MEN AS ALLIES
We can learn a lot from eachother. Many times I have found myself admiring certain qualities in some male leaders, such as their testosterone driven commitment to be in action, or their fearlessness and confidence in asserting themselves. I have also admired the wisdom that comes from their long list of professional
experiences in leadership positions. Their modeling has helped me cultivate these qualities in myself. What perplexes me to this day though is why there are more men in leadership positions than women? I also continue to question current leadership styles. Is today's corporate leadership balanced? For example, are leaders expected to be all logic and little heart? As a woman in Corporate Canada, I had found it extremely difficult to find a female leader whose qualities I admired. There weren't that many female leaders. And, that in itself just didn't feel right. So when I listened to what the presenting companies at the Catalyst Conference are doing I was thrilled. The reciprocal mentoring and coaching programs make perfect sense. How are we to progress without listening to and understanding one another? To me, effective leadership is whole. That is it is made up of male and female qualities. Both men and women are capable of leading with their heart and mind.
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ON-DEMAND WEBINAR
Stress Management
&
Coaching for High-Performance
Click here to register
Bonus!
FREE one-on-one career coaching session.
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RESEARCH
on
Women's Advancement
essence coaching has initiated a literary review on the advancement of women. An article summarizing our findings will be written and shared. And, a second phase of research will be designed accordingly.
What we'd like to be able to answer is "what is the root cause of the gender gap in leadership" rather than state the obvious.
Companies interested in working with essence coaching on Phase 2 of its research study can contact Helen at 416-322-3623.
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Listen to Helen Speak
Topic:Overcoming On-the-job StressWhere:The National Health ShowWhen:October-details TBAIn-house Lunch & Learnpresentations are alsoavailable.
Call
Helen at 416-322-3623
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Inspiring Words to Go
There is wisdom in every moment.
Helen Roditis
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Greetings!
 Last month I attended the Catalyst Conference in New York. I was impressed with the presentations delivered by companies like Deloitte LLD, Campbell Soup Company, RBC and Telstra Corporation Limited. Overall, the key message I walked away with is this: Workplaces Are Changing. Flexibility and diversity were the buzz words at this conference. Below, I provide a tad more detail on what struck me the most regarding these companies' initiatives.
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What Deloitte LLD is doing to help women advance
Firms such as Deloitte have long struggled to keep female employees and promote them to partner level. While they listed various reasons, I will focus on what they are doing well to address their struggle.
Like many of the companies mentioned in this newsletter, they launched The Women's Initiative: Living the Lattice (WIN) supported by 300 leaders representing all businesses, channels and geographic regions in the US and India. What strikes me the most about Deloitte's initiative is its intention to help employees choose a career that fits their lifestyle needs at the time. They call it the Mass Career Customization (MCC) program. Essentially, employees and their managers come to an agreement that is a win-win and supports the work-life challenges commonly experienced by women (i.e. flexibility). MCC allows employees to increase or reduce their career development and growth, and in turn their workload or travel.
Corporate hierarchy at Deloitte seems to be a thing of the past. Their progressive corporate lattice allows employees to experience multiple careers that meet their lifestyle needs throughout their employment.
The results?
Deloitte's representation of women in leadership positions have increased from 6% in 1995 to 22% in 2009. And, its representation of female senior managers has increased from 23% in 1995 to 36% in 2009. Its gender turnover gap has been reduced to 1% in 2009 from 7% in 1995.
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What RBC is doing
RBC is going beyond gender and looking at newcomers and visible minorities, among others. Like Campbell Soup (see below), RBC sees an advantage in having a workforce that represents its consumer audience. By 2015, more than 50% of Canada's population is expected to be composed of what we call today "visible minorities" and so on.
Specifically, RBC is:- Equipped with a highly trained diversity recruitment department.
- Succession planning with diversity in mind.
- Offering reciprocal mentoring and coaching programs, where executives partner with women and visible minorities.
- Identifying top talent and, helping them stretch and develop.
The Results?
Women in executive roles increased from 35% in 2005 to 39% in 2009. Women in the high-potential talent pool increased from 31% to 43%, with 21% being visible minority women.
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What Campbell Soup is doing
In a nutshell, Campbell Soup views and treats women as essential to its success. Why? Because its consumers are primarily women. By integrating women into leadership positions, and reaching out to its women employees for ideas to create new or redesigned products, Cambell Soup was able to revitalize its sales. By tapping into this great resource internally, Campbell soup was able to deliver products that met the needs, tastes, preferences, and lifestyles of its major market, women.
Not only was this the socially correct thing to do, it made business sense.
How did Campbell Soup do this? By:
- Noticing what was-a great disconnect internally and externally, as evidenced by a lack of employee engagement and dwindling sales.
- Addressing the issue head on.
- Being aware that diversity = creativity and innovation.
- Creating and communicating direction with an inspiring vision to all employees
- Driving organizational alignment
- Offering:
- leadership development programs
- mentoring programs
- career assessments
- career planning
- Respecting work-life balance
- Reaching out to the community together
The results?
Campbell's initiative is winning in the workplace, in the marketplace and with women with the support of its accountable senior leaders. The proof is in its successful soup lines, Select Harvest, Healthy Request and V8 which experienced record breaking sales growth.
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What Telstra is doing
Telstra is an Australian company. And, I'm sure you've heard that down under gender diversity is an even bigger challenge than it is here. Despite that, Telstra managed to turn things around significantly. Truly incredible.
What Telstra is doing is this and then some:
- Tracking the development and promotion of women by business unit.
- Closing the gender pay gap.
- Offering a virtual women's network.
- Recognizing outstanding women through an Awards program.
- Engaging men as change agents via a multi-media leadership development program, helping men understand gender differences.
The Results?
Women on the CEO leadership team increased from 6% in 2006 to 31% in 2009.
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 I want to acknowledge you for taking a few minutes out of your day to read, learn and connect. You can now view an archive of past issues on our website.
Helen Roditis, CA, CPCC, ACC
Leadership & Team Coach
p.s. for the curious minds...meaning of namaste is:
When you see the light in me and I see the light in you, we are ONE. |
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