Esther's blog: the value of evaluation

"I know that many of you look forward to Citymothers and Cityfathers blogs as a way of lightening up your working day, with their combination of humour and wry insight.  I’m afraid my contribution is a bit more sombre in tone, for which forgive me.  I wanted to share a few thoughts of relevance to you all, and can’t really think of a jolly mode in which to present them. 

There are many ways that Citymothers is serving the City.  Some of them are obvious to any member, just by clicking onto the website - the talks, the seminars, the networking opportunities, the mentoring scheme - whereas other are more covert.  I’m going to talk about one of the less obvious aspects, which I believe will nevertheless make an impact over the longer term: the value of evaluation.

If we work in the City we are probably evaluated regularly, year in year out; perhaps an annual appraisal with a self, peer and boss assessment against defined targets; perhaps interim assessments too; and then there may be some kind of chargeable hour and billing targets (or both).  It is just part of the landscape.  I listened just a few days ago to a radio report on traders who are required to track sleep, alcohol and food intake and exercise in order to assess correlation of those factors with successful performance on the trading floor.  Where next?!

Well, what researchers from various disciplines including law, business, psychology, coaching and counselling have noticed is that you, dear WorkLife Central, might provide some insights for them into a whole host of studies on working parents.  Over the years Louisa has posted a number of requests for information on the “survey and studies” section of the members’ area tab of the website, for instance seeking information from someone studying flexible working habits from parents and from another person considering the consequences of work-related absences on young children.  We hope to relay the results of these surveys when they are complete.

Still on the subject of evaluation, we have put in various mechanisms for evaluating the Citymothers mentoring scheme, ranging for requests for written feedback, scaled preferences included in the application forms and, in the last application window, some standard “personality-style” questions which everyone who has currently been paired graciously worked their way through.  The questions may have looked somewhat strange to those not used to the style, but they have been used in many different contexts by psychologists so have the advantage of prior testing for reliability, and we have a psychologist working with us to interpret the results.  The primary purpose of this scheme evaluation is, in contrast to those researchers mentioned above who seek information for their own research purposes, to assist us in understanding how to make the Citymothers mentoring scheme more robust and effective for future applicants.  We cannot know that until the end of the mentoring year for each cohort whether the information collected has yielded helpful data, but I did want to let you know this is going on and is another way we seek to enhance your membership benefit.

As a separate matter altogether, I wanted to mention the number of events I’ve attended recently where I’ve experienced warmth and supportiveness that no evaluation can accurately capture, which is nevertheless central to the Citymothers experience.  The collegiality of the three Citymothers Career Conversations, first with Claire Howe from Clifford Chance on HR, then with Nicola Richards from Macfarlanes on law and most recently with Tara Kengla from E&Y on accountancy, has been such a delight to experience.  These are necessarily intimate lunch groups, and I’m beginning to see themes emerging – the number of times women veer away from very senior positions for fear they won’t be able to cope is one. 

Finally, in this very long and probably too earnest blog, let me pay tribute to the fathers-to-be and new fathers who attended the Talking Talent seminar on 'managing your career through the paternity transition'.  It was absolutely brilliant to see so many men there, a testament to how much they care about their role and place in family life. In my mind, the equal involvement of men and women in parenting, and their public affirmation of that joint role, is the key to a fairer future, a future with all its richness and diversity which is good for business too."  

Esther is a member of the Citymothers Steering Committee and runs the Citymothers mentoring scheme. She trained and first made her living as a musician and then worked for over two decades in the City, becoming a partner in her law firm. She now combines legal consultancy, executive coaching, performing the piano, teaching and two non-executive Board positions in what seems to have turned into a third, portfolio career.