Why It’s Time to Show Women the Money!

Posted on by Real Leaders Inc.

 

The biggest problem I have coaching CEOs and senior executives is getting them to see the world as it is rather than how they want it to be.  This is virtually always true. It is the curse of power.

When people are used to getting their own way it is easy to be seduced by the illusion that your view of reality is correct. (Donald Trump continues to be a perfect and pathetic example of this.)  The deeper truth is that we are all psychologically wired to selectively pay attention to facts, data and trends that justify our opinions, prejudices and decisions.

But this just doesn’t work in the crazy, interconnected world of today.  That’s because the future is like the weather. It’s impossible to predict with certainty.  Have you ever wondered why weather forecasting seems so sloppy?  It is because mathematicians tell us there are simply too many interactive causes that affect weather outcomes.

The same is true for the rest of our lives. The interactive effects of technology, media, markets, finance and global politics are all connected in new ways no one really understands.

Tomorrows’ success formula is uncertain and predicting the future is impossible. All this uncertainty has made sustained successful leadership really hard. And the way most leaders deal with things they can’t control is to hunker down on the things they do control.

What I find is that when business leaders run out of big ideas Wall Street and Boards of Directors force executives to continually focus on reducing costs and driving efficiency. Today most large companies don’t grow at all organically.  That is, the core business doesn’t grow because leaders have created a culture that is allergic to risk.  So what they do instead is acquire promising startups to temporarily juice their own stock and then drive off all the new entrepreneurs because their risk-averse cultures cut off all the creative oxygen.

The problem of course, is that most leaders are promoted to senior positions because they’re expert at hard power strategies. They continually stretch ‘stretch goals’ and reduce headcount to get more profit out of stale revenue. Leaders who do this achieve a veneer of success but then leave their position for another company before they’re hollowing out of innovative talent comes back to bite them.  Want an example? Mark Hurd is now wrecking Oracle after he turned Hewlett-Packard into the world’s most boring technology company by thoroughly destroying its innovative culture. The current list of leaders who fail to innovate is frighteningly long.

As I’ve written before, solving this problem will never come from the business establishment. Business schools who churn out copycat MBAs, self-serving Wall Street demands, and incredibly low leadership standards combined with massive CEO pay packages for playing this game all conspire to accelerate a downward spiral called “whole system failure.”

If I sound upset, I am. I’m working closely with a group of mid-level women leaders whose once magnificent company is transforming itself into a Wall Street puppet right before my eyes.  I’ve seen this happen over and over again in the last 15 years.

The best solution, and maybe the only solution, is for business leaders who really want to create value-unique value-value that will change the world and enhance our quality of life is to start new enterprises financed outside of the traditional venture capital and Wall Street circus.

I believe the only way out of our downward spiral is to fund entrepreneurs and companies who are serious about two things. Positive Innovation and Agile Execution.

Positive Innovation creates growth. Agile Execution creates profits.Entrepreneurs who are the best at thinking of great innovations and achieving great results are SMART Power thinkers.

Thomas Malone’s Center for Collective Intelligence at MIT has 156 experiments that convincingly prove that social intelligence, and a 100% percent work-team inclusion in innovation and execution yield the highest degree of success.  Everyone’s voice is heard. Interactive effects are vetted. Value is created, problems are solved and results are successful when divergent thinking is synthesized. That’s how to get the best possible ideas implemented.

What Malone has discovered is that the more women there are on these successful innovation-plus-execution teams the more successful they are. 

The reasons are not hard to understand.  The July issue of Fortune magazine features an article by Geoff Colvin presenting research that in the future, most analytical and technical jobs will be done by robots and intelligent software. The most important human jobs will revolve around social intelligence.  Colvin claims that people whose brains are wired to process complexity, juggle priorities and remain empathically innovative are far better suited to deal with today’s fast-moving challenges than leaders with Reagan-era skills. While there are many men who also possess thinking versatility, he points out that this group of high-functioning skills are primarily attributes of women.  And yet women’s contributions are systematically marginalized in most of today’s old-school organizations. Hard power always drives out soft power.

That’s why I am so on fire to draw attention to FundAthena.org and their campaign to end the gross opportunity disparity between male-led and female-led businesses.

Women-led businesses only get 2.7% of the billions of venture-capital invested each year.  This is in spite of the fact that according to Dow Jones research of over 20,000 startups, new companies with five or more women in senior positions are twice as likely to be successful than startups led by men only.

The reasons are simple.  According to research by  psychologist Daniel Golemen, women are far more likely to alter their strategic business plans in order to be successful because they have more thinking agility  and are less ego invested in “being right.” They’re also more likely to come up with products, pricing and messaging that is more aligned with customer desires than many aggressive males who invest their energy in trying to “convince” customers to buy whatever they’re selling.

Yet, all the best ideas in the world won’t help innovative women can’t get access to capital.

That’s why a women entrepreneur, Kim Folsum has co-founded an entirely new funding source for women who’ve established small growing businesses that want to grow, compete and dominate on a larger scale. She has recently launched an entirely new money raising model that enables people to invest in women-led businesses.  This isn’t like Kickstarter or other crowd funding sites where you donate money.  At Fund Athena you actually invest in companies you choose with the expectation of a real financial return. In an effort to free up more sources of big investment dollars Kim is doing a personal “March on Washington” to bring attention to the outrageous disparity that women face in trying to access capital. What Kim wants from you is your signature on a petition and if you choose, a little support.

For me it’s obvious this has to happen. I have a front row seat at the gutting-out of positive innovation and committed talent in our most important global companies. What’s happening now is so completely off-base that most of our next-generation workforce are already disengaged and looking to build their lives apart from the companies their parents have built.  We need to build a new economy…an economy built on businesses that are up to something greater than making money.  We need leaders who look at the problems our society faces, our environment faces, and our world faces as the greatest economic opportunity in history. We need leaders who are energized by a vision of sustainable abundance. We need leaders who won’t give up on their dreams and won’t give in to the self interested money-changers that currently control both our nation’s capital and our financial capital. 

This is a movement. We need more women in leadership. And we need male leaders who are wise enough to listen to women so that we can co-create a future better than anyone can imagine. We have a choice.

NOTE: If you are a woman leader who wants to have more impact, more work-life harmony and satisfaction then please sign up for information regarding our all-women Leadership SPA (SMART Power Academy) being held December 2-4, 2015 in San Diego.

The Revolutionary Leader Who Ruled From Home

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  • Aung San Suu Kyi has spent most of her political career under house arrest in Myanmar.
  • Despite her fate always being in the hands of her enemies, she has remained firmly in control of her destiny and inspired millions of people to achieve democracy through peaceful means.
  • She is no stranger to fear and knows that courage will always rise, believing that fear is not the natural state of civilized man.
  • At age 68 she has still not lost a desire to become the president of her country.

In the Myanmar (formerly Burma) general election in 1990, the National League for Democracy (NLD) won 59 percent of the national votes and 81 percent of the seats in Parliament. Despite this substantial majority the official opposition had a short-lived celebration when the ruling military junta refused to recognize the result. The parties General Secretary, Aung San Suu Kyi, watched the results from her home. She had been detained under house arrest the year before, and since that day, 25 years ago, has spent a total of 15 years imprisoned in her home. Despite being branded a political undesirable by the military rulers of Myanmar, who wanted to silence her, Suu Kyi was given a choice: she could go free at any time, but had to leave the country and never return. She refused.

Finally released in November 2010, Suu Kyi has become one of the world’s most prominent political prisoners. Much like South Africa’s Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison before emerging as president, long periods of isolation and persecution can result in the opposite result that your captors intended – making you even more popular.

Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, Suu Kyi opposed the use of violence to achieve goals and continued to call on the military leaders of Myanmar to hand over power to a civilian government. Her vision was to establish a democratic society in which all the ethnic groups of her country could live in harmony. “Every thought, every word, and every action that adds to the positive and the wholesome is a contribution to peace,” she says. “Each and every one of us is capable of making such a contribution.” Her beliefs are in stark contrast to the country in which she lives, which has long been regarded as one of the worst in the world for human rights. Human trafficking, child labor, child soldiers, sexual violence by the military and the suppression of religious minorities were just a handful of the horrors faced every day.

James Mackay / opensocietyfoundations.org

James Mackay / opensocietyfoundations.org

 

The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Suu Kyi in 1991, for her effort in trying to establish human rights in a divided country, had a significant effect in mobilizing world opinion in her favor. However, despite her freedom she is still under intense scrutiny and the old government is still in power. Having recently registered to run for a general election, which the NLD is expected to sweep, she now faces another challenge from the state: a junta-drafted constitution that bans presidential candidates with foreign children. Suu Kyi’s two sons are British. Despite being listed by Forbes in 2014 as the 61st most powerful woman in the world, it seems as if petty politics and powerful forces are still trying to silence her.

Her personal sacrifices have been great. After 23 years of marriage to British historian Dr. Michael Aris, her husband was diagnosed with cancer. Suu Kyi had returned from London to Myanmar to lead the pro-democracy movement while he had remained in England to work. The Burmese dictatorship refused him a visa and urged Suu Kyi to leave the country instead to visit him. Wise to their tricks, she was afraid they would never let her return, so she stayed. Aris died two years later, having seen her only five times in the ten years preceding his death. Suu Kyi was also separated from her two sons who live in the U.K., until 2011, when they thought it safe to visit again. Loss has been a constant companion in her life. Her father, a major political figure, was assassinated when she was just two years old.

Suu Kyi is a remarkable woman who has shown she is firmly in control, even through her fate remains in the hands of her enemies. She has become one of the world’s greatest living defenders of freedom and democracy, and remains an inspiration to millions. Throughout her country’s bloodshed and the regime of terror, she has managed to convey a feeling of peace and hope – a freedom from fear. It’s a lesson many of us can learn when facing challenges that are far less daunting.

“Within a system which denies the existence of basic human rights, fear tends to be the order of the day,” she says. “Fear of imprisonment, fear of torture, fear of death, fear of losing friends, family, property or means of livelihood, fear of poverty, fear of isolation, fear of failure. Yet even under the most crushing state machinery courage rises up again and again, for fear is not the natural state of civilized man.”

Suu Kyi has known fear most of her life, yet still finds the courage to say, “If you’re feeling helpless, help someone.” It’s this humbleness and concern for others that has earned her the love and respect of millions. Her loyalty to Myanmar and its people, and her refusal to be bullied by military aggression, have shown that peace can be a slow process, but it wins in the end. As she once said of her attitude to life, “If you do nothing, you get nothing.”

What’s Love Got To Do With Biz?

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Love isn’t a word that you often hear in business conversations, yet studies show it plays a significant role in determining the performance and wellbeing of employees and customers. So it shouldn’t be such a surprise that DreamChange has a Love Summit business conference, which debuted this past Saturday, June 13th.

Research tells us that the more love people feel at work, the more engaged and productive they are. The longitudinal study by Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and George Mason University, “What’s Love Got to Do With It?: The Influence of a Culture of Companionate Love in the Long-term Care Setting”, exhibits the importance of emotional culture in the workplace.

“Employees who felt they worked in a loving, caring culture reported higher levels of satisfaction and teamwork. They showed up to work more often. Our research also demonstrated that this type of culture related directly to client outcomes, including improved patient mood, quality of life, satisfaction, and fewer trips to the ER,” states Harvard Business Review in the 2014 article, Employees Who Feel Love Perform Better

If you’re wondering what a loving business looks like, imagine a workplace where employees genuinely care for one another and show it. This can be demonstrated in a variety of circumstances, whether it is a boss who makes sure their employees receive good benefits, the way employees communicate with one another and their customers, or a workplace where every person is made to feel like they really matter.

While the practicality of love as a positive force in business may initially sound taboo, consider successful companies such as Whole Foods Market, PepsiCo and Zappos, all of which have implemented loving philosophies into their business management. “We are more than a team though…we are a family. We watch out for each other, care for each other and go above and beyond for each other”, says Zappos.

It makes sense that Zappos would link family and business since family relationships are generally the most loving, but also because family businesses account for at least 2/3 of enterprises in the world. While we might typically think of family companies as mom and pop businesses, statistics show that they make up a large range of enterprises in all different industries. In fact, many of the largest corporations in the world are family owned.

Imagine what the world would look like if family companies such as WalMart and the Koch Industries exhibited the meant-to-be qualities of family – loving, caring and compassionate – in all of their operations. Evidence shows that creating a culture of companionate love in the workplace leads to happier employees, greater customer satisfaction and higher profits, and that the investment of love in business is a rewarding undertaking. By supporting this venture, corporations like WalMart and the Koch Industries could serve as the very antidote to many of the problems we face today, such as a suffering global economy, climate change and social inequality.

Family businesses aren’t just the backbone of the American economy; they also govern the majority of market economies around the world. Given that families run most businesses and family relationships are supposed to be the most compassionate relationships, the concept of love in the workplace, once again, should not be so surprising. The time has come to embrace love and business – together – as one of the most viable forces for creating thriving enterprises while cultivating a more sustainable, just and peaceful world.

Elon Musk, Tesla, and Investing in Love

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Elon Musk is a true, Thomas Edison type genius. After years of skepticism critics are acknowledging that he is re-shaping the automobile (Tesla), the space rocket (Space X), and solar energy (Solar City) industries all at the same time. I just started reading his new biography and it is a fascinating story of a highly unusual human. The combination of sheer intellectual genius, business savvy and thrill-seeking-risk-taking is yielding astonishing results. One thing is clear… when he gets a vision he is willing to go all in. He nearly lost all of his billion dollar-plus fortune he made off PayPal in these new change-the-future ventures. A big brain and iron guts are a potent combination.

Yet for all his success he laments that one part of his life continually teeters on the edge of “personal” bankruptcy. He has two divorces and five children. He asked the author of his biography if he thought allocating 10 hours a week to a relationship with a woman would be enough to keep her happy. That’s not a silly question. Recent research reveals that one full hour every day in which you invest your undivided and non-judgmental attention in your partner will create both trust and intimacy. The problem is very, very few people consistently devote that one hour of undivided, non-judgmental attention. In most cases it’s the quality of attention that is the bigger problem than the time. In Elon Musk’s case his hyperactive business life and overly busy super-bright brain are probably his biggest impediment to intimacy. I find the same is true with many of the senior executives I coach.

I often ask “what if science had proven that there was one, absolutely key activity, in your life that would enable you to be both happy on a day-to-day basis and deeply satisfied at the end of your life… would you be interested in knowing what that is?”

I am sure you already know where I’m going with this. Since the dawn of recorded history humans have understood that sustained happiness is just not possible without sustained love in our lives. It sounds simple but it’s not. There are many kinds of love. We often confuse family or friendship loyalty with love. Some people even confuse the twisted bonds of an abusive relationship with love. But we know through extensive psychological research combined with brain scans that the kind of love that generates continuous waves of inner warmth and happiness is reciprocal advocacy. I know those are awkward words so let me explain.

Reciprocal advocacy is the mutual, active support of another person’s healthy quest for their own happiness and fulfillment. In simple terms when two people are each other’s biggest fans…love continuously expands. The qualities of reciprocal advocacy are these:

1. There is constant non-judgmental, non-critical engagement. This happens when two people are in a relationship that is characterized by continuous conversation about the substance of their individual and joint life together. The crucial relationship-changing element is non-judgmental support. It’s difficult not to have an agenda for the people closest to us. We want them to pursue happiness in a way that is convenient to us or matches our ideals. But loving advocacy requires that we actively support the ways our loved ones choose to pursue their happiness as long as it is not self-destructive. Relationships are the happiest when people are interested in the details of each other’s lives and there is a constant blurring of what is trivial and what is significant. This requires time, attention and patience.

2. There are high levels of expressed empathy. This means that when something good happens to a loved one (your partner or friend) you ask them to recount their positive experience of success in detail while you invest your full attention. This creates deep bonds because the positive neuro-hormones that were released when your loved one experienced their success are re-released in the retelling. When you give them your full attention you also experience the same positive hormonal changes which deepen bonds and create mutual joy. Likewise, when a loved one suffers a disappointment your patient listening to the retelling of their frustrating tale and gentle encouragement that their loss is temporary creates powerful bonds of support.

3. There is consistent co-creativity. Recent brain research confirms that creativity releases dopamine in our brains. That’s why most people who get involved in creative endeavors lose track of time and experience high levels of confidence and personal power. It’s why creative hobbies are so addictive. In personal relationships co-creativity is intensely satisfying and deeply bonding. Perhaps you’ve worked on a team that creatively solved a difficult problem, or created a new product or service solution that had a lot of ‘wow factor.’ If you did I’m sure you felt the deep bonds of mutual advocacy and appreciation for your teammates. Well, an even richer feeling is possible with your loved ones. Life throws up constant challenges and opportunities that beg for creative solutions. Relying on each other’s strengths to plan amazing vacations, or unusual yet delicious dinners are obvious examples of opportunities for co-creation. Co-creation generates the deepest bonds when it is focused on creating positive outcomes or new experiences. It deepens feelings of partnership and mutual respect. (My wife Debbie and I recently discovered chalk painting and are a repainting many pieces of our furniture in colors I had never considered and we love it. It gives us a chance to discuss and visualize what’s possible and work together to create simple things that we both enjoy.)

You’ll notice something about these three strategies that create high functioning love. It takes an investment of time and devoted attention. It is surely worth it. It turns out that reciprocal advocacy is a peak human experience and a deep source of meaning. End-of-life interviews consistently reveal that healthy love relationships are the greatest source of life satisfaction and near-death contentment.

As a person who’s been married several times and raised six teenagers I have gone through the heart-aches of emotional devastation. After my second exploded marriage I realized that I had succeeded at everything I’ve valued in life except the most important thing. That caused me to do a lot of research on this topic of high functioning love. I made it the transcendent goal of my life to do whatever it took to create the best love relationship I could imagine. Like any goal, I realized that this would require trade-offs since I have limited time and limited attention.

I can report that my investment of time and attention in the three, science-based love strategies listed above over the past 15 years of marriage continues to pay off with huge daily dividends of contentment, satisfaction and yes, zing. And please, I am not boasting. This only occurred after over 20 years of marital mud wrestling and crazy levels of daily anxiety.

So now I want you to do an experiment, right now, right this minute.

When I teach my session called Live Smart and Work Like a Genius, which is based on the latest science of how to live each day to produce both success and happiness, I ask people to write down the names of the most important people in their lives. Then I have them look over the list and identify anyone who might not feel how much they are loved by them. (While you may have loved ones that know you love them they may not be feeling it.) Next, I asked them to take out their cell phones and send a text to the person they identified expressing both their love and at least one thing they admire about their loved one. This nearly always generates a fast response from the recipient. Often they want to know if the sender is in an emergency room. And while that’s funny I think nearly all of us are in an emergency room regarding someone we love who is just not feeling our love right now.

So what I’m asking you to consider is nothing less than your priorities. Succeeding at anything takes a consistent over-investment of quality time and quality effort. Is there anything you are currently working on that is literally more important than the quality of your love life?

It is human nature to want the things we don’t have. Elon Musk evidently wants sustaining love. I think it’s possible for him to enjoy that kind of love if he’s willing to invest some of his his genius energy in the emotional bank account of someone who understands him.

It won’t be easy. In many ways it’s easier to succeed in our work than it is with our loved ones. We have bosses or investors who hold us accountable. We have projects and deadlines. We have coworkers and resources to help us succeed. But in our personal life we’re largely on our own. We have to take the consistent initiative to literally make love. All on our own.

So make some love right now… please send out a loving text and begin a conversation that needs to happen.

A Tribute to David Goldberg

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On May 1, 2015, David Goldberg collapsed at a private beach-front villa near the Four Seasons Resort in Punta Mita, near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, during a vacation with his wife Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook. He died later that day at a hospital in Nuevo Vallarta. According to the Nayarit State Prosecutor’s Office, Goldberg fell off a treadmill while exercising at a gym and died after suffering head trauma and blood loss. Goldberg’s brother, Robert Goldberg, in an article written by Tim Bradshaw in San Francisco for the Financial Times, described his family’s “incredible shock and sadness”, in an online post asking well-wishers to post photos and memories to his Facebook profile page.

“In lieu of donations, we want to celebrate his life in a manner that respects the family’s privacy as they cope with this tragic, life changing event”, Robert Goldberg wrote. Tributes to Goldberg were posted to social media across the Silicon Valley community. A spokeperson for Facebook said its executives were “heartbroken by this news.” Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, said in a post that Goldberg was “an amazing person and I am glad I got to know him”.

“One of the truly great people on the planet, Dave was of almost unimaginably remarkable character,” said Dick Costolo, Twitter’s chief executive. “One of kindest and most generous friends I’ve known,” said Jeff Weiner, chief executive of LinkedIn. A memorial service for Goldberg was held at Stanford Memorial Auditorium on the Stanford University campus and the 90-minute service was attended by many members of what Fortune described as “the elite of Silicon Valley”, as well as U2 frontman Bono, who performed his song “One”, and actor Ben Affleck, who had worked with Goldberg on a philanthropy project in Africa. Goldberg was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on October 2, 1967.

His mother Paula Goldberg is co-founder and executive director of the Pacer Center and his father, Mel Goldberg (1942-1998) was associate dean and professor at the William Mitchell College of Law. Goldberg worked for Bain & Company for two years after graduating from college. He had planned to attend law school but instead joined Capitol Records, where he served as director of marketing strategy and new business development. He founded LAUNCH Media in 1994, and led it through its acquisition by Yahoo Inc. in 2001.He quit Yahoo in 2007 and joined Benchmark Capital after which he joined SurveyMonkey in 2009. In 2004, Goldberg married Sheryl Sandberg, with whom he had two children.

Good Health Equals Good Business

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When last July, Carlos Slim (pictured above), one of the world’s richest tycoons, called for the introduction of a three-day working week with everyone working approximately 11 hours day as a means to improving employees quality of life and generate greater productivity, business leaders took notice. His eye catching suggestion, matched with raise in the retirement age to 70 plus with more time off, was a further sign that the domain of well being at work, work life balance, and so forth was truly emerging from the relatively narrow world of human resources and unto the centre stage of CEOs and those charged with the overall strategy.

Mr Slim’s recommendations were interesting from two angles. First, replacing the traditional five or six days with a three-day week was an innovative suggestion on how best to allocate our time around work and the fulfilment of greater happiness. But just as interesting, was the linkage he made between improving conditions around wellbeing with the overall improvement in productivity. For many traditionalists, a long working week naturally equated with greater output.

But here was a top leader saying hang on, that might not be the case. On the contrary, if we restructure our working week towards working in more intensive bursts followed by longer time off, we may not only have more free time but output and performance could actually increase as well. This linkage between wellbeing at work and business performance is at the heart of our work in the new Global Centre for Healthy Workplaces. Good Health = Good Business is our mantra.

Shortly we will be hosting the 3rd Global Healthy Workplace Awards Summit at Florianopolis in the beautiful Brazilian state of Santa Catarina. Previous Summits were held in London and Shanghai. The Summit will bring together experts from around the world including some 50 CEOs for two days where the latest innovations and concepts in workplace health will be examined.

The centre piece of the event will be the presentations from the six finalists who are GlaxoSmithKline (UK), Chevron (USA) (multi-national category), Unilever (Brazil), Vanderbilt University (USA) (large employers), and SMEs, who often take a highly original approach will be led by Lan Spar Bank (Denmark) and Naya Jeevan (Pakistan). The six have been chosen from entries in almost thirty countries, making it a truly global representation of world class employment.

The purpose of the Awards & Summit programme is to encourage the sharing of better practice and stimulate new thinking. Attracting a diverse range of interested parties from commercial to NGOs is important and Florianopolis, as Shanghai before, will hear the perspective of investors. A series of new initiatives will be announced in Florianopolis to further improve the quality of workplace health. These cover a new global accreditation programme to ensure standards are high and maintained.

A new digital guide for SMEs, perhaps the sector of greatest need and expansion is being planned and we will shortly be publishing an E-course for professionals in partnership with the University of Arizona Eller Business School. Developments amongst academics also forms part of our work, essential for the improvement in research and to demonstrate the productivity benefits to the latest thinking in business schools.

Workplace health and wellbeing is a varied specialism reaching into most elements that make up business performance. But what is the greatest concern for employers in the modern world? According to our latest global survey with Buck consulting, it is stress, but you probably guessed that anyway.

Article by Tommy Hutchinson & Wolf Kirsten, co-founders of Global Centre for Healthy Workplaces. To find out more and to register for the Florianopolis Summit – click here

The Future of Gender Diversity

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Three prominent female leaders from across the globe offer their views on the role of diversity and how it might shape future development in their regions.

1. Erica Pedruzzi Member of the Board of Directors, C4B Compliance for Business, Argentina

What is your personal view on the role of diversity in the South American region currently and its implication for the future development in the region?

From my perspective and personal experience, women remain significantly underrepresented in the workforce at higher levels in South America. Although gender diversity has been traditionally overlooked in the region, it seems that over the last decades there have been an increasing number of organizations focused on assessing the current scenario in Latin America, aiming both to identify the reasons of such underrepresentation, and to promote an increase in the rates of women’s participation in top management in South America. Some of these surveys and research indicate that, although there have been some improvements in recent years, gender equality is still a distant dream in the entire region.

I believe that the most relevant reason for the lack of gender diversity in South America is a combination of, on one hand, a lack of adequate efforts by the companies to promote women to top management positions, and, on the other hand, an ever present reality in the lives of a vast majority of women in South America: most of them need to combine their work responsibilities with their family daily responsibilities, which are usually undertaken almost exclusively by the women, given the fact that they are still considered as the primary family caretaker, and household chores and children upbringing are still considered mostly women-related activities.

Hence, in my opinion, usually are women themselves those who choose not to move on climbing the corporate ladder, therefore lowering their career aspirations or even quitting their jobs once they realize that they will not succeed in comfortably juggling with their work-life balance.

I believe that a future increase in women’s participation rates in top management positions in South America will largely depend on: (i) changing society’s mentality towards the need to share equally the burden of family responsibilities between husband and wife; and (ii) strengthening the companies’ perception that an increase in female representation in senior management will greatly benefit companies, therefore causing them to improve their efforts to hire, retain and promote talented women in the region.

2. Dr. Florence Eid-Oakden Chief Economist, Founder & CEO, Arabia Monitor, UK

What is your personal view on the role of diversity in the MENA region currently and its implication for the future development in the region?

There has been significant progress in recent years relating to human development and growth for women in the MENA region with countries like Kuwait and the UAE in the lead in terms of progress. The region has closed 60% of its overall gender gap in 2014. However, it still lags behind other regions including Sub-Saharan Africa in terms of gender diversity. Despite experiencing the biggest absolute improvement compared to 2013, the region remains in sixth position.

On the Educational Attainment sub-index, the region surpassed Asia and the Pacific, ranking in fourth place with 93% of the educational gender gap closed. The Middle East and North Africa region ranks fifth on the Health and Survival sub-index, with 97% of the health gender gap being closed, slightly ahead of the Sub-Saharan Africa region. Finally, on the Political Empowerment sub-index, the region continues to rank sixth, with only 8% of the political gender gap closed.

Despite these modest rankings, the region has seen the third-largest improvement on the overall Index score, just behind North America and Latin America and the Caribbean when compared to 2006. The region has also shown the third largest relative change compared to its own 2006 overall Index score. The highest-ranking economies of the region have made vast investments in increasing women’s education levels in the last decade.

In Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Tunisia, Algeria, Oman, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iran, tertiary enrolment rates for women are higher than those of men. In 2014, Kuwait was the top-performing country among the Arab countries due to an increase in the estimated earned income ratio. The UAE experienced the highest percentage change relative to its own 2006 score on the Political Empowerment sub-index. Saudi Arabia continues to be the lowest-performing country among high-income countries, but is among the five countries with the highest percentage change relative to their own 2006 score.

According to the Ministry of Labour, the number of women employed in the private sector in Saudi Arabia rose by 84% in 2013 to around 400,000 employees, an increase of 183,000 from 2012. In the 2015 municipal elections scheduled this year, women would be allowed to vote for the first time following the King’s promise in 2011.

According to the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), there has been a dramatic increase in the participation of Omani women in the public and private sectors, as well as a growing trend towards female Omani students opting for private school education and continuing on to pursue higher education.

Between 2002 and 2014, female labour participation rate in MENA has increased by over 20% and participation rates are especially high in the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar. Arab business women are now at the forefront of global markets and their business networks will play an increasing role in promoting trade and creating jobs in MENA. Women in MENA now operate in diverse business sectors with a higher proportion in banking and finance (29%), construction and industry (26%) and retail (17%).

3. Brigitte Wolff, ME International Director, PwC Strategy&, China

What is your personal view on the role of diversity in the Chinese region currently and its implication for the future development in the region?

A long time ago Mao Zedong was quoted: “Women carry half the sky!” Meaning that women not only have the same duties as the men but also the same rights. Traditionally the work women and men had to do, was identical. This is in many ways still the case in modern China: Almost 50% of enrolled tertiary students and tertiary graduates, as well of enrolled graduate students were female in 2012. 45% of the Chinese workforce are women. Over 70% of women between the ages of 18-64 are employed.

It is much more a normal situation that a woman works. Particularly when she has one or two children she does not stop her work, but returns after her maternity leave. This is possible because the respective parents are raising the grandchildren, as their parents had also risen their grandchildren.

But the gender pay gap between women and men in China is 69% – meaning women earned on average 31% less than men for doing similar work. Diversity is not that an important issue as we experience for example in Germany. The Chinese society has long accepted the role of the women in business. So it is very normal that women are in leading positions and/or are entrepreneurs. Still some trends can be observed: on one hand side the mother of richer families tend to stay at home longer, herself taking care of the kids.

On the other hand it is quite normal that mothers return in their position or even higher after the child started with the school, not necessarily in the same firm. Quite often young girls have more difficulties to find a job compared to young men. But later on the job, the millions of qualified Chinese women have an excellent reputation regarding their working quality and ethics. My estimation is that it will be crucial for the further development in the region, that China is using the full potential of its work force, both in terms of numbers and qualification as well as of diversity.

As in other countries the gender gap pay issue has to be solved as well as the female percentage in the boards and the government has to increase.

All three ladies are part of the Global Female Leaders 2015 community, taking place at the prestigious Adlon Kempinski Berlin on 21-22 April. To join them, visit our website or contact Aleksandar Pavlovski, Marketing and Media Manager, for more information: Aleks.Pavlovski@managementcircle.com

Newborn Girls to Achieve Gender Equality by Age 81

Posted on by Real Leaders Inc.

Progress for women in the past 20 years has been unacceptably slow, with areas of stagnation and regression. This is the conclusion of an authoritative global review of progress on gender equality, to mark the 20th anniversary of the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, which UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will present to Members States on 9 March. The survey covers an unprecedented 167 countries, drawing on rich inputs from governments and civil society.

Prepared for the 59th Commission on the Status of Women, it shows that despite some progress, world leaders have not done nearly enough to act on commitments made in the visionary Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. “The Secretary-General’s report makes this very clear: The disappointing gap between the norms and implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action points to a collective failure of leadership on progress for women,” says Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka (pictured above).

“The leaders entrusted with the power to realize the promises made in Beijing have failed women and girls.” Given the findings of the report, UN Women today launched a new initiative “Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality” to galvanize government pledges for action, as part of UN Women’s wider Beijing+20 campaign. A dedicated web platform www.unwomen.org/stepitup will draw global attention to all new commitments made by countries around the world.

“Today, we are calling on governments, everywhere in the world, to Step It Up,” says Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka. “By 2030 at the latest, we want to live in a world where at least half of all parliamentarians, university students, CEOs, civil society leaders and any other category, are women. Real progress requires 50-50.”

In 1995, 189 countries endorsed the Platform for Action, but today, no country has achieved gender equality. At the current pace, it will take 81 years to achieve gender parity in economic participation, and some 50 years to reach parity in parliamentary representation. The report finds some areas of progress, such as an upturn in the number of countries removing discriminatory laws and adopting legislation to stop violence against women and girls. Girls are close to being half of all students in primary schools.

Women’s labour force participation has risen; maternal mortality has declined by 45 per cent since 1990. Yet these gains contrast with the fact that despite women’s better education, they hold some of the worse jobs, while the gender pay gap is a universal phenomenon. Violence against women and girls persists in all countries, taking many horrific forms.

Women are far from equal in terms of their roles in leadership in either public or private institutions. Chronic underinvestment hobbles the pursuit of gender equality across all areas. The report outlines some of the main factors holding back progress, including conflict, economic crises, volatile food and energy prices, fallout from climate change, and rising extremism and backlash against women’s rights.

Discriminatory norms remain deeply rooted. Key elements of change encompass transforming norms and stereotypes; transforming economies to achieve gender equality, such as through decent jobs; ensuring women’s full and equal participation in all levels of decision-making; significantly boosting investments in gender equality; and strengthening accountability for upholding women’s and girls’ rights. The year 2015 provides a historic moment to rapidly accelerate progress towards gender equality and women’s empowerment.

In September, Heads of State and Government from every corner of the world are slated to attend a Summit where they will agree on a blueprint for development for the next 15 years.

How To Stand Up To The Strong And Wrong

Posted on by Real Leaders Inc.

Male leaders are very often both strong and wrong. And they get away with it. Research from the University of Pennsylvania confirms that men love making decisions. Male brains are wired for action. Male thinking is linear and simplistic. Men are motivated to act with confidence. It establishes dominance and that’s a big drive because men are primarily motivated by power and status. Developmental psychologists tell us that watching boys at play is a pretty accurate reflection of how their brains are developing. Boys generally like combat that establishes hierarchies.

Toughness and physical prowess are highly valued. Many anthropologists believe sports were invented to prevent young men from killing each other. And today, video games also provide ways to compete and establish hierarchical status for boys who are less successful at establishing physical dominance. Of course neuro-research confirming what we generally observe watching boys grow up is no surprise. What’s foolish is that we do not talk enough about the limitations of male thinking in a dangerous world.

It’s striking that we have many members of the U.S. Congress express admiration for Vladimir Putin as a decisive leader. The fact that he is a narcissistic bully with nuclear weapons doesn’t seem to deter their fascination. When senators openly admire the un-hinged audacity of Putin you see the limitations of male thinking.

But should we admire strength in a leader for its own sake. Strength without morality?

For thousands of years the gender that is physically strongest has asserted its dominance. Men primarily lead virtually all institutions. And not just any men. As I have written, competitiveness, confidence and decisiveness are the path to power in any hierarchical organization. So the people at the top are in many ways the most aggressive and simple-minded. In fact research published last year revealed that CEOs have the lowest amount of emotional intelligence than any other category of employee. Now I know what you might be thinking. Daniel Goleman, who is the researcher that made emotional intelligence a field of study, has said that emotional intelligence is more important than IQ in achieving success.

But it turns out to be a lot more complicated than that. It seems emotional intelligence is a driver for success in modern corporations only up to a point. It’s true that people who move into middle-management and even attain the level of vice president generally have higher emotional intelligence than workers who are not given management responsibility. However, the people that break out of the pack to achieve the highest levels of senior leadership turn out to be people with lower emotional intelligence than the people they lead. It may not appear that way because research shows CEOs are also the greatest concentration of narcissists in business organizations. Narcissist’s biggest advantage is something called negative empathy.

This means they understand how you feel and use that knowledge to manipulate you. No, I’m not saying that all CEOs are narcissist, but rather that modern organizations are designed to reward people who are highly competitive manipulators. I have found that they are often simple-minded, meaning they have a hard time dealing with uncertainty and complexity in a world that is increasingly uncertain and complex.

What they love to do is make decisions. Good luck with that… according to research from Ohio State University at least 50% of business decisions are mistakes. So how do all these simple minded CEO’s keep their jobs? They seduce their Boards of Directors. Very recent research confirms that confidence positively arouses our brains. People who assert themselves and their ideas forcefully actually stimulate adrenaline in our body, and dopamine and serotonin in our brain.

This is a powerful cocktail that tells us everything is going to work out fine. The strategy will succeed, the tribe will prosper and we will be victorious over our enemies. Male brains, which have high-powered amygdalae, are especially susceptible to unsupported strategies of dominance. The technical term for this is “susceptibility to bullshit”…or STB. (Ha!)

Male brains, which have high-powered amygdalae, are especially susceptible to unsupported strategies of dominance. The technical term for this is “susceptibility to bullshit”…or STB. (Ha!)

Well, what can we learn from this? Virtually every week I talk to frustrated women leaders who feel they spend most of their time cleaning up messes caused by the avoidable mistakes of overly confident, usually male, superiors. And frankly they are sick of it. But like nurturing mothers or dutiful wives they show up, clean up and calm everyone down.

Yet this is not a solution. The core problem is human beings are wired to give confident-acting people power. That is not going to change any time soon and that’s a problem because women generally act less confident than men. Their humility is triggered by their neuro-networks that cause women to think holistically. They see the complexity of serious problems and tend to weigh decisions more carefully. They worry about unintended effects. They resist impulsiveness. They are generally less assertive and more collaborative.

These are called wisdom traits and are exceptionally well suited to lead in our age of increasing ambiguity and constant surprise. But most of this female leadership power is lost because the very qualities that make them potentially extraordinary 21st Century leaders mute the confidence and courage required to be given the reins of leadership. The solution? Well maybe it sounds too simple but this is what I have found works. When I develop women leaders I start with 3 principles:

Don’t wait to lead for a future time when you feel more confident. Confidence is gained by acting confidently.

Don’t wait to lead for a future time when you feel more confident. Confidence is gained by acting confidently. You will probably never feel as confident inside as you must act on the outside. Your brain is wired for self- doubt and you will probably never silence your inner voice that is telling you to sit down and be quiet. So “woman up!” You will need to communicate like a confident women leader. You always have a strategic agenda. Men will assume you are a tactical thinker and problem solver.

They are conditioned to see you as an aide to the general, never the general. So you must tie every goal you champion to a winning strategy that will result in market dominance. (Remember our brains are wired to support leaders who promise dominance over competitors. You don’t have to be strong and cold like Margaret Thatcher, but keep in mind it was her resolute promise to restore England’s economy and military strength that got her the Prime Minister’s job. You can be both strong and warm.) So, no matter what your position always state your current goals in the context of the big picture.

Always state and restate your reasons as to why your goals and priorities are vital to success. Men tend to state their objectives and assume others will just buy in and start working on them. This is a foolish assumption for men and a huge mistake for women. You have to market your goals like a product. What are the compelling benefits to your goals that make them worthy of money and resources you need?

You may think you already do these things but I have found women’s self-awareness of how they project power to be quite weak. Ask some men you trust how others perceive your leadership power. You maybe surprised. There is a lot more to the success principles of women leaders but these first three are foundational. Here they are in shorthand:

  • You are well equipped to lead in today’s world. You will always feel inner doubt. Dismiss that doubt and decide to lead.
  • Develop and express clear, strategically relevant goals. Goals that will help your team and your enterprise win.
  • Constantly campaign for your goals and agenda. Express clear reasons why your goals deserve attention and investment. Make waves.

I implore you to do this. Without the wisdom of holistic, smart thinking our future will be determined by men who actually admire bully-leaders like Putin and that is just plain pathetic. So please rise up!

African Women Can Transform The Continent

Posted on by Real Leaders Inc.

African women can and will be agents of change for the continent’s transformation at all levels. This was the message delivered by the African Development Bank’s Special Envoy on Gender (SEOG), Geraldine J. Fraser-Moleketi, during a Pre-Summit Ministerial Consultative Meeting on Gender that took place on January 20-22 ahead of the 24th Summit of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. “Promoting women’s empowerment and gender equality must remain an option, but be placed at the heart of the efforts of the AfDB to promote inclusive growth in Africa,” she said.

“Women continue to play a central role in putting an end to extreme poverty, promoting education and achieving economic growth across the continent.” Her words come as the African Union declared 2015 as the Year of Women’s Empowerment and Development towards Africa’s Agenda 2063.

The theme of the AU Summit also coincides with the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and its Platform for Action (1995), the 5th Anniversary of the African Women’s Decade (2010-2020), the 15th Anniversary of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325, and the finalization of the Post 2015 development agenda.

‘Let’s be audacious in moving the African post-2015 Agenda forward’ – Geraldine J. Fraser-Moleketi AfDB’s Special Envoy on Gender The Special Envoy on Gender said that the African Development Bank strongly believes that that, throughout Africa, women are a powerful force for growth and development; they make important contributions to the economy as workers and entrepreneurs, and to the welfare of their families.

In many African countries, however, unequal access to property, discrimination in the labour market, and business-related obstacles hinder women from contributing even more to their countries’ growth and well-being. Removing such obstacles can not only help to empower women, but also to unlock the full economic potential of their nations. Fraser-Moleketi emphasized that Africa’s growth story has not been inclusive.

Increased and sustained efforts are required to empower women to contribute to and benefit from this transformation process, she added. Releasing the economic potential of women provides the opportunity to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty and ensure that Africa’s growth is both inclusive and sustainable.

Facilitating women’s economic empowerment efforts is at the heart of AfDB’s Ten Year Strategy, the Special Gender Envoy said, adding that the increasing disparity of income that the continent is currently witnessing can not only be stopped; it can be reversed.

As 2015 marks the year of Women’s Economic Empowerment by African Heads of State and Governments, the stage has been set for an increased focus on the role of women as key players in Africa’s economic growth and structural transformation.