How Sticky is the Floor?
Women - future ideal leader?
Two women friends confided to me that they would be wary of employing women with children, especially in high-pressured and demanding roles. “I can’t believe we’re saying this,” they said, “but the reality is that men will be more likely to put in the hours than the women.” The mothers will usually end up focusing too much of their time and energy on their children, which is as it should be, they added.
So, there you have it. Two successful women in positions of power in their respective fields and they both seem to feel that women have to make a choice: to focus 100% on their work and not have children or to have a family and accept a lesser role at work.
This goes to the heart of the debate this website was set up for. Can companies and individuals find new ways of working, which do away with this stark choice. Women may have to reduce their workload and travel when the children are young but couldn’t they ramp up fast later on? Can they not find ways of organising things and working that enables them to deliver the required results? And do the men and women who espouse the value of long hours really have to work as they do they to get the results?
Andrea Jung, CEO of Avon Products, says that her male sponsor at work (the person who supported her for the leadership of the company)had a plaque behind his desk that “showed four footprints: barefoot ape, barefoot man, wingtip shoe, high heel. The idea is the evolution of leadership.”
An interesting new book suggests that countless women leaders have found new ways to manage tough jobs with their considerable life committments. When Women Lead by Joanna Barsh and Susie Cranston (Crown Business, 2009), both McKinseyites, draws on the experiences of a number of women. For example, it refers to Julie Coates who became general manager of IGW, a 15-store retail division of Woolworth’s in Australia that employs 30,000 people.
Before becoming the head, she was made chief logistics officer. Her predecessor told her that she’d need to get used to the phone ringing at weekends because there were so many “problems”. She did not think she could sustain that sort of pace. So, she decided, she needed to fix the problems. By building a strong, collaborative team she was able to do exactly that.
When she became general manager, Coates refused to emulate the hectic schedule of her predecessor. She found ways to reorganise work. For example, she slashed an unnecessary weekly three hour meeting. She set certain days of the week for evenings with her family and had plenty of help at home.
Andrea Jung, CEO of Avon Products, says that her male sponsor at work (the person who supported her for the leadership of the company)had a plaque behind his desk that “showed four footprints: barefoot ape, barefoot man, wingtip shoe, high heel. The idea is the evolution of leadership.”
This suggests there is another innovative way forward than simply saying women cannot aim high if they also choose (as many men do) to raise families.
Bookmarks
Featured
- Visionary CEOs want more senior women
- Women's Role in the Financial Crisis
- Women promoting women
- Men, Women and The Financial Crisis
- Business Heads Give Up a Day to Network with Top Women
- Why Isn't Gender Diversity More Of An Issue For The Banks?
- So, Women Do Have The Vision Thing
- Managers as farmers
- Women in the debate
- Why Should Women Copy Men
- Why We Need Trust
20-FIRST ON THE MOVE
DECEMBER
- London
- Paris
- Rotterdam
- Zambia
JANUARY
- London
- Paris
- Düsseldorf
- Toronto
- Geneva
FEBRUARY
- Geneva
- Rome
- Brussels
- London
- Dusseldorf
- Paris
Comments
This article hasn't been commented on yet.