Thought Leadership

Written by: Sophie Warwick I was recently asked in a panel discussion, “why can it sometimes be hard for women to support other women?” The question brought me back to a presentation I made about 8 years ago on improving gender diversity in the engineering sector. An attendee raised their hand and shared that they believed the greatest barrier to women exceling in the workplace was other women. In her experience, she shared that she’d had many fantastic men as leaders but had

Written By: Jillian Climie. At The Thoughtful Co., we’re often asked to speak on the topics we’re experts in: compensation negotiation and gender equity. We offer workshops on these topics, and we’ve now done these across the globe, at organizations including Oxford University, Nokia, CFA Society, Stantec, Rotman, Wealthsimple, Tech Ladies, and Ledcor.  Still, we often get asked to speak for free, and those asking are sometimes frustrated when we won’t. This comes from a good

Written by: Sophie Warwick As women there is often social and systemic pressure to put the needs of everyone around us first. We may unintentionally find ourselves supporting our own needs with only the energy that happens to be left over. However, it’s difficult to show up fully for other people if we haven’t taken care of ourselves first. One of the most important areas we need to support ourselves in is our compensation and financial wellbeing. Compensation is so closely t

A coach’s perspective on big things women executives face and what can help. Guest Writer: Kelly Gorder. As a coach, I work with some pretty compelling women in executive roles. These women are smart, driven and intuitive. They navigate a deep duality around managing complex workloads and being liked while doing so. Meanwhile, these women are the glue holding their worlds together at work and home. They maintain an unwavering ability to make stuff happen–for themselves and ot

Written by: Sophie Warwick Women continue to be underrepresented in senior positions. We often hear about the value of mentorship in the workplace, but less so about sponsorship. Individuals with a formal sponsor at their workplace are 97% more likely to report they have a clear plan for their career advancement compared to 75% of individuals who have formal mentorship programs (Gallup, 2023). Additionally, research shows that women tend to be over-mentored and under-sponsore

Written By: Jillian Climie. When we first started The Thoughtful Co., I assumed that a lot of the executive women we worked with would have negotiated their compensation before. These women are powerhouses, running massive business lines or portfolios, with huge teams, budgets and scope. They are actively negotiating with vendors to get the best price, or negotiating for money for their own teams – but strangely enough, so many have never done it for themselves. It’s importan