An award-winning entrepreneur, learning architect, and author, Dr. Rumeet Billan has dedicated her to career to transforming workplaces into environments that enable trust, foster belonging, and build resilience. Her groundbreaking research has uncovered critical insights into workplace dynamics, from the pivotal 2022 Belonging in the Workplace survey to her eye-opening international study on “tall poppy syndrome”, which revealed how successful women are often cut down for their achievements in the workplace.

Billan is the president and CEO of Viewpoint Leadership, a leading learning company, and the former CEO of Women of Influence+, who has twice been named one of Canada’s “Top 100 Most Powerful Women.” She recently joined us “Inside Our Boardroom” to share her perspective on how far we’ve come and how far we have to go in advancing women in the workplace, the future of DEI, and how emotional intelligence separates truly transformative leaders from the rest.

Answers have been edited for length and clarity.

Advancing Women in the Workplace

Speakers Spotlight: What is tall poppy syndrome? And how does it impact women in the workplace?

Dr. Rumeet Billan: Tall poppy syndrome was coined in Australia, and it refers to the actual flower, poppies. They’re expected to grow together, so when one poppy grows too tall, it gets cut down so that it’s the same size as the other poppies.

We’ve translated that into the workplace, with my research focusing on women in the workplace, specifically looking at when women succeed — when they get that promotion, when they get that new job — are they cut down? Are they attacked? Are they resented? Are they ostracized for their success?

So, from my research, we know that women are ostracized, they are tall-poppied in the workplace when they succeed. We wanted to look at the impact of that on the individual, on the organization, and on society as a whole. And, more importantly, what we can do as individuals and organizations to combat that.

It was very interesting to see that impact. For example, respondents said that it impacted their self-confidence. It also encouraged them to engage in negative self-talk, which is so counterintuitive because they achieved something, their self-confidence should be higher. But, because of the actions of someone else or the behaviour of someone else, they’re now cutting themselves down as well.

SpSp: How would you describe the last decade of progress for women in the workplace and how far do we still have to go?

RB: I conducted my study on tall poppy syndrome in 2018, focusing specifically on women in the workplace in Canada. Now, fast forward five years to 2023, we expanded this survey globally. What’s fascinating is that the percentage of women who had experienced tall poppy syndrome in 2018 and 2023 was exactly the same. There was no change.

So, there has been progress made in terms of leadership positions and women gaining more seniority, but there are other things that we need to consider in that process. Are they being attacked, resented, and ostracized for their success?

We also talk about the glass ceiling, but no one ever talks about the glass cliff. We’re seeing another phenomenon happening where women are leaving senior roles for various reasons. We can talk about exhaustion, burnout, expectations and different expectations for women vs. men, but we also need to look at the phenomenon of tall poppy syndrome and the different factors impacting the experience that women are having in the workplace.

Enhancing the Impact of DEI Initiatives

SpSp: How do we navigate this trend of moving away from DEI initiatives and maintain trust among diverse teams?

RB: I’ve run an organization where the focus was on DEI. What I always said to my team is that we’re not going to talk about it, we’re going to be it.

So, I know that there’s been a change, I know some organizations are dropping their DEI initiatives. If I was an individual within that organization, what I can do is represent it. I can be it — I can be it through my actions, with how I interact with other people, and with what I stand up for.

I always say let your work speak for itself. With my organization and the organizations I’ve run, it was embedded in our ethos, and when it’s a part of who you are, you don’t just drop that, you can’t because it is ingrained in who you are.

Cultivating Emotional Intelligent Leaders

SpSp: What is emotionally intelligent leadership, how do you foster it, and who’s doing it right?

RB: The key piece of emotional intelligence is self-awareness. It’s being aware of what happens when you’re stressed? Do you have a high or low impulse control? Do you make decisions in a way in which you look at different solutions?

So, when we look at emotional intelligence, especially in the context of leadership, it’s about building self-awareness, and then developing strategies for when we are stressed, or when we’re going through a challenging situation. What are our emotional triggers? What puts us in a good emotional state? What are the triggers that put us in a not-so-great emotional state?

One time I was working with a leader and we were talking about her triggers and specifically the triggers that put her in a not-so-great emotional state. Oftentimes when we’re assessing this, it ends up being a colleague or someone at home. For her, it was her boss. So, one of the strategies we put in place was that any time she had a meeting with her boss, she should block 10 minutes after that meeting in order to take time to recover.

There’s a study that came out of the University of Florida that says every time you interact with someone you think is rude, the next person you interact with is going to think that you’re rude. It’s the emotional contagion. So, by blocking 10 minutes after every meeting that she had with her boss, she had time to recover, whether that was by walking around the block, having a coffee, or sitting in her office. She was aware of what her triggers were, and she developed the strategy to help her navigate the challenges she was facing.

Adaptability and Self-Trust

SpSp: What are you working on next?

RB: I recently posted something talking about how the ground that we rely on is not fixed. As leaders, we need to understand that people are going through stuff right now and their terrains are shifting. So while we have this expectation on employees to be adaptable in the workplace, we have to remember they’re also trying to adapt in their personal lives. There’s just a lot going on and we need to give them empathy, understanding, space, and time to process everything.

So, this word adaptability is top of mind right now and I want to understand the science behind it, but with a different lens. It’s not just about being adaptable in the workplace but integrating that lens that there is also a lot of stuff going on outside of work, and what are the tools that can help us navigate that.

The last piece of that is confidence or, as I’m looking at it, self-trust. We talk about trust in organizations but what about self-trust? I’m seeing this connection between that and the research I’m doing on tall poppy syndrome and ageism. How do we get to that place where people can say things about us, but we know who we are and what we bring to the table, so it doesn’t impact us. How do we get there? So those are the things that I’m exploring right now

Hire Dr. Rumeet Billan to Speak at Your Event

Ready to transform your workplace culture? In her compelling, research-backed presentations, Dr. Rumeet Billan delivers state-of-the-art leadership training, equipping audiences with evidence-based strategies and tools for building inclusive and resilient workplace cultures.

Contact us today to learn more and to bring her research-backed insights on workplace belonging, human-centered leadership, building resilience, combating tall poppy syndrome, and more directly to your team.