Curiosity, Mars and the Final Frontier for Women's Advancement

Curiosity Exploring Mars

In the past 40 years, corporations have tackled the challenge of women's advancement by working diligently on two fronts.

1. They have worked on the women. They help women set career goals and tell them what skills they need to enhance in order to get ahead - leadership, self-promotion, negotiation and more. 
2. They have worked on corporate practices and policies. Instituting open job posting, mentoring programs, flexible work, day care options, maternity leave options and more.

And they've gotten each of these areas about 66% right. As a result, women have made great strides into middle management. But they have not made great strides into senior leadership. One reason is what I call The Missing 33%™.

The Final Frontier

This week's landing on Mars by the ship Curiosity suggests this fitting metaphor for what hasn't happened in organizations since the early years of the feminist movement. Companies have shied away from the final frontier - i.e. helping/requiring managers to understand how the mindsets they hold can negatively influence talent decisions about women. And to take action to stop the negative consequences of their mindsets. 

Most companies have avoided doing this work in spite of repeated studies such as the recent McKinsey report that said,

“Of all the forces that hold women back…none are as powerful as entrenched beliefs. While companies have worked hard to eliminate overt discrimination, women still face the pernicious force of mindsets that limit opportunity…."

In other words, the mindsets that people managers hold have a subtle and gradual negative effect on women’s careers. 

We've been tracking over a dozen mindsets that wreck havoc with women's careers. Many of them (such as the culture of merit versus culture of self-promotion) have been turned into advice for women to change (e.g. get better at self-promotion). But this is only half of the solution - and we've seen after decades of this advice handed out generously that it hasn't solved the problem. The other half of the solution is to ensure that managers understand how their seemingly neutral (and in some cases benevolent) mindsets negatively impact women. Even though barriers to women's advancement are now semi-permeable membranes as opposed to glass ceilings, mindsets act to filter men through much more easily than women. 

Exploring the Final Frontier

Here's an example of what I mean. I worked with an executive team responsible for over 30,000 employees worldwide facilitating a discussion about actions they could take to minimize the adverse impact of mindsets on women's advancement. During the discussion, one of the women made the point that trust was very important to her in selecting candidates. A few minutes later, one of the men made this observation,

"Trust is very important for me, too. Trust is earned when I've known someone over time. What I just realized is that when I was in engineering school, there were no women in my classes. So that means that there are no women that I consider among the pool of trusted colleagues that I look to for candidates."

In his case, this seemingly neutral mindset - trust is important - has a substantially adverse impact on women's advancement. Luckily he realized it and will be able to consciously act to remedy the impact.

Recently Catalyst reported that a more inclusive culture can be achieved when white men are engaged as champions of inclusion. At Leading Women, we've begun to see the concrete impact of the gender dynamics work we're doing with women and men from around the globe. If the feedback from the diverse executive team cited above is any indication, their exploration of mindsets/gender dynamics will make a significant difference.

Is your company curious about or exploring the final frontier of women's advancement? Or, do you have similar initiatives underway? Please let me know.

Lead ON!
Susan
Susan Colantuono is CEO of Leading Women and author of No Ceiling, No Walls and Make the Most of Mentoring.
Follow her on Twitter |  LittlePinkBook  |  Facebook  |  Google+  |  LinkedInGroup |  LinkedIn

With Eyes Wide Open

Ever since I spoke at the W.I.N. conference in Rome last month I've been thinking a lot about career advice given to women over the past 40 years. Much of the advice hasn't changed although the words might have changed. We've been told and continue to be told to:

• Speak up, be assertive, ask
• Get a mentor (40 years ago the definition was the same as today's idea of a sponsor)
• Dress for success, develop executive presence
• Manage your reputation, enhance your personal brand
• Balance work/life, integrate work and life

and yet the advances that women have made have mostly slowed or stagnated.

That's why my message about the importance of developing and demonstrating business, strategic and financial acumen is so "eye-opening" - as a matter of fact every email I received from the global women who attended my presentation used those words!

The most rewarding email was from Manuela who wrote: 

"I came back and immediately sent an email to our VP clearly communicating the cost savings I achieved working on a project for investments for next year such 63% savings versus plan, 1 mill $ here another 12 mill$ (!) there – it is huge, Im proud of it and I said it this time…."

Manuela not only wrote about sharing her "eye-opening moments with women back at work" she was actually able to put into immediate action the advice about demonstrating business acumen! She'll forever move forward in her career with eyes wide open.

If you're serious about your career and think you can climb to success by following conventional wisdom, please think again. Clear advice about developing and demonstrating business, strategic and financial acumen (what we call The Missing 33%™ or The Secret 33%™) is hard to come by. To remedy that deficit is what motivated me to write No Ceiling, No Walls: What Women Haven't Been Told About Leadership from Career-Start to the Corporate Boardroom.

+ + + + No Ceiling, No Walls is a great gift + + + +

SPECIAL DISCOUNT HERE

If you're serious about your success and don't already own a copy of No Ceiling, No Walls, gift yourself with a copy. It might sound self-serving to promote my book, but really it's you-serving!

With the holidays approaching, we're offering a special discount to help spread the word. It makes a great gift for colleagues, team members, proteges, daughters, nieces, moms and any other woman serious about her career.

Lead ON!
Susan
Susan Colantuono is CEO of Leading Women and author of No Ceiling, No Walls.
Follow her on Twitter |  LittlePinkBook  |  Facebook  |  LinkedInGroup |  LinkedIn

So Glad to be Back!

When Google merged ALL of my accounts (why the heck did they do that?) I couldn't figure out how to log into blogger. Finally, they created a fix. It's good to be back.

Leadership Lessons: What Men Know...about Mentoring

Recently a man who serves as an executive sponsor of his organization's women's initiative attended a presentation I gave. Having heard what I said about The Secret 33%™ he commented,

"It’s hard to imagine business skills not being a big part of what goes on especially when you look at the discussions that happen at the executive director and officer level. The discussions that go on in the room among the people are really related to the business – how does the business go forward, how does the business evolve, where should the business be heading. That is where a lot of the...time on people’s calendars...on email and the content of email – it really is on the business and it’s very hard to imagine mentoring not addressing although our formal training doesn’t... Those of you who were listening to presentations would have observed that 99% of the discussion in his hour presentation was on strategy, and outcomes...” G.P. Chief Engineer

Like many organizations, the one referred to above puts little, if any, emphasis on formal education on business, strategic and financial acumen. Men (and women who are smart about how to use mentors or who have business-savvy mentors) are likely to get informal grooming on the business of business.

How does this compare with the content and competencies furthered by your company's women's initiatives?

At Leading Women, we know that business, strategic and financial acumen represent The Secret 33% of the career success equation for women. To learn more about what that means, why it's important, and what you can do about it; contact us and/or pick up a copy of No Ceiling, No Walls. You'll be glad you did!

Quantum Leap Forward: New Tools for Women's Advancement

"When it comes to women's advancement>"...in the last two years we’ve almost hit a point of stagnation, where we’re not seeing even that incremental change in the representation of women at the top. So it’s time to say, 'We’ve come this far, why haven’t we gone as far as we would like?' Companies need to take a more careful look at the programs they have in place around talent management and hiring practices to determine where there might be hidden biases." (e.a.) Christine Silva, Catalyst quoted in IT Business Edge

If your numbers aren't moving in spite of all your programs based on conventional wisdom, it's time to take a look at what Leading Women has to offer. Consider for example our 4-part series on Power Tools for Career Success (recently delivered to Professional Women in Healthcare).

1. The Secret 33%™ For decades, the paradigms underlying leadership development have been viewed as neutral - in spite of the fact that much the research at the root of these paradigms (dating back to the late 70s) was done on men. As a result, most leadership development initiatives over-focus on 2/3 of the leadership definition, leaving women at a disadvantage. This module explains the negative impact of the Missing 33%™ on leadership, career advice, mentoring, executive presence, self-promotion and more. It goes further to explain what it takes to turn The Missing 33% into The Secret 33% of the career success formula for women.
   
2. Think Like a CEO: Developing Business Acumen Anyone can think like a CEO if she is able to step back and look at the big picture of her business. This means understanding the 4 key outcome areas that executives pay attention to and keep in balance. While this knowledge won't guarantee advancement - without it women will undoubtedly hit a plateau in their careers.
   
3. Show Them the Money: Strategic and Financial Acumen Once women understand the 4 key outcome areas that executives pay attention to and keep in balance, they are able to more deeply understand and interpret strategy and the role financials play in setting and assessing strategy. This module delivers a simple model that makes this crystal clear.
   
4. Speak the Language of Power Without Losing Your Voice This capstone session provides women with actionable tools for demonstrating their enhanced business, strategic and financial acumen - and to do so with grace and authenticity.
   
   To see what else we're keeping our eye on these days, check us out on Facebook.
   
   Lead ON!
   Susan
   Susan Colantuono is CEO of Leading Women and author of No Ceiling, No Walls.
   Follow her on Twitter |  LittlePinkBook  |  Facebook  |  LinkedInGroup |  LinkedIn