by Guest Author | Jan 25, 2012 | Coaching Advice, Gender Equality, InPower Women Blog, Leadership, Personal Mastery
I’m proud to share that I just had a major Op Ed piece posted to The Glass Hammer – a preeminent professional woman’s blog. Here’s a short summary and I encourage you to read the full article on The Glass Hammer for the executive coaching advice at the end. ~Dana
Abstract:
There’s no snappy research study to prove that “just being yourself” is every woman’s ticket to upper management, but I believe it’s true. There’s a lot of research coming out that paints a dismal picture of women’s chances of getting into top leadership posts. This data, plus the ever present equal pay dilemma, makes it hard to find the silver lining in being a woman aspiring to leadership positions these days. However, there is a ton of evidence that women in leadership actually help companies perform better than those with fewer women up top.
Do you know what this means? This means we have it in us. We ARE the right stuff. We’re full of what our companies and economies need to succeed, and we balance the uber-testosterone leadership style that is currently responsible for putting our companies and economy at such risk.
I know this argument can be both terribly inspiring and a tad frightening. It’s easy to read the stats, but what do we DO? How do we “be authentic?” Isn’t that an oxymoron? Aren’t we already authentic? There are many ways to simply tap into your own power – your InPower – that’s already inside you. You don’t have to go anywhere to find it, all you have to do is confront a little fear, but there are techniques for doing that and it’s not nearly as hard as you think. Here are a few suggestions to get started. Read more…
by Téa Blake | Jan 25, 2012 | Gender Research
Title: TBD
Study: Girls Count: A Global Investment and Action Agenda (Ruth Levine, Center for Global Development, Cynthaia B. Lloyd, Population Council, Margaret Greene, International Center for Research on Women, Caren Grown, American University, 2009)
Finding: TBD
Note about The Woman Effect Research Index: This study was performed by researchers not affiliated with InPower Women. Our Research Index includes all relevant research to the subject of women, business and power. We do not influence how the research was conducted or reported by the researchers. In our abstracts, we focus on pulling out the most actionable advice for individual women. To suggest additional research we should index, or discuss our choice of abstract focus, please contact us
InPower Insight: TBD
Summary:
Girls Count found that when young girls are given access to economic opportunity without barriers of gender discrimination, a greater and more fruitful labor force is produced. With more women in the workforce there are less dependents per worker thus result in a “demographic dividend” of greater national savings. Girls’ work in the home is often unrecognized but account for 40- 60 percent of the GDP and more than 50 percent of private consumption. The study also suggests that when the labor force is stronger, social stability follows. When all citizens contribute to all aspects of society, there is more overall satisfaction. In a survey of 100 countries, by increasing the education of girls and decreasing gender discrimination help to foster ideals of democracy. The cycle of poverty is also found to be less impactive when young girls are given legitimate and safer means of work. Returns on investment in girls’ education is higher, about 25%, particularly in secondary education. Access to education is also found to be important to the mother of the household. In 57 homes across 41 countries, all with comparable traits, when the mother was educated, children’s enrollment in secondary education rose.
Personal Coaching Tip: TBD
Keywords: Citizenry, Demographic dividend, Girls, Secondary education
by Téa Blake | Jan 25, 2012 | Gender Research
Title: TBD
Study: Board Diversification Strategy: Realizing Competitive Advantage and Shareowner Value (Virtcom Consulting)
Finding: TBD
Note about The Woman Effect Research Index: This study was performed by researchers not affiliated with InPower Women. Our Research Index includes all relevant research to the subject of women, business and power. We do not influence how the research was conducted or reported by the researchers. In our abstracts, we focus on pulling out the most actionable advice for individual women. To suggest additional research we should index, or discuss our choice of abstract focus, please contact us
InPower Insight: TBD
Summary:
The researchers at Virtcom demonstrated that as more women and ethnic minorities obtain board and management positions, there are signs of greater market opportunities. For the purposes of the study, a diverse individual is identified as a female or non-white individual. This is often referred to as visual diversity, as the study does include information about skill diversification and how this method can increase productivity as well. One of the key findings of this study is that there are still disparities in the corporate realm concerning gender and race diversity. Pertaining to gender disparities, women occupied only 17 percent of positions on Fortune 500 boards. The study referred to the Catalyst study, which suggested that when women occupy three or more positions on boards, there is a better performance in return on sales, equity, and invested capital. Another key finding of the study purported that companies with less diversity among board members did not fare as well financially. Moreover, Virtcom also found that in companies with greater diversity among board directors, there was a Head of Diversity. This person is positioned to oversee matters of corporate diversity, create initiatives, strategically implement programs to increase diversification and record the outcomes. Virtcom also suggests several more practices to increase board diversification including Diverse Board Member Identification, Diverse Candidate Slate, and Board Member Utilization. For Diverse Board Member Identification, practices include considering candidates who hold high ranking positions but are not yet CEOs and developing relationships with higher places of learning that cater to minority populations. For the Diverse Candidate Slate approach, Virtcom suggests hiring executive search firms to create diverse candidate slates or creating committees with diverse members set on finding diverse candidates. Finally, for the Board Member Utilization approach, the chair of the board must create a cooperative environment and urge new members to present their ideas.
Personal Coaching Tip: TBD
Keywords: Collective intelligence, individual intelligence, problem-solving
by Guest Author | Jan 3, 2012 | Career Development, Coaching Advice
I’ve written a lot about how we’re leaving plentiful resources untapped by failing to adjust our business culture to invite more women into leadership roles and how we need to transform The System to take advantage of our talents. In recognition of the fact that a company with women in roughly 30% of its leadership tend to produce healthier and stronger performing companies, there are lots of good programs out there trying to help women. But should we really wait for HR to come up with a great program? The best way to get ahead is to produce results and help the company succeed. (more…)
by Guest Author | Nov 8, 2011 | Coaching Advice, Leadership
Most of us have a clear image of a leader. Strong. Smart. Confident. “In Charge of insert-something-important-usually-having-to-do-with-power-or-money-here”.
I don’t buy that image of leader. To me, a leader is ANYONE who takes a stand and influences other people to cause the world to be better.
Leaders run corporations and PTAs; they have authority to make decisions and they rely on heart-felt pleas; they get big name recognition and nobody notices.
If you feel strongly about something, stand for it and cause the world to respond, you’re a leader in my book and I want you to succeed because you’re already changing the world just by being in it.
Take your responsibility seriously.
Stand for what you believe most passionately and learn how to be as effective as you can.
The future depends on your success.
by Guest Author | Oct 27, 2011 | Coaching Advice, Leadership
Buddhists and psychologists alike tell us that non-attachment to outcomes is the key to success. There is tremendous value in thinking this way – and it’s a key component of my executive coaching work on speaking truth and building your internal power. Non-attachment from the culture around you is critical to establishing your InPower – your personal power base (first becoming aware of the distinction between “you” and “culture” and then learning to use and change the culture intentionally.)
BUT, being a human being fundamentally works against this principle. Why? Because humans are wired to care. (more…)
by Guest Author | Oct 25, 2011 | Career Development, Coaching Advice, Corporate Culture, Emotional Intelligence at Work
Old boss – mentoring and advancement opportunities. New boss – frustration, competition, neglect, stupidity and powerlessness.
What’s your strategy for getting ahead now?
In the last week, I’ve talked to three people in situation “new boss” – at all levels including a CXO (no, my friends, powerlessness is not limited to the minion ranks). So the topic seems ripe for an executive coaching post. (more…)
by Guest Author | Sep 15, 2011 | Coaching Advice, People Skills, Personal Mastery
As we examined in Take Back Your Power – Watch Your Language, confident language is an important element of our personal power. When you catch yourself speaking with the out-of-power words we looked at in the first post, don’t beat yourself up. Saying a less powerful “I’ll try” instead of a more confident and powerful, “I will,” is just a habit–and habits can be changed with focus (see below). However, there are two legitimate reasons that we often choose out-of-power vocabulary. The InPower trick is to learn to use InPower language to deal with these situations. Most of the time, our language turns out to be an indicator of deeper things.
(more…)
by Guest Author | Aug 16, 2011 | Career Development, Coaching Advice, InPower Women Blog, Women in Leadership, Work-Life Blend
Nancy and I bonded in the late ’90’s workaholic days of an internet startup when our kids were little. More than a decade has passed and she’s VP of a growing company and I’m consulting and coaching, both of us busy as can be. We don’t see each other enough now, and the reason I know that is that at the end of every lunch that survives our schedules, we hug and say things like, “which college did Jeff decide to go to? Is Alex already graduated? Really!?” We’ve been so busy talking business, leadership challenges and career strategy that we don’t manage to squeeze the kids in until the end.
And this is so refreshing to me, and Nancy too. How many women’s networking lunches do we go to where everyone is so busy catching up on the personal stuff that we don’t get around to business? Another friend of mine recently complained about her women’s professional group, because the business issues she cares most about haven’t gotten a chance to surface due to others chatting up their family dramas.
Are we too integrated?
I think women are – as a rule – really getting skilled at work-life balance. We, more than the men I know, manage to integrate ourselves into our lives very holistically. Maybe it’s because we’re good at multitasking, maybe it’s because we still carry the larger burden when it comes to kid care, or maybe – most likely – we’re just that good:)
I have heard some women say they value women’s networking groups precisely because they can focus on non-work issues. These women don’t feel like they can “let their hair down” with their staffs and colleagues because they’re afraid of being perceived as not focused on the business, so they rely on their professional gatherings to get that itch for personal sharing with others who understand the stresses of their work-life challenges.
But I’m beginning to wonder if this could be a problem for some women in terms of tapping into the Old Girls Network we talk about needing to create to help each other out. Are we getting good at networking but not using our networks of women to build our business and mentoring skills? Are we using our woman-to-woman networking to vent our personal stuff and complain about the system to the point that we don’t coach each other in working the system, using it and dominating it so we can change the rules more directly?
Not like the guys
Let me be clear. I’m not advocating that women put their personal challenges aside completely to be “more like the guys” who focus on the business to the exclusion of personal issues so often. I don’t think that we’re “not ambitious enough” or uninterested in success. I’m also not worried about what “others” think of our proclivity for mixing personal and business issues in our dialog. Overall, I think our ability to integrate our personal and professional selves is a good thing – for our businesses, our families and ourselves. And there is some special bonding that can happen over pictures of the kids.
What I’m wondering is whether many women are missing an opportunity to really mentor each other on the business of business. Are we giving each other a leg up or are we just empathizing and listening sympathetically?
I know some women have particularly negative experiences with other women leaders who actively compete with them and refuse to help them. I think this is a different phenomenon and will cover this research on the Queen Bee/Adult Mean Girl bosses in a separate blog.
What’s Your Experience?
I have no idea what the statistical average of women’s group’s practices are so I’m not trying to come to any grand sweeping conclusions here. But I am curious about your experience. Have you noticed women optimizing the personal bonding to the detriment of the business mentoring and support? Do you know programs that are good at managing this balance? Am I making a mountain out of mole hill or tapping into a deeper theme we’d be advised to examine in more depth. Please share your thoughts.
NOTE: This topic has been controversial in the past and my goal is not to offend, but to probe us to be intentional about how we achieve the success we want. When I teach my clients InPower Intentions and intentional networking for career and leadership success it tends to bring this conversation to a powerful level.
FREE PDF
Guide to Women in Leadership
Executive Coach Dana Theus shares her tried and true strategies to help women excel in higher levels of leadership and achieve their executive potential.
by Guest Author | Jun 2, 2011 | Career Development, Coaching Advice, InPower Women Blog, Women in Leadership
Let’s start with the notion that you are priceless – an utterly unique mix of experience, judgment and talent. Do you feel resistance to that notion? Not true? Impractical? Culturally irrelevant? Play with me anyway. Let go of those negative ideas for just a minute. Just find that part of you that knows you’re priceless and let’s move on.
Next we’ll accept the fact that there are limited resources in any particular situation – a company, a project, a market, a country – whatever. No matter how limited, it’s important to realize that there are resources and they do find their way to people in a variety of ways. If they’re not coming to you, they’re going to someone else. Does that feel unfair? Hey, I didn’t say you were the only one that was priceless, did I? (more…)
