Events - White Water Group

Don’t step on my Blue Suede Shoes (but don’t mind if I step on yours…)

François Moscovici — Wed, 12 Apr 2017 08:00:00 +0000

What do Wynonie Harris, Arthur Crudup and Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton have in common? – They all did the hard work but Elvis got the credit (and the royalties).

In the 50s, black american rock and blues music was segregated to the R&B charts. These served as test markets for new songs. The songs were then covered by white artists who would generate sales volumes. So Wynonie recorded Good Rocking Tonight, Arthur That’s All Right and Big Mama Hound Dog. In most cases the original performer withered or at least never made it to the level of their imitator.

There are countless parallels in the corporate world: if you Google “My Boss takes the credit” you will find dozens of business agony aunts dispensing advice to anguished, helpless or simply angry ‘victims’. Some organisations reinforce this type of behaviour: they see it as part of apprenticeship: “one day, you will be a Partner and you too will be allowed to steal ideas from your subordinates…” Obviously, this is not purely a corporate issue: “One day you will have Tenure and you will be able to steal ideas from your students (and you won’t even have to pay them)…”

From a leadership perspective, what should be done about this situation? I see this as a two questions:

(i) is giving credit desirable?

And (ii) if it is, how do you make it happen?

Both questions find their answer in good old Behavioural Psychology: Everything we know about reinforcement is that positive feedback, particularly public feedback is the most effective way to both motivate and develop people. So if you simply want to squeeze the lemon and not develop the person, then go ahead, keep the credit aligned with the hierarchy. A situation where it would be easy to do would be any form of internship for example. However, in the ongoing War for Talent, development is the key to retention.

Only the rarefied salaries at companies like Goldman Sachs can hope to compete using money as the sole motivator. And money is only one of 9 key career motivators, so you would be wrong about 88% of the time! For the rest of us, development and credit are key to building a healthy talent pool. So how do you stop a bad habit? Again, Behavioural Psychology provides the answer: ruthlessly reward the ‘right’ behaviour and consistently punish its absence. Do it often enough and everybody will get the message. Gold stars and red cards should not be limited to the classroom or the football pitch. Our advice to our client is to design an appropriatebehavioural programme, including hard metrics for senior people such as linking their bonus to desirable behaviours. For them too, positive reinforcement just works!

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Averil special guest speaker at M&C Saatchi’s : ‘IPA Women of Tomorrow 2016’ Campaign launch dinner

Natasha Lancaster — Thu, 12 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000

M&C Saatchi were working with the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) on an initiative that aims to identify and champion the next generation of female leaders in the advertising industry. ‘Women of Tomorrow’ is an annual scheme that recognises and rewards ten women from across marketing disciplines – those women believed who will be influential in re-shaping the industry and re-writing some of the really quite shocking stats on the gender divide. Everything from recognition, ambition, work/life balance and pay. M&C Saatchi who were producing the event and managing publicity asked Averil if she would speak at the evening’s dinner and launch of 2016 campaign, because they had read Coaching Women To Lead and found it resonant with their thinking – in fact they said they ‘were greatly inspired’!

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Averil Leimon keynote speaker at British American Business Women’s Forum

Natasha Lancaster — Wed, 11 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Averil was keynote speaker at British American Business Women’s Forum Annual Conference on November 11th, at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, in London. Other speakers were from University of Chicago Booth, Willis Group, United Airlines, Barclays Bank of Americas and Hays Plc. Delegates were drawn from BAB alumni and the wider business community in London.

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International deal of the year 2015 – François at the 2015 M&A Awards Ceremony

François Moscovici — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 23:00:00 +0000

Celebrating the achievements of dealmakers, management teams, financiers and professional advisers, The M&A Awards are one of the most highly respected events in the market; White Water Group are one of just five corporate sponsors. François presented the award for Cross Border deal of the year to Leftfield Entertainment at the 2015 Awards, held at the Park Plaza Victoria on 18th June with more than 300 of the best performing mid-market CEOs, FDs, private equity houses, corporate financiers and specialist advisers in attendance. The evening was hosted by Siobhan Kennedy, Channel 4 News Business Editor, who François is pictured beside.

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Averil speaks at Leadership Foundation for Higher Education – Aurora Conference

François Moscovici — Thu, 30 Apr 2015 23:00:00 +0000

On 21st April, Averil spoke to the Aurora Champions Role Models & Mentors Conference – organised by The Leadership Foundation for Higher Education. She spoke for one hour on the subjects of Gender Diversity, Women, Men and Organisational Culture.

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Averil a panellist at the She’s Back event at News UK Building, 30th April

François Moscovici — Thu, 30 Apr 2015 23:00:00 +0000

Averil was a panellist at the She’s Back Event on 30th April. The Panel which included Matthew D’Ancona, Richard Punt, Cilla Snowball & Sarah Wood discussed the multitude of barriers that women meet when returning to work after maternity leave, as well as other aspects of Gender Diversity. Here is the event as it was reported in Campaign magazine.

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Redefining Success – François on expert panel at LBS 15th Annual Women in Business Conference

Natasha Lancaster — Wed, 18 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +0000

On Friday 13th March, François was a panellist at the London Business School’s 15th Annual Women in Business Conference. During an animated discussion on partnerships between men and women, François shared his insight on engaging men who find it difficult to relate to women in a corporate environment…

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Working Families 35th Anniversary Dinner – Reform Club, Pall Mall, November 12th 2014

François Moscovici — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0000

White Water Group supports Working Families, the UK’s leading work-life balance organisation and a registered charity. The Charity celebrates its 35^th Anniversary in 2014, and to mark this occasion it threw a dinner, fittingly, at The Reform Club; the first ‘gentleman’s club’ to admit women – in 1981, only three years after the UK elected its first woman Prime Minister! White Water Group took a table. Pictured left to right are J.Penney Frohling (Ernst & Young), Ms. Averil Leimon & Mr. François Moscovici (WWG), Lord Victor Adebowale (Turning Point), Lady Tracey Adebowale-Jones (Horse Heard), Ms. Fiona Dolton (BBC), Mr. Mitchell Leimon (Department for Business, Innovation & Skills) and Mr. Ian Hardcastle (Royal Bank of Scotland). Besides dinner, Guests were entertained with a prize auction and a quiz led by commentator Markus Berkmann.

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The Great Coutts Debate

Natasha Lancaster — Thu, 03 Oct 2013 23:00:00 +0000

“This House believes that positive discrimination for women is no longer necessary”. I chose to oppose the motion but I could have argued for either side. Here is the gist of my five minute speech: “On the face of it, I am in absolute agreement with the proposers. Women do not need special favours.

After all, I have never had any problem – but then I am a sample of one and an entrepreneur.
Women are 51% of the adult population – therefore the majority.
They outperform boys at every stage.
They make up 60% of the world’s graduates.
Even if they have children and around 43% of them won’t, women still have 30 odd years of professional life to offer.
All the evidence indicates that women contribute hugely to the success of a business bringing excellent modern leadership styles.

Yet, it is estimated that it will take another 60 years to achieve equality. So, while we may not need positive discrimination for women, I believe that we may need it for men!

Businesses were designed, built and run by men. It’s hardly surprising that female talent is overlooked. No-one mentions that the quotas that are currently in place are 90% male!
Most of this is unconscious – I was gender blind till a few years ago. Working with executives, I didn’t notice how few women there were because it was ‘normal’ for me to work with men and being a woman was often an advantage
Men appoint in their own image, narrowing the gene pool, diversity of thinking and opportunities for creative new talent
Talent is an expensive resource –companies starting 50:50 then lose 50% of women every 5 years. This is careless and expensive- especially if these women go to your competitor or set up their own business in competition.
Our economy needs modern firms that realise how the world has changed –Coutts proudly described the women’s leadership programme I ran for them as ‘the first women’s leadership programme in 300 years’ demonstrating how they were moving forward while honouring tradition
Any positive action is not to give women an unfair advantage but rather to make up for having been previously disadvantaged, bringing then up to a level with their male peers

What do we mean by Positive Discrimination?

As a positive psychologist, I know positivity creates success more than negativity or laissez faire behaviour
We pride our selves on being discriminating- in our choice of coffee, banks or cars
Positive discrimination and merit are not mutually exclusive. Quotas do not mean that we go into the street and choose the first person who doesn’t have a . . . . .Y chromosome! We ask that companies consider the talented individual who is just different from their expectation.
Positively questioning where women who leave their companies are going and why is a start. They are not at home baking cupcakes (even if they gave you ’family’ as a reason for leaving)

The proposers would argue that it is happening anyway

I was told that in my student days but it is not what senior women in organisations tell me now.
Nothing is worse than being told you will learn something when you’re older but when young women feel it is all sorted because they have not encountered overt discrimination and they haven’t noticed the subtle stuff. Gen Y men may expect equality but they will be sucked into the system if we don’t make changes now
As a Mother of daughters and for all you parents of daughters out there, I challenge you to check the legacy you are bequeathing those bright young women. Are we brave enough to say, “let’s stop talking and just change things’?

It is time for a paradigm shift rather than doing nothing. But habits are hard to change – trust me I’m a psychologist. Discrimination against women is just a bad habit, unconsciously acted on. It bears no resemblance to how good men really think about women’s talent. Let’s change it now. An illustration: In the 70s the government wanted people to wear seat belts. Prior to that it seemed ok to chuck you family in the car and risk their lives. This would interfere with that liberty. Step 1 – They APPEALED TO OUR INTELLECT: the facts and figures and WE DIDN’T WEAR OUR SEATBELTS Step 2 – They went for our emotions- films of hospitals and a hammer hitting a peach – I’ve never forgotten that one but WE DIDN’T WEAR OUR SEATBELTS! Step 3 – They made it law, ‘clunk click every trip’ and WE WORE OUR SEATBELTS. Take away the law now and that habit is installed. So, the intellectual case for women has been made but nothing has changed. We have appealed to the emotions but nothing changed. If we want to have the best businesses in the best society then, we need to stop talking and do something different NOW so our grandchildren are not still having this conversation. I implore you to take action to change out dated, habitual behaviours now.” My brilliant team members were Richard Wheatly, CEO of Jazz FM, David Sheepshanks CBE Chairman of St George’s Park and Lewis Iwu a trainee solicitor at Slaughter and May. Our styles were all very different, proving the benefits of diversity and we were delighted to discover that we had swung the vote in our favour. As a result, I am now inordinately proud of my winner’s trophy. I should like to thank each of them and Dr Margaret Mountford who was an excellent Chair ( she said she was fine with being called a piece of furniture) Jo Thornell of Coutts who was brilliant for initiating and hosting this debate. A great night and a certain amount of celebration followed. Written by Averil Leimon.

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White Water Group – 10 years on

Averil Leimon — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 23:00:00 +0000

This October we celebrate our 10th birthday at White Water. So, we aren’t going to share our usual deep thoughts on leadership. Instead, we thought we would give you the small birthday gift of our own learning. These are 10 reflections not the 10 commandments … 10 things we learned in our 10 years of The White Water Group 1. Starting a business in a recession isn’t particularly easy but it really equips you to survive the next one. Key lessons we learned? Not to have all our eggs in one basket. Not to assume anything. To keep the standard as high as we could. To trust people to come back to us when they could afford to think about development again. 2. Love people to bits. They are the beginning and end of everything- colleagues, customers, family and random passers by. Treat them all better than you would expect to be treated yourself. It won’t always guarantee your business success but it will make your life a very good and happy one. 3. If you know your topic well, write a book. However, no matter how many books you have written ( 5 in 10 years, by the way, if you really want to know) if you don’t get a contract in place and a set of scary deadlines it will never happen. Look out for our next book… 4. Only work with people whom you like and respect. That motivates you to check that you are working as hard and smart as them but it also makes each day a joy. If people do things you don’t like, have the guts to talk about it. Your best investment in people is the faith you have in their potential and their capacity to be even better than they are. Give them the opportunity by learning how to have that difficult conversation 5. You can be highly professional and a bit funky too. Play to your strengths in all you do. Not everyone will like you. Those who see your authenticity will value you for what you stand for and how you do it. If you want to have your offices red, acqua, purple and lime just have the confidence to make it work. (Come and see how we did it) In the end everyone loves it, even if they do go back to tasteful corporate grey afterwards. 6. Ensure that everything you do is sound and robust – in our case it means that all interventions have to be well researched. You can’t always do the big academic projects that you might fancy but you can always ground your approaches in the best science available. Your clients deserve it. 7. Understand that although it sometimes feels like you are stalking clients, actually you are just working on the relationship and when they are ready for you the work will come. 8. Appreciate the bad times too. Nothing is wasted. Every challenge helps you grow and broaden your repertoire and resilience. Whatever you go through, it gives you the chance to be more empathic with colleagues and clients. 9. Believe that what you do has more meaning in it than anything else in the world: this is what you want to be doing right now and, leaving all modesty aside, you really are very good at it. If it isn’t, go train as a ballet dancer, brain surgeon or whatever you wish you had been instead. You only get one shot at life. 10. And above all, be grateful every day for the life you get the chance to live. Thank you for being part of our journey. We hope you have had just as much fun as we have had with you over the last 10 years.

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