Mother's Day Proclamation - Work/Life Debate Should be SOOOO Over

Enough already! The question has been answered. Yes, Virginia, a woman can be a mother and have a successful career.

So, on Mother's Day 2011, let's finally put the debate to bed.

Need proof? Of the F500 women CEOs past, present and announced, nearly every one of them has been a mother/stepmother - and often to 2 or more children.

In honor of these virtual mentors from whom we can learn so much, let's learn once and for all that work and motherhood are not mutually exclusive. Thank you:

• Brenda Barnes, retired Sara Lee
• Carol Bartz, Yahoo!
• Angela Braly, Wellpoint
• Ursula Burns, Xerox
• Carly Fiorina, retired HP
• Christina Gold, Western Union
• Susan Ivey, retired Reynolds
• Andrea Jung, Avon
• Ellen Kullman, Dupont
• Carol Meyrowitz, TJX
• Christine Morrison, announced Campbell's
• Anne Mulcahy, retired Xerox
• Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo
• Irene Rosenfeld, Kraft
• Mary Sammons, retired RiteAid
• Laura Sen, BJs
• Meg Whitman, retired eBay
• Patricia Woertz, Archer Daniels Midland

Apologies to Lynn Elsenhans, CEO Sunoco if she has children.  Online research turned up no references to any.

UPDATED 6/6: Financial News has a story about Helena Morrissey, head of Newton:

"ranked the Most Influential Woman in Asset Management at the Financial News Awards for Excellence in Institutional Asset Management Europe 2010, had a family of five when she took the job and has had four more children since her appointment."

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.
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CUS Words - Fending Off Harassment

Recently a friend of my son's told me that a guy in her office is "kind of creepy" and made comments the other day about liking her shoes. I asked her what she did about it and she said nothing and that she was going to wait a few months and hope he stops.

This is a very common responses - especially among women early in their careers.

I suggested that she needs to start as she means to go and nip this in the bud. I offered several ways she could verbalize her displeasure with his attention. This reminded me of the concept of CUS words that hospitals use when building a culture of safety. It is shortcut for language that escalates if the first message isn't taken in. 

CUS begins with I am Concerned...escalating to I am Uncomfortable...and finally to this is a Safety issue.

Here's how using CUS words could work if you or someone you know is confronted with uncomfortable comments the same escalation can work this way.

1. I am Concerned that your comments are focusing on my attire, shoes and not on my work. You might be trying to be friendly, but in the workplace how I look is not an acceptable topic for discussion.
2. I am Uncomfortable that you are continuing your comments about how I look and again asking you to stop.
3. Having asked you twice to stop commenting on my appearance, I am reporting you for Sexual harassment.

If you find yourself in a position of receiving unwarranted attention, try using CUS words to respectfully make clear your boundaries. Hope this helps!

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.
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The Velocity of Women on Boards

I am a great fan of Jim Kristie's. He is the editor and associate publisher of Directors & Boards and has had a long term interest in women on boards. Here's his most recent update (with apologies for wholesale quoting!). It represents good news for those who care about greater representation of women on corporate boards.

"(Directors & Boards) has been documenting for the past two years elevated levels of women joining boards. Here are some of our latest findings (expertly crunched by Roster editor Kelly McCarthy):

• In the first quarter of 2011, 34% of new director elections that we tracked were women.
• In the fourth quarter of 2010, 38% of new directors were women.
• For 2010 as a whole, 34% of board appointees recorded in the Roster were women; in 2009, the recruitment rate was 39% — a dramatic leap from 25% in 2008.

Most major surveys of board composition point to representation of women stuck in the mid-teens range, where it has been mired for years. To my mind, there is a simple explanation for meshing these very different recruitment findings.

The major surveys are a snapshot of board composition at a fixed point in time — an annual look at who is sitting on a defined universe of boards. The Directors Roster is a snapshot of a quarterly flow of activity at a random universe of boards — companies that happen to have added a new board member.

This is a bit of apples and oranges. What we are looking at with the Roster is velocity — a moving target — whereas the annual board reports are measuring an end point. We need both sets of measurements to properly gauge marketplace activity.

As a longtime champion of board diversity, I am sympathetic to the concern my survey counterparts share with me — that the optimistic picture we present in the Roster could lull people into thinking that recruiting of women directors is going along just swimmingly, when in fact all the annual reviews of board composition do not seem to bear that out. That’s why I prominently cite other surveys in Directors & Boards that show how sluggish the progress is of board diversity.

I agree that many questions are left unresolved about the enduring impact of our measure of velocity. Perhaps it is a matter of time — and it will be a lot of time — before we see the cumulative impact of these elevated recruiting levels.

But something is going on, and that is where the Roster data play an important tracking role."

Thanks, again. Jim for your good work!

If you want 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

A New Look at Leadership Development for Women

Over the years, I've been involved with Linkage through their Global Institute for Leadership Development and their Women in Leadership Summit. So I was delighted when I was contacted to take part in a series of interviews on leadership for a global research study on the identification and development of leaders. The result of this work will be in an upcoming book by Phil Harkins, the CEO of Linkage - and a well known expert on leadership.

The interview was far ranging and today I received this note from the interviewer.

"Thank you very much for your willingness to support our leadership research at Linkage. Your discussion of the excess emphasis on traits (rather than results) in modern business is one of the key highlights that came out of this series of interviews. Your candor has been extremely helpful to us..."

Here are 4 of the key points I made during the interview.

1. I shared my definition of leadership: "Leadership is using the greatness in you to achieve and sustain extraordinary outcomes by engaging the greatness in others."
2. Women have been under-served by most leadership development initiatives because they over-focus on interpersonal skills (the 1/3rd of the leadership definition that has to do with engaging the greatness in others). For decades the a collection of competencies labeled interpersonal skills is one where women are consistently rated by their bosses as outperforming men.
3. The individualistic culture in the U.S. drives an overemphasis on seeking individual traits of leaders (the 1/3rd of the leadership definition that has to do with the greatness in you). This also under-serves women because of the competencies sought by boards and CEOs when identifying C-suite candidates and high potential employees, only 24% have to do with personal traits.
4. Of the competencies sought by boards and CEOs when identifying C-suite candidates and high potential employees, 50% have to do with business, strategic and financial acumen. These have to do with the 1/3rd of the leadership definition that has to do with achieving and sustaining extraordinary outcomes. Specifically, they are looking for evidence of these competencies via impact on the business. In study after study over the past several decades, men have been rated as outperforming women in these areas. That's why we call these extremely important competencies The Missing 33%™of the career success equation for women.
   

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 over-focus on 2/3 of the leadership definition, leaving women at a disadvantage.

To illustrate: In our work with companies on their women's initatives, we analyze the competencies that they embed in their performance and leadership development systems. In one F500 company, only 18% of its management competencies focus on business, strategic or financial acumen (The Missing 33%) - while 48% focused on personal traits. So, if a woman were to cultivate her personal traits per their system, she would hit a glass ceiling pretty early in her career because she would lack the business, strategic and financial skills required to advance.

And while some companies place more of a balanced emphasis between personal traits and engagement skills, the minimal focus on business, strategic and financial acumen is not uncommon!

How does your organization emphasize The Missing 33% in its performance, succession, leadership development, women's initiative content and other advancement systems?

To learn more about The Missing 33%, why it's important, and what you can do about it; check out this short video, and pick up a copy of No Ceiling, No Walls. You'll be glad you did!

Lead ON!
Susan
Susan Colantuono is CEO of Leading Women and author of No Ceiling, No Walls.
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3 Important Questions!

Are you a Businesswoman or a Woman in Business?

Earlier this month I enjoyed delivering a webinar to a number of Professional Women in Healthcare. The topic was Think Like a CEO: Developing Business Acumen. Implicit in the topic is the question, do you think of yourself as a "woman in business" or as a businesswoman. I recommend that your answer should be that you think of yourself as a businesswoman. Here's why:

A "woman in business" can be said to be a woman working in a business, but a businesswoman is a woman who "gets" and is advancing the business of her organization. She understands the business of business, has strategic and financial acumen and is more likely to be considered as a "high potential" candidate for advancement.

So, how do you think of yourself?

What's the Brand of Your Women's Initiative?

It was an honor to consult with a large financial services organization as it launched launch its women's initiative - including a recommendation to initiate a women's leadership employee resource group. During the discussion about recommendations to the executive team and goals for the initiative, the topic of work/life balance and flex-time arose.

Taking advantage of the opportunity to offer advice, here's what I said,

"It's important to think about you you want your executives to see your efforts. Do you want to lead with the stereotypical work/life balance issues, or do you want to lead with a focus on leadership development and building the business?"

They made the right choice. What's your answer?

What are you Doing about The Missing 33%™?

In presenting The Missing 33% to the global women's council of a F500 company, I discovered that only 18% of its management competencies focus on business, strategic or financial acumen - while 48% focused on personal greatness competencies.

This is nearly the reverse of what our research indicates are the skills that executives and boards seek in C-suite candidates and high-potential employees. Of the skills sought for these movers, 50% have to do with business, strategic and financial acumen and 24% with elements of personal greatness.

How do you measure up in the area of business, strategic and financial acumen? How does your organization emphasize these in its performance, succession, leadership development, women's initiative content and other advancement systems?

At Leading Women, we consider business, strategic and financial acumen to be The Missing 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; check out this short video, and pick up a copy of No Ceiling, No Walls. You'll be glad you did!

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

Leadership and Change

We are half way through Women's History Month and past International Women's Day. It is a month to reflect on the status of women - how far we've come, progress under attack and what's left to do. For Leading Women, March is also our anniversary month - 8 years ago, Jane Metzger was our first breakfast speaker. Since then much has changed for Leading Women and we're so grateful that you've been with us for the journey.


As I reflect on the horrific tragedy in Japan, I know that every day has its tragedies for millions of women around the world (to understand more about this read Half the Sky). And so, it feels fitting that I'm spending a chunk of this month in Guatemala where a group of Leading Women will be working with women's cooperatives and a local health center to strengthen their capabilities and position them for sustained success. You can read more about what we're doing here.

Working cross culturally is an excellent way to confront the fact that we have worldviews and that they influence everything we do. And so, we begin our work with a weekend focused on strategy and change and a contemplation of our worldviews on both

For example, in the U.S. we live in a linear culture with the future in front of us and the past behind. In other cultures, including in the indigenous cultures around Lake Atitlan, time is circular. Their actions are shaped by the cyclical nature of the season  and the work that has to be done in their milpas (plots of land where maize is grown).

As I think about my worldview on change, I see that it is shaped not only by the U.S. culture, but also by the fact that I am the eldest, that my grandparents or great grandparents immigrated to the U.S. and other factors. As I think about working on strategy and the changes that strategic plans require, I consider how a milpa is like a business. Both are influenced by the environment, both produce outcomes and both need nurturing infusions.

What forces have shaped your worldview on change? Do you seek change, embrace change or approach it with caution? Do different types of change cause different reactions in you? What are your beliefs about making change? And how does your complicated and personal worldview about change strenghten or impede your success as a leader? This is important self-discovery work - because, as I say, "leadership is all about change all the time."

Lead ON!
Susan
Susan Colantuono is CEO of Leading Women and author of No Ceiling, No Walls.
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100th Anniversary of International Women's Day

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