The Week in Review

Boards are from Mars, Consumers are from Venus! ION has published its 2009 Report on women in boardrooms and the numbers are appallingly few. The report this year offers a very positive focus on actions to increase the number of women on boards in the face of what could be a wave of turnover due to tenure and age of current directors. Here you can find a link to vote your proxy to influence board composition as well. ION also posts the top 10 on the same page. Among them: Bare Essentials*, Estee Lauder, Kraft*, Avon*, Pepsi*, Xerox*. Do you buy their products? (* means woman CEO)

What's almost as bad as the lack of women directors is the lack of publicity the report has received. What is it about self-fulfilling cycles of old-boy advancement and incompetence that the media doesn't get? This could be a really big story - check out my earlier post on board short-signtedness here. I guess what I call "the myth of meritocracy" is a tough one to bust, even in the face of contrary evidence.

I always appreciate it when white, business men over the age of 45 (and it helps if they're republicans) "get it" and advocate for women's advancement. Recently one who fit the bill, the CEO of Ernst & Young, James S. Turley used the bully-pulpit at the World Economic Forum and the release of his own company's Groundbreakers report to make the case for moving women up in organizations in order to solve and prevent future economic crises. He said,

"At a time when our global economy is facing its greatest challenge in decades, we have to capitalize on the contributions women make as leaders, entrepreneurs, and employees. Many corporations and governments have been making efforts to advance women – now is the time to accelerate those efforts. It's time to place renewed emphasis on women's advancement and women’s perspectives as a key tool in moving businesses and economies ahead."

F500 Women CEOs Rock! Two of my favorite F500 women CEOs have relatively new videos on YouTube. Check out Anne Mulcahy's Silfen Leadership Series discussion of the Xerox turnaround here and Indra Nooyi on CEO Stardom and more here. It's been inspiring to be researching them and the others for my upcoming book.

Great Places to Work NAFE's 2009 Top Companies have been chosen. Find them here. If you want to learn about the 12 strategies these companies use to get women to the top, read about it here. I was pleased to note that even though it's gone out of favor, some of the companies directly tackle issues of stereotypes, assumptions and gender bias.

Where to Work has a list of global companies supporting women's advancement. You'll find it here.

Shifting the Lens 1 In a speech I gave on Women's History Month, I spoke of the importance of thinking not only of women in history, but of shifting our lens to look at the experience of women's equality (or lack thereof) in history. Here's an example of what I mean, Britain's Green Party is led by Dr. Caroline Lucas. She is proposing a woman-centric slate of legislation that would address the 17% wage gap, get more women onto boards and make it easier to take equal pay lawsuits to court. Without looking through a lens of women's experience, these proposals wouldn't be on the table. You can read about them (called "radical" by the article's author) here.

Shifting the Lens 2 JFK established the first Commission on the Status of Women, every president had a similar body until George W. Bush disbanded Bill Clinton's White House Office for Women’s Initiatives and Outreach. Now President Obama has appointed Melanie Verveer as Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues.

"The President's decision to nominate an Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues is unprecedented and reflects the elevated importance of global women's issues to the President and his entire Administration."

He has also created the White House Council on Women and Girls to ensure that all Cabinet and Cabinet-level agencies consider how their policies and programs impact women and families. This year the council (made up of cabinet members and others) will focus on:

• "Improving women’s economic security by ensuring that each of the agencies is working to directly improve the economic status of women.
• Working with each agency to ensure that the administration evaluates and develops policies that establish a balance between work and family.
• Working hand-in-hand with the Vice President, the Justice Department’s Office of Violence Against Women and other government officials to find new ways to prevent violence against women, at home and abroad.
• Finally, the critical work of the Council will be to help build healthy families and improve women’s health care."

Way to Go, Kiwis! News from my dream destination...not only is it lovely, the citizens have elected a woman as Prime Minister (but that's old news). The new news is that a Grant Thornton business research report finds that 27% of senior managers in New Zealand are women. This puts NZ ahead of the U.S., Great Britain, EU and Australia (also studied by GT).

If you're wondering why all the pink...I'm celebrating spring!

Lead ON!
Susan
Susan Colantuono is CEO of Leading Women. She blogs on networking for PINK Magazine. Follow her on Twitter.

Thank You Lilly Ledbetter!

"Equal pay is by no means just a women's issue, it's a family issue ... And in this economy, when so many folks are already working harder for less and struggling to get by, the last thing they can afford is losing part of each month's paycheck to simple and plain discrimination."

President Barack Obama
on the signing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

Power to close the wage gap. Holding managers' and HR departments' feet to the fire to ensure equal pay. I'm giddy!

Read more here.

Executive Lessons from President Obama's Inaugural Address

When President Obama took the oath of office, he joined you and other national and global leaders at the helm in turbulent seas. Embedded in his address is a potent strategic communication lesson for any executive or manager. President Obama (who generally writes his own speeches) used 13 communication tools to remind his fellow citizens that, as the Stockdale Paradox says, they "must confront the most brutal facts of your current reality whatever they may be AND at the same time retain faith that you will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties." Succeeding in this is crucial for you as you communicate to your organization in these difficult times. Download the complete article.

Posted by: Susan Colantuono, CEO &Founder of Leading Women
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President Obama and Leadership in Turbulent Times

I am eagerly anticipating President Obama’s inauguration and inaugural address. In these turbulent times, he has achieved unprecedented approval ratings - largely the result of speeches that he writes himself. I think it's safe to say that he has much to teach executives about leading in difficult times. Among the lessons:

1. Have a Vision - Remain focused on what is possible and what you seek to achieve.
2. Remain Strategic - Don’t get caught in the weeds. Look for opportunities hidden in the turbulence.
3. Reassure - Remind employees that they’ve made it through tough times before.
4. Inspire - Focus on peoples’ abilities to make a difference.
5. Unite - Remind staff of the incredible power of many acting as one.

I’m honored to be chosen to be PINK Magazine’s expert blogger on networking. I invite you to check out my posts here.

Lead On!

Susan Colantuono

Susan Colantuono is the CEO & Founder of Leading Women. You can follow her on Twitter.

Holiday Musings

Musings in the Holiday Season

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." I recently attended The Boston Club corporate breakfast where Maureen Miskovic, EVP and Chief Risk Officer of State Street Corporation spoke about today's economic reality in the context of historic discontinuities and with an eye to opportunities in the future. Using the opening of Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, she talked about the peril and the promise inherent in the times we face. I found her literary reference perfectly to the point:

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way."

At Leading Women, we're staying focused on the promise of what we and our members have before us and on finding ways to support our members who are in transition. Keep your eyes open for upcoming FREE services for members in transition. www.LeadingWomen.biz/calendar.cfm

A Team of Rivals. Much has been made of Obama's selections for his cabinet and advisory teams. I'm reveling in the diversity (which has only increased since I wrote this blog entry). At the same time, I'm delighted in the example of leadership he's setting by advocating for robust debate. Vigorous dialogue has been cited as success factors by Jim Collins in Good to Great, Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan in Execution and numerous other successful executives and leadership researchers. Bringing this style of leadership firmly to the fore will benefit women - who generally favor this more collaborative approach to leadership over a command and control model.

Eyes on the Prize. On Saturday, I had the amazing experience of watching two bucks fight over a doe in the woods right outside my bedroom window. Listening to the clack of their antlers was a sensation and watching the escalation of effort was intriguing to me ...as it was to the doe. Eventually she wandered off. I found it ironic that the bucks (having lost sight of their goal) kept fighting. The message to leaders in this: keep your eyes on the prize, when conflict escalates, bring the focus back to the customer, when adversity threatens, don't develop tunnel vision (see FedEx below).

Conscious Consumption and Giving. In RI, Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Roberts' Buy Local RI initiative made official an impulse that had been growing in me. Once during the height of the oil prices I realized that to fill my gas tank would be the equivalent working for a portion of time for the oil company. Boy, did that make me want to buy less oil - and that impulse caused me to be more conscious of how I was spending my money.

As the economy worsened, I found myself focused on finding ways to support local businesses before, during and after the holiday season. Instead of donations to the local food bank, for example, I went to my locally owned market and bought food to donate. When possible, I bought gifts from local stores. I focused my charitable donations on organizations that support girls and women. Instead of adding material to the land fills, I've continued to find ways to donate and recycle. Lastly, after this year of incredibly tight races (is MN decided yet??), I've made political contributions to candidates whose values resonate with mine.

Following the FedEx Lead. A standing ovation to FedEx CEO, Frederick Smith, for creatively addressing the economic challenges. Instead of laying people off and feeding the vicious downward economic spiral, he is taking a 20% pay cut. Other senior FedEx executives will get a 7.5%-10% reduction. FedEx's remaining U.S. salaried exempt personnel will draw a reduction of 5%. These moves are accompanied by a hiring freeze and other measures. At a time when CEO compensation is over 300 times what core workers make, this is a strategy that should be followed by every other company. I commend Smith's leadership - for FedEx and for business in general.

As we move into this year of remarkable challenges and historic change, may you stay focused on what's before you and the spring of hope.

I wish you all good things in the New Year.

Lead On!

Susan

Women in Historic Proportions?

I wrote in an earlier posting about my vision for the country under the Obama/Biden administration

"My vision for the country? An America where young girls viewing the news (paper, TV, web) see their gender represented in historic proportions..."

I haven't paid such close attention to prior administrations' appointments, but I have to say I'm impressed with Obama's track record so far. One of his senior advisors will be Valerie Jarret (photo above). His Energy and Environment advisory team looks to be about half women - including women of color. His economic team includes key women.

Of the announced appointments that I've logged, he's pretty close to 50% women and with substantial diversity. I'm using the change.gov press room for the info.

Obama/Biden's Agenda for Women

Wondering what the Obama/Biden administration has in mind for women? Well, you can find the agenda here...and women's concerns are defined as far ranging to include:

• Healthcare
• Research into Women's Health
• Supporting the Right to Choose
• Preventing Unintended Pregnancy
• Preventing Violence Against Women (here and abroad)
• Pay Equity
• Investing in Women-Owned Small Businesses
• and more...

AND you can go here to share your vision for America with the President and VP-elect. Here's what I wrote:

"NPR has run a series entitled "This I Believe" and every time I heard a listener essay I was reminded that I believe in women's power to lead. My vision for America includes more women in leadership positions and a sustained focus on women's issues.

This has been an historic election season for women. I have the audacity to hope that the Obama/Biden administration will capitalize on the increased visibility of women in order to tap frequently less visible, but highly qualified women leaders for key positions in the administration, in the federal government and on the courts.

I commend you for the issues on the women's agenda and hope to see great progress on all of them - including a pro-choice majority on the Supreme Court and guaranteed access to birth control. Though it might not be immediately obvious, these two issues are related. Research published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston several years ago found that the increase in women's earning power directly correlates to our reproductive rights.

My vision for the country? An America where young girls viewing the news (paper, TV, web) see their gender represented in historic proportions and grow up knowing they have the opportunity to be and do whatever they want because their control over their bodies is protected."

AND here's another call to action from Linda Basch of the National Council on Research for Women.