Amy Kean, CEO and creative director, Good Shout (UK), came up with phrase 'Unlikeable Woman' which she later trademarked and also creative an event called the ‘Unlikeable Woman Summit’.

"There are far too many women ruining their own lives by worrying about being liked. It starts from the age of four – they are told it’s important to be a ‘good girl’, have good manners, and make sure they don’t offend anyone. The unfortunate reality is that I often end up offending people, and I’m told I’m too honest, too blunt, or too forward. It’s really hard to change oneself, and I thought to myself that I’m going to own it and call myself an ‘Unlikeable Woman’. I did this two years ago, and it seemed to resonate with a lot of women even though the reality is that we are all likeable women," explained Kean.

While the summit is held in the UK (for now), Kean believes every country has its cultural context where the ‘Unlikeable Woman’ sits.

"In England, for example, everyone is obsessed with etiquette, good manners, behaving and talking in a certain way. In India, the cultural context is different and will mean something else. In the UK, there’s a political party called Reform that wants to start taxing women who don’t have children. That’s the weird cultural context we have in the UK at the moment - the diminishing of women’s rights and taxing women for their existence," she stated.

Before launching Good Shout, Kean, had stints with the likes of Havas Media, Mindshare, and also did PR for the trade body of internet advertising.

The idea of Good Shout is about focussing more on learning and development. 

"We focus on helping people communicate better in a bunch of ways – public speaking, how to listen, how to give feedback, and have difficult conversations. We love people’s voices and want them to use it better and with more power. We care about how people learn and make sure that it sticks by using surprising, entertaining, immersive, enlightening, life affirming and a lot of other good things. This is because when one feels good, one is more likely to remember the things learned, and so we run ‘learning parties’ where people have fun and learn things. ‘The Unlikeable Woman Summit’ is an offshoot of that," she stated.

More women in leadership positions

Kean believes that bringing more women in leadership positions is important and can be solved extremely easily.

"This could sound controversial, but one thing that women rarely have, but men have in plenty, is each other’s backs. The camaraderie among men in the advertising industry is admirable. I don’t like the exclusive clubs like ‘Old Boys Networks’. But men support men unwaveringly, and that means it’s easier to create bonds at work," she stated.

The full conversation is available in the March issue of Manifest, which can be bought here.