“The Good Boss” by Kate Eberle Walker offers simple and practical strategies for managers to support and lift women up in the workplace. It emphasizes the importance of having an active role in promoting diversity, inclusion, and equity and provides nine specific ways that managers can create a more supportive work environment.
The book is aimed at all managers, but especially men, who can help drive change and support women in their careers. It also offers insights into how to build high-performing teams that are diverse, engaged, and productive.
Rule #1: Call Her by Her Name
Create a business process for getting names right.
Why It Works:
- Treats getting the name right as a must-do, not a nice-to-do.
- Success comes from active listening.
- Conveys respect to every individual by taking on the work involved in getting a name right, rather than expecting the individual to do the work of repeating herself.
Rule #4: Don’t Sit in Her Chair
Create thoughtful office facilities that are designed for women and solve the things that make working life difficult for them.
Why It Works:
- Reduces the frictions that distract from focusing on work by solving logistical problems before they become fundamental workplace issues.
- It creates a tangible, visible demonstration that you see and care about who works for the company and what they need to be productive.
- creates a competitive advantage by taking something that most workplaces treat as checking a required box and making it something where you are best in class.
Rule #5: Watch the Clock
Institute a policy of stress-free, no-apology flexibility.
Why It Works:
- Lets employees determine how they manage their work and family obligations.
- Accepts that just as work blends into family time, family blends into working hours.
- Removes the stress employees feel about explaining and defending the decisions they make about where to be and what to do and when.
Rule #2: Be Someone She Can Relate To
Use a personality test for all employees.
Why It Works:
- Shifts identity focus away from gender to other defining characteristics.
- Creates points of relatability that cross gender lines.
- Helps managers adapt their communication style to each employee’s needs to create more positive working relationships.
Rule #3: Don’t Ask, “What Does Your Husband Do?”
Standardize hiring processes to eliminate the potential for bias, leveraging data and standard forms and practices for recruitment.
Why It Works:
- Takes potential for unequal execution of diversity goals out of the mix by scripting recruiting questions so that everyone gets asked the same thing, and in the same way.
- Calls out bias in action through nonpersonal data and statistics rather than making it personal by calling out individual behaviors.
- Data allows for clear goals and measures.
