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
   

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.
Follow her on Twitter |  LittlePinkBook  |  Facebook  |  LinkedInGroup |  LinkedIn

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

How to Use a Mentor

Caroline Howard, deputy online editor of ForbesWoman asks an infrequently asked question: Do you know how to use a mentor? Here's my reply.

What great questions, Caroline. Especially the "how to use a mentor" question. It's a question not frequently asked.

Based on my research the vast majority of advice about mentoring over-focuses on WHY to get a mentor, the advice TO GET a mentor and advice on the PROTOCOL of a mentoring relationship (such as follow-through, have an agenda, etc.). There is very little written about how to use a mentor. That's why Leading Women's mentoring programs, my presentations and writing focus on how to use a mentor.

We focus on using mentors to fill in The Missing 33%™ and getting a slice of P.I.E. mentoring not just a piece of C.A.K.E. mentoring.

Using a mentor to fill in the missing 33% of the success equation means asking for help and experiences that enable you acquire or enhance your business, strategic and financial acumen. Women get far too little advice about the importance of this in building careers (our research indicates only about 2% of women get advice about the importance of understanding the business of your business.)

Asking a mentor to serve up a slice of pie P.I.E. means asking to learn about the fundamentals of business Performance, ways of enhancing your executive Image and gaining Exposure to the right kinds of opportunities, people and how decisions are made. When a mentor serves up a piece of C.A.K.E., she is helping you build Confidence, giving feedback about your strengths/Aptitude or advice to help with situations that are testing your positive Attitude, he is providing "K"onnections to Resources and Encouraging you to reach for an opportunity you might never have imagined. Read more here: CAKE and PIE

Most women receive, give and talk about C.A.K.E. mentoring. And we all know that C.A.K.E is a real treat. But, most successful men and women (including many of the F500 women CEOs) have received P.I.E. mentoring! The more women who know how to use mentors for P.I.E. mentoring and filling in the Missing 33%, the greater the numbers of women who will advance in their careers. This is one of my messages and the ways women can build thriving careers with no ceiling and no walls.

At Leading Women, we want more women to understand how to use a mentor, not just why. That's why our mentoring program is free for GOLD Members and is structured to help with The Missing 33% and P.I.E. mentoring.

Lead ON!
Susan
Susan Colantuono is CEO of Leading Women and author of No Ceiling, No Walls. She blogs on networking for PINK Magazine. Follow her on Twitter.