We are going
to jump into a bit of a controversial topic: Women in the Board Room - the Truth.
We have written previously about the need for diversity and how large
corporations are making the turn to be more diverse and inclusive - and they
are doing it out of necessity, out of their need for strategic survival and competitive
advantage. This has impacted women in a positive way, but we are still stuck
with the age-old question: is it really different for women in the boardroom?
Now, obviously I am talking to you about this from what I have observed as a
man, so I can say with some certainty that locker room talk does occur.
I can tell you for a fact that there are men who do not believe women can do
certain jobs. There are some men that really and truly believe women should not
be in the workplace. Some believe women should not actually be preachers or
pastors in the pulpit, so a number of issues that women have come across are
very real. Let's make sure we level set on this reality for any marginalized and
/ or minority group. The life experiences that you have had, more than likely, are
indeed things that happened to you as well as other people. They are real and they
are clearly more than figments of your imagination.
We are in a
crazy time right now where we talk about the male/female dynamic in the age of “me
too”; where it has been reported that men are now sometimes afraid to meet with
women alone because there is concern of an accusation of bad conduct, or some
type of sexual impropriety. In some cases, clearly it is real, and in other
cases it is manufactured. This has brought about considerable angst in the
workplace now, especially as you get to more and more senior levels where
people have more to lose - just based on mere allegation (real or not).
Let's not
sleep. The “me too” movement is clearly about women, but there have been men as
well that have experienced sexual molestation. Look at the gay, lesbian
movement and whatnot, and you know this really is broader than just one single
gender. It is the notion of somebody with power believing that they can abuse
it and take advantage of someone else for their own personal benefit.
I want to make sure we are very clear that these things are indeed real. Are
men intimidated by strong, powerful women? Yes, some men are intimidated by
strong, powerful women. Some men do not really like aggressive women, but what
I would tell you is that those aren't things you control. They really aren't. I
tend to tell my daughter the same thing that I tell my son. I do not say “ Hey,
you know, because you're a woman, you need to do this, that, and the other”,
and tell my son “because you are a man, you need to know….”.
Recently during an interview, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made
an observation about the importance of preparation, which I think is probably
the bigger issue when you really think about it. Her name had been thrown
around for being the potential commissioner of the US National Football League
(NFL). There is a question as to whether or not a woman can coach a professional
football team in the U S, because a woman has never coached a professional team.
Ms. Rice is one of those people (she's now a provost at Stanford university) whose
resume and credentials clearly speak to authority, and an ability to perform
and deliver and operate at the highest levels. It is interesting that she was being
considered to possibly make a move out of politics and academia into
professional sports, and she had a very fascinating response to this whole
thing.
Ms. Rice said she was honored to be thought of as a potential coach of a
professional team. She said, however, that she had to decline - not because she
didn't think a woman could do the job – that wasn’t it. She said that if the
woman knows sports, plays, offenses, defenses, strategy, etc., then the fact
that she’s a woman should not enter into the equation. Ms. Rice has been on the
selection committee to pick the top four university teams to go into the
college football playoffs. She was on the original CFP committee that started
up about four or five years ago. She actually helps to pick coaches for the
various Stanford teams. Any coach who has interviewed her will tell you that she
knows her sports more than anyone else with whom they've spoken, so this really
and truly is not an issue of her skillset or capability or knowledge. Let's
just put that aside.
Ms. Rice’s
observation around all of this was that she had to respectfully decline because
she didn't think that it would be fair for her to just step in at the highest
level in the sport without having gone through the system. She felt that this
would end up being nothing more than an experiment, which could make it worse
for any woman after her if she didn't “knock it out of the park”. She wasn't
saying she didn't have confidence that she could do a great job. She was saying
it makes more sense - especially if you are trying to create fantastic
opportunities for women - that they work their way up through the ranks just
like men. Then when they get to the point where they qualify for a high-ranking
position, they will have the full support of everybody in the system, which is
a requirement for success. A network of support has to be built in order to get
people to buy into what you're trying to accomplish and therefore achieve the
results that you want. She didn't get into a conversation around whether women
- relative to men - are more emotional, or whether women needed to be more
aggressive.
What Ms. Rice said was that she believes that you need to work through the
system to get the buy in, to have the resume, the success records and the
skillsets that you need to compete at that level. We have seen that we have
women referees in the National Football League, so now it would be great to
start seeing women on the coaching staffs. That way there would be enough in
the pipeline so that when head coaching positions open up, qualified women
candidates would be available.
This was
really not a conversation about whether women can do the job; will men be
threatened, etc. It was about what's the process and what's the procedure that
creates the greatest opportunity for a group that has been underserved. We are
not really having a conversation about whether women are qualified to be in the
board room. Women clearly are qualified to be in the boardroom. The issue has
always been what is the preparation that makes anybody - male or female - boardroom
worthy.
So, rather than getting distracted by all the other issues out there: - racism,
sexism, tribalism, homophobia, Islamophobia, etc. – we should focus on what we can do, what's
within our control. I love the way Stephen Covey talked about this in his book
“The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”. He says there is your circle of influence,
and there is your circle of concern. Most people spend way too much time
trying to operate in their circle of concern. He said he has found that in
order for him to be his best, he tries to operate within his circle of
influence. These are things which he can actually influence, and that's a much
smaller subset than those things that are in his circle of concern. Staying
in his circle of influence allows him to be productive.
There are three
simple things that we can do to follow his advice:
Number one -
with regard to women in the board room - just be yourself. It took me a
long time to get comfortable with being myself. Somebody always wants to make
you believe that there is a certain personality type that's going to be
successful. We are at a point now where that's just no longer true. The issue
is, can you find a customer that really appreciates and understands what it is that
you specifically are bringing to the table? There are going to be some
customers that just are not good customers. It doesn't matter what you do. It
could be your personality; it could be your clothing; it could be the car you
drive; it could be where you went to school. It could be a whole host of things
that have absolutely nothing to do with your company’s core capabilities and
strengths. In spite of these possible obstacles - first and foremost - just be
yourself. Period.
Number two
is be the best. I talked about being a subject matter expert in a
previous blog. If you're competing at the top of the business-to-business (B2B)
game, you need to be the most knowledgeable in your field, which catapults you
to the best. Your go-to-market strategy should be to be at the top of your
game. That is a competitive differentiator for you in the marketplace. You need
to be the best at whatever it is you do. Now being the best in one business is
not defined the same as being the best in another business, so you have to
figure out what it means to be the best in your market.
Number three
is deliver, deliver, deliver. Large corporations are about results.
Trying harder doesn't really mean a lot if it doesn't come with results, so you
have to always be looking at showing your customer value.
Let's recap
the three stipulations: Be Yourself; Be the Best; and Deliver, Deliver, Deliver
Results. Not only are those things going to get you in the board room, but they
are going to get you the deal each and every time you're in the boardroom. It will
not matter that you're a woman.
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