This week, I had the pleasure of attending the YWCA Women of Distinction Awards as a guest of dynamo Toronto entrepreneur, Mary Aitken (if you’re not a member of Verity, what on earth are you waiting for?). Anyway, an amazing group of women were honoured for their contributions. One of them was Dr. Sherry Cooper, the Chief Economist at BMO Financial Group. As we head into a long weekend here in Canada, I thought this quote was fitting:
“We MUST create a more family friendly environment for men and women. Talent is leaving in droves.”
I love this for two reasons:
- It comes from one of Canada’s most respected and influential business and economic guru’s… REFRESHING!
- It doesn’t exclude the fact that MEN want to be involved in life outside of work too. I’m personally tired of the stereotype that workplace flexibility is a women’s only issue.
As Dr. Cooper noted, our organization’s are losing incredible amounts of talent because they’re not adapting to the changing realities of the workforce. Work used to be an employers market… it’s now an employee’s market and change needs to happen if organization’s want to keep the so-called “best and brightest”. These people are too smart to stay in archaic systems driven out of the industrial age.
Today, I believe, we are in the entrepreneurial age and, unless organizations want to pull from a pool of the “average and dimmest”, they will need to adapt their approaches accordingly (and quickly).
So, on that note… to all our readers in Canada, enjoy the Victoria Day weekend and turn off that blackberry!
Happy leading!
