The Downtown Women's Club womensDISH blog

The Visibility Problem for Female CEOs

Just read an interesting article about the problem of visibility and female CEOs.  The Harvard Business Review blog brought up some good points, some of which counter what I thought was conventional wisdom, i.e. that women are only asked to lead companies that are already in trouble. The authors found this not to be the case.

On the other hand, they found a trend that most female CEOs come from outside the company and that stock prices dropped after announcements of new female CEOs but not after announcing a new male CEO.  While the article didn't make a direct connection to the root cause of these issues, they did allude to the fact that the media could be playing a part in it:

Nancy McKinstry, CEO of Wolters Kluwer, a Dutch publishing and information company, recalled holding a strategy meeting in which the press in Holland wrote that she wore a suit that was the same color as the KLM flight attendants'. As she told the New York Times recently, "Here we were talking about the plans for the business and that's what they focused on."

When you add that to the recent Forbes commentary about how women need to stop dressing sexy, it makes you wonder whether the subtle bias/influence of the media might have more of an impact than one would think on our perception of leadership. 

How to Make a "To Do" List

I know there are experts out there who say you shouldn't make a "to do" list because it will just make you feel bad, especially if there are a lot of items that will never get done.  However, I could not live without a "to do" list.  For me it's a great organizational tool.  My tips:

1.  Be specific.  Don't put huge general statements on there like "exercise more" "write a book" or "create new organizational system for office contacts."  Instead, break it down into action steps.  For example, "sign up for gym before new discount code expires on 1/15" or "write one chapter by end of January" or "purchase new invoicing software that coordinates with my CRM software."

2.  Include the easy stuff.  Even if it would take almost as long to do the actually "to do" item, as opposed to writing it down ... the uplift you get from crossing it off can do wonders for your psyche.

3.  Categorize.  Put all the phone calls together and then knock them out in an hour.  Put all the accounting/finance type work or website updates together and set aside time to do them all in one big session.

4.  Prioritize.  If you set your goals for 2010, prioritize the "to do's" that help you meet those goals. For more on goal setting click here to read a post by womensDISH blogger, Chrissy Herron.

5. Delegate.  Chances are the items that stay on that "to do" list forever are because you either really dislike them, or they are something you aren't really good at.  See if you can delegate these. It might be worth any associated costs.

6.  Put deadlines.  Add a date by which they need to get done.  It'll help you prioritize!

7.  Break bigger projects down into steps.  Then you can cross off the steps and feel like you are making progress.

There are apps for iphones and ways to do this online, but I still find good old paper and pencil work well for me.  I also find that I make these lists when I have some downtime between meetings or on a subway ride.(that's where the iphone apps could come in handy)  It helps me stay on top of things and lessen the possibility of things slipping through the cracks.  Anyone have other tips?

Men Don't Promote Women Because They Dress Too Sexy?

Just finished reading this article on Forbes.com by Shaun Rein about Why Men Don't Promote Women.  The author gives women two tips to help change this.  First, ask for the promotion.  Second, stop dressing sexy.  Now, I was on board with his first tip, despite the fact that this wasn't exactly new or groundbreaking information.  But, when I got to tip #2, it was jarring:

Second, women should not use overt sexuality to get ahead. Occasional mild flirting may have its place, but to be taken seriously, focus on business. Look professional and attractive but not sexy. The same goes for men. Guys who dress too flashily likewise aren't taken seriously--except in the entertainment world.

Looks do matter in the business world, as Laura Sinberg recently wrote for Forbes. But you want to be remembered for your business ability, not for how you look in a short skirt. The latter hardly gets you taken seriously as a business executive.

Hmmm.  So that's what we've been doing wrong all these years - wearing bustiers, stilettos, and fishnet hose with our cleavage and thigh-baring outfits in hopes that will convince men to promote us.   Thanks for clearing that up Mr. Rein.  I'm not sure what goes on in China where you apparently live, or if you are confused and think Mad Men is an accurate depiction of a modern day office in the US; but I'm pretty sure that when it comes to the reasons why women don't get promotions - dressing or acting sexy is certainly not in the top two.

Yes, I will grant you that there are some employees who don't dress professionally in the office.  However, these are not generally the ones seeking promotions.  So, maybe there might be some statistics there that support your theory that women who act sexy don't get promotions, but are those individuals likely to be reading Forbes?

  

Notes from the Massachusetts Women's Conference

I popped into the Massachusetts Women's Conference last week to reconnect with some friends and help out with their Mentor Matchup program.  Below are some random notes I had jotted down during the day in case you didn't attend.

Pleasant surprise of the day: Marcus Buckingham (twitter: http://twitter.com/mwbuckingham), author of Find Your Strongest Life: What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently.  Never heard of the guy, but, then again, I never watch Oprah.  Not only was he engaging with his lovely accent and funny stories, he brought up the biggest takeaway point for the day for me:  

When children are told they are good at something and not so good at other things, they tend to pursue with enthusiasm all the things that they are good at and ignore the rest.  Grownups, on the other hand, and women especially, focus all their energy on fixing what they are not so good at (i.e., their weaknesses) and do not focus on their strengths.  This could be a major reason why women are getting less and less happy.

Hmmmm.  This certainly explains why women's magazines exist.  (For more on that, click here).  So, for 2010, how about we all have a little less focus on fixing our weaknesses and more on improving our strengths? 

Best speakers: 

• Trudy Sullivan, CEO of Talbot's.  She tells it like it is, and was not apologetic for earlier failures, or for dedicating herself to her career despite having children. (Prioritizing work is something we've been blogging about here at the WomensDISH.)
• Trish McEvoy, Founder, Trish McEvoy Cosmetics.  The story that stayed with me was how she wanted to get into makeup so she went to work in a corner drug store.  The point she made was that you can learn no matter where you are and it sounded like some of the lessons she learned at the very bottom of the ladder were helpful all the way up to the top.
• Kate White, Editor-in-Chief, Cosmopolitan Magazine, author.  Kate added a touch of glamour, yet was incredibly down to earth.  Despite my disdain for women's magazines, she's one panelist who, if I was 10 years younger, I'd be saying to myself "I want to be her!"
• Candy O'Terry, co-host, Magic 106.7's "Exceptional Women".  Fabulous moderator. She injected her own stories and really brought the panel to life.  
• Tory Johnson, CEO, Women for Hire.  Tory started off the morning with high energy and a very candid and engaging talk.  While I know Tory's story, I think it was eye-opening for the women (and a few men) in the room to hear someone openly talk about being unexpectedly fired.

Yes, you'll note that I didn't include Suze Ormond on this list.  I agree that Suze is an entertaining speaker and has her following.  But I reviewed one of her books a few years ago and her talk is pretty much verbatim.  Yes, you can learn a little "chutzpah" from her and I'm sure that was good for folks to hear.  However, when it comes to Suze's content, my take on it is if you didn't know any of the basics that she talks about before you walked into that room, then:

1. I'm worried for your ability to handle any job that has fiscal or budgetary responsibility.
2. I'm wondering if educational reform should include a basic finance 101 class as a high school requirement; and
3. Well, I suppose that would pretty much explain the state of things today.

In other words, while I think a LOT of people need to learn what she's teaching, I felt it wasn't geared to anyone at a manager level or above sitting in the audience. Personally, if I was to attend a conference for my own business purposes (as opposed to hanging out with friends and lending my expertise to the mentor matchup) I would've rather heard about the "business" of running "Suze Orman enterprises" rather than "don't run up credit card debt."

One other off-note for the day - politics:  They had two speakers representing the "political spectrum," and I don't mean to disrespect them because I applaud their being involved in a Women's Conference, but they were both "wives of". I found it odd that they didn't have US Senate candidate Martha Coakley there (for all I know it might've been a scheduling issue on the Coakley campaign part).  Anyhow, I would've rather heard from ANY female candidate who ran and won an election even if it was at a lower profile level because as you all probably know, I've been on my soapbox for the past week about how women cannot be taken seriously in business if they continue to be absent from politics.

The buzz words that I heard over and over from speakers/friends:

• Start networking
• Keep learning.
• Take action.
• Be creative.
• Be focused.
• Drop the guilt & self-doubt.

The people who probably got the most out of the conference were the participants in the Mentor Matchup program.  I'm not writing this because I personally was involved (along with some of my superstar pals who would be nearly impossible to get 20 minutes of their time in a regular setting). I'm writing this because participants got to sit down with "mentors" and ask them a particular question and get 20 minutes of undivided attention, advice and focused brainstorming. I fielded questions from job hunting,  to breaking through to management to opting back into the workforce and creating a marketing plan for 2010; the industries were IT, finance, non-profit, health care, photography and pharmaceutical.

Simply by participating in the Mentor Matchup, those individuals pretty much hit all the buzz words above.

Downtown Women's Club premium members have an opportunity to do something similar to the Mentor Matchup via our DWC+ LinkedIn Group and DWC+ Teleclasses (exclusively limited to DWC+ Paid Members).  Many of our teleclass instructors are open to hearing from participants both during and after the teleclass.  On LinkedIn, I personally respond to most questions that are posed on our LinkedIn Group provided they are "need mentoring" type questions.  And, those are also the ones that yield the most responses (read = networking opportunities) from our entire LinkedIn Group.  So, there you go - an easy way to get started making 2010 your best year yet, and you don't even have to leave your office and go to a conference.

Diane K. Danielson is the founder of the Downtown Women's Club and the author of The Downtown Women's Club Beginner's Guide to Facebook and co-author of The Savvy Gal's Guide to Online Networking (or What Would Jane Austen Do?).

Happy People are Productive People: 3 Tips for Maximizing Workplace Performance

This month's guest author post is by Cathy L. Greenberg, Ph.D. and Barrett S. Avigdor, JD, co-authors of What Happy Working Mothers Know: How New Findings in Positive Psychology Can Lead to a Healthy and Happy Work/Life Balance (Wiley, September 2009).

Every business, regardless of your industry, has to learn to do more with fewer resources.  On the people side of the business, that means you need to get the best performance possible out of your employees.  And, you need to do that without an outlay of cash for incentive bonuses, training or team meetings at 5 star resorts.

The secret to maximizing performance is to create an environment in which your employees are happy.   A happy employee is highly engaged, flourishing and has achieved an acceptable work life balance.

We know that high employee engagement leads to high performance.  Recent studies by the Corporate Leadership Council, Towers Perrin and Development Dimensions International, show that a highly engaged work force results in a 20% improvement in employee productivity, a 50% reduction in unplanned attrition and a 23% increase in customer satisfaction.  But employee engagement is just part of the answer.  To truly maximize the performance of your work force, you also need to create an environment where they can flourish.

1.  Create a positive environment

Human flourishing, according to Dr. Barbara Fredrickson of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, is “to live within an optimal range of human functioning, one that connotes goodness…growth and resilience”.  When a person is flourishing, they are thinking with their entire brain and make more ethical and creative decisions.  In order for employees to flourish, they need a highly positive environment.  They need frequent positive feedback, an environment in which ridicule and gossip are not tolerated and they need to know that they will not be punished for making a well intentioned mistake.

2.  Manage based on expanding strengths

A strengths based approach to management can unleash tremendous productivity, creativity and enthusiasm in a work force.  As described in “Go, Put Your Strengths to Work” and other books by Marcus Buckingham, the strengths based approach empowers employees to shape their job into their dream job.  It begins with the employee identifying those activities at work that energize him (strengths) and those activities that drain him (weaknesses).   He then discusses those strengths and weaknesses with his team and his manager and together, they find ways to gradually give him more of the work that energizes him and to find strategies to shrink the amount of time he spends on activities that drain him.
 
3.  Be flexible wherever you can

Many employees, especially those with young families, put a high premium on flexible work schedules and feel loyal to employers who provide it.   We recently did a survey of over 1000 women around the world for our book, “What Happy Working Mothers Know”.  In answer to the question “If you make one change about your work environment, what would it be”?  26.3% said they would increase the flexibility in their work schedule.  Men crave flexibility too.

Happiness in the work place comes from positivity, working to your strengths and having the flexibility to find an acceptable work life balance.  And happy employees are high performing employees.

Break out of that rut

This week I broke out of two ruts.  And I didn't even realize that I was in those ruts until I was out of them.

1.  Exercise program.

My exercise program is my first rut.  I love to exercise and it's a key part of my life.  I also try to mix my workouts up.  I'm in Week 9 of a heavy weight lifting rotation. There is some variety, but the exercises get old after several weeks.

This week, I decided to do my routine at the gym instead of at home.  Wow, what a difference!  Same routine, same equipment, but much more intensity.  I was sore for 3 days afterward.

2.  Career plans.

My career plans are my second rut.  I spent the evening in Harvard Square a few days ago.  I love Harvard Square and have such fond memories of being there back in my grad school days.  The energy, the people and the environment all re-vitalized me.

I came back from that evening, ever-more determined to take the accelerated Marketing Certification course.  I'm having a blast and learning a lot too!

What helped me break out of my ruts?  It was quite simply, a change in environment.  It was nothing fancy, no exotic vacations, but a simple change of scenery.

What can you do to break out of your rut?

Nancy Loderick

Are you duplicating your personal life patterns in the office?

Recently I had a chance to peruse the latest book by Karen Salmansohn, Prince Harming Syndrome: Break Bad Relationship Patterns for Good – 5 essentials for Finding True Love (and they’re not what you think!). The thought that struck me while reading this was whether people could be attracted to equally bad relationships in the office. I’m not talking intimate relationships here, but your basic colleague to colleague, boss to employee relationships.

Salmansohn breaks down relationships into three kinds – only one of which brings true happiness.

1. Relationships of pleasure.  These are ones that are all about pleasures or ego.
2. Relationships of utility.  These are ones you spend time with in hopes of garnering status, fame, power, glory.
3. Relationships of shared virtue.  These are ones who stimulate you, challenge you, inspire you, root for you to grow into your highest potential.

She claims only the last one has the potential for finding a soulmate who is right for you.  However, looking at this list my first thought was , hey … doesn’t the shared virtue one sound like the type of relationship you would like to have with your boss or colleague?  Yet, don’t we sometimes find ourselves in the other types of office relationships?

How can you avoid a toxic relationship in the office?  Salmansohn includes a list of traits quoted in a New York Times article about the psychology of evil. Apparently, psychopaths share the following traits:

• Glibness
• Extreme Charisma
• Need to always be doing something
• Feelings of high self-worth
• Pathological lying
• Proneness to boredom
• Emotional unavailability.

This list struck her because it described an ex-boyfriend (a/k/a Prince Harming).  Hmmmm. We can all probably think back to office colleagues who share these same traits.   And, while they might not be full-fledged psychopaths, they were definitely on the “need to avoid” list. Unfortunately, as Karen did in her relationship, she didn't realize this until the relationship had ended.

What I really felt could be useful in the office, especially when it comes to a boss/employee or mentor/mentee relationship was her list of five traits to seek in a relationship:

1. Does he/she want to be in a committed relationship?
2. Does he/she value growing as a person?
3. Does he/she understand that a relationship is not just about immediate pleasure, but about growth?
4. Does he/she make you feel safe in the relationship to be your fullest potential?
5. Is he/she happy?

These are clearly traits we would want in a boss or mentor.  We’ve all had bad experiences working for a boss who had one foot out the door all the time (always looking to transfer out of the department or even the company); or who seemed to always want you to fail or stay put in your current position.  Then, of course, there are the Devil Wears Prada type bosses who rule by fear and their own unhappiness.  So these are all good traits to consider when you are looking for a mentor or a new job.

Just imagine the potential if you could have personal and professional relationships that were positive influences in your life!

Salmansohn’s book is a great primer for anyone looking to stop their own bad relationship karma.  While it focuses on dating/marriage, the lessons could apply to any relationships within your life.  Catch Karen live at our Downtown Women’s Club event in Manhattan at Kathlin Argiro studio on October 28.  Click here for more details.

DWC founder Diane Danielson on women networking their way to the boardroom

Downtown Women's Club founder and CEO Diane K. Danielson was featured in an article by The Glass Hammer on how women can network their way onto corporate boards. 

As Danielson notes, "When it comes to board positions, just like promotions in the office, it’s very rare that someone will just notice your exemplary work and pluck you out and put you on a board.  You need to not only be your own advocate, but also build a network of advocates on your behalf. I would suggest that if you were looking to get on a board, make that a networking goal.  Look at organizations that can help you do this and let people know, one, that you are interested in getting a board position; two, what type of board you would like to sit on; and three, why you are qualified to do so.”

Read the complete article at http://www.theglasshammer.com/news/2009/10/13/networking-your-way-to-the-boardroom/

It's Go Time.

It's time to consider your job options. February, I would have and likely did, advise you to sit tight, April - I would have said to research but hold firm we're not quite there yet, July I told you to start peeking around, its looking good out there...October? If you're not satisfied/challenged/happy with your current role? Now is the time - we've got ourselves a recession window - the start to that "V" everyone is talking about? Possible. You have a four to five week time period which will have companies saturating the hiring market to fill roles by the end of the year - with hope to solidify before the holidays - I know because we've signed on four companies in the last week on an exclusive contract with this exact goal in mind. So its now, or February. Make your choice, call your recruiter, and collaborate on your next move. It's go time.

Jennifer Taylor is the Director of Perm Services with The FootBridge Companies and Co-Director of the DWC Boston North. Find out more about her at www.HeadHuntressBlog.com and www.FootBridgeDirect.com.

6 Tips for Delivering a Thank You Speech

Sunday night's Emmy's were great or dull depending on whether you were an NPH (Neil Patrick Harris) fan or not.  Since the fashions were a little on the dull side, I actually focused on the speeches and found some good examples of how to give an effective thank you speech.  Sure, we might not all be getting an Oscar or Emmy, but there are times when you may be called upon to give a thank you speech and here are 6 tips from last night's broadcast.

1.  Don't read a list.  I don't recall anyone doing this last night and it was refreshing.

2.  Know when to be funny and brief.  If you are not a well-known name or if you have an undeserved win (I'm thinking Jon Cryer, here), be humble, funny and brief.  Jon did it well and got extra camera time later and me not complaining so much about his win because of it.

3.  Tears for unexpected wins are fine, especially if you still look good while crying.  Kristin Chenoweth's tears mixed with the absurdities of winning for a cancelled show were spontaneous and on her, cute.  But if you don't look as cute as her when you cry, you might want to try to hold it together.

4.  If you are a legend you can do anything you want. i.e. Jessica Lange.

5.  Once in a while, an unexpected winner can pull off a great speech.  I pulled this description of Ken Howard's speech from the E! site as it really captured one of the highlights of last night.  Go White Shadow! 

Ken Howard showed how to give a speech: It was topical (interrupting Congressmen and Kanye), funny (jokes about new media and contract negotiations), surprising (thanking the woman who gave him a kidney) and heartfelt (dedicating the award to his wife, whose birthday it was). Oh, and short, too.

6.  Beware the political rant.  Again, I didn't recall much being said here last night (after all, it's not the Oscars), but political rants go over best when it comes from an expected source (i.e. Michael Moore and other Hollywood activists) and plays to the audience.

And ... two tips for the non-winners.  Be excited for the winner and have a sense of humor.  Drew Barrymore jumped out of her seat in sheer joy when Jessica Lange (her co-star) beat her out for best actress in a movie or mini-series.  As for the sense of humor, Sarah Silverman wearing a mustache went over much better than Vanessa Williams' refusing to along with the other comedienne nominees who wore funny glasses.