Join me as I learn from Elena Zhebel and Renske Melchers-Vermolen how to create a safe space in your team.
In this episode, these two female leaders teach us that
🧠 Contrary to popular belief, technical people can be good managers.
🌟 And women can lead just as well as men.
🤷🏻♀️ In fact, leadership knows no gender.
How to create a safe space in your team | Elena Zhebel and Renske Melchers-Vermolen on Women Disrupting Tech – Women Disrupting Tech
The Magic You Can Expect in this Episode 🪄
Did you know that women can teach men a lesson (or two) about creating a safe space in a team🤔?
That’s why we delve into the art of creating safe spaces within tech teams in episode 42 of Women Disrupting Tech.
Elena and Renske share invaluable strategies for fostering an inclusive and supportive environment. Here are three things that you’ll discover:
- Crafting Safe Spaces: Elena and Renske reveal practical steps to establish trust, encourage open communication, and promote psychological safety within your team.
- Sustaining Safety: Learn how to maintain these safe spaces over time, ensuring that team members feel heard, respected, and empowered.
- Team Benefits: Explore why safe spaces benefit not only individual team members but also the collective performance and creativity of the entire team.
And that’s not all!
Toward the end of the episode, I get some surprise branding advice. Is it time to rename the podcast?
What makes this episode magical🧙🏼♀️?
What struck me when I listened to the podcast was that both Elena and Renske seemed to feel really comfortable. And they were not afraid to show themselves. That is a good sign when you are recording a podcast about creating safe spaces, I’d say.
The result of the safe space in the podcast is a really open discussion about
🧑💼 the difference between being a leader and being a manager,
👥 the importance of co-creation between managers and senior people in the team, and
⚖️ the need to constructively deal with conflict and poor performance.
So, if you’re a woman in tech or an aspiring male ally, this is an episode you don’t want to miss.
About Elena and Renske
Elena Zhebel is a senior product manager at Rabobank. She holds a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics. Before working in Finance, she worked in the oil and gas industry and founded her own company, EZNumeric. You can connect with Elena on LinkedIn.
Renske Melchers-Vermolen is a tech lead at Rabobank. Before working at Rabo, she worked at major companies like NUON (Vattenfall) and PwC. She has a Master’s Degree in Computer Science. You can connect with Renske on LinkedIn, too.
About the Rabobank Women In Tech community
Both ladies are active members of the Women In Tech community at Rabobank, and I’d like to thank Marjolein Piek for her help in putting this episode together.
If you’d like to learn more about Rabobank or explore open positions, you can find them on the Rabobank website. Renske is currently recruiting for a medior business analyst.
Coming up in the next episodes?
Next week’s episode will feature Leonie Wiggers – Frijters. She is one of the role models at Role It Out. In the episode, she shares her journey from studying chemistry and hating programming to becoming a software developer at a MedTech company.
After that, get ready for an inspiring episode with a female founder of color who overcame some significant setbacks in her quest to harness the power of food to connect people and bridge cultural differences.
By the way, you can binge-listen to the entire inspiring archive of episodes with over 1,000 minutes of Women Disrupting Tech content I have published since September 2022 on Spotify, Google, Apple, or Goodpods.
Feedback? Let me know!
I’d love to hear your thoughts about this episode and suggestions on how you create a safe space in your team.
So please do not hesitate to contact me via LinkedIn or email if you have any positive or negative feedback or if you would like to suggest a guest that I absolutely must have on the podcast.
Do You Want to Be a Male Ally
How do you get started with diversity, equity, and inclusion in tech when you’re a man?
Let me give you a few suggestions, courtesy of ChatGPT:
📚 Educate yourself about the topic.
👂🏻 Listen to underrepresented people and amplify their voices.
💪🏼 Support inclusive practices like fair compensation.
🫱🏼🫲🏾 Collaborate with DEI organizations and advocate for DEI within your company.
Sounds easy? Maybe not…
About 18 months ago, I was struggling with this as well. So, I started a podcast to interview women working in tech. I wanted to learn why there are so few of them. This podcast is called Women Disrupting Tech.
Since I started, I’ve interviewed 41 women about topics ranging from DEI in general to mental health and how to take care of chores like bookkeeping. My goal is to provide a platform to them so they can inspire other women to consider an education or a job in tech.
But my goal for 2024 is to have more men join the conversation as guests and members of the Women Disrupting Tech Community.
As a member, you’ll receive a free email every Friday. By reading it, you’ll learn something new about diversity in tech. Like how we can prevent the gender pay gap. Or how to start with DEI in a startup. The women I interview inspire you with their stories, help you understand their points of view, and advocate for them. Of course, I include links to the most recent podcast episode and the show notes for further reading and education.
So, it is an excellent way to start educating yourself. But reading the newsletter and listening to the podcast also ticks other boxes on the list. Because you can amplify their voices to other people in your network by sharing the articles. And with the wisdom these women share, you can support inclusive practices in your company.
Ultimately, that’s good for business and gets you karma points. All of that for free.
To join the Women Disrupting Tech Community, enter your best email address below.
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