Dear Billy:

With the smell of spring in the air and the Augusta National just around the corner, I am enjoying the prospect of watching this year’s competition in person. Perhaps we might spend a few minutes catching up as well. You will find me near front and center wearing a pink jacket.

In my role as CEO of IBM, I regret to inform you that we are reducing our sponsorship by 50.8 percent. This is, not coincidentally, the percentage of women in the country’s population, according to the 2010 census.

Some members of the board and the executive team pushed very hard for a complete withdrawal of sponsorship now. Out of respect for our longstanding relationship with Augusta, I decided that was too drastic a measure to take all at once and with such short notice. But it is only fair to let you IBM will most likely not be a sponsor of next year’s tournament. I trust this gives you enough time to find other sponsors. If, however, the club adopts a policy of including women members, as CEO I commit that IBM will increase our support by 101.6%, double the percentage of women in the population, and I will do so with great pleasure.

Should you find yourself in a position to answer questions about IBM’s decision, please feel free to reference the following:

Augusta exemplifies world class competition at it’s finest and it is an opportunity for IBM to associate itself with values that form the fiber of our company.  Innovation is also critical to IBM. Innovation, simply put, combines existing ideas in new and unusual ways. To foster innovation at IBM we bring together people who think differently and who see the world in different ways. For these reasons, diversity and inclusion is one of IBM’S key strategic imperatives. We have increased the number of women in senior roles by over 500% since the 1990s. We are proud of and benefit greatly from these endeavors. So, supporting an exclusive club, particularly on such a grand and visible scale as Augusta provides, is inconsistent with who we are as a company and how we choose to be seen.

As you know, I personally have no issue with you or the other members and support your right to be in the company of men only on occasion. Believe me, there are certainly times when I relish letting my hair down, so to speak, with the girls.

I hope this year’s tournament brings great weather and glory to the club. I look forward to seeing you there.

Respectfully,

Virginia Rometty,

Chief Executive Officer, International Business Machines

P.S.

Just before signing this letter I saw reference to you “lamenting the games stagnant growth” in the New York Times. Perhaps you might consider including women as a way to seed the expansion you’d like to see. If so, call me, I’d be happy to help.

From the author:

I still hold out hope that IBM’s CEO, its Board of Directors, and other Augusta members who lead corporations that wave the diversity and inclusion banner, will stand together and walk their talk.

©2012 Germane Insights. All Rights Reserved.

The Letter I Wish IBM CEO, Virginia Rometty, Had Written is an original post from Anne Perschel on Germane Insights - Achieving Leadership Excellence through the Art and Science of Psychology

DO WOMEN LACK VISION?

Do women lack vision?

This question was raised, yet one more time, at a recent event featuring a panel of senior executive women at The Boston Club, an organization that advocates for women directors and helps companies place women on boards.

The panel included Laura Sen, CEO, BJ’s wholesale club; Willow Shire, Board Director, TJX; and Gunjan Kedia, Executive Vice President State Street Bank. In response to the question about whether women lack vision, panel moderator, Deborah Kolb, PhD, Simmons College, School of Management, pointed out potential flaws in research on this topic.

In Women and the Vision Thing  (Harvard Business Review) Herminia Ibarra concludes,

“Women scored lower on “envisioning”—the ability to recognize new opportunities and trends in the environment and develop a new strategic direction for an enterprise.”

This conclusion was based on 360 ratings by peers of the female research subjects. Why is this important? Peer ratings tend to be lower than those of other rater groups, including managers and direct reports. For this reason, the Emotional Competence Inventory, a well-validated 360 assessment, adjusts the weight of peer group scores. To conclude that women lack vision, based solely on evidence from peer group ratings, seems a bit on the light side, in my not so humble opinion.

In addition, questions about women lacking vision and strategic thinking, may grow from a limited perspective about what vision and strategy look like and how they are expressed. Other Boston Club panelists pointed out how challenging it is for some to hold the notion that women (or any person) can be good with details and strategy simultaneously, or even sequentially. A discussion of gender based brain differences explains why and how women do both, later in this post.

A Different Perspective on Vision

For now, let’s take a leap to Pinterest, where ideas are expressed in pictures, and explore a different way of viewing whether women lack vision. In a recent post at 3Plus International, Vicki Daly wrote that women make up 70 – 80% of Pinterest’s users.

Pinterest is a visual expression of how and what users are thinking. And if a vision isn’t a picture, what is it?

Google+ enables ideas to be expressed in words, and over there, men account for two-thirds of the 90 million users.

Men are for words? Women are for pictures?

As Pinterest grows by leaps and bounds, people are asking whether it is just a fad or a serious player in the social ehter-spehre. Time will tell. And while time takes its time, I wonder whether women are pinning, in part, because it allows us to express our ideas in both words and visions, which is more aligned with how we think.

The evidence for this?

Picture Her Brain

According to Ellen F. Weber, PhD, Director of MITA International Brain Based Center, there are structural differences between men’s and women’s brains. These differences are such that women access and integrate more areas of the brain to solve problems – which is the brain’s highest level function.  Men, on the other hand, tend to use a logical step by step analysis. Women solve problems by way of logical analysis, pictures, metaphors, emotions and more. Each of these methods taps a different intelligence and a different area of the brain.

I often think in pictures. It happened the other day when Charlotte was talking about a new man in her life. Into my brain flew an image of Charlotte swimming deep underwater. I shared the image and wondered with Charlotte why this particular image might be coming to mind? She responded that the relationship is taking her places she has long been afraid to go – her fear of deeply intimate relationships – well below the surface.

More Myth Busters

Moving away from Pinterest, the brain, and back to the business world, here are a few examples of women with vision.

Spanx, The Pampered Chef and Rubber Sidewalks are three successful companies started by women who saw needs that others did not notice. Then we have Judy Faulkner, founder of e-health company EPIC Systems, dubbed “Health Care’s Low Key Billionaire” in Forbes. For additional examples dubunking the myth that women lack vision see How She Does It: How Women Entrepreneurs Are Changing the Rules of Business Success by Margaret Heffernan.

The Female Vision: Women’s Real Power at Work by Sally Helgesen and Julie Johnshon is another excellent resource for understanding what and how women see differently, and why businesses benefit when leaders open their eyes to this difference.

Are you, or do you know, a woman with vision?

Please share your story here, and my apologies that the comment section does not allow you to post a picture. Perhaps a woman should design an app that does.

©2012 Germane Insights. All Rights Reserved.

Debunking the Myth that Women Lack Vision is an original post from Anne Perschel on Germane Insights - Achieving Leadership Excellence through the Art and Science of Psychology

The Woman Advantage

I was driving…

and barely listening to the radio, when this came through the speakers.

” … just a thousand dollars to start you business. Where did that money come from?”

“I slept with my boyfriend and he gave me a thousand dollars. But let me tell ya, I woulda slept with him anyway. He was so handsome, 10 years older than me, so sexy. He didn’t have to give me the money, but once it was there, boy I grabbed it.”

Well, that got my attention.

Barbara Corcoran turned that thousand dollars into a six billion dollar real estate empire. I  was  listening to her interview on American Public Media radio. Barbara is probably more well-known for her role as a judge on Shark Tank, a reality TV show in which entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas.

I’ve never watched the show, but I do pay attention to all things women and business. So I listened intently as this brazen woman continued to share her perception of the not-so-secret secrets to her success. She is a savvy business woman, who interestingly cannot read a financial statement, but has much to say that is worth a listen, for men and women alike, but

Here’s what really intrigued me

Barbara Corcoran does not whine, moan, or complain about being the only female at the table. She turns it into the woman advantage instead. That’s different. I like different. I like it when people’s ideas challenge my underlying assumptions about the world. So I was having my thoughts turned all upside down and sideways, while driving.

Barbara talked about the woman advantage of being the only female in the network of old boys who control New York City’s real estate. This onlyness meant she could also differentiate herself by wearing a skirt, and so she did. She chose to make it a short skirt, a red one, a power skirt, with high heels adorning her very shapely legs. Why?

It was the woman

“advantage. They didn’t even have to know my name; I was just the “woman” or the “girl” or the “one in the short skirt.” Who cares? As long as I was noticed. I already got my undue attention that those guys in the most expensive $5,000 suits could never get.”

So, I’m rethinking…

adjusting my mind, changing the frame, and maybe, just maybe, I’ll play the game a little differently the next time I’m the only.

Care to join the fun?

©2012 Germane Insights. All Rights Reserved.

Short Red Skirt and High Heeled Shoes: The Woman Advantage is an original post from Anne Perschel on Germane Insights - Achieving Leadership Excellence through the Art and Science of Psychology

PRESS RELEASE:

NEW REPORT REVEALS STEPS WOMEN MUST TAKE TO ATTAIN MORE SENIOR LEVEL POSITIONS

Researchers Also Detail What Corporations Must Do

To Be Part of The Solution

A new report, WOMEN AND THE PARADOX OF POWER, based on research by Dr. Anne Perschel of Germane Consulting and Jane Perdue of Braithwaite Innovation Group finds that corporations are leaving money on the table and forgoing future success by failing to place more women in senior leadership roles. Perschel and Perdue also claim that businesswomen must prepare themselves to take on these executive roles by understanding and using power more effectively.

In their study, which involved hundreds of senior level businesswomen, Perdue and Perschel find that many women relate to power in ways that prevent them from attaining senior level positions, be it lack of confidence; cultural conditioning; or simply not understanding what power is. In comparison, interviews with women in senor leadership roles at the highest levels of corporations, reveal that they have a different understanding of power and use different approaches to gain more of it. They then use their power and influence to make important changes to the culture and to leadership practices.

Reshaping a male-dominated business culture, changing the ratio of women to men, and thereby improving bottom line results, requires a very specific set of actions by those currently in leadership positions as well as by women themselves. Perschel and Perdue identify the key issues and solutions:

5 Actions for Women

• Know power and be powerful: Perschel and Perdue define power as the capacity to get things done and bring about change. Not so for many of the research participants who think of power as “being in control at all times,” or “deciding and announcing,” among other misconceptions. Sixty-one percent of survey participants hold mistaken views about how to advance their power (and themselves). The authors emphasize that women must study power, understand power, and use their power to change the culture of business.

• Ditch Cinderella: Over sixty percent of the participants preferred passive approaches to gaining power, opting to be granted access, rather than actively taking it. Unlike Cinderella, women cannot passively wait on the business sidelines, hoping business culture will change and hand them the most powerful decision making positions. Instead, they must seek power, advancing both the change agenda and their careers. As one executive vice-president who heads a $300 million dollar business advised, “The success police will not come and find you.”

• Show up. Stand Up. Voice Up: Fifty-two percent of the barriers to power that participants identified are personal and internal, e.g., “what I need is a constant drip-feed of confidence.” With women comprising nearly forty-seven percent of the entire workforce, holding forty percent of all management jobs, and earning sixty-one percent of all master’s degrees, they are uniquely positioned to work together and with interested men to dismantle legacy organizational barriers and stereotypes.

• Forge strategic connections: Relationships are the currency of the workplace, yet sixty-seven percent of the women in Braithwaite & Germane’s study are not taking charge of building their networks. To fill more than the three percent of the Fortune 500 CEO positions they currently hold, women must become masters of strategic networking as well as building alliances and coalitions.

• Unstick their thinking: Thirty-eight percent of participants opted for being well-liked rather than powerful. Perschel and Perdue contend this is an area where some women need to re-order their preferences and adopt both/and thinking. Based on research conducted at Stanford University, women are uniquely capable of moving beyond an either/or mindset, about power and other issues. Leaders, both male and female, too often limit solutions by framing problems as a choice between two mutually exclusive options. More women in senior leadership roles with a both/and approach will help all leaders think about decisions differently and more effectively.

 3 Actions for Corporate Leaders

• Make gender balance real: Having more women in senior leadership roles is correlated with a substantial increase in total return to shareholders, a performance metric for most CEOs. Why, then, do so many company executives fail to hire, develop, and promote women for clout positions on senior leadership teams? Leaders at the highest levels must move beyond positioning gender balance as politically correct and giving it perfunctory lip service on the corporate agenda. If they are serious about gender balance, they must position it alongside the top business imperatives.

• Re-make Leadership: Despite decades of efforts to increase the number of women in senior leadership roles, the needle on this corporate metric has barely moved. Gender bias is prevalent in the very way leadership is defined – a take charge, have all the answers, aggressive style. Corporate leaders must change both the definitions and practices of leadership. Women will help them do so.

• Walk the talk. Develop women leaders: Seventy-one percent of firms responding to a survey conducted by Mercer, the world’s largest human resource consultancy, do not have a clearly defined strategy or philosophy to develop women for leadership roles. As some of the approaches that work for men do not work as well for women, corporate leaders must invest in modifying these programs to develop women and then follow up with promotional opportunities.

Utilizing this research and her related corporate experience, Dr. Anne Perschel leads and advances aspiring professional women through coaching, development programs, mentoring and sponsorships. By identifying key obstacles such as those uncovered in WOMEN AND THE PARADOX OF POWER, she helps women and organization leaders identify and address issues that help ensure women reach the highest pinnacles of success.

To receive your copy of the full report click the download report button at the top of this page, right hand column.

©2012 Germane Insights. All Rights Reserved.

More Women in Senior Leadership: New Research Report Details What Women and Corporate Leaders Must Do is an original post from Anne Perschel on Germane Insights - Achieving Leadership Excellence through the Art and Science of Psychology

The wave has hit shore. What wave? The one we’ve been waiting for; the one we’ve been telling you about. We hope you listened and are NOW in the ready.

This month we are thrilled to share the announcement that Christine Lagarde has been chosen to head of the International Monetary Fund. She is

1. The first woman in this role
2. Elected by consensus rather than by a vote
3. Succeeding (and she will succeed) a predecessor whose fall from grace occurred after he was accused of sexual assault

We are thinking 1,2, and 3 are related: a woman, consensus, and a clear statement that sexual misconduct in simply unacceptable.

While this is not the only sign it is a clear sign that the wave has hit shore.

NOW let’s ride it together, men and women, both hands, all hands, because all are needed. We have much work to do.

Riding the Wave

From Aljazeera

Christine Lagarde, the French finance minister, has been named as the first-ever female chief of the International Monetary Fund.

The IMF said she was elected by consensus, rather than a vote.

Read more

Did you know she represented France as a synchronized swimmer?

Follow Christine Lagarde on Twitter

WHY WOMEN?

Last month’s edition featured men who are champions for women leaders answering the question “Why Women?” We committed to bringing you their answers as long as they keep sending them in.

From Wally Bock

Here’s what Wally Bock has to say on the subject.

I want to help us get “every brain in the game” in business and the world, in leadership, but everywhere else as well. My awareness and effort are driven by two personal issues. My mother faced huge barriers to business success that weren’t there for the men she worked alongside. And I have daughters, who face fewer, lower barriers than my mother, but still barriers that aren’t there for the men they work alongside.

Thanks Wally

From Curt Rice

I started thinking about gender equality in the context of universities as work places, which are pretty rough place to spend one’s time. As a young female researcher once said in a talk I heard, “I always wanted to discover things, I just didn’t realize I had to be a prize-fighter to be able to do it.”

Thinking about work places led me to think more about leadership. What is good leadership? What kind of leadership is possible at a university? What would it mean to make a university into a good workplace? What kind of implications would this have for women?

As VP of Research I’m now in a position to influence thinking on leadership and the work environment. I’m pushing for new kinds of arguments. Social justice is important, role models are important, genuine equal opportunity is important. But there’s more. What happens to research teams when they show gender balance? Do they function better? Perform better? Do they get better results? Is there “waste” in science that doesn’t take account of gender questions? Could it be reduced? How? I want to connect social (gender) equality with scientific quality. That’s the angle that really drives me. And I’m convinced that there are good arguments. So I  make them!

Thanks Curt for adding your touch of brilliance to NOW for NOW.

WOMEN IN ACADEMIA

More from Curt

The Promotion Project

Curt Rice is Vice President for Research & Development at the University of Tromsø, Norway, the world’s northern most university. He shares his views about the why and how of more women in academia. (You will also find an article on this topic from Lauren McLanahan, a recently tenured university professor, in 3Plus International e-gazine, July edition. It hits the press July 15, 2011.)

From Mary Churchill

I Need a Wife

So do I Mary.

Mary, a woman in Academia, suggests perhaps it is not The End of Men as that horrid Atlantic Monthly sensationalist headline read, but the end of the hero as individualistic star and onto collaborative shared heroism of many minds immersed in deep thinking together.

Read more

WOMEN in LEADERSHIP and ONE MORE THING ABOUT LEADING

From Allard de Jong – 10 Ways for Women to Be Strategic

10 Ways for Women to Be Strategic

Jane Perdue and I so-met Allard when he asked to publish our research – Women and Power – on his web-site. After so-meeting him, we answered his question with a resounding “YES.” In this guest post at Get Your Leadership Big On, Allard, a coach to senior women in Fortune 500 companies, identifies three types of women leaders and offers “A guide to survival in the wacky new world of work.”

Read more

From Gwyn Teatro

Leaders Go…

Gwyn has a way about her and in her unique way she reminds us that for all the highfalutin talk about leadership we often forget one of the most important and straightforward actions, Leaders Go….

Read more

TWO BIG SHIFTS

From Ellen Weber at Brain Leaders and Learners

Ellen is also a woman in Academia who teaches in an MBA program. In this post she challenges traditional and typically unsuccessful approaches to diversity training. Ellen uses her knowledge of neuroscience to describe an approach that works better.

Read more

For proof, you might want to click below read a post I wrote some time ago that illustrates Ellen’s point. It describes a time and a series of events in which my own prejudice smacked me in the face. It is a smack for which I am truly and forever grateful.

If Fish Could See Water

From Anne Perschel – Paradigm Shift and the Paradox of Power

While Ellen describes a shift in how we think about diversity, I’m talking about a shift in how we define business success. UNBRIDLED GROWTH and the endless pursuit of BIGGER has to and will end, whether it is done voluntarily or by force is the only open question. Women have a major role to play in shifting the BIGGER is BETTER paradigm and in determining what comes next.

Read more

MID-LIFE AND OTHER CRISES

From Marion Chapsal – Silly Things that Help During a Crisis

In a post that will touch your heart and guide you towards a more evolved version of you own humanity, Marion, my dear friend and colleague, shares wisdom about how she is coping with a series of challenging events in her family. Her suggestions are anything but silly, and I dare say they work for both men and women. Each of us has been there… it is part of life, and we all can benefit from Marion’s courage in sharing what’s happening and how she is coping. She is my friend and I love her.

From Marcia Reynolds – What a Female Mid-life Crisis Looks Like

In Psychology Today Marcia Reynolds demonstrates Mid-Life Crisis woman style. It’s not a sports car or an affair with someone younger. It’s  a….

Read More

From Cherry Woodburn – Warning Bathing Suits Are Hazardous to Your Health

Cherry is also writing about women at mid-life. She’s talking about body image and showing us her knees. They are not your average knees. Of course not, because Cherry is not your average woman. She is so much more.

Read more

©2012 Germane Insights. All Rights Reserved.

NOW LEADERSHIP – The Wave Has Hit Shore – June 2011 is an original post from Anne Perschel on Germane Insights - Achieving Leadership Excellence through the Art and Science of Psychology

Preamble: As you read this post, please be mindful that I believe both men and women, The Masculine and The Feminine, are required to lead for and into a future we need and one we must pursue. This post, and many others, emphasize The Feminine and women, because it and we have been missing from the leadership equation in business. Had men been missing, I hope and trust I would advocate for The Masculine. Why business? In developed countries business is a tremendous lever for change. For profit enterprises have both a sense of urgency and the resources to lead a paradigm shift, not to the exclusion, however, of government, not for profits, and other organized communities.

The Sign Reads

Point 1.

Emerging global conditions are like a neon sign flashing warnings of what’s required on the road ahead. It reads PARADIGM SHIFT.

What are the conditions behind this sign?

• Failing governments
• Failing economies that don’t respond to methods previously used to “fix” such problems
• Extreme weather conditions (This one is just beginning.)
• Out of control U.S. health care costs that we cannot fix
• Extinction/depletion of species and natural resources that will not and cannot be restored (Been fishing lately? Catch much?)

What’s called for is a BIG SHIFT – not a small adjustment, or a tweak, or a stronger pull of some previously used lever. These moves are akin to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Paradigm Shift

The shift involves our assumption that

Growth is good.

Bigger is better.

More is desirous.

A bigger house. A bigger car. A bigger business. A bigger economy. Bigger breasts. Erection doesn’t last long enough? (Longer is the time version of bigger.) We can fix that too. Caution though – 3 days is too much. See your doctor.

Grow the economy. Grow your business. If your children aren’t tall enough give them growth hormones. And have you seen the growing girth of the population? Bigger portions please.

Because, after all, bigger is better. Growth is good. It’s the natural way of things, or is it?

To get bigger we are borrowing against a future that won’t exist, at least not in the way we picture it, because of the very fact that we are borrowing against it.

If we don’t make the shift voluntarily, and we may not, IT will make us. Nature has a way of balancing herself.

Why the Shift Isn’t Happening

Point 2.

People who come to power in the current paradigm are least likely to see the assumptions underlying said paradigm. They are not bad people, just fish swimming in the water. They are unlikely to see that their assumptions, around which they build their lives and the systems that govern their lives, are not givens or natural laws, such as gravity, but conditions they have created. They don’t see that these created assumptions build a story. It is a story those in power, the ones who get to create the prevailing belief systems, tell themselves about the world, that results in a world about which they tell themselves that story. For the story creators to see these assumptions would be like fish seeing the water in which they swim. They don’t. It simply was, is and always will be. They know nothing else.

Why Women Can Create the Shift

Point 3.

Women are not currently the driving power in business. It is not our story, so we have a vantage point to see the assumptions on which the story is built. Some of us see other plausible assumptions and the stories they can create. We’d like to change things. How do I know? We asked. (Jane Perdue is my partner in seeking answers from women.) We did the research. We surveyed over 200 professional business women, most of whom work in large national or multinational corporations, to find out why they aspire to positions of power – to what end? Their top two priorities are “financial security for my family” not financial growth or riches, and “to lead change and make the world a better place.”

The Paradox of Power

Paradox

Point 4.

It’s tricky. Women have to come into power in a system that does not reflect the way we think about or use power, and simultaneously we have to create the shift to a new way of thinking about and using power. We have to know how to push from both sides, as pictured in the broom with two handles. Then there is the question of whether we will use our power to change the game, the rules and the desired outcomes or whether we will we be co-opted along the way? The story that holds the answer to this question has yet to be told.

Here are my recommendations for creating a story we will be proud of and in which future generations will live enriched (not by dollars) lives.

1. Replace BIGGER. Make a shift.

I like fulfilling.

Is your life fulfilling?

Are you fulfilling your purpose for being here?

Are you full yet? Yes? Good, time to stop eating.

You may choose a different concept. That’s fine.

The first order of business is to understand and stay true to WHY we want power. On behalf of what are we called to lead?

What is the story you want to tell about the world you helped to create?

2. Dress ourselves up in suits of power and get in the game, but never forget the purpose for which we donned those suits.

Understand the current rules.

Once there, and that means all along the way, create the shift.

Start pushing the broom from the other side.

3. Nelson Mandela this thing.

We are not better than men.

We simply have something different to offer, and it is needed now.

We also need men and women working together to make this new paradigm work.

Without men we will simply become fish in a different pond that cannot see the water in which they swim.

Here’s a sample of what could be.

It is new story two women have already created. Enjoy.

©2012 Germane Insights. All Rights Reserved.

PARADIGM SHIFT and THE PARADOX of POWER is an original post from Anne Perschel on Germane Insights - Achieving Leadership Excellence through the Art and Science of Psychology

The Washington Post  sees the light.  A recent article, Fixing the Economy: It’s Women’s Work (see below)  reports that businesses with at least 3 women in top leadership roles out pace the competition by a wide margin.  After hearing  about the Rule of 3 during one of my public speaking engagements several years ago, Kevan Norris of Wellesley Partners wrote, “Business leaders who do not heed the advice of Germane Consulting about the Rule of 3 do so at their own peril.”  The evidence grows stronger every day. 

I disagree, however, with the premise in the Post article that men and women are locked in to different leadership styles.  Ppersonality is more elastic and develops in response to opportunities provided and taken, according to Linda Carli, Ph.D. Wellesley College.  For example, as women take on management roles they develop greater assertiveness.  Simultaneously as men take on more family care taking roles, they develop more relational attributes. This means that leaders – both male and female – can practice and integrate the best of stereotypically male (assertive & individualistic) and female (relational and receptive) characteristics and as a result achieve fuller, richer and more effective leadership in addition to more satisfying lives. 

If you are interested in achieving The Rule of 3 - a strategy that will unleash outstanding company performance – or in expanding the other side of your leadership potential contact me for an initial consultation.  And keep checking back, I will be writing about best practices for realizing this vision.

Fixing the Economy? It’s Women’s Work

By Katty Kay and Claire Shipman
Sunday, July 12, 2009

While the pinstripe crowd fixates on troubled assets, a stalled stimulus and mortgage remedies, it turns out that a more sure-fire financial fix is within our grasp — and has been for years. New research says a healthy dose of estrogen may be the key not only to our fiscal recovery, but also to economic strength worldwide.

The sexy new discussion in policy circles around the world, thanks to the recession, is whether a significant shift of power from men to women is underway — or whether it should be. Accounting giant Ernst & Young pulled out charts and graphs at a recent power lunch in Washington with female lawmakers to argue a provocative bottom line: Companies with more women in senior management roles make more money. The latest issue of Foreign Policy magazine sweepingly predicts the “death of macho.” Economists at Davos this year speculated that the presence of more women on Wall Street might have averted the downturn. Adding to this debate is the fact that the laid-off victims of this recession are overwhelmingly men. 

All those right-brain skills disparaged as soft in the roaring ’90s are suddenly 21st-century-hot, while cocky is experiencing a slow fizzle. (Click here for the full article)

Katty Kay is a Washington anchor and reporter for “BBC World News America.” Claire Shipman is the senior national correspondent for ABC’s “Good Morning America.” They are the authors of “Womenomics.”

©2012 Germane Insights. All Rights Reserved.

The Rule of 3 – Ignore at Your Peril is an original post from Anne Perschel on Germane Insights - Achieving Leadership Excellence through the Art and Science of Psychology

“The female management style is not soft, it’s lucrative.”  Find out what Time magazine says about why women will rule in business.  May 2009. 

Highlights

Women

• Focus on long terms results
• Are collaborators and consensus builders

Companies with more women leaders

• Achieve better financial results
• Reward employees for results not time spent or seniority

Click here to read the article

To receive a copy of the research behind this article click here - scroll down and complete form.

©2012 Germane Insights. All Rights Reserved.

Time Magazine: Women Will Rule Business is an original post from Anne Perschel on Germane Insights - Achieving Leadership Excellence through the Art and Science of Psychology

For mother’s day Germane Insights celebrates two wise women who taught their not-yet-president sons important lessons on leadership. The first young man, Abraham Lincoln, grew up to become one of the country’s greatest leaders, and many believe the second, Barack Obama, will be similarly recognized for his ability to lead and transform the country. (Don’t miss the trivia question embedded in this article.  Send your replies. The answer appears in next week’s post)

Like other transformational leaders Lincoln and Obama blend masculine and feminine strengths.  Both men credit success to their respective mothers who like many women excel at both the soft side and hard side of leading.   In his book on leadership Pulitzer Prize winning presidential biographer and leadership scholar James McGregor Burns wrote, “As leadership becomes more properly to be seen as a process of leaders engaging and mobilizing the human needs and aspirations of followers, women will be more readily recognized as leaders and men will change their own leadership styles.”  Lincoln and Obama learned to be such leaders from their mothers and trusted guides who taught their sons to be self-confident yet humble; to be empathic; and to manage their own egos in order to uplift and engage others in pursuit of honorable goals.    

Nancy H. Lincoln

“All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.”    Abraham Lincoln

Nancy H. Lincoln taught her son to be a self-disciplined student and to value learning.  She encouraged his empathic nature and simultaneously fostered young Abe’s humility and self-confidence.  These two qualities were evident as Lincoln announced his run for state legislature. “Every man has his particular ambition. I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem.”

Helen Nicolay, daughter of Lincoln’s private secretary, referred to the president’s empathy as “His crowning gift of political diagnosis …which gave him the power to forecast with uncanny accuracy what his opponents were likely to do.” In one such situation Lincoln sat quietly through a formal discussion among fellow Republicans until near the end when he stood dramatically, threw of his shawl and outlined the next several moves of both parties. When he was done it all seemed so obvious that his peers wondered how they had missed it. Lincoln also employed empathy in his appeal for understanding between north and south – bridging the gap between the two sides by illuminating their shared humanity. “They are just what we would be in their situation. If slavery did not now exist amongst them, they would not introduce it.  If it did now exist amongst us, we should not instantly give it up…I surely will not blame them for not doing what I should not know how to do myself.’” 

Nancy Hanks Lincoln taught her son to read and to use books as his classroom.  During the war as one of his generals was failing, Lincoln, who never served in the military, read up on military strategy while still mourning the death of his son several weeks prior.  Within days the president began directing the armed forces. 

S. Anne Soetoro and Grandmother Toots

“[My mother] was the kindest, most generous spirit I have ever known, and that what is best in me I owe to her.”    Barack Obama

Barack Obama’s mother S. Anne Soetoro was an anthropologist who pursued life in foreign cultures.  She was known for gathering “unlikely conversation partners” in her home. Like his mother, the president is inclusive and crosses – perhaps transcends – ethnic and racial divides.  Her influence is visible in the diversity of the president’s cabinet choices and close advisers, his inclusion of a broad array of perspectives -inviting even those who oppose his views, his ability to speak to the universal hopes of a diverse base, and in the mix of people from around the world who welcome his presidency. 

Anne, like Lincoln’s mother, valued learning and self-discipline.  When the family lived overseas she would wake young Barack at 4:30 in the morning to study in preparation for returning to school in the U.S.  If he complained she was quick to remind him that this was no more pleasant for her than it was for him. 

Grandmother Toot, formally known as Madelyn Dunham, was another of Obama’s role models. “She was the cornerstone of our family and a woman of extraordinary accomplishment, strength and humility…Her impact on all of us is meaningful and enduring. Our debt to her is beyond measure.”  When her daughter became pregnant unexpectedly Toot found a job as a bank secretary to help with expenses. For many years she tolerated blatant sexism without complaint. Additionally handicapped by the lack of a college education she rose nevertheless to become the first female vice president of the bank. To stay focused on the goal in light of such difficulties requires management of one’s own ego. President Obama has also endured much without complaint while maintaining focus on the goal – as was evident during the presidential campaign. After the election he further proved the ability to manage his ego by appointing former opponent Hilary Clinton as Secretary of State.  Trivia – What actor is a 3^rd cousin 4 times removed to Abraham Lincoln?  Post your replies.  The answer will appear in next week’s blog post.

Leading Transformation

Lincoln preserved the union while transforming important aspects of culture and morality. Many hope Obama will realize a similar magnitude of change.  To do so requires engaging people in ways that raise both leader and followers to higher levels of aspiration, motivation and morality. This calls for strong relational skills, the ability to manage ones own ego and to make difficult sometimes unpopular decisions on behalf of a greater vision. 

The persisting leadership crisis in the U.S. suggests that the time is long overdue for trading in the prevailing command and control style for a model that incorporates what Lincoln and Obama learned from their mothers and what many women do so well – to be humble, to empathize, to collaborate, to build bridges and to put one’s ego in service of a greater good.  These attributes are crucial for leaders across all sectors if we are to restore the economy and the stature of the U.S. at home and around the world.  Perhaps with a president who models these qualities the culture of leadership in the U.S. will finally achieve these much needed changes.  To that end women as mothers, advisers, role models, and leaders have much to offer.

Happy mothers day to all women for we are all mothers – nurturing something or someone.

©2012 Germane Insights. All Rights Reserved.

Celebrating Mothers Day – Leadership Lessons from Mothers of Presidents is an original post from Anne Perschel on Germane Insights - Achieving Leadership Excellence through the Art and Science of Psychology

Lack of access to informal networks – the old boys’ club – becomes an increasingly significant barrier as women move up the corporate ladder. One client who was the only female VP in her company complained that vendors failed to include her on the invitation list for tailgates and football games, despite telling them her father was a coach and she loved the game. She knew that deals were being struck during Monday morning post-game calls, and she was losing out.

I discovered a solution to her problem while sitting on a beach watching 5-8 year olds at play. The boys used their engineering skills to design and build an intricate series of dams and rivers by the water’s edge. They even built a small hot tub and were enjoying their time in this mini-spa when along came the girls – first one, then two. As the third tried to find a seat in the tub, two boys protested. “No girls allowed.” The girls argued but eventually moved along. Minutes later, the mothers arrived and demanded equal rights for the girls. After some protest and as long as the mothers stood guard the girls were begrudgingly allowed in the tub. As soon as the guards left, however, it was again, “No girls allowed.” This scene repeated itself several times. All the while I’m wishing the mother’s would not intervene. I wanted to see how things would play out on their own. I got my wish as the mothers became distracted and the girls grew tired of trying.

One lone girl started to dig a short distance from the boys. She was far enough to maintain respect for the rule of separation but close enough for the engineers and construction workers to see her. Other girls joined in. They built elaborate scenes creatively using beach flora, fauna and debris to make bridges, houses, trees and people. A curious boy inched his digging project closer to girls’ scene. Within minutes his trench was connected to their landscape. Other boys began to follow. Soon the groups’ combined engineering and creative talents resulted in a complex and ingenious landscape filled with people, cars, pets, trenches, dams and a bigger co-ed hot tub.

So Ms. Julie threw her own tailgating party. She invited the boys and the girls. The food was imaginative and delicious but she was sure to include the more traditional grilled hot dogs, hamburgers and sweet smelling sausages. Tailgates and football games have not reverted back to “No girls allowed” despite the absence of mothers standing guard.

When one of us gets through many of us get through – so please write in and share what works.  I will pay forward all your great creative ideas.

©2012 Germane Insights. All Rights Reserved.

What to Do When the Boys Won't Let You Play – Gaining Access to the "Old" (& new) Boys' Network is an original post from Anne Perschel on Germane Insights - Achieving Leadership Excellence through the Art and Science of Psychology