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Diversity in corporate sponsorship critical to help talent rise

Sponsors not only have seats at the table – they control the invite list

Joyce Johnson

There is a commercial out about African American female pilots at Delta Airlines. When I first saw the story, chills of inspiration and community ran down my spine: The fact that there are African American women flying aircrafts, supporting one another and sponsoring programs for young girls is powerful and necessary for future success in that profession and industry.

However, upon looking further into the topic, a story shared on ABC News mentions that just 150 Black women in the United States are pilots – less than 1% of the flight deck (Kaji, Luna & Sweeney, 2020).

The airline industry does not stand alone in this severe oversight of diversity and inclusion. According to a Fortune article published this June, there are only five African American CEOs of Fortune 500 companies (Wahba, 2020). Working in the sales profession over the past 20 years, I have observed gaps in diversity firsthand – and I’m not the only one noticing.

Many companies have posted D&I or DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) plans this year. Many of those plans include creating mentorship programs to support recruiting and internal promotions. However, is mentorship enough? Are there enough mentors, resources and access, and are those efforts enough to achieve equality?

From mentorship to sponsorship

In the business environment, we speak often about the importance of having mentors (experienced and trusted advisers). Lately, the discussion has shifted to the importance of sponsorship and having sponsors (someone to advocate for you). Sponsorship is the key to true inclusion because it helps level the playing field. Because sponsors are leaders, they not only have seats at the table, they control the invite list too.

However, sponsorship continues to serve privileged groups, leaving one to question the E in DEI. Mentors have mentees, while sponsors have protégés. History shows us that corporate sponsors adopt protégés that look like them: relatives, friends, children of friends, referrals from the Alma mater, fraternity brothers and sorority sisters (Pinsker, 2015). Thus, predominantly straight, white sponsors are picking protégés from straight, white, homogeneous groups.

The issue is that other individuals already within an organization, with stronger backgrounds and qualifications, never get invited to the table. They often retire or leave the organization without reaching their fullest potential, participation, engagement or impact. Logic leads me to believe that if there were diverse sponsorship, the list of Fortune 500 CEOs would be more colourful.

Representation from the top down

Recently, I was introduced through a friend to a VP of a billion-dollar tech company to discuss my work in the diversity and inclusion space. Recent social unrest across the United States had led him to take a step back and self-assess: Was his leadership team adept at responsibly hiring through a DEI lens? He concluded that he had not supported or sponsored diverse talent in his role as a leader. I sensed that he felt as if he had failed to create diversity within his leadership team. I assured him it was normal for him to support individuals that look like him – it was an easy pattern to fall into. Although I’ve mentored diverse groups over the years, I’ve followed the same pattern. The majority have been people of colour, as those are the individuals that look like me. They are the people who are referred to me by family members or other business professionals seeking African-American representation to share and guide them.

What career professionals could do to help clients find sponsors
  • Help them find the potential in existing networks and encourage them to strengthen those ties.
  • Brainstorm what kind of relationships would benefit the client: consider industry, position and client goals.
  • Help the client understand that these connections require long-term commitment and varied work experience. A sponsor will not arrive overnight.
  • Encourage clients to be brave and straightforward: suggest they ask their mentors if they are willing to advocate for them when openings arise.
  • Have your client be vocal and make clear what their career goals are to their peers, co-workers and higher-ups.

I also learned from the VP that his business had low representation of women, and the executive team had created a strategy to deliberately hire women in leadership roles. That’s incredibly important: candidates want to see someone who looks like them in a position of power. When you see someone who looks like you in a successful position, it raises the bar for what you believe you can achieve. When employees who are women or people of colour only occupy low-level positions, the aspirations of candidates shift accordingly.

A woman in a leadership role sends a message to all the women in the organization that there are now opportunities for sponsorship and a possibility of them moving into a leadership role. A person of colour in a leadership role sends the same message to all people of colour within the organization. I recommended that the VP follow the same plan of action used to target the female candidates to hire a person of colour. Hiring or promoting a diverse leader could assist with recruiting, diversity initiatives and ultimately creating an inclusive environment.


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Hiring a Chief Diversity Officer isn’t enough to make workplaces safer for racialized employees


The myth of a ‘quick fix’

The harsh reality is that without a sponsor – without someone advocating for you and saving you a seat at the table – if you’re from an underrepresented group, you probably won’t get that promotion. I’ve applied for roles in the past where I knew I was more qualified, interviewed better, and submitted a plan for engagement and success, yet the position was filled by a protégé, a relative or close connection to the hiring leader. They received a nudge for the role while I was overlooked. That experience left me frustrated and for a period of time, I completely disengaged from the sales industry. This disengagement is what happens in many organizations when there is not an equal playing field for all candidates.

Now I take calls with leaders who want to invite me into their organization for an inclusion “quick fix.” I’m often astonished by their oversight: Yes, there is a possibility you may be able to hire diverse candidates externally, but that’s just checking a box. Why companies think that they can create a one-year plan for inclusion after failing at inclusion for decades before baffles me. The road to inclusion is a long one. It will take time for organizations to seat the right people at the leadership table, allowing them equal access to impact the business. If an individual is hired to check a box but not allowed to play the game, the organization will remain stagnant. I believe sponsorship at the right level of the organization is the best tool and strategy to lead organizations to create a truly diverse, equal and inclusive organization.

Like Delta Airlines, most organizations are pursuing the first step toward equality: awareness. Look around your organization. Analyze the power structure and what your leadership looks like. From there, figure out where existing talent lies within the organization and restructure accordingly. Sponsor the diverse talent that is already there.

Joyce Johnson is passionate about investing in and supporting college students and recent graduates. She is a speaker, mentor, business consultant, sales champion, 7x author and she is the founder behind Why Sales Network, which provides development tools and resources to sales professionals, college students and companies.

References 

‘Delta’s first black female captain: ‘Taking off was the thrill of my life’.’ (n.d.) Delta. https://news.delta.com/deltas-first-black-female-captain-taking-was-thrill-my-life

Kaji, M., Luna, N., & Sweeney, S. (2020). Diversifying the flight deck: Less than 1% of US pilots are Black women. ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/diversifying-flight-deck-us-pilots-black-women/story?id=72880810

Pinsker, J. (2015). Like Father, Like Son: How Much Nepotism Is Too Much? The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/06/nepotism-mobility-same-jobs-fathers/395567/

Wahba, P. (2020). The number of black CEOs in the Fortune 500 remains very low. Fortune. https://fortune.com/2020/06/01/black-ceos-fortune-500-2020-african-american-business-leaders/

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Improving access to career supports is essential to Canadian sector’s maturity

A new benchmarking tool aims to explore what makes a strong career development sector

Taryn Blanchard, Sareena Hopkins and Lisa Taylor

author headshotsCanada’s career development sector enjoys an enviable international reputation. While attending the 2019 International Centre for Career Development and Public Policy (ICCDPP) Symposium in Norway, Lisa and Sareena were struck by how frequently other countries referred to a Canadian event, resource or expert. As is often the case, outside perspectives provided a moment of reflection. Are we as strong as we’re perceived to be? How does Canada compare to other jurisdictions? How should we define what “strong” or “good” looks like for the career development sector?

COVID-19 then upended labour and employment across Canada in 2020. A strong career development sector became more important and more urgent than ever, as Canadians faced unprecedented struggles in the world of work – with both immediate and long-lasting impacts.

The Career Development Maturity Matrix is a benchmarking tool designed to map and spark strategic conversation about the foundational elements that the career development sector requires for its structural integrity and advancement in the years to come. Created by the Canadian Career Development Foundation (CCDF) and Challenge Factory, the Matrix identifies and measures the maturity of four sector benchmarks: quality, capacity, cohesion and access. We asked experts in Canada’s sector to rank 1) how important each Matrix benchmark is to the sector, and 2) how Canada measures up against each benchmark. The key benchmark that we’ll be discussing in this article is access.

The Sector Benchmark: ACCESS

Citizen Rights – Entitlement to quality career services across the lifespan for all Canadians is protected in legislation.

Targeted Services – Under-represented and marginalized groups have access to tailored and enhanced services.

Visibility – The public knows where and how to access quality career services locally.

Technology – Access to quality service is enhanced by technology-enabled delivery.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion – The career development sector and its services operate based on comprehensive and current DEI policy and practices.

The findings for the Matrix’s access benchmark are striking. Overall, our survey respondents viewed access as the benchmark most in need of improvement in the Canadian sector and the most difficult to achieve. These findings have immense impact on not only the sector itself, but also the clients they serve.

Let’s unpack some important elements of the access challenge:

Failing first: Access to career development in Canada may best be described as a “fail first” support system. This means Canadians are generally expected to navigate their career development by themselves, and only seek out supports when something has “gone wrong,” including unemployment and systemic barriers and discrimination.

Technological disparities: The technology dimension of access is affected by infrastructure (internet and cyber devices) and literacy (how to use technology to access career development supports). Both infrastructure and literacy vary across Canada by geographical region (including urban versus rural communities), socioeconomic status, provincial/territorial funding and more.

Reflecting and serving all Canadians: Canada has a fair number of services targeted to under-represented and marginalized groups, but there is unequal access to these resources (e.g. in the North). Leaders in the sector who develop new research, resources, tools and approaches are committed to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), but don’t yet fully reflect the diversity of the clients served. Even when tailored and enhanced services are available, outreach to target groups is not always successful and the degree to which DEI policy and practices are integrated into client interventions is inconsistent.


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Where do we go from here?

The challenges facing access to career development in Canada have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, with career development professionals working hard to establish new partnerships and services even as reductions to funding, staffing and operations mount. The interruptions to targeted services caused by COVID-19, as well as the increased attention to mental health and well-being (by the general population and the sector), have also served to highlight Canada’s pre-existing “fail first” approach to career development.

The transition to remote work models has emphasized both the gaps in technology-enabled delivery and the opportunities that technology may offer if innovative solutions are pursued robustly. For these efforts to occur at a sector-wide level, leadership and broad sector cohesion are needed to push for real change and support from funders, policymakers and other stakeholders.

The issue of access is tied not only to systemic barriers that disproportionately affect certain groups, but also to the lack of awareness and visibility of career development to the general public as a whole. Access to career development services and other supports should be a right and responsibility of every Canadian. While individuals are ultimately responsible for their own careers, no Canadian should feel alone on their career journey or unable to access career-related resources. For this to become a reality, career development needs to be normalized as a best and standard practice across every individual’s career and lifespan.

Accessing career supports is not an indicator of failure. Nor is it an indicator that “something has gone wrong.” It is an indicator of agency, a growth mindset and an active pursuit of career aspirations and success.

The role of policy in the access challenge

The career development sector cannot advance without the fulsome backing of diverse stakeholders and policymakers. Our benchmarking tool surfaced an important observation that the accessibility and quality of career supports across the country varies depending on the amount of funding and prioritization each province/territory gives to career development. As we set about defining what a strong career development sector might look like, the importance of understanding the policy considerations involved cannot be overlooked.

The considerations involved in the challenge of access can be approached from two directions. The first is the absence in Canada of an overall awareness of and proactive approach to careers planning and exploration across the entire lifespan. Canada lags behind other countries in building a national culture that A) upholds career development as a priority for the public good, and B) sees every Canadian committed to blending and managing their paid and unpaid activities while drawing on career supports.

The second is the targeted improvement of access to career development in underserved and marginalized communities. Despite the increasingly critical roles that internet connectivity and technological literacy play in work and education, many Canadians – particularly those in rural and remote areas – don’t have adequate internet access. Canadians also pay among the highest prices for mobile data in the world. This severely hampers career development professionals’ abilities to deliver quality services to all Canadians, and divides those services along socioeconomic, geographic and community lines.

Canadians deserve access to quality career services throughout their educational and working lives and regardless of where they live. We look forward to advancing the Career Development Maturity Matrix as a tool to uncover key actions that address barriers to access for both those served by the sector and those who can lead this sector into the future.

Taryn Blanchard, PhD, is a cross-sector researcher and anthropologist. She applies ethnography and multi-disciplinary collaboration to issues related to work, expression, communities of practice and the relationship between humans and technology.

Lisa Taylor is a sought-after expert, speaker and columnist on today’s changing world of work. As President of Challenge Factory and the Centre for Career Innovation, Taylor offers invaluable leadership and insights about how talent equity, demographics, the freelance economy and new market dynamics present opportunities to gain strategic workforce and career advantage.

Sareena Hopkins is the Executive Director of the Canadian Career Development Foundation (CCDF). She works in Canada and internationally to strengthen the reach and impact of career development. With her team at CCDF, Hopkins moves from ideas to action in areas of public policy, research and development, capacity building and advocacy.

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Hiring a Chief Diversity Officer isn’t enough to make workplaces safer for racialized employees

HR needs mechanisms in place to prevent bias in performance management practices

Janelle Benjamin

AUTHOR HEADSHOTWith the movement for social justice in full swing, many workplaces feel compelled to do something, anything, to demonstrate that they are diverse and inclusive and support the notion that #BlackLivesMatter. With each new Chief Diversity Officer job posting, companies in all sectors are sending messages to their stakeholders and staff that their organizations need fixing – and that they did not truly care about diversity and inclusion or anti-Black racism until now.

Over the years, I have worked in many settings. I have investigated complaints at the Ontario Human Rights Commission. I have implemented legislation and developed policies to improve organizational practices and access for historically marginalized people at the Office of the Fairness Commissioner and at the Accessibility Directorate of Ontario. I have sat on hospital boards and workplace committees and advised senior leaders on how to create more diverse and inclusive organizations. My work has been rewarding and fulfilling, and on paper I seem to be a successful Black woman. But the truth of the matter is that in many places I have worked, I have experienced acts of violence that did not rise to the level of discrimination or harassment under the Ontario Human Rights Code, but still affected my psychological safety.

Too many workplaces have been tainted with the toxicity of bullying, marginalization and disrespect. Too many people have experienced the insidious nature of day-to-day microaggressions and other behavioural indignities from co-workers and senior leaders alike, even with so-called “inclusive employers.”

I have learned that employers have a hard time seeing how the bad behaviours of the people they employ, and often promote to leadership positions, are deeply rooted in phobias and isms (e.g. homophobia, xenophobia, racism, sexism, ablism, Islamophobia), as well as the systems their organizational policies and practices support (such as patriarchy, white supremacy and misogyny). This leads to homogeneity, exclusion, workplace violence, oppression and injustice, time and time again.

Unless companies begin to innovate to solve workplace issues for racialized people, the current civil rights movement will be longstanding.

Below are two innovative solutions that companies can take to show their commitment to diversity and inclusion and make workplaces safer for racialized employees – even without a Chief Diversity Officer hire.

Question your Karens

We all know a “Karen” at work. Like Amy Cooper, the white female dog walker who tried to call the police on a Black male bird watcher in New York’s Central Park last May, workplace Karen is overly meddlesome, questioning and complaining (Vera & Ly, 2020). She is often promoted to positions of power without merit and is threatened by smart, talented and capable racialized workers. Karen evaluates performance and makes excuses why a person of colour needs a performance improvement plan. Even worse, Karen is able to call human resources and weaponize her white privilege against racialized employees when she feels she has had enough – she believes the person of colour is not conforming in some way and should be removed from the workplace.

“Too many people have experienced the insidious nature of day-to-day microaggressions and other behavioural indignities from co-workers and senior leaders alike, even with so-called ‘inclusive employers.'”

Too many companies do not question the practices of these workplace Karens when names of racialized people are brought forward and the Karen says they are not a good “fit” for the organization. Racialized employees end up “performance managed” or worse – removed from places where they should belong.

If organizations truly feel an imperative to break systemic and attitudinal barriers to inclusion,  human resources departments need to do a better job of questioning senior leaders when individual names are brought forward for performance management and/or termination. HR leaders should question whether bias is playing a role and, if so, have mechanisms to address those biases.

woman wearing hijab carries personal belongings out of office
Many racialized workers experience being passed over for promotions or ousted from their jobs without reason. (iStock)
End the practice of terminating racialized employees at will and without cause

Racialized workers who make it through workplace doors are the best and the brightest. They have grown accustomed to being “the only” in many spaces, which often leads to their oppression, subjugation and, later, termination. Over the course of my career, Black, Asian and other racialized employees have shared their stories of marginalization, discrimination, oppression and ousting with me. Many have learned to thrive at office events and have expertly handled microaggressions in workplace interactions. Many of them had equal or greater qualifications than their white colleagues and were overworked and tokenized as the model minority. Later, they were passed over for promotions and other high-profile opportunities. Some were performance managed straight out the proverbial workplace door. Some did not even have the chance to remedy so-called deficiencies via a performance improvement plan, because there were none. At the management level, reasons were not given for their termination. Personally, even I was walked out of a workplace with strong performance appraisals simply because my uneducated workplace Karen felt I no longer met her requirements.

The phenomenon of Black women moving from office “pet to threat” was first coined by Keisha M. Thomas in a 2013 study (Stallings, 2020). This icy transition happens when the Karen feels threatened in some way by the racialized employee and begins to put a plan in place to have them fired. I have seen people from marginalized groups experience hostility from their superiors, punishment for taking time they were entitled to and that was previously approved, exclusion from meetings and a lack of access to information they need to do their jobs. Thomas felt that it was important for Black women to have mentors and a strong network of peers, as well as connections with people in more senior positions to help navigate the “invisible currents” we are all swimming in. I agree.


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The practice of terminating racialized and other historically marginalized workers without cause should be totally abolished. The provision that permits termination at the whim of the employer should not make it into employment contracts for people of colour. Instead, mechanisms should be created to identify biases that may be at play among employees and management. Organizations also need to develop succession plans to mentor talented employees of colour.

These are the cries for equitable treatment coming from racialized and other marginalized employees at work. They want workplaces that are not just paying lip service to progress and rushing to make their organizations appear to care about changing things for Black and brown people, but that are legitimately diverse, inclusive, safe and support the mental health and well-being of all their employees.

I am hopeful that this movement for change will incite workplaces to make meaningful improvements beyond their performative hiring of Chief Diversity Officers by implementing innovative, thoughtful solutions that truly make a difference.

Janelle Benjamin is the Founder & Chief Equity Officer of All Things Equitable Inc., a new GTA-based Management Consulting Firm, created to address the cries for systemic change coming from all marginalized groups in the workplace. It helps organizations in all sectors come up with innovative solutions to make workplaces more diverse, inclusive and safe, and support the mental health and well-being of all their employees.

References

Stallings, E. (2020). When Black women go from office pet to office threat. Medium. zora.medium.com/when-black-women-go-from-office-pet-to-office-threat-83bde710332e

Vera, A., and Ly, L. (2020). White woman who called police on a black man bird-watching in Central Park has been fired. CNN. cnn.com/2020/05/26/us/central-park-video-dog-video-african-american-trnd/index.html

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Current approaches to career education risk impeding students’ exploration

Thinking we know what is best for youth without considering their lived experiences can inhibit their visions of their future selves

Josslyn Gabriel

author headshotIn Canada, the tendency to pressure youth to get serious about what they want to do with the rest of their lives is ever present. The education system tends to be career-motivated, structurally merit-based and unforgiving of the developmental changes youth experience. The risk of thinking, as adults, that we always know what is best for youth – especially without consideration of cultural context – is that we can stunt career exploration inside or outside of school. This is not a risk we should be willing to take.

X-Impact strives to dismantle some of these barriers for students, while creating tools and opportunities for youth agency in the interest of students’ mental health, wellness, self-advocacy and social consciousness. Our Youth Activator Hubs program provides a community for youth to think and act in their best interests outside of school. We have developed a concept that uplifts and supports youth voices and their initiatives.

Looking beyond the file

A few years ago, I had the privilege to work with a young girl whom I’ll call Jayden. Jayden, who was in an alternative education program, lived in a low-income area. She was 14 and had not been in school the year prior; this was her first time back in a classroom setting. This student had a large file that would follow her from school to school, detailing her trauma as if her experiences were meant to have a warning label for her future educators and support workers. This limited her ability to believe she could lead a life with purpose. She was able to tell me all of the things that she was not good at, but would never speak positively about herself.

Students like Jayden who are deemed to not “have their life together” at an early age are often channelled into a lifetime of minimum wage work, and thus believe that this is all that is possible for them. The system ignores the fact that people have the ability to grow, change and develop, especially children and youth.


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Jayden was a phenomenal storyteller and her art was amazing. She was great with numbers, but always received low math grades because she could not show her work, and so she believed she was bad at math. She did not put capitals where they belonged, and so she thought she was not good at English. Her grades never accounted for her attention to detail, her memory, her ability to quickly solve problems and her impressive vocabulary.

Jayden was motivated to do well in school through connection and genuine investment. Authority and trust were not earned by being the oldest in the room or the one with the title. Jayden was diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder, so just demanding she complete a task was not enough. This structure does not work for any student who has distrust or lack of respect for authority figures.

We forget what a privilege it is to feel safe and respected in a classroom. While the other educators and support workers had read Jayden’s file, I chose to learn about her at her pace. There are pros and cons to reading a student’s file. By reading about the student’s history, an educator could get a sense of how to prepare their teaching dynamic to meet a student’s needs. However, this is also a permanent file that educators can use to pigeonhole students, in a way that does not allow for an equal relationship to be built between student and teacher. I often think back and wonder if, when I was a teenager, I would have appreciated everyone having access to my most vulnerable moments without my consent or awareness.

Systemic issues restrict future possibilities

I wish I could say that this anecdote about my student was rare, but there are classrooms full of students with similar stories. Many students get lost in large classrooms and they believe by 14 to 16 years old that they have nothing to offer, with no future ahead of them. Canadian and international research shows that youth in low-income communities face socioeconomic barriers that restrict them from pursuing post-secondary opportunities in education, training and meaningful employment (Gilmore, 2010; Lyche, 2010).

The data reveals the outcomes of inadequate support. In 2018, Indigenous youth made up 43% of admissions to correctional services, while only representing 8% of the population. Ninety-four percent of Black youth reported that they would like to earn a bachelor’s degree or higher, but only 60% thought they could. Black Canadians are also more likely than non-racialized Canadians to be unemployed (Statistics Canada, 2018).

“We forget what a privilege it is to feel safe and respected in a classroom.”

How can educators and support workers mitigate these outcomes by teaching priority youth to rely on a system that is based on inequities? With Jayden, it took me one school year and a lot of positive affirmation to support her in knowing that she had choices and was capable of anything beyond educational walls.

While there are a number of barriers that affect families and youth on the individual level, many are systemic and correlated with race, class, education and lack of access. They affect Black, Indigenous and racialized youth disproportionately. With Canadian school dropout rates sitting at roughly 50% or more in the lowest-income communities (Statistics Canada, 2018), the economic discrimination against Black, Indigenous and racialized children not only affects their individual growth but robs them of the progression and development of their communities (Frankle, 2020). We need to think about these statistics as push-out rates (Dei, Mazzuca, McIsaac, and Zine, 1997) rather than dropout rates, as it is the education system pushing these students out of classrooms by not believing in their potential.

A call to action

Representation and culturally specific supports are essential for youth, especially those living in under-resourced communities. A curriculum that does not account for these needs can negatively impact students’ mindsets toward learning and their future ambitions. X-Impact’s Youth Activator Hubs strive to combat some of these concerns by taking a student-centred approach. We focus on advocating and co-creating with BIPOC youth to have more culturally relevant programming, in order to support their growth and potential in the highest form. We also ensure that when we are engaging with youth about their future aspirations and careers, we remember the developing adolescent attached to those decisions, as well as their lived experiences.

All youth have the right to figure out their futures with the same unconditional support and belief we give youth who seemingly have it “together.” It is no longer enough to assume that everyone is coming from the same starting point. It is important to take up privilege and positionality when we are teaching youth about career development and it is vital we do so in a way that supports and empowers all youth.

Josslyn Gabrielhas completed a Master’s in Social Justice Education from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, at the University of Toronto. Gabriel is now the executive director of X-Impact, where she focuses on youth advocacy and program development, such as their new Youth Activator program that specializes in youth wellness, self-advocacy, as well as civics and career engagement as it pertains to underserved communities.

References

Lyche, C.S. (2010). Taking on the completion challenge: A Literature Review on Policies to Prevent Dropout and Early School Leaving. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Dei, G. J., Zine, J., Mcisaac, E., & Mazzuca, J. (1997). Reconstructing Drop-Out: A Critical Ethnography of the Dynamics of Black Students’ Disengagement from School. University of Toronto Press.

Do, D. (2020, February 25). Canada’s Black Population: Education, Labour and Resilience. Retrieved April 13, 2020, from https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/89-657-x/89-657-x2020002-eng.htm

The Impacts of Socioeconomic Status and Educational Attainment on Youth Success. (2019, September 09). Retrieved Nov 13, 2020, from https://www.pathwaystoeducation.ca/the-impacts-of-socioeconomic-status-and-educational-attainment-on-youth-success/

Slaughter, G., & Singh, M. (2020, June 07). Five Charts that Show what Systemic Racism looks like in Canada. Retrieved October 25, 2020, from https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/five-charts-that-show-what-systemic-racism-looks-like-in-canada-1.4970352

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To help others reach their career goals, use your privilege for good

People in positions of power need to get comfortable with discomfort and actively work to break down barriers for those who are disenfranchised

Alex Hosselet

author headshotAfter graduating and starting my career years ago, I quickly realized two things as I entered the business world. The first was that it was not a level playing field. Most of my colleagues were white, male and from a financially comfortable background – as am I. The second realization was that I had skills, connections and experience that could help others, both individually and organizationally. I think that we all want to make the world a better place, but many of us don’t realize the many actionable ways we can work toward that.

Recent years have been marked by social movements that challenge injustice and seek to empower systemically disenfranchised people, in Canada and beyond. Anyone working in career development has felt the impact of movements like Idle No More, MeToo and Black Lives Matter. Many of us have changed our policies, updated our hiring practices and evolved our organizational systems in light of what we’ve learned. This has made a positive impact in many ways, but it often overlooks the work we can do as individuals.


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Gatekeeping is a concept often understood as involving an active barrier: individuals in power refusing to respect and welcome people who are different. This is sometimes the case, but more often, the gate is simply closed and overlooked rather than being held shut. That is to say: if you’re not working actively holding the gate open for others, you’re maintaining the status quo of keeping it shut.

While the MeToo movement shone a needed spotlight on the levels of sexual harassment in many workplaces, many men have not learned the right lessons. Instead of actively fostering safe workspaces, they’ve retreated from working closely with women at all. A 2019 survey from Lean In showed that “60% of managers who are men are uncomfortable participating in a common work activity with a woman” and “36% of men say they’ve avoided mentoring or socializing with a woman because they were nervous about how it would look.” In some ways, bringing awareness to social inequities has resulted in people in privileged positions avoiding getting involved in fixing these issues.

It concerns me to see people with the power to make change instead choose to disengage because of their discomfort and uncertainty. Discomfort is natural when recognizing inequity and realizing how you may have benefitted from different dimensions of privilege, but disengaging is a choice.

There are many ways to decide to engage with the issues and leverage privilege to make a difference, and they don’t require special skills or knowledge. For example, you can become a champion for any workplace initiatives in diversity, equity and inclusion. This may be volunteering for mentoring programs, participating in new employee orientations, joining volunteer committees or other ways of getting involved in existing programs. When doing so, be sure to make space for voices that aren’t often heard and respect the lived experiences of people facing systemic barriers. Most medium-to-large workplaces have one or more diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and smaller workplaces that may not yet have such programs can often be more nimble in creating and adopting them. You don’t have to start on your own; you can be a part of something with your team.

“Discomfort is natural when recognizing inequity and realizing how you may have benefitted from different dimensions of privilege, but disengaging is a choice.”

If you feel like your understanding of social issues limits you, take that as a sign to expand your learning. Many free or easily accessible resources exist to help you along this journey. For example, at Electricity Human Resources Canada, we’ve developed Illuminate Opportunity: Equity in the Workplace, a free digital toolkit anyone can use to bring mindfulness and action to diversity, equity and inclusion in their workplace. Many other books and tools are available, often created by people who have experienced barriers, and you can quickly build your confidence to get involved by learning from them.

There are charities and non-profits in any city that could also benefit from your skills and experience. You could be formally involved by joining a board or committee, or casually, by making yourself available when needed. By being available and supportive to one of these organizations, you can provide pathways to success for youth, newcomers to Canada and other groups.

That being said, you don’t have to go through a formal program or organization to make a difference. Mentoring can be a rewarding and impactful experience. Whether it’s junior employees, students or recent grads of your alma mater, or members of networking groups, there is no shortage of people who could benefit from your experience. When you have opportunities to be a mentor, you can look for mentees who haven’t benefitted from the same privileges you have enjoyed. Not only will you provide a helping hand, you also have an opportunity to listen and learn from someone who has lived a different life from your own.

The challenges of inequity in our organizations and society can seem overwhelming, but when we endeavour to make a positive contribution, we can start by taking small but meaningful steps toward change. You don’t have to be an expert in a new field; you only have to be willing to share your expertise in a way that will maximize the impact for others. As career development professionals, we know that success is measured in more ways than titles and salaries; I challenge you to explore ways that you can redefine success as helping others have an equitable chance at accomplishing their career goals.

Alex Hosselet is a marketing and business professional with over 10 years of experience in organizations, including tech start-ups, agency consulting and non-profits. He is the Marketing and Communications Manager at Electricity Human Resources Canada, a non-profit that serves the human resources needs of Canada’s electricity sector.

References

Electricity Human Resources Canada. (n.d.). Illuminate opportunity: Equity in the workplace. electricityhr.ca/workplace-solutions/diversity-inclusion/illuminate-opportunity/

LeanIn. (2019). Working relationships in the #MeToo era. leanin.org/sexual-harassment-backlash-survey-results

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Evaluating the impact of career programming on youth choices

Research finds career education in high school affects students in different ways depending on their family income bracket

Reuben Ford

author headshotDecisions, decisions, decisions … How do youth make them? What influences where they want to go in their lives? As Yogi Berra famously said: “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.”

Every day, Canadian youth navigate an education system designed to transport them along diverse paths toward different futures. The price of an abundance of options is a myriad of decisions to be made relatively early in the process regarding which way to go. Everyone hopes they are guided by clear ambitions and informed expectations and ­– if not – that they get the support they need to engage and prepare. But is career programming in high school helping young people to formulate or realize their career ambitions years later? Our team at Social Research and Demonstration Corporation (SRDC) embarked on an ambitious two-stage research project to try to find out.

First, we reviewed the literature to learn what is known about how youth make career decisions. Then, we explored longitudinal data to better understand what influenced changes in the life plans of 7,000 young Canadians. We started with their occupational aspirations as high school students at age 14, then matched these to their later post-secondary education (PSE) and employment decisions and outcomes over the decade that followed. We found that high school career programming did different things for different people. It influenced some youth – generally those from higher income and better educated families – to realize long-held ambitions, while it stimulated others – generally those from lower-income and first-generation families – to, more often, revise their plans.

What do we know about what influences decisions?

The literature revealed what researchers already know about how youth make career decisions, including that there are many gaps in the process. We know institutional and social obligations demand decisions from young people. Institutions and social connections can also provide support. But even though engagement from parents, career counsellors, teachers and peers is unevenly distributed, few studies have tracked the impact of career supports for more disadvantaged youth. And very few have examined the consequences of career education on long-term outcomes.


Visit ceric.ca/careereducationinyouth to learn more about this CERIC-supported research, read the reports and watch a webinar from the researchers.


What does this new study add?

SRDC sought to fill knowledge gaps by analyzing longitudinal data on youth from the Future to Discover and BC AVID projects, with a special focus on those from lower-income families. The data come from randomized trials funded by the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation in 2004-2005. They compare program groups of youth offered career education interventions in high school to those in statistically equivalent control groups at the same schools. Control group members received no new treatments but remained eligible for the normally available career supports and financial aid. In line with the Council of Ministers of Education description, our study considered career education as school-based activities and experiences designed to prepare and engage individuals in their career development. Three interventions were tested:

  • Manitoba and New Brunswick: access to 20 career education workshops from Grades 10 through 12.
  • New Brunswick only: a guarantee made to Grade 9 students from lower-income families of a PSE grant. [In New Brunswick only – some students from lower-income families received the offer of the PSE grant alongside the workshops];
  • British Columbia only: an elective class promoting and supporting academic engagement involving specially trained PSE-focused educators (including counsellors).

Because the receipt of these interventions was randomized, we could compare each group of youth receiving a new program to a control group of youth not receiving the program that was, on average, identical. We can have high confidence that the interventions, rather than other factors, brought about any differences in outcomes.

What changed youth career outcomes?

Our analysis looked at how the career programs influenced (or not) six ‘outcomes’ of interest in the career pathways of the 7,000 participating youth. We compared the youth’s early occupational and educational aspirations to their later PSE and actual occupation. For example, each youth answered survey questions in Grade 8/9 about their career aspirations. When they reached Grade 12, we asked them their intended program of study in post-secondary education (if any).

By looking at the changing level of precision in their stated career choice between Grade 8/9 and grade 12, we assessed improving career clarity. Youth whose Grade 12 expectations matched their Grade 8/9 aspirations were said to be continuing their early career aspiration. A match between Grade 8/9 aspiration and the PSE program they enrolled in implied carrying out the early career aspiration, while a match with the post-schooling occupation meant realization of the early career aspiration.

We interpreted a match between the Grade 12 PSE expectation and the PSE program enrolled in as carrying out the post-secondary plan. Matching the program of study and the post-schooling occupation meant realization of the career plan through post-secondary education. In this way, we looked for the impact of high school career programming on six different career pathway outcomes. Some of the findings that stand out include:

  • Workshops on their own affected higher-income students in terms of carrying out their post-secondary plan and carrying out and realizing their early career aspiration. But the effect of workshops was also indirect, inducing increased volunteering. Volunteering then affected the choice of career paths. There was no impact on volunteering among lower-income students.
  • Like a virtuous circle, career education interventions typically increased academic engagement and the number of other career-related activities students engaged in. Youth receiving interventions seemed less often to resort to easy-to-obtain jobs straight after high school.
  • But workshops had no effect for students from lower-income families on engaging in other career activities, raising academic engagement or parents’ valuation of PSE unless a grant was promised as well. It seems guaranteeing a financial barrier to PSE would be lifted catalyzed youth to make changes on a broad range of future-oriented outcomes.
  • Career programming realigned students’ early focus, choices and plans more often for those whose parents had not attended PSE (whose children are also typically less likely to access PSE) but reinforced the existing early choices and plans among those whose parents had attended PSE (who are typically better able to promote PSE as a destination to their children).
  • Overall, the interventions decreased the likelihood that students from lower-income households carried out their early career aspirations directly, suggesting that career programming is changing the focus and choices of youth from more disadvantaged backgrounds relatively early in high school.

For much more of what we learned on whether career education helps or hinders each of the outcomes, and for whom, please access our report on the CERIC website.

What have we learned? What do we have yet to learn?

The career education that disadvantaged youth responded to more often took the form of guidance being provided directly to them from the start of Grade 10 and/or a guarantee of a grant at the same point in time. This finding about early ‘universal’ provision (contrasting with more conventional career support that youth have to seek out themselves and/or PSE funding amounts that must be applied for and are only revealed in the final year of high school or later) prompts a reconsideration of how education services are structured and the timing of providing supports.

That said, our work does not yet say much about the life-impacting consequences of career education. For example, realizing one’s early career aspiration could prove on balance positive or negative. To date, we have not placed a value on the six career outcomes.

The plan for our next work will be to track these youth further to get closer to understanding lifetime implications. What are the impacts of different career interventions on the chances of being unemployed? Do the career interventions looked at here impact how much youth go on to earn? Do they impact their physical and mental well-being? When we have those answers, then we will really know where they are going.

Reuben Ford is a Research Director in SRDC’s Vancouver office with extensive experience in the design and analysis of innovations spanning education and employment transitions.  Since 2003, he has worked with educators and thousands of students in four provinces on six large-scale investigations of early interventions to increase access to post-secondary education. He holds a PhD in geography and is a credentialed evaluator with 27 consecutive years in program evaluation.

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Developing trans-inclusive career resources for students

Recognizing the systemic barriers faced by transgender and nonbinary students, University of Toronto creates career guide in consultation with community

Allison Burgess and Sania Hameed

Illustrations by Beena Mistry

author headshotsEquity, diversity and inclusion are high-priority values across the post-secondary sector, with institutions aspiring toward social justice principles in all areas of their mission and operations. If post-secondary institutions are committed to supporting and equipping each and every student, as higher education professionals it is our shared responsibility to consider the diversity of identities and experiences within student populations. This is especially critical as students who are marginalized are often overlooked or considered much later in the development of campus student resources and services.

A proactive response

Many transgender and nonbinary students visit the Sexual and Gender Diversity Office (SGDO) at the University of Toronto, seeking support related to career development and job search strategies. Working with the Career Exploration and Education department, we recognized that while individuals could be supported one-on-one, there was clearly a need for customized career resources for trans and nonbinary students, given the additional systemic and interpersonal barriers faced when accessing work and careers.

According to the TransPulse project (Bauer & Scheim, 2015), “28% of trans Ontarians could not get employment references with their current name [and] 18% were turned down for a job” due to their gender identity and/or expression. The TransPulse report further states that despite 44% of respondents having a post-secondary or graduate degree, the median income was $15,000 a year for trans Ontarians. Our experience working with post-secondary students and the results from this study served as a call to action for our offices: How could we work toward addressing these disparities and be proactive in supporting trans and nonbinary communities?

Both of our departments have equity identified as a core value in our work: the SGDO is one of the University’s equity offices, and Career Exploration & Education makes an intentional commitment to equity in its departmental values and strategic plan. This intention supported the commitment, resourcing and collaborative effort that was needed to begin to address the above question. As a result, a new resource was developed in consultation with and at the request of trans and nonbinary students and alumni. Your Journey: A Career Guide for Trans and Nonbinary Students is a first-of-its-kind resource in Canada, offering strategies and insights that can support trans and nonbinary students to explore career options, apply for jobs and navigate the workplace (University of Toronto, 2020). The guide can also be used by career professionals in their work with students. Your Journey can be accessed by visiting the SGDO’s website and is free to download.

Trans or Transgender: An identity for a person with a gender other than the one assigned to them at birth, or whose gender identity and gender expression differs from the stereotypical masculine and feminine norms. It is also used as an umbrella term for those who identify as transgender, trans, gender non-conforming, genderqueer, nonbinary or an analogous term.

Nonbinary: A gender identity that does not fit within the male or female binary.

illustration of person giving another person a leg up to look over a tall hedge
A collaborative effort

“Nothing about us without us” is a common rallying cry and call to action to ensure that work that aims to benefit a particular community is done with, alongside and in collaboration with that community, rather than without them or for them. This was one of the key principles we adhered to throughout this multi-year project – working with trans and nonbinary communities, as well as with the various career communities at the University of Toronto. Through an initial consultation process with trans and nonbinary students and faculty (including focus groups), we gained a better sense of the career learning needs of trans and nonbinary people. Additionally, recognizing that there are differences in campus contexts, we formed a tri-campus working group with representation from five additional career departments across faculties and the three campuses and within the University to envision and co-develop the first draft of the guide.


More from Careering and CareerWise

Case study: Job-shadowing program helps LGBTQ2+ students navigate workplace concerns

11 resources for supporting LGBTQ2+ clients’ career development

Making meaningful connections: LGBTQ2+ communications


Aware of our own positionality as cis authors working on a resource for trans and nonbinary communities, we organized additional focus groups of trans and nonbinary students, staff, faculty and alumni to provide detailed revisions, edits and responses to the drafted content. Career Exploration & Education and the SGDO took the lead in finalizing the draft, with additional input and review from the University of Toronto’s Accessibility for Ontarians with Disability (AODA) office, legal counsel and senior leadership. To move the guide into production, we hired Beena Mistry, a nonbinary illustrator, to provide the visuals for the guide. The welcoming tone and colours of the illustrations supported the design and layout of the guide, which was undertaken by SGDO student staff, providing another opportunity to involve students in the development process. Additionally, one of the most meaningful contributions to Your Journey were the quotes from trans and nonbinary alumni, who offered inspiration, advice and guidance to the reader. The production of the guide lasted two years, and was an iterative cycle of feedback and revision in order to best address the gap in service identified by trans and nonbinary students and recent alumni. We are proud to share Your Journey: A Career Guide for Trans and Nonbinary Students, and hope that it will be a useful resource for you, the students you work with and the career development work at your respective offices.

illustration of two people holding giant pencil
Illustration by Beena Mistry
Using an equity lens

Whether your department is thinking about trans-specific resources or other equity-focused career resources more broadly, there are many factors to consider to ensure all students are welcomed and supported. Use an equity lens to reflect on the resources and services that your department provides:

  • Is equity or social justice identified as a value of your departmental mission? How is it materialized in day-to-day work?
    • Is equity work done off the side of the desk, or have you committed time and resources (i.e. personnel and departmental funds) to do this work?
  • Have you connected with a subject matter expert or thought leader to help you think through the equity-related gaps in your services?
    • Example: Career Exploration & Education works in collaboration with equity offices (such as the SGDO), employers, student clubs and community partners to continue to address the needs of marginalized communities.
  • Can people across a diversity of identities relate to your department? Do people across a diversity of identities access your department? Do people across a diversity of identities represent your department? If not, why not?
  • Consider where the gaps are in your service provision. Have students identified specific needs or gaps? Do you have a mechanism to get feedback or input from a wide diversity of students?
    • Example: In the early stage of this work, before the idea of a guide had materialized, Career Exploration & Education and SGDO worked with trans and nonbinary students to clarify their career learning needs. The idea to create a guide arose out of these consultations.
Conclusion

Elliot, one of the alumni quoted in the guide, explained that “as trans and gender nonconforming folks, we have additional worries about being accepted, supported and not tokenized in workplaces.” As higher-education professionals, understanding the complexity of the barriers that trans and nonbinary people face is essential as we work toward equitable employment outcomes for all of our students. While Your Journey won’t have all of the answers, we do hope that this guide serves as a useful resource for students and the staff who support them in navigating careers and the job search process.

Allison Burgess (she/her) is the Director of the Sexual & Gender Diversity Office at the University of Toronto. She earned her PhD in Sociology and Equity Studies in Education and the Graduate Collaborative Program in Women and Gender Studies from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE/UT).

Sania Hameed (she/her) is a Career Educator at Career Exploration and Education at the University of Toronto. She earned her MEd in Higher Education from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE/UT) and brings a strong equity lens to her work, particularly around issues of race and representation.

 

References

Bauer, G., and Scheim, A. (2015). Transgender People in Ontario, Canada. TransPulse: London, ON. Retrieved from https://transpulseproject.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Trans-PULSE-Statistics-Relevant-for-Human-Rights-Policy-June-2015.pdf

University of Toronto. (2020). Your Journey: A Career Guide for Trans and Nonbinary Students. Retrieved from https://www.hrandequity.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/SGDO/Your%20Journey%20-%20A%20Career%20Guide%20for%20Trans%20and%20Nonbinary%20Students.pdf

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Editor’s note

My name is Lindsay Purchase. I am a white, cisgender, non-disabled woman. I have a university education and I am fortunate to be able to do work I find meaningful. I live in Toronto, a territory to which the Huron-Wendat, PetunHaundenosaunee, Anishinaabe and Mississauga Anishinaabe of New Credit share a special relationship. Today, it is home to Indigenous Peoples from across Turtle Island and many who have come from away.   

Why am I telling you this? Following in the example of two of this issue’s contributors, Natasha Caverley and Kathy Offet-Gartner, I am sharing my social location to acknowledge the powers and privileges that I hold. These have shaped my worldview and the opportunities I have been able to access. 

This issue of Careering, on the theme of Social Justice, highlights the importance of understanding the context in which people pursue education and work – or are prevented from doing so to their full potential. It also reminds us that career development can be a powerful tool to challenge inequities and to advance the public good.  

Contributors to this issue examine social justice from many different perspectives. They confront anti-Black racism in the workplace and challenge us to do the same. They offer resources and strategies to support transgender students, newcomers to Canada, clients in the criminal justice system and neurologically atypical jobseekers. Writers examine the potential of K-12 career education to meet the needs of all learners. They analyze how COVID-19 has affected the labour market and reflect on how to build back better.  

By sharing their experiences and ideas, contributors are issuing a call to career professionals to reject complacency. There is much work to be done, and this issue of Careering reminds us of the great promise of career development to help build a more socially just society.  

We hope you will join us to continue these discussions at CERIC’s virtual Cannexus21 conference, on the theme of Career Development for Public Good, starting Jan. 25. In the meantime, let us know on social media, using #Careering, about how you bring a social justice lens to your work and your takeaways from this issue.   

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Storytelling is the career superpower your clients need to master

Being able to deliver a compelling career story will help jobseekers identify their value and communicate it to employers

Alastair MacFadden

Alastair MacFaddenContemplating a path through an uncertain future can be agonizing. For students and workers, it can be particularly uncomfortable. They are bombarded with information and advice. From the future of work to the impact of COVID-19, the labour market context is noisy.

In the face of uncertainty, many will seek refuge by just getting by; focusing on the short-term horizon and making choices that can undermine their preferred future.

Short-term thinking comes naturally in times of stress. A job applicant might relay the chronology of their resume rather than reveal their ambition or true self. A university student might choose more education over a leap into the job market. The impulse is to survive the immediate threat. It is an instinct that comes at a cost. By avoiding risk, we also foreclose on opportunities.

How can a person shape a career plan in the face of uncertainty? How do you excite strangers about your fit for a new opportunity? How can you become the hero of your own story?

These questions are fundamental for anyone engaged in a career journey. To help a client find their way, an essential superpower involves helping them master their story.

Why storytelling matters

We’ve all overcome difficulties, stumbled and learned. This personal narrative includes the stories we tell ourselves and others. In that sense, they define who we are. (Other leaders in career development have also described the importance of a personal narrative. Lysa Appleton (2018) offers another angle on storytelling in career development based, in part, on Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. )


More on storytelling from CareerWise:

To improve job interview performance, try a storytelling approach

Learning how to trust our clients’ stories


Here’s why storytelling is so powerful in career management:

Our minds are built to share and remember stories. Our physiology drives us to link fragments of information in patterns (Gottschall, 2012). When something is unclear, it is automatic to jump to conclusions, fill in gaps with assumptions and make up stories (or even conspiracies).

Arranging the story arranges the mind. Research has proven that knowing and applying your strengths leads to better engagement, productivity and well-being (Seligman, 2002). Stories integrate emotions, sensations and events into meaning. You can find confidence by exploring patterns and themes that reveal talents and resilience (Dingfelder, 2011).

A personal narrative positions you as the protagonist. When you’re the agent and not the victim of your story, you gain a sense of control and hope for what is still to come (Ibarra and Lineback, 2005). A story forms the context needed for self-compassion. The work of narrative psychology shows that those who find positive meaning in life events express greater life satisfaction.

Storytelling is a way to make sense of our lives. As you arrange the plot points, you highlight what has taken place and frame what is next in your career journey. Turning points gain significance through recall and interpretation, and maturity surfaces as we relate our past to our present and foreshadow possible futures. Your story gives you the words to close one career chapter and begin another.

We communicate and connect through stories. By mastering and then sharing your story, you form relationships with strangers. You can become someone memorable because sharing a multidimensional story creates an associative map across multiple brain regions (Lazarus and Snow, 2018).

There’s value in being able to tell a good story. Good stories transport the audience toward connection. Character-driven stories activate the production of oxytocin in the brain – a hormone associated with feelings of empathy, generosity, trust and co-operation (Zak, 2014). If you want help from others, your story helps them feel they have a stake in your success.

Building a coherent and compelling career story

A random, accidental and incoherent story is a drag. Compelling stories have structure that grabs attention and transports the audience into another world.

A coherent career story also has flow. It identifies plot points and draws connections between them. To help your client explore their story, ask them what has been significant or inspiring in their work life. Try using these questions as a prompt:

  1. As you look back, what are key turning points or events? What are personal experiences that best reflect your strengths, passions and achievement? Describe a time or two when you’ve been happiest in your work – what skills were you using in those moments?
  2. What has been the role of other people in your journey? Who are the mentors, coaches and allies who have influenced you? What advice have you received? What was the impact?

Next, work with your client to create headlines that capture these critical moments and relationships as the chapters in their career story. Encourage them to craft a vivid, concise description of experiences that are most relevant to the impression they want to leave others about their character and story.

woman smiling and speaking to other people in office
Storytelling can serve as a powerful tool to connect with others. (iStock)
Delivering a story that connects

When someone asks your client, “What do you do?” or “Tell me about yourself” they are inviting a short story. Converting career chapters into human connection involves linking past experiences with the present and future.

To arrange the chapters and deliver a story that connects, good stories offer a consistent formula:

  • Know your audience. The aim is to share a career story that will resonate with the audience. The client should tailor their narrative to the opportunities they are exploring. Scanning a job ad for keywords, for example, can point to elements of the story that should be emphasized in a cover letter or interview.
  • Start by sharing something that may be surprising, such as a time you embarked on a personal challenge or crossed a career threshold.
  • To sustain attention, build tension by sharing obstacles that have shaped you, such as a crisis or failure or an unusual project. Describe the insights gained, before leading to …
  • The present state – a career crossroads – where you are taking a further step toward your preferred future.

Over time, each interview and tailored job application will bring the client clarity and a deeper sense of direction as they master their career story.

Anticipating the next chapter

Heroes don’t just endure difficulty and accept their fate. They exercise their strengths to prepare for the future. If a client feels they are preparing for an uncertain future, help them build their story with scenario planning. Have them focus on what is known:

  • Their main talents, gifts and competencies. For example, what patterns are evident in the interests, experiences and life lessons in their career story?
  • Trends shaping the future of their work life. What will be the impact on the client of personal and labour market trends over the next 10 or 20 years? Can they envision multiple futures or scenarios? (E.g. technological change or other trends in their profession, changes within their family or their family status, wider economic or social trends such as access to childcare or eldercare.)
  • Choices in a changing world. How can the client’s talents be deployed in each of the future scenarios they envision? What partnerships or allies will matter? How can their knowledge, skills and attributes best be deployed? Of the tactics that fit each future scenario, which ones appear again and again? Those are the tactics that offer the most robust next steps for any plausible career future, and they should inform the client’s choices and their next chapter.

It is worth reminding the client that they are protagonist of their story. By helping them master storytelling, you are helping them gain a superpower that will build their confidence, form relationships and propel their career forward.

Alastair MacFadden is an Executive in Residence at the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy. He has worked in the non-profit sector and government to advance career development practices and to help individuals reach their full potential.

References

Appleton, L. (2018). Storytelling a powerful tool in clients’ career development. CareerWise. careerwise.ceric.ca/2018/11/25/storytelling-a-powerful-tool-in-clients-career-development/

Dingfelder, S. (2011). Our Stories, Ourselves. American Psychological Association. Monitor on Psychology, 41(1). apa.org/monitor/2011/01/stories

Gottschall, J. (2012). The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Ibarra, H. and K. Lineback. (2005). What’s Your Story? Harvard Business Review. hbr.org/2005/01/whats-your-story

Lazarus, J. and S. Snow. (2018). The Storytelling Edge: How to Transform Your Business, Stop Screaming Into the Void, and Make People Love You. Wiley.

Seligman, M.E.P. (2002). Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment. Simon and Shuster

Zak, P.J. (2014). Why Your Brain Loves Good Storytelling. Harvard Business Review. hbr.org/2014/10/why-your-brain-loves-good-storytelling

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Supporting the careers of individuals who are Black, Indigenous and people of colour

It is vital that career professionals understand how systemic racism affects the career and educational pathways of their clients to help them succeed

Jodi Tingling

author headshotSystemic racism in Canada has affected individuals who are Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC), and for many has had a negative impact on their career pathways. As a career practitioner it is important to understand how systemic racism affects the clients you see and to assess how you can help dismantle a system that can be oppressive to ensure everyone has an opportunity to succeed in their careers.

Addressing inequity and its impacts

Equity means being fair and impartial; this includes having opportunities for all – not only a certain group. Understanding the challenges that BIPOC face is an important aspect of addressing their true career journey and its impacts. From challenges in the educational system to biased recruitment practices, to microaggressions in the workplace, to being screened out of senior leadership positions – these issues can negatively impact BIPOC’s career journeys.

As a career professional, be aware that BIPOC clients may have experienced racial trauma, which can affect their career and many other aspects of their life. Racial trauma results in the psychological and physical distress of individuals and can be attributed to varying experiences because of one’s race (Comas-Díaz, Hall, & Neville, 2019).


Read more from CareerWise

To build an inclusive workplace, start with CQ – cultural intelligence
Resources on career development and social justice
First Nations skills-training program has partnership at heart


Addressing inequity and its impacts requires a commitment to understanding the system in which BIPOC navigate their careers. It is important to be aware that standards of professionalism are ingrained in white supremacy culture and serve to oppress those who are BIPOC. According to two grassroots organizers and scholars, Tema Okun and Keith Jones (n.d.), white supremacy shows up in many organizations and has characteristics that are embraced in the workplace. This includes expectations of white-coded behaviours and attitudes ranging from perfectionism, to standards of hair, clothing and communication patterns, to overall expectations like adhering to organizations’ “culture fit.” These expectations amplify toxic workplace environments and serve to hurt BIPOC’s careers.

“As a career professional, be aware that BIPOC clients may have experienced racial trauma, which can affect their career and many other aspects of their life.”

Your strategy to empower BIPOC’s career trajectory needs to begin with commitment to becoming an ally to support and dismantle a system that serves as a disadvantage to the BIPOC community. This requires challenging the system and providing a space for BIPOC to thrive in their careers.

Education and career pathways

Barriers to career pathways can start in the education system, where educators’ racial biases can alter the educational trajectories of racialized students. Only recently, the Government of Ontario announced that it would end the controversial practice of streaming students into applied and academic tracks, a practice that has widely been known to discriminate against racialized students. A 2017 report from York University, Towards Race Equity in Education (2017), concluded 53% of Black students were in the academic program of study, compared to 81% of white and 80% of other racialized students. These discriminatory practices in the education system ultimately limit career trajectories and can alter and create a negative perception of school and career navigation for BIPOC.

Employment earnings and job security

BIPOC are affected negatively in their careers when it comes to unemployment, earnings and opportunities. According to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), racialized workers were more likely to be unemployed in 2016 at a rate of 9.2%, compared to non-racialized workers at 7.3% ((Block, Galabuzi, & Tranjan, 2019).  Additionally, the earnings gap has remained relatively unchanged since 2006. For every dollar that non-racialized men earn, racialized women earn 59 cents and racialized men earn 78 cents. In the By the numbers: Race, gender and the Canadian labour market report, the CCPA also concluded there has been little progress to close the racial gap in unemployment. One of the report’s key learnings is that labour market discrimination against racialized workers continues to be an issue both in the wage gap and in unemployment rates.

Similarly, the Conference Board of Canada (2017) concludes there are discriminatory practices that contribute to the employment and wage gap. One factor during the recruitment process included “having an ethic-sounding name.” When comparing resumes that had similar content but differences in names, they found those with non-ethnic sounding names were 35% more likely to get a callback. Belonging to a racialized group also decreased employment security; 20.9 % of visible minorities reported experiencing discrimination as a barrier to maintaining employment opportunities.

Career mobility

Career mobility among the BIPOC community is a major issue that needs to be addressed. BIPOC are consistently underrepresented in senior leadership positions. A report from Ryerson University’s Diversity Institute (2019) found that although Greater Montreal’s population was made up of 22.6% of racialized people, only 5.3 % held senior leadership positions. Additionally, in The Black Experience Project, Black people living in the Greater Toronto Area were asked how being Black has affected their work experience (Ryerson Diversity Institute, 2017). Participants cited challenges in their career including “having their level of competency questioned, dealing with racism and stereotypes, and having their qualifications overlooked or not recognized.” Expertise in the BIPOC community is often overlooked and this can be very discouraging for those who want to be in senior leadership roles.

Assess your biases

When thinking about the ways you as a career professional can help your BIPOC clients, first, assess your bias. Harvard has a race-based Implicit Associate Test (IAT) that can help you understand your blind spots when it comes to race. Take this test to understand where your biases may be and develop a strategy to actively work on them. Understand that systemic racism in Canada exists and professionals from the BIPOC community have historically been discriminated against, both during the recruitment process and in the workforce. Next, if you realize you have blind spots, take the necessary steps to learn, listen and be receptive to the experiences of BIPOC.

Building resilience

Challenge systems that serve to benefit certain populations and cause harm to others. Ask yourself what you can do to propose alternative processes that support and provide equitable opportunities for BIPOC.

Here are some strategies that you can start to engage in to advocate for opportunities for the BIPOC community:

  • Become an ally; use your power and privilege to help dismantle oppressive systems that serve to promote white supremacy and negatively affects BIPOC’s career journeys.
  • Partner with organizations that do advocacy work to address the specific needs of BIPOC.
  • Assess if education streams your BIPOC clients are being steered into are limiting and help provide options to expand career opportunities.
  • Empower your BIPOC clients by connecting them to mentorship, networks and leadership opportunities to help them build their career.
  • Speak to employers about potential biases and blind spots, advocate for opportunities and amplify BIPOC voices.
  • Stand up to racism and oppression when you see it, engage in crucial conversations and seek reinforcements to help support your work.
  • Form a network that can be a referral source for culturally appropriate resources that can support mental health, build networks and enhance growth.

With these strategies in mind, continue to help your BIPOC clients succeed and navigate the barriers they may be experiencing in their career.

Jodi Tingling is a career and wellness practitioner who works with leaders, professionals and organizations to ensure they meet their true potential. Her true passion is working to empower the voices and experiences of Black Indigenous Women of Colour (BIWOC). As the founder of Creating New Steps, she amplifies organizations and professionals to meet their unique workplace goals.

References

Block, S., Galabuzi, G., & Tranjan, R. (2019) Canada’s colour coded income inequality. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Retrieved from policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National%20Office/2019/12/Canada%27s%20Colour%20Coded%20Income%20Inequality.pdf

Comas-Díaz, L., Hall, G. N., & Neville, H. A. (2019). Racial trauma: Theory, research, and healing: Introduction to the special issue. American Psychologist, 74(1), 1-5. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/amp0000442

Okun, Tema. (n.d.) White supremacy culture. Retrieved from collectiveliberation.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/White_Supremacy_Culture_Okun.pdf

Ryerson Diversity Institute. (2017). The Black experience project in the GTA: Overview report. Retrieved from ryerson.ca/content/dam/diversity/reports/black-experience-project-gta—1-overview-report.pdf

Ryerson Diversity Institute. (2019). Diversity leads women & racialized people in senior leadership positions. Retrieved from ryerson.ca/diversity/reports/DiversityLeads_Montreal_EN.pdf

The Conference Board of Canada. (2017). Racial wage gap. Retrieved from conferenceboard.ca/hcp/provincial/society/racial-gap.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1#top

York University. (2017). Towards race equity in education: The schooling of Black students in the Greater Toronto Area. Retrieved from edu.yorku.ca/files/2017/04/Towards-Race-Equity-in-Education-April-2017.pdf?x60002

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