Welcome back! Today we're talking with Danielle Dobson. Danielle is a licensed CPA, Personal Trainer, Wellness Coach, and the author of Breaking The Gender Code. Breaking the Gender Code unpacks why we feel the constant pressure to keep all of the balls in the air and why we think we have to. It looks at how the cultural myths created and reinforced over millennia underpin our expectations today and aren't serving us. But most importantly it deconstructs how to do it differently.

Let's tune in and get into Danielle's story about why she became passionate about women in the workforce and how you can take the first steps to break your own code and do things your own way. 

 

Things you will learn in this episode:

[00:01 – 11:57] Opening Segment

• I welcome and introduce my guest, Danielle Dobson, to the show
• • Speaker, author, and mother
  • Making a difference in the workforce
  • Using what you have to get what you want 
  • Supporting mothers 
• Danielle talks about how her passion began
• • Originally set out just to get to know the people she would coach better
  • Helps mothers lead at work and lead at home 
  • Wonder Women on the outside but feel unworthy 
  • Built critical skills from being a parent 
  • What started as research became a mission
• "To fix the problems in the workforce, I had to break my own work code"
• Danielle talks about gender roles within evolution 
• • We're more similar than we are different 
  • Gender roles are learned through culture, they are not adapted 
• Massive expectation gaps
• Write your own code and leave out the rest

[11:58 – 24:45] Understanding the Gender Code 

• I talk about my own experience with expectations in work life and parenting
• We assume rather than ask 
• • We often don't have the conversations that need to happen 
• Why are you the CEO of the home yet you're expected to clean all the toilets?
• Danielle talks about the mental load on women
• • For every hour the man does work at the home, women do an hour and forty-six 
• Quantify the unpaid work 
• The value of sharing the load and caring for people 
• • Professional benefit and asset 
• Danielle talks about how men can support women in the workplace appropriately 
• • Have conversations where you're asking rather than assuming
  • Listen to understand not respond 
  • Leaders who have empathy, they don't need answers, they need questions
• Decide for yourself what parts of the code you want to keep, leave, write or create
• "If I tell you if I'm thirsty, I'm not asking for water but for you to feel my thirst"

[24:46 – 30:35] Breaking the Gender Code 

• Breaking and Writing your own code
• • Just because it worked before doesn't mean it will today
  • Gender, empathy and understand
• Breaking your code sets others up after you to break their own 
• Danielle talks about her experience seeing what motivates people 
• • The things you can't measure are harder to sustain 
  • Effort and commitment to make a change in the code
• There is a direct correlation between having women in leadership and the productivity of the business 
• • Improved by 6.6% in market value
  • Having more gender balance in the workforce raises profitability 
• Women look for connections in order to succeed 
• • Building psychological safety in the workplace 
• Ultimately empathy wins

[30:36 – 36:25] Closing Segment

• I expand a bit on the important psychological safety
• • Being agile means changing 
  • Connect with someone like Danielle to figure out how to create this 
• What do you think still needs to be said?
• • Your first step is to get curious and ask yourself the question
  • Is this working? Why or why not? 
  • Ask your males in the workforce if they have any questions 
• Final words from me and Danielle

 

Tweetable Quotes:

"I was interviewing all these amazing people and they were Wonder Women on the outside, but not one thought they were worthy of that title. They just lived and operated as what they thought society expects." - Danielle Dobson

"Rather than basing our lives on gender codes and unrealistic expectations, we can actually define what we want and let go of the rest." - Danielle Dobson 

"When you listen to somebody, listen to understand and listen to connect rather than listening to respond or react." - Danielle Dobson

 

Resources Mentioned:

• Breaking The Gender Code

 

You can connect with Danielle on LinkedIn. Visit her website https://www.codeconversations.com.au/ to keep the conversation going. 

To know more, you can connect with me on LinkedIn, and follow the podcast on Instagram, and Twitter. Be sure to visit our website https://thehappyhealthyworkplace.com/ for even more content. Email me at [email protected], I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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