Ladies: Do You Have What It Takes To Be a Leader?
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Last week, I sat in a crowded room listening to Joanna Barsh, Director at McKinsey & Co talk about “Centered Leadership: How Talented Women Thrive”. While listening to this very accomplished women, I wondered if this economic crisis would have been any different had there been more women at the table (see FT article which refutes this theory). I don’t know the answer and I don’t want to turn this into a gender debate but I do wonder why so many women start off after college with just as much drive, intelligence and education as men but only a few ends up reaching the top echelons - in business, education and government. We never seem to have a majority of women at the top. Yes, I know there are a few women at the top levels – but are there enough of them to make a difference? How can we, as mothers and mentors, help more women succeed? How can we help our daughters succeed? What are the characteristics of successful women leaders? Can women LEARN how to be more successful? Joanna Barsh thinks so and spoke to us about the findings of a McKinsey initiative, called the McKinsey Leadership Project. The initiative was driven in part to learn what “drives and sustains successful women leaders” and to impart this knowledge to young women to help them navigate the sometimes difficult path to leadership. So what did Mc Kinsey find out in this study?
First, McKinsey found that there were several pre-conditions to successful leadership: intelligence, desire to lead, communication skills and tolerance for change. If a person already possessed these skills, McKinsey found that successful women leaders also had five “broad and interrelated” dimensions: meaning, framing, connecting, engaging and maintaining energy – all of which can be learned.
1. Meaning: Passion. Successful leaders have found something that they are passionate about. Without this passion, work would just be drudgery that is done between weekends. Meaning also provides energy and a higher degree of satisfaction. “Follow you heart and do the things you love to do.” Start with defining what you are good at and how that intersects with what you enjoy doing.
2. Framing: Are you an optimist? If not, learn how to view the world more optimistically. Understand that how you view the world and take things can have a profound impact on your professional life. Optimists tend to see life more realistically than pessimists-which lead to better business decisions. If for example, you perform poorly during a presentation, keep it impersonal and limit your thoughts on it. Do not start ruminating on it – that is only energy depleting. Focus on how you can manage the challenge, learn and move forward. It is all about learned optimism.
3. Connecting: Develop your networks. Men tend to have broader, shallower relationships which give them a “wider range of resources for gaining knowledge and professional opportunities.” On the other hand, women have smaller, deeper relationships and we need to cultivate more relationships. Also, it has been shown that women who promote their own interests are seen as “aggressive, selfish and uncooperative.” This “failure to promote our own interests contributes to a lack of women leaders.” So, until we can change this, we need to find colleagues who are willing to go beyond the role of mentor and help us gain access to opportunities we merit.
4. Engage. Find you voice. If you don’t speak up, people will write you off. Successful leaders create their own luck –they seize opportunities. Hard work will NOT always be noticed. Women tend to “hang back if they think they have nothing new to say or that their ideas are not profound.” But don’t – speak up.
5. Energize. Replenish your energy. In today’s world of extreme jobs, executives work long hard hours. In addition, women executives tend to come home to a “second shift” – which can add to energy depletion. Start basing your priorities on those activities that energize you and take control of your day – don’t let it slip away on energy depleting tasks. One useful and practical tip is to find 15 minutes each day free from distractions.
McKinsey is rolling out this leadership model and its still early but its growing organically and in time, hopefully, we will see an increase in the number of female leaders.
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Posted by mmnn on 09/20 at 05:55 AM