To celebrate International Women’s Day this year, we asked Emma her thoughts on topics such as: diverse teams; how her firm ‘breaks the bias’; and what more needs to be done to support women to achieve their potential. We hope you enjoy!
HAVE YOU EXPERIENCED ANY DISCRIMINATION OR BIAS IN YOUR CAREER?
Absolutely! Growing up in a small town in Australia I was regularly told that I could not be a lawyer, nor would I get a job, because the financial services and legal professions are predominantly men. The “boys club” still exists; out of my graduating class I can only find one other woman that is still working in law 20+ years later, despite at least 50% of my graduating class being women.
Keeping your head down, working hard and delivering rarely gets you noticed. Women don’t naturally promote themselves which means they get overlooked for promotion and I definitely experienced this.
However, a bias that is often overlooked in this discussion is the bias that senior women have for other senior women, or junior women coming up the ranks, and I experienced this equally to the “traditional bias” in my career (and still do). In my view, this is more intentional and harmful than what I perceive is an increasingly proportionally higher unconscious bias from men.
It’s for all these reasons I wanted to build a firm with a strong female leadership team and collaborative/supportive environment where women are also supported and thrive.
WHEN YOU STARTED CLEVELAND & CO, WHAT WAS YOUR VISION FOR THE TEAM YOU WANTED TO BUILD?
When I started my own company, I knew I wanted to do something fresh, pace-setting and different. I wanted to ensure that what I was offering was poles apart from what other legal firms were offering. So, naturally, as part of this I wanted the culture of the firm to be non-traditional, to be people-focussed, equitable and inclusive.
Honesty and integrity are two of my most important values and I want my team to live these values in everything they do at Cleveland & Co.
YOUR TEAM IS PREDOMINATELY WOMEN, YET YOUR BUSINESS OPERATES IN A PREDOMINATELY MALE DOMINATED SECTOR, WHY DO YOU THINK SO MANY WOMEN ARE DRAWN TO WORKING AT CLEVELAND & CO?
I think there are a number of reasons:
- firstly, as the firm is woman-owned and run, it has naturally attracted women;
- we have an open, collaborative and inclusive culture which allows employees to express their opinions without fear of negativity, embarrassment or humiliation;
- we have a number of friendly working practices, such as flexible/reduced working hours, homeworking and agility; and
- there are promotional opportunities for all employees, regardless of whether you work flexibly or not.
HOW ARE YOU ‘BREAKING THE BIAS’ AT CLEVELAND & CO?
We value employees on the contribution they make to the firm, not where they went to university or who they know. We embrace all aspects of what makes our employees tick and look at what makes them unique, ie. what sport they play, or what they enjoy doing in their spare time. Our company operates on the basis that compensation and promotion should be based on an employee’s value to the organisation, their potential and what they are contributing now, not their length of service or what they have achieved at other companies. This ensures that people who have career breaks are treated the same as those who have not had to take a break in their careers to have children for example. It also means that moving up the ranks quickly is possible for everyone, not just the person that has worked the most hours!
Currently, 18% of our workforce are working mums, 24% of our workforce have a flexible working arrangement and as of February this year, 73% of the senior positions at our firm are held by women.
WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE SOME OF THE ADVANTAGES OF HAVING A DIVERSE TEAM?
A diverse team can bring immeasurable benefits to a business and it has been shown that a diverse team leads to more creativity, new ideas, better client outcomes and that workplace flexibility can increase productivity. In fact, we found during Covid that our business thrived because we already had flexible working practices ingrained in our culture and we were able to adapt seamlessly to this ‘new normal’ of working.
Diverse teams have heightened employee engagement and they make better and faster business decisions. Simply put, if you are being challenged to think differently you are going to sharpen your brain and expand your mindset.
Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, has been quoted as saying: ‘men only know how to develop a firm that competes in revenue, whereas women in business know how to build a company that competes in quality‘. At Cleveland & Co, we are driven by our clients’ success and our clients truly value the quality of our service and creative solutions we present to them.
Another advantage is profitability, McKinsey & Company recently researched 1,000 companies and found that those that are gender-diverse, outperform their national industry averages on profitability. My firm has been profitable every year since inception, we have no debt and no investors. Whenever I think about women being successful, I think of the rebuilding of Waterloo Bridge in London during the war. To this day, it is the only bridge in London built primarily by women that was built on budget and on time. Unbelievably their stories were wiped from history until 2015, when the crucial role they played, was finally discovered and acknowledged.
WHAT CHANGES DO YOU THINK STILL NEED TO BE MADE IN THE LEGAL AND FINANCIAL SERVICES SECTORS TO BREAK THE BIAS THAT EXISTS?
More women in leadership roles, and not just having one female at the top, to meet arbitrary diversity goals; we need many more females in managerial and ‘heads of’ roles. It is not good enough to strive to have just 30% of women in leadership roles in law and financial services, it should be 50%. Women in leadership roles need to take ownership and bring others along with them, they need to be diversity advocates that support and mentor junior women into senior positions. Female friendly working practices should be standard and a recognition that women who take a career break to have children have just as much to offer a company as men who haven’t. Promotional opportunities for women should be based on what they deliver not how many hours they work.
We need to broaden our definition of what makes a good leader. Why can’t leaders be praised for their empathy, social responsibility or collaboration. These traits don’t take anything away from a person’s intelligence, or business acumen, surely they add to their leadership qualities?
HOW IMPORTANT DO YOU SEE YOUR ROLE AND THE FIRM’S IN PUSHING THROUGH AND BREAKING BIAS IN THE INDUSTRIES YOU WORK IN?
Hugely, we are in a unique position of being able to influence strategic decision making at the highest level of business within traditionally male-dominated sectors. We assist our clients in areas such as recruitment and improving diversity. We are setting the standard for how businesses should operate in 2022 and encourage others to do the same. Our external in-house model proves how you can be an integral part of a business, whilst working flexibly.
We are showing the world that a woman-owned, women-friendly company can be truly successful and really drive change in the clients we work for and in the industries we operate in.
Our video below features our diverse team talking about what breaking the bias means to them.
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