How To Get Out Of Your Own Way | MacKenzie Scott Gives $4 Billion In Four Months | And More

Plus: The Prosp(a)rity Project Wants To Give Black Women A Fighting Chance To Eliminate Student Loan Debt

As a feminist, Francophile and rule-flouter at heart, there’s a story that came out this week that was all but destined to be my favorite: Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo has been fined by the French government for not hiring enough men.

Oui, you read that correctly: Paris must pay the French government €90,000 because, in 2018, Hidalgo hired 11 women and five men to serve in senior positions. This breached federal law at the time, which dictated that at least 40% of open roles should go to each gender. That rule has since softened, but it nonetheless underscores the danger of focusing solely on equality and ignoring equity. Fortunately, Hidalgo appears to understand the distinction.

“We must promote women with determination and vigor, because the delay everywhere in France is still very great," she said. "So yes, to promote and one day achieve parity, we must speed up the tempo and ensure that in the nominations there are more women than men."

Cheers to that!
Maggie

P.S.: I’m thrilled to announce that we’ve re-opened the nominations portal for the 50 Over 50, our inaugural list, alongside Mika Brzezinski and Know Your Value, of the women who are shattering age and gender stereotypes by achieving significant success later in life. You have until February 28 to nominate yourself or someone you want to see on the list!

ICYMI: Stories From The Week

Longtime news producer Rashida Jones was named the next president of MSNBC and will become the first millennial as well as the first Black woman to head a major news organization, a changing of the guard that is significant both symbolically and practically. 

Luciana Lixandru made waves in March when she announced she was leaving her longtime role with Accel's London team to help open international VC firm Sequoia's first European office. This week, she landed on the Forbes Midas List for Europe in 2020 (our list of the best venture capital investors in Europe and Israel).

Time’s Up CEO Tina Tchen, Black Lives Matter founder Alicia Garza, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and other prominent female leaders shared eight ways we can all build a better world in 2021.  

Famed car designer Henrik Fisker is mounting a comeback seven years after his pioneering electric vehicle company collapsed. This time he has a secret weapon: Geeta Gupta-Fisker, his cofounder, CFO–and wife.

We tallied the folks who had the biggest career crashes in 2020, and there’s one thing all the people on the list have in common… 

Check List

#1: Do an end-of-day debrief. If you’ve ever started your workday thinking, “ugh, where to begin,” make your life easier and get out of your own way by taking stock of the day's challenges the night before.

#2: Make onboarding on-demand. Welcoming new employees in our virtual realities is a fundamentally different experience. You can ease a new hire’s transition by putting the onboarding material into smaller, digestible bites that they can consume at their own pace.

#3: Watch for similarity bias. We identify with those who are similar to us, but in managing a team of people across different backgrounds, geographies or experiences, this bias could affect the way you show empathy to every individual.

Across Forbes