EMEA Facebook Vice President on how to make a successful career
IN 2016, TALKING ABOUT ACHIEVED GENDER EQUALITY REMAIN EARLY: In most countries, women still get fewer men for similar work. We talked with Nicola Mendelsohn, vice president of Facebook for EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), about her career path, combating prejudice and how business owners can help mothers.
YOU work in the Internet sphere, which changes with cosmic speed. How have your tasks changed during this time?
I have been working here for three and a half years. I joined the company when Facebook was at its peak. Then they used it mainly from computers, but today it is already a whole family of applications and services (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, Oculus), mobile as well. 1.7 billion people log on to Facebook every day, so we make every effort to match the composition of the company's employees to the diversity of people who use Facebook every day. Everything becomes more diverse - and this, of course, affects my work.
You regularly enter the lists of the most influential women. Do you think women in leadership positions became more confident by 2016?
Before coming to the interview, I studied information about women in Russia. I was struck by the results of the Grant Thornton survey: according to him, more than 45% of women doing business in Russia occupy high positions or run companies. It's fine! And much better than in my native UK. I think confidence is incredibly important for women in business. It is easy to say: “You need to be more confident in yourself,” but this is difficult to achieve. I think that confidence comes with time and with experience. Even an unpleasant experience helps to become better: you can learn from it so that you can do more confidently next time. Faced again with a similar situation, you will already think differently.
I remember the beginning of my career when I was first raised a salary. I did not prepare to talk, so when I was offered a very small salary increase, I was so happy that I simply said: "Thank you!" But now I know that my male colleagues studied the situation in advance. When discussing, they called a specific number, and if she did not like them, they asked for more. And it comes with confidence. I think you learn in the process.
DO YOU HAVE ROLE MODELS IN BUSINESS AND WHY?
I was lucky to grow with my mother and grandmother, who worked, so that from a very young age I was equal to them. Working women from two generations older than me - it was very unusual for Manchester, where I grew up. My mom is still in business - she runs a catering and party company. My late grandmother owned a small business - selling fabrics.
My first advisers and assistants were my family and my teachers. These people helped me become myself. This is not much different from big business: you collect a board of directors from different industries, so that experts give you recommendations. All my life, at different stages of my career, I adhered to this principle, listening to others in order to become better. Not necessarily to people who agree with you, and not only to those whom you know well. Helping those who challenge you and sometimes say that is not easy to hear. You need to understand that as you progress, you will have to revise your circle of advisers. This is useful to think about all women in business: who surrounds you? Who are you meeting with? Be honest! This will help you to become better.
WHAT ELSE COUNCIL WOULD YOU GIVE TO WOMEN WORKING IN THE MEN'S MEDIUM?
Do not be afraid to say what you think. I regularly come across this, and much has been written about this in the book by Sheryl Sandberg. Often you come to a crowded business event, and women in the literal sense of the word do not find a place at the table - they are sitting at a distance. They do not raise their hands, and it seems to them that they are not heard. I know this firsthand: I have met quite a few such women, and I myself have been like that. You know what to say, you have an idea, but you keep your mouth shut. Not only women, but also men should have a hand in the changes: they need to create an atmosphere in which the woman feels that she has the right to vote.
But Facebook is not only on the positions of gender equality?
We make every effort to diversify the composition of workers. How many people, so many opinions. For a company that cares for 1.7 billion users, it is important to maintain diversity among employees and pluralism of opinions. This is an important vector of development. Regarding the current state of affairs, everything is not so good: 67% of our employees are men, and only 16% of our employees working on technical issues are women. This is not enough, and we know that this is a problem for the entire technology industry. About 27% of leading positions in our country are held by women - this is not enough. Mark Zuckerberg thinks that everything is fine - thanks to people like Sheryl Sandberg and Carolyn Everson, who hold high positions in the company. But we think more can be done.
I think we need to try harder to make more women work in technology - and we are working on it. It is not easy, and you need to start with the smallest girls, who believe that mathematics is not their field. If from an early age you think that the exact sciences are not for you and that you are not good enough in them, you will not continue education in this field.
Other areas in which we are trying to do more are parental leave. We urge people not to be afraid that their personal life will interfere with their work. We give men the right to go on leave to care for a child for four months, as well as women. For Facebook, it’s not important whether you come to the office, but your contribution to the work - we use the strengths of the employees.
HOW ARE THE RACES WITH RACIAL DIVERSITY?
When I talk about diversity, I talk about its very different aspects. It means different things in different countries. This is not only a race, it is also a religion, age, whether you served in the army, and so on. The people you hire should be different from you. One of the things that we brought to the company is the need to think about prejudice. Everyone has prejudices, especially those who think that they are free from them - there is a certain irony in this.
About a year ago we introduced a special course, and during this time more than half of the company's employees passed the training. He helped us learn more about what might be called "lazy prejudices." Let me give an example: one of my male colleagues, Steve Hatch, went through training and noticed that in our system for videoconferences, when you dial a number, a silhouette of a man appears. We make thousands of calls, and always with the image of a man. He spoke with the head of the IT department, Tim Kampos, and said that he considered this to be wrong. He told about the problem of the company engaged in video conferencing, and two weeks later the image was changed: now when you call, an image of a man and a woman appear.
Such small situations strongly influence our way of thinking. I believe that when we meet with them, we should pay attention to them and try to change. This is what changes future generations. You need to be aware of their privileges. If you do not do this, then it will be very difficult for you to understand how you can cope with a problem situation.
In your opinion, has the business environment become more open and friendly for women?
I think now they are talking more about the problem, but there is still a lot of work ahead. It is important for women to have role models. But at the same time, they should have role models at the earlier stages of their careers. It is very easy to equal Angela Merkel, the country's leader. But what steps has she taken to achieve this goal? I think people should pay attention to the details in order to better understand what is happening.
We must also pay attention to women who create their own business. Now there are 5.5 million small and medium-sized businesses in Russia, and this is a growing part of the economy. The question is how many of these companies are created by women and can there be more of them. We recently conducted a study in the UK - unfortunately, I don’t have specific numbers now - and we found out that every tenth woman has a very good business idea, but she doesn’t have enough confidence to put it into practice.
However, we noticed that there is enough support from friends and family for her to start acting. So we founded She Means Business - a portal where you can watch webinars and get the necessary knowledge, basic ideas about how you can use online tools to find clients (what is most needed for those who open their own business) and advertise your product. We are just starting to work in this area, but I am very interested where this will lead us.
WHY, AS YOU SEE, MEN AND WOMEN IN THE BUSINESS SPHERE ARE NOT EQUAL TILL? WHAT PROBLEMS NEED TO BE SOLVED FIRST?
This question worries me a lot. I have four children - a daughter and three sons. And I want to be sure that my daughter will have the same opportunities as my sons. And I want them all to believe that they can help each other become better - in business or in other areas. This brings us back to the question of role models on which we are oriented from a very early age.
Recently, an experiment was conducted where children of six to eight years old were asked to draw an astronaut, a fireman and a surgeon. All children painted men. And then an astronaut, a female firefighter and a female surgeon were invited to the same schools. And the children were just amazed! They were surprised that this was possible. This shows that even at such a young age, children are pushed into a frame and stereotyped ideas about role models are being implanted in various fields. I think the reason lies in the "lazy prejudices" around us - and this needs to be paid attention to.
I KNOW THAT YOU WORKED FOR FOUR DAYS A WEEK LONG TIME TO HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO SPEND MORE TIME WITH CHILDREN. WHAT ELSE SHOULD DO BUSINESS OWNERS THAT MOTHER WAS COMFORTABLE TO WORK?
It's true, for sixteen years I worked four days a week. My children are older (the eldest is now nineteen), so I thought that my physical presence was not as necessary for them as it was before. I think the whole thing is in the understanding between you and your leader. If your manager is aware of what matters to you and you speak openly with each other, there is no need to hide something. I know cases when women left their bags on chairs when they needed to run home because they didn’t want others to guess that they had to leave for personal reasons. I think this is wrong.
I think you should be honest, and your manager is open to talking about what's important to you. This applies not only to children, but also to other moments of your life: whether you need to go to the gym, or care for an elderly parent, or walk the dog. Technology today gives us a variety of opportunities to work. People should come to the service, perform their duties well, and their activities should inspire them - but not to the detriment of their personal lives. They should live their life as they like, and do what is important to them. I often observe how people leave the company because of their manager, and not because of the company and its policies. So I urge employees to have an open and honest relationship with their bosses, and managers to ask the opinion of their subordinates.
Another element of Facebook’s corporate culture is “tough” conversations. Some things are hard to say, they can be very personal, but it is necessary. What's bothering you? What are you keeping back to me? This is what I want to know about my employees, because this is the only way we can help each other become better. We have confidence that we will work together for a long time - this is important.
Recently, you have traveled around many countries, where you met with women employed in various business areas. What important things have you learned from these meetings?
Facebook works in several ways. Each of our offices has its own women's group. They hold many different events where women come together, sometimes they invite outside speakers and our partners. We have an annual event, which we hold in each of the regions: women gather together, share their achievements. Two years ago, in December, we all had to publicly promise to change something to help women in business. The promise I made then to hundreds of women: every week, when I travel, I will organize events for women. And it turned out to be an amazing adventure. Here, in Moscow, I also met with leading Russian women in business. But I also try to meet with women who own a small business, and learn from them new things. Or with politicians. Or with children - with little girls.
When we were in Warsaw a year ago, I had a similar dinner for businesswomen. All of them were for the first time at a women's event - just before no one had ever arranged anything like this. It seems to me strange that in 2016 women in high positions do not get together and do not expand their ties. They liked it, and they continue to meet after dinner, which we organized. I'm happy with it.
Photo: Facebook Newsroom, Nicola Mendelsohn / Twitter