Women Lead the Way: Your Guide to Stepping Up to Leadership and Changing the World - Couverture souple

Tarr-Whelan, Linda

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1459609468 ISBN 13 : 9781459609464

Editeur : ReadHowYouWant, 2012

Synopsis

Offers practical steps for women to bring their passion, brains, and background to the power tables and make life better for themselves, their company or organization and global society. Combines compelling research, international experience, and fascinating personal stories with solid advice Tarr-Whelan has extensive background as a business woman, a government official, a non-profit leader, and a nurse A few ''first women'' are making key decisions in high places but a few is not enough to have a significant impact. Changing what gets decided takes changing who makes the decisions. But with just 17% of Congressional seats and 14% of Fortune 500 board seats held by women, the leaders defining priorities and solutions continue to look and act much the same as generations ago. Linda Tarr-Whelan marshals eye-opening facts and figures to decisively dispel the myths that still hold women back and shows women how to build their confidence and skills to pioneer a distinctive approach to leadership, one that emphasizes collaboration, communication and consensus. The proven tipping point, surprisingly, is just 30%--when women's representation at the top reaches 30%, real change starts to happen. Drawing on her extraordinarily diverse background as a consultant, organizer, and diplomat, Tarr-Whelan offers a women-led strategy for change and a complete set of practical road-tested tools readers can use to become powerful partners in creating a better future in a rapidly changing world. Closing the leadership gap is a win for everyone - it brings in new ideas, creates a more balanced and productive work environment, a revitalized social compact and demonstrable positive effects on the bottom line in business and government. Women Lead the Way artfully combines advocacy, research, and tactical guidance to help readers wedge the door open and bring more women through and up.

A propos du livre

Extrait

More Women Leaders, Better Leadership

On my desk is a campaign button reading, “Women will make the difference.” I’ve had it since 1984, when Geraldine Ferraro was the first woman vice presidential candidate. And I’m sure it’s right. Women have already made a huge difference as a force for change, and we continue to make critical contributions just about everywhere. Women’s efforts have been invaluable, even though we have often been invisible.

There is one crucial place, however, where our talent is still largely untapped: the power tables where the course for the future is charted. A robust out-front role in setting priorities and allocating resources wherever the tough choices are made is essential to maximizing the contributions women can make. Some of us have been complacent, assuming women are naturally moving up to take our seats around the power tables. The reality is that we have a long way left to go.

A Compelling Need for New Thinking

In 2009, when Women Lead the Way went to press, a severe economic crisis gripped the United States and countries across the globe. Experts dissected the causes as whole industries collapsed. The leaders of major banks, corporations, and entire sectors of the economy were called to task. One very important factor became evident: Virtually none of the captains of industry were women. Women were not the leaders who had made the bad decisions that led, or at least added, to our economic miseries. Nicholas Kristof, columnist for the New York Times, asked, “Would we be in the same mess if Lehman Brothers [an investment house that failed] was Lehman Brothers and Sisters?”1 My answer is, “Probably not.”

To take another example, if the nation of Rwanda had had balanced leadership, would it have descended into the terrible genocide of 1994? We’ll never know for sure, but we can make an educated guess: Rwanda now has a majority of women leaders, and it is a transformed nation.

Changing the Deciders Changes the Decisions

Tough economic times, dramatically shifting world events, unmet needs in the country—all call for looking beyond the current composition of leader ship for different answers. To achieve sustainable long-term economic growth and well-being, leadership must become more balanced—and that means it must include more women.

Women’s full participation in leadership improves outcomes. This is seemingly a well-kept secret in this country, although numerous books and studies have been published on it.2 Extensive international experience in politics and current business and political research tell a powerful story of the correlation between balanced leadership and better results. When women (that means you!) step into leadership roles, you make life better—for yourself, your company or organization, and global society. Women Lead the Way shows how and why balanced leadership matters and helps you be part of creating a different future, one with enough women at the top to have a positive impact. We must move beyond having women appear “one-at-a-time performers,” as identified by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg when she spoke in the Rose Garden next to President Bill Clinton, who had just appointed her to the Court.3

The 30% Solution

A sprinkling of women at the top, however inspirational, is not enough to change how companies or governments operate. The weight of cultural inertia is too great. But when that sprinkling grows until the leadership group is about one-third women, important things happen. Different decisions are made, and the move toward true parity in leadership gains momentum. If we can get to at least 30% women as partners at the power tables, we have a chance to change the world. I call this the 30% Solution.

Why 30%? This has proved to be the critical mass in any group of decision makers, the tipping point at which women’s voices resonate fully to add the affirmative difference of our experiences and values. When your ideas, solutions, and approaches and those of other women are amplified enough to be heard and heeded, different options become possible. Customary and often outmoded or even counterproductive ways of doing business can be replaced by fresh ideas. Few women in top positions are likely to argue, “We’ve always done it this way.” And with enough women in the mix, the hypercompetitiveness seemingly rampant in a homogeneous leadership structure is leavened.

With just a token woman or two at the table, the added strengths we bring simply don’t carry the day. Lone women often feel like “fish out of water” or feel they must “go along to get along.” A small number of women certainly can and do make a difference by bringing more women into power. Indeed, having even a few women at power tables as role models is vital. However, it is seldom enough to change outcomes. It is tough for one or a few women to lead the way on solving nagging problems, especially anything labeled a “women’s issue,” such as the need for family-friendly workplaces. More women are needed to gain the advantage of what law professor Deborah Rhode has called “the difference [that] ‘difference’ makes.”4

On the other end of the spectrum, while true parity in leadership—50% women—is an ultimate goal mirroring society, 30% is where real change begins to happen. Also, parity becomes easier to accomplish after the tipping point is reached, because women can change long-standing practices to create more opportunity for others who come behind them. The 30% Solution acts as a floor for women moving up, not a ceiling.

Sometimes the best ideas are hidden in plain view. More than thirty years ago, Harvard Business School Professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter5 first identified the importance of having a critical mass of about one-third women in corporate decision-making roles to positively affect outcomes. Regardless of the strategic importance of these findings, little attention was paid to the idea until 1995, when it gained prominence on the international stage. That year, almost two hundred nations attending a United Nations conference agreed on a goal of at least 30% women in decision making. These countries saw a need to establish genuine partnerships to determine their destinies. Since then more than one hundred nations have embarked on modernizing their leadership composition in line with the 30% Solution. Country after country has moved away from the historical model of totally or mostly male leadership to actively balance the scales with more women. The experiences that have validated their decisions are included throughout Women Lead the Way.

The 30% Solution is good business as well as smart politics. Catalyst, an independent research organization with deep ties to Fortune 500 companies, has undertaken a long line of important studies about the impact of having more women at the top. The findings build a strong case for predicting outcomes. Firms with one-third or more women as corporate officers and directors reap rich rewards: higher financial performance and better bottom lines, as well as more opportunity for upward mobility and improved policies for women and families. Best-practice companies (which are unfortunately few in number) are following a women-friendly model of leadership development as part of their business plan for success.

I haven’t found studies about the 30% Solution in the nonprofit sector. Based on personal experience with the CEOs and boards of directors of a wide range of foundations and organizations, I would expect that these groups too would do better with balanced leadership. This is an area for more research.

Progress around the World, Paralysis at Home

The many countries working toward balanced leadership seem to realize that they can’t afford to underutilize half their population. They see that moving ahead will take all the talent, energy, and ingenuity they have available. Old customs and ways of doing business that artificially limit the pool of potential leaders are increasingly seen as shortsighted. The men who run countries and companies have come to realize that having enough women at the top to speak up and be heard produces better results. It is not a zero-sum game of women vs. men or a discussion of rights. Instead, balanced leadership is a route to improving democracy and competitiveness.

The United States is used to leading the world in gender equality and women’s advancement, but it no longer does. Other countries that started considerably behind the United States on this front are now moving faster. Despite the growing body of evidence supporting more diverse leadership, and despite major problems signaling a clear need to do things differently, changes in the status quo to reflect women’s shared values and experience have been slow in coming to this country. In fact, as you will see in later chapters, progress toward balanced leadership has essentially stalled. Women are seldom playing a big role in determining what problems are critical enough to be solved or in suggesting different ways of doing things.

Women as a group, the “we” of this book, have certainly not stood idly by. Women have moved forward in impressive numbers to get further education, start businesses, lead community groups, raise families, advocate for change, and go to work. Over the years I have met incredible, dynamic women in every walk of life and at every level. Women are ready to fill new roles as the major talent pipeline for the future. Yet many more educated, experienced, qualified, savvy, and smart women are poised to lead than we find at the top rungs of career ladders.

In fact, the composition of the groups of people with the authority and power to define the landscape of problems and solutions in universities, law firms, major companies, and legislatures hasn’t changed much overall. The higher up you go, the more men and fewer women are creating strategic plans to address problems. Even in the nonprofit world, where a vast number of women are at the top, the bigger the organization, the more likely it is to be run by men. In all too many places, women’s opinions and expertise are not sought. Women’s accomplishments are not on show. Times have changed, and so have women—but the paradigm of who leads remains virtually the same. Although it is seldom discussed in the United States, the 30% Solution can help.

History confirms the power of women as a force for change when we lead the way and are joined in the effort by like-minded men. Courageous women have seen problems in our society and acted. To cite only a few examples, women’s leadership ended child labor and changed the law to protect girls and women from abuse and violence. Women sought and won the right to vote and the opportunities to go to school, participate in sports, work without sexual harassment, and gain credit in their own names. Taking the next steps to make the world a better place will require closing the leadership gap.

What Women Share

Like men, women are diverse in political position, occupation, age, family relationships, race, ethnicity, and economic status. However, women have found ways to cross these fault lines, share experiences, and act to improve our society. While much is made of the differences between and among women, these are definitely not the whole story.

I learned this powerful lesson from spearheading a series of extensive polls and focus groups over almost a decade to listen to women about their concerns, hopes, dreams, and priorities for public policy. We found strong similarities across all of the divisions where we expected differences—age, political party, race, generation, even region of the country. Most women shared some critical values and visions that, on balance, diverged from those of most men in the control samples. We will discuss women’s values and visions in detail in Chapter 5. They include a preference for collaboration, a longer and wider time horizon, greater appreciation of the importance of relationships, and a focus on preventing crises. Other research about the gender gap (the difference between the views of men and women) has reconfirmed these findings many times.6

Numerous studies have tried to quantify what causes these gender-related similarities and differences; theories range from brain biology to social conditioning of girls and boys. As a nurse, I am pretty practical and results-oriented. I can accept that we don’t know all the causal factors and still work with what we do know about women and men.

Abilities women bring from our life experience, such as networking—building relationships, collaborations, and partnerships—are powerful ways to trump traditional power. As Insiders and partners rather than competitors, we can change systems and institutions to reflect our views, values, and experience. A winning consensus agenda built on shared values will promote progress on long-neglected issues.

Why This Matters to You

You are a busy person. Why should you care about wedging the door open for women and changing the status quo? Stop for a minute and look around at who is making the big decisions where you work or in your town. Are they doing a good job, or do you find some issues continually ignored? Do you ever think your leaders are pretty unconnected to the world as it looks to you?

Even if you have concerns in these areas, you might be saying, “What difference does it make whether it is men, women, or both determining the business plan for a company, the budget for an organization, or the agenda for the city council?” The answer may surprise you. It matters a lot.

With almost fifty years in the workforce, I am often struck by how many times, and in how many settings, I have heard the same series of issues needing resolution. For example, do you and your friends worry about the level of stress in your lives and how it affects you and your family? Do you want to see work and family continue to be two separate worlds or intertwined parts of the lives of all adults? Are you looking for more respect for your contributions (and maybe those of other women as well), whether at home or at work? Do you feel we are missing the boat on meeting the needs of children and families as important priorities? Are you tired of feeling you have to be twice as good or do twice as much work as your male colleagues to get ahead? Do you want to work for a company (or be the CEO of one) that “walks the walk” on sustainability and the importance of the workforce? If so, you are not alone. Business publications are full of stories about how both male and female employees in the new workforce want to help achieve a greater purpose, to advance their careers while being engaged in the community, and to participate actively in the lives of families and friends.

The decisions of business and political leaders on whether and how these issues are addressed are influenced by many factors, and one of those factors is the life experience of men and women. Our current leaders, who continue to be overwhelmingly male, generally have not spent and are not spending much time or energy to create the kind of world many of us wish to see. Lots of women are working at it, allied with men, especially younger men. But the women are often pressing for change as outside advocates or activists. We are still far from having enough Insiders who share our ideas and are charged with formulating and implementing solutions.

To provide fresh ideas and new approaches, we need a significant group of women who are equals in decision making and who can and will make things happen. When a critical mass of women and men decide together how to move companies, communities, or the country, our ideas will flourish. Women will...

Biographie de l'auteur

Linda Tarr-Whelan is a premier expert on women's leadership in this country and internationally. As a frequent speaker to college and women's audiences, in the media, and as an advisor to top officials in the United States and Europe, Linda promotes more women in leadership as good business and smart politics. Her book, Women Lead the Way: Your Guide to Stepping Up and Changing the World, brings her strong experience and personal convictions about women's strengths to the ground level with a practical road map for women to move up. Currently a distinguished senior fellow at Demos, a network for ideas and action, she directs the Women's Leadership Initiative. Ambassador Tarr-Whelan has always been a change agent. The constant thread in her life and work has been to lead beyond the status quo to a more egalitarian, peaceful, and just world. She has pursued the dream of women's advancement from her first day on the job as a nurse, when she was fired for failing to stand up when a doctor came into the room.Linda's work as a nurse might seem a far cry from the rest of her illustrious career, but one that left a lifetime mark on her ability to listen and desire to reach out to help and empower others. It also taught her to endure eighteen-hour workdays, believe in the worth and dignity of individuals in the most menial as well as the most exalted of jobs, and encounter every kind of boss, from the empty suits and top-down autocrats to the most inclusive and collaborative. When frozen systems didn't budge, she helped to create or build organizations to make them move, including the Center for Women in Government, the Coalition of Labor Union Women, the Center for Policy Alternatives, Demos, and Quantum Leaps, Inc. Linda was a U.S. delegate to the groundbreaking UN Fourth World Conference on the Status of Women in Beijing, and her career path and networks stretch across the globe.She and he husband, Keith, created their own consulting firm, Tarr-Whelan & Associates, Inc., a

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: ReadHowYouWant
• Date d'édition: 2012
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1459609468
• ISBN 13: 9781459609464
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 364
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible