A Womans Leadership Journey

What Women Want in Their Leaders - Athena Vongalis-Macrow and Andrea Gallant - Harvard Business Review

2012-02-06T22:27:00.001+02:00

Unsurprisingly, men and women seem to want the same things from their leaders!

What Women Want in Their Leaders - Athena Vongalis-Macrow and Andrea Gallant - Harvard Business Review

How can we create a better balance between masculine and feminine leadership styles?

2012-01-19T18:22:00.001+02:00

"The 21^stcentury is the time for women to reclaim their voices and men their hearts”Jane Fonda.

During a recent executive coaching program, one of my seniormale executives expressed his confusion at receiving a 360 degree feedbackreport comment from a team member, that his decisions were far “too rational”and excluded any kind of “intuitive or feeling” elements.

My client had been blessedwith a comprehensive quality education in a highly competitive, private school inAustralia. He had received his Masters Degree in Economics, from Sydney Universityand was 20 years into a very successful career in one of the top 4 national financialinstitutions. He was deeply shocked and seriouslydisappointed to receive what he considered to be ‘negative feedback’ andwondered “why might this be so?”

Afterexploring this issue during our coaching program, he was able to recognise thathis core strengths in his role at the bank, was his competitive, linear and rationalthinking process. This enabled him tomake and deliver almost 100% accurate economic reports. He later bravely sharedhis feedback with his all male team, and they discussed why this feedback was soimportant. The team realised that whilst they were a high achieving, taskfocussed and effective business unit, they were, somehow, out of balance!

The most importantrevelation was that their division, whilst employing several female analysts, theylacked even one woman in any kind of senior role!

Further discussion, accompanied by the instability,uncertainty and volatility of the financial markets due to the ongoing GFC, theypinpointed three inherent qualities that they would either need to develop, orbring into and blend into the talent pool to create a more inclusive andbalanced culture- collaboration, holistic and intuitive thinking.

Being a truly courageous and proactive leader, as a firststep, he and his all male executive team, willingly embarked on an EmotionalIntelligence Learning Journey, to better understand and learn how to be morecollaborative, intuitive and see things holistically. They also invited seniorfemale executives from other divisions within the bank, to share their successstories and learning’s. We then workedon identifying and developing the required mindsets, behaviours and practicesbehind being more collaborative, global and intuitive.

Only when they, themselves, becameconsciously conscious, they redefined their business purpose, strategy andstructure, and clarified key roles and responsibilities, from a more balancedperspective. After much soul searching, and 6 months of serious team,leadership and culture development activities, as well as serious targetedrecruitment efforts, my client and his team felt that a more suitable balance hadbeen achieved.

Amazingly,this banks share price, despite the current Eurozone Crisis, has only reducedby 3.4%, as their key economic forecasting division had collaborated with otherkey divisions and adopted a holistic global outlook and intuited the wholeevent!

Finding the Balance

2012-01-19T17:18:00.001+02:00

How do we find the balance between masculine and feminine values as leaders?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/blog/women-sustainable-business-csr-leaders

Women and Leadership

2011-12-12T19:59:00.005+02:00

How to Succeed in Business as a Woman Being a Woman!

One of the first and most critical decisions I made when I commenced my corporate career in the 1980’s, was to pursue success as a woman being a woman and not trying to be like a man. These were the halcyon days of Australian retailing, when we ‘shopped till we dropped’, and enjoyed ‘power dressing’ and the material success and wealth of a myopic and abundant world.

I had a coveted role in senior management, as Fashion Direction Manager, at the famous Sydney based Grace Bros. (now Myers) Department Stores. This was the first step towards a global position that took me regularly, on consumer and trend research trips to Europe, the USA and Japan.

It meant becoming a fashion icon, as well as the key Australian fashion industry spokesperson.

As I started to meet and observe my fellow female executives, I immediately noticed three behavioural trends:

Women acting as if they were men, being very political, building personal power base, being formidable and generally tough.

Women acting as if they didn’t care how they acted or how others responded to them, being quite eccentric and often what appeared to be dysfunctional.

Women acting as if they were gender neutral, floating along, just doing the job, passively, heads down in the very best way they knew how to.

None of these choices suited me, so I decided to rock the boat, dance to a different drum, and play a different game.

Not knowing then, that this powerful and significant choice would lead to a transformational and learning journey that has now spanned almost three decades!

So why is this important and what does this really mean?

As women in leadership we are continually faced with a multitude of choices around who we are being 24/7! One of the most critical success factors for any leader is to make a fundamental choice about what kind of impact you want to have on those you lead. Whether it is just one person, a team, a business unit, or an entire organisation!

This is the most important step to being an effective leader, because you can not not impact.

Step one is to choose the kind of impact you want to have. As a leader my intention is to always create the space for someone to feel good about themselves, so that they can then be willing to the best they can be.
Step two is to choose who you are willing to be, as a leader. My intention, which I review and recalibrate, on a regular basis, is to be authentic, courageous, inspiring, esteeming, generous and kind.
Step three is to choose the most appropriate behaviours. To be intentional around what you do and say as a leader, so that your impact is always useful and positive to engage, motivate and inspire follower-ship.

I have found, however, that this is not an easy game to play.

Other women, who may have made different and often opposing choices, may be less self aware and intentional than you. They may find this way of being confrontational and challenging.

This may cause conflict, struggle and rivalry in your workplace, which then impacts on your emotional state and you effectiveness as a manager and as a leader.

It also creates what EI (Emotional Intelligence) master, Daniel Goleman, calls an unpleasant “subterranean emotional economy”: a negative environment, where no-one flourishes, achieves or succeeds!

How you handle situations like this is really important!

If you would like a complimentary 30 minute executive coaching telephone session to explore and resolve this idea or issue further personally, please contact me now at janet@janetsernack.com.

Please also see www.janetsernack.comfor my personal profile and story and www.compasslearning.com.au for my corporate profile and range of professional consulting services.