engineering firms and even your maths teacher can’t give you a straight answer. With such little main-stream attention on the subject I need to make sure I have a decent answer when asked about my profession and, while it may be succinct, I’ve always tended to fall back on Engineers Australia’s definition whenever I’m in doubt:

“Engineering is the art and science of production”[1].

It’s not a new definition but I think it highlights something that hasn’t been addressed by the institution in the past – the world, and even those living in ‘engineers land’, tend to get caught up on the science part and never seem to embrace the artistic and creative aspects that are needed to be a great engineer. No wonder we are considered to be second to accountants on the boring list! (no offence accountants, it’s just an observation). And how do we expect to be able to attract people, especially women, to the profession when it seems like being an engineer is about as exciting as living in a broken lottery ball mixing machine – too many numbers to deal with and not much chance of getting a million dollars out of it. If we’re competing with the fast-paced lifestyle tendencies of Gen Ys and Zs (all e-culture inspired of course) then surely we don’t even have a gun let alone a silver bullet solution.

The stereotype has to be changed to reflect who we really are and what we really do. Understandably, this will take time and there’s no doubt that The Year Of Women In Engineering has helped to make giant leaps towards shifting those perception. In particular, the year highlighted the many elements that women often bring to the profession, creativity being one of them.

It may seem hard at first but creativity, like most skills, can be developed if practiced often enough, although it helps to have natural flair to kick start the development process. This particular aspect of engineering appeals to many women and girls, and we need to demonstrate how a creative mind can enhance analytical process in an effort to attract more women to the profession. But to sell the creative or ‘art’ aspect, it has to be true (I can’t sell my soul forever). So get out there and actively practice being creative and use it to improve the art of engineering. Be inspired by nature and adaptation. Draw on other professions to solve problems or develop new products or processes. Become a better communicator (having a great idea means nothing if you can’t let others know about it). Take the scenic route, if only once in your life, to give you a little more perspective and appreciation for what you are used to. Be the engineer you imagined you would become when you first enrolled in your course. It’s a premier career; take advantage of it before you retire.

Rebecca Tilbrook, GradIEAust
Chair, Women In Engineering Tasmania
wietas@gmail.com | www.womeninengineeringtasmania.com

1. From “The Engineering Profession: A Statistical Overview”, Engineers Australia, March 2006 4th Edition

Reflection on HBR Leadership Article

Some of us on the committee in Tasmania have been reading a truly thought provoking article from the Harvard Business Review – “Leadership : A new picture emerges for why women don’t make it into the C-suite. It’s not the glass ceiling but the sum of many obstacles along the way”. [1]

The authors propose that instead of thinking of a single barrier to women’s progression to the highest level jobs (CEO, CFO, Chair, etc), we should recognise a labyrinth. Not a single absolute obstacle, that is invisible until you get up close, but a complex maze with twists, turns and distractions which it is possible to negotiate.

The key obstructions indentified in the article are:

• Vestiges of prejudice
• Resistance to women’s leadership
• Issues of leadership style
• Demands of family life, and
• Underinvestment in social capital.

The studies referenced in the article found that there are still people who are prejudiced – and making decisions which affect women’s careers: “a general bias against women appears to operate with approximately equal strength at all levels”. That’s you and me being affected, not just those women getting close to the corner office.

They also found that the qualities people expect to see in women are not consistent with those qualities people expect to see in leaders – thus resistance to female leadership and issues with leadership style. For example, leaders “should” be aggressive, ambitious, dominant, self-confident, foreceful, self-reliant and individualistic. Women “should” be affectionate, friendly, helpful, kind, sympathetic, interpersonally sensitive, gentle and softly spoken.

One of the many confronting aspects of this is that it’s people who are resisting female leaders and confused about whether women can be “good” leaders and “good” women at the same time. It’s not just Brian Harradine carrying on about Julia Gillard not being a mother – it’s all, or many, of us. You, me, our co-workers, our friends, our family members. People we know, and generally like and respect.

So, what about for the next month, we all think – and talk – really carefully about leadership? What it is, what it takes and who has got it? And really carefully notice our own thoughts, challenge our own underlying assumptions. And those of others around us.

We can’t all implement the changes recommended in the article (change the long hours norm[2], reduce the subjectivity of performance evaluation, use open recruitment tools, ensure a critical mass of women in executive positions, avoid having a sole female member of any team[3], help shore up social capital, prepare women for line management, allow employees more time to prove themselves worthy of promotion, welcome women back and encourage male participation in family-friendly benefits), but we can all start changing the little bit of world around us – starting with our own minds.

[1] Alice H Eagly and Linda L Carly, Harvard Business Review, September 2007, p 63-71

[2] More on that another time, maybe

[3] Better delve more deeply into this one too!

Pay Disparities – again, still.

Are you 100% confident that you are being paid as much as the men around you who are doing the same (or similar) job? Are you 100% confident that you are being paid more than less experienced, less capable male co-workers?

(See a Equal Pay blog entry for some data which suggests you should not be confident).

And not just you – what about the other women in your workplace?

Since many businesses are doing salary reviews now or will be soon, it’s a great time to act.

I’m going to ask at work whether they analyse the salary data to check for gender disparity. And if not, why not? And if they do, presumably they then adjust the salaries to ensure equity – so they would be happy to release the results of the analysis to the staff. (Not the individual details, of course).

What are you going to do?

Vanessa King

WiE   Committee

,

Tasmania

Equal Pay

First, some facts:

• In 1950, The Federal Arbitration Court made the first determination of a female basic wage which was set at 75 per cent of the male basic wage.[1]
• In 1972, the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission extended the equal pay concept to 'equal pay for work of equal value', to be fully implemented by 30 June 1975.[2]

In 2007 – 35 years later:

• Employment and Remuneration Survey has confirmed a significant pay gap between male and female professionals in that industry. The pay gaps range from "5% difference per hour for a young professional at Level 2 to 20% per hour for a senior manager at Level 5.”

• "Addressing possible systemic barriers to recognition and promotion of female professionals in the sector has been identified as a priority for the institute in the coming year." [3]

APESMA's Women in the Professions Survey Report 2007 [4] stated:

"The results suggest that male and female engineers initially earn similar amounts as they enter the profession. However, as they progress through their career, at most levels male engineers earn on average more than their female counterparts.

While part of this may be attributable to the very small numbers of women in the highest paid disciplines such as electrical and mining engineering, it does not fully explain the differential."

In addition, 24% of respondents did not believe that they received equal compensation for work of equal value performed by male colleagues.

Now for the opinion:

Actually, I'm speechless. What is going on in our workplaces? And what are we doing about it?

Vanessa King
WiE Committee, Tasmania.

[1] http://www.eowa.gov.au/About_Equal_Opportunity/Where_Are_We_Now/Milestones.asp

[2] http://www.eowa.gov.au/About_Equal_Opportunity/Where_Are_We_Now/Milestones.asp

[3] Monika Sarder, Senior Policy Coordinator, The AusIMM, (03) 9658 6159, 0401 155 578, policy@ausimm.com.au

[4] http://www.apesma.asn.au/women/survey_report.asp

Networking

It has now been some 6 weeks since the Promoting Professional Women (PPW) conference, held at the Sofitel, Melbourne on 23 July 2007, a joint conference hosted by Engineers Australia and Association for Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers Australia. The day was a great success, with a total attendance of 307 women from around Australia. With presentations from some prominent women of professional engineering roots, Julie Hammer, Meredith Rogers and Sue Murphy, the day was insightful. A discussion panel raised some contentious issues, such as quota systems (not preferred by many women, citing the importance of promotions on merit). An important aspect not to be forgotten is the networking opportunities which are an inherent in, and valuable aspect of such professional events. And the events aren’t necessarily all about formal presentations and discussions either – indeed social events such as the Gen2X events being held in divisions also facilitate the development of our personal networks, both in the professional and social dimensions.

During the events, many of us will have exchanged contact details and business cards, and even a meaningful conversation or two is thrown into the social exchange. But often, I must admit that I myself have been guilty of noting that I ought to get in touch with my newfound peers, and then getting ‘too busy’. Then, a month or so down the track, feel a little too embarrassed about sending an email with ‘Hi there, you might remember me, we met at the July conference …’.

On the occasions however that we do find the time to meet with a newfound colleague for coffee, we begin to genuinely appreciate the value of sharing our stories, experiences, recent challenges and goals. Recently, I had the opportunity to continue a conversation with one of the women I met at the PPW, and we were able to share some valuable insights without the time pressures of the day.

So I would like to put this challenge to you – at the next networking event, or perhaps following up from a recent event, send an email reintroducing yourself, and make the time to develop a new network of peers.

Peyi Pey Guo
SA Division, National Committee representative

Life-Work Balance

Yes, you read that heading correctly.  What's so balanced about putting "Work" before "Life"?

A lot of the commentary on Life-Work Balance discusses the difficulties faced by families in balancing their employment responsibilities with care of children. Apparently, caring for children is not "Work". Hmmm. For this discussion, let's take "Work" to include caring for children, elderly and/or disabled family members and running a household, and let's also take a broader view of what "Life" might be.

In his 1932 essay "In Praise of Idleness", Bertrand Russell thought that "the [First World] war showed that by the scientific organization of production, it is possible to keep modern populations in fair comfort on a small part of the working capacity of the modern world. " Given all the increases in labour productivity since, you might think this applied even more now.

Russell thought that "four hours' work a day should entitle a man to the necessities and elementary comforts of life, and that the rest of his time should be his to use as he might see fit". He thought people would use their extra time - and energy - to satisfy their scientific curiosity about the world, write, paint, develop professional ideas, and undertake active leisure, rather than passively listen to the radio or go to the movies. (We'd say "spend hours in front of the idiot box").

Russell also thought we would be nicer people, that being less tired and stressed we would "become more kindly and less persecuting and less inclined to view others with suspicion". So long before RoadRage and PhoneRage were invented, we knew what the causes were.

Working four hours a day probably isn't realistic for most - but still, dream a little. If you worked 6 hours a day (paid and/or unpaid), what would you do with the extra time and energy? And could you hope to be a nicer person?

By Vanessa King
Women In Engineering Tasmania

Note 1: The above is probably considered heretical during a "Skills Shortage", but should we work long, long hours at the cost of our physical, mental, social, spiritual and relationship health just because "the economy" needs us? I'd be interested in responses.

Note 2: The whole essay is worth reading.

Note 3: I'm about to return to the office after 15 months maternity leave. My Family Friendly employer has agreed to one day in the office and one day from home, and I also do the books for a small family business, as well as care for a gorgeous toddler, so I suspect the lovely ideas above about time for reflection and personal creativity will remain a fantasy for some time to come! However, it's good to dream...

Why we need a year of Engineering

We, the Women in Engineering National Committee of Engineers Australia, believe this campaign is incredibly important and timely. With women engineers currently representing less than 10% of engineering in Australia (one of the lowest participation rates of women across all professions). This campaign will highlight the fact engineering can change your life and the lives of others.

The fundamental objective of the campaign is to increase awareness amongst the profession and wider community of the role and contribution women make to engineering. It will tell young girls and women about the different engineering disciplines and the personal and professional opportunities it offers. We want engineering to be a sought after profession that offers a sustainable and fulfilling career for women.

Our committee, made up of a group of dedicated women who love their work and recognise the unique aspects women bring to the workplace, has been working on developing worthwhile events for the year. Some of the activities currently planned include networking opportunities, talks and seminars that address retention and diversity, as well as profiles of leading women members.

So while planning has started, we really want to know what you want from the year. What are the issues you face? What do workplaces and your profession need to do to retain women? If you have an opinion on how things could be improved for women in engineering, now is the time to speak up and be heard. We encourage you to provide comment.