Janis Machala

Every week, I hear either directly from, or from a shared connection of, yet another woman who has decided to up and leave her company in Tech / Cybersecurity. On average, it's two to three women a week. Sometimes the decision is go out and consult, sometimes the decision is to leave Tech altogether for some kind of career that presents less of an uphill battle. Either way, these women have reached the edge of what they can tolerate and are deciding to take their careers into their own hands. If you run a company or are in a leadership role at an organization, we need you to wake up and pay attention to whether the women in your employment are leaving. And WHY they are deciding to leave. Case in point: One company I heard of has had seven (!) women in leadership roles leave within a year, one after the other. There's been a lot of talk, but certainly no fixing going on. Their leadership team is still all male. Perhaps you don't have this issue and I commend you greatly for maintaining a fair and comfortable work environment for women. But, if you do see this happening, perhaps try some things to find out what is causing this. 1) Actually have an open door policy with no repercussions. None. Zero. You know why this is important? Because women are used to going to their managers or HR to lodge a complaint... and suddenly six months later it comes back to haunt them. 2) Believe women when they say something. Don't brush it off by saying it's just "Boys Club" behavior, enforcing that it's to be acceptable. 3) Write down each piece of info you are told. Each transgression may not seem to be much (she feels constantly interrupted in meetings, not taken seriously, someone is trying to unnerve her by coughing every time she speaks, etc.)... however, when you put them together after a period of time, it becomes a puzzle with certain patterns emerging. 4) Make it publicly known you support women. Saying it loud and clear can go a long way. 5) Even better, focus more on acting than speaking. When you hear of a transgression or see it, do something about it. Don't reward bad behavior. Don't promote someone who has confidence, arrogance, and a loud voice over a quieter, more humble individual. (Yes, this happens regularly). Most importantly, actually ASK women how they are doing. Show you care and are willing to listen without any repercussions. How are things going? Are you going through any struggles lately? Will you let me know if you ever feel discounted or unsafe here? What's sad is that companies seem to be entirely ok with women walking out the door... if they only had asked a few questions, the situation could been defused and she would have happily stayed. It's thought that it's easier to stay where you know the "quirks", that the grass is not always greener on the other side. Judging from the volume of times I hear about women giving up, that is not the case anymore. Please become allies and help. Ask. Listen. Act.

This week, 24 leaders joined my Storytelling workshop on Pitching to Executives. We learned how to pitch in 6 different ways. Here’s our virtual whiteboard showing the Storyteller types of everyone on the call! In preparation for hosting this workshop for a Japanese audience, I’ve completely overhauled it. Now there is an activity or a breakout room every 5 minutes. It’s much more engaging. Special shout-out to Kimberly Wiefling for giving input to make the workshop more interactive, and for bringing this fun, and at times rowdy, group together! PS. You can find your Storyteller type with the free quiz here: https://lnkd.in/gF_hN2sj I would also like to thank Catherine Jaeger, Denise Brosseau, Yvonne Burton, Kuldip K. Ahluwalia, Mark Vollmer, Jim Schibler, Thomas Loxley Rosenberg, Alexandria Scobee, Niki G., Petra Chequer, Marcia Daszko, David Bakhtnia, Ken Morris, Matthew Cahill. Tell us what you learned at the workshop! #storytelling #leadership #pitchdecks #executive #productmanagement

Big success for our second webinar last Friday! Great way to start off Cyber Awareness month. Big thank you to all of our amazing presenters for taking the time to educate and share their experiences and advice with us! Hope everyone had a fun time learning more about Cyber and Risk Management for Physical and Digital Identity Access Management (IAM). Hope to see everyone back for Ardian Technologies’ third webinar coming soon! #infragard #Ardiantech #security #ArdianGroup #team #speakers #success #webinars #thankyou #learning #accessmanagement #accesscontrol #results #cybersecurity #cyberawareness #october #cybermonth #staysafe #technology