Know Yourself
Men Do Numbers, Women Do Strategy
The 'Masculine' and 'Feminine' Sides of Leadership and Culture: Perception vs. Reality
Job, Life Coaches Chart Big Plays

Men Do Numbers, Women Do Strategy
Wall Street Journal (09/21/05) P. R5 ; Alsop, Ronald

Men tend to be more forceful leaders and more skilled in math, while women interact better with clients and colleagues and perform well in strategy and communications, according to M.B.A. recruiters participating in the 2005 Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive business-school survey. Although there are always exceptions to the generalizations, recruiters constantly cited women as being insightful, conscientious, and collegial while men were described as leaders who are focused on results and have excellent quantitative-analysis skills. Nonetheless, recruiters said that male and female M.B.A.s would do well to become more well-rounded. Women can bridge the gender gap by "tooting their own horn," taking more risks, developing a stronger handshake, and dressing more professionally, according to the recruiters, while men should collaborate with others, listen to other points of view, be more humble, and not take credit for the work of other people. The results of the survey are generally good news for women, who should benefit in a more globalized society, but there are some concerns that their strong interpersonal skills have not worked well for them when it comes to networking. In the workplace, women tend to be more concerned with the corporate culture and personal fulfillment, while men are more focused on the pace of the development of their careers. The recruiters also noticed differences in career choices. Women tend to favor fields such as marketing but not "masculine" industries like agriculture, or opportunities in consulting and investment banking, where the demands may impact their ability to raise a family.
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The 'Masculine' and 'Feminine' Sides of Leadership and Culture: Perception vs. Reality
Knowledge@Wharton (09/01/05)

A recent Wharton Executive Education program session suggested that employees' concepts about male and female managers' effectiveness can have as much bearing as managers' actual leadership skills or corporate results. Consequently, a woman needs to be especially aware of her leadership strategies and fortes, said Anne Cummings, a former management professor at Wharton and now a business administration professor at the University of Minnesota at Duluth. She noted that over the past five years, "the notion of what makes an effective leader is changing, and you will find both [traditionally defined] 'masculine' and 'feminine' components." Cummings also observed that it is becoming more common to see women adopt certain "masculine" styles of leadership, which she characterized as being task-oriented and assertive. Feminine leadership style was defined as being more relationship-based and "democratic." In another session, Wharton management professor Sigal Barsade discussed the significance of corporate culture within Mary Kay Cosmetics. The company can "orient the culture so the fit between the people and the organization is very tight and allows Mary Kay to get really superior performance," she said. Barsade also cited research by Stanford University professor Charles O'Reilly suggesting that organizational culture can be described in terms of intensity and the crystallization of values, or how broadly values are distributed across an organization. Data also indicates that managers have only four months to six months to adapt a newly hired staff member to a firm's culture, said Barsade; during this time, firms need to emphasize role models and how they became successful.
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Job, Life Coaches Chart Big Plays
Baltimore Sun (09/07/05) P. 1K ; Dwyer, Kelly P.

As budget constraints claim more and more corporate training and leadership programs and as supervisors assume more responsibilities and are less able to serve as mentors, career coaching has become more popular among executives on the rise and is now a $1 billion-a-year business. Coaches can help workers better grasp their career ambitions and can assist in skills like communications and organization, but they are not therapists and should not assume the roles of one. "Coaches help you understand yourself and see how you might be shooting yourself in the foot," says American Society for Training & Development spokeswoman Pat Galagan. "Having a coach used to be a sign that the executive was in trouble but now is seen as a badge of merit. Now it means the company wants to invest in your success." When choosing a coach, workers should consider several factors, including experience and cost. Certification by the International Coach Federation means the coach has completed an accredited training program at schools like the Institute for Life Coach Training in Fort Collins, Colo., or the Sacramento, Calif.-based Academy for Coaching Excellence. Relationships with coaches vary, but typically involve three or four meetings a month for about six months, with most discussion going on over the phone, typically at a cost of $300 to $500 a month for an experienced coach.
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Communicate

Women Must Be Assertive at Work, Career Coach Says
Myrtle Beach Sun News (SC) (09/28/05) P. D3 ; Croghan, Lore

Only eight of the Fortune 500 companies have women CEOs, a number that will not change until women start communicating more effectively, according to career coach Molly Dickinson Shepard. Shepard, who co-authored the book "Stop Whining & Start Winning," has plenty of advice for women, including a suggestion that women take a "just-the-facts" approach. Women should stick to the big picture and keep details to themselves, because details are what make men thing women "ramble." Women should also state their point briefly and clearly, and then stop talking to allow others to digest what has been said and respond intelligently. She says that women should be assertive but not aggressive when making arguments, and should speak with confidence and without sounding cocky. In addition, women should never show anger at work, because they will not be able to get their message across if they sound shrill. "Confrontation is the kiss of death," according to Shepard. She has built two profitable businesses by following her own advice, including Manchester Inc., which had annual revenues of more than $30 million and was the fourth-largest career development firm in the world when she sold it eight years ago.
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Listen

Talent Hold Em
Washington SmartCEO (09/05) Vol. 1, No. 5, P. 34 ; Allerton, Haidee

Companies tend to view talent retention as contingent upon high salaries and good benefits, but experts say good management is more important. "You can have the best benefits and salaries in the world, but it's really the work and people feeling a sense of pride and looking forward to going to work," says multimedia and Internet development firm Redmon Group principal John Redmon. "The job should be a means to an end, which is your priority in life whether family, religion, gold, whatever. As long as the job is contributing to [that], then you have a good match." Whatever the deciding factor, experts say that the need for developing good retention approaches is now more important than ever as the skilled and talented worker pool diminishes with the tightening labor market. Employee exit surveys conducted by retention firm TalentKeepers of Maitland, Fla., reveal that leaders' ability, or lack there of, to create a culture of retention is the key factor in whether a worker decides to stay or go. TalentKeepers has identified 10 Retention Leadership Talents that a CEO must possess to keep the right people on board. The talents, in an abbreviated version, are trust builder, climate builder, esteem builder, flexibility expert, communicator, talent developer and coach, high-performance builder, retention expert, retention monitor, and talent finder.
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Reconnaissance: Smarter Than You
Inc. Magazine (09/05) Vol. 27, No. 9, P. 69 ; Hopkins, Michael S.

While many large corporations have one decision maker at the helm, experts are beginning to discover that an alternative approach may be more successful at keeping businesses afloat. In James Surowiecke's "The Wisdom of Crowds," it is purported that the collective decision derived from ideas and decisions issued by individuals in a crowd of average thinkers can have better results than the decision of a single expert. Surowiecke's book illustrates a need for businesses to take the collective wisdom of workers into account when determining which products to make and which marketing strategies to use. Some critics have suggested that an over-reliance on CEO decision-making has led to many corporate scandals in recent years, which could foster further use of collective decision-making as a new strategy for businesses seeking to increase their competitive advantage in the marketplace. Internal decision markets, as they are referred to in the book, do not have to be formal and can include employees participating in their spare time. However, these crowds should have diversified backgrounds and opinions on specific topics, and decision makers should identify their own limitations as well as those inherent in the crowd selected.
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Connect

Everyone's a CFO
Inc. Magazine (09/05) Vol. 27, No. 9, P. 42 ; Heintz, Nadine

All employees at Development Counsellors International (DCI), a New York public relations firm, must take their turns serving as "CFO for a day" at monthly meetings. Under the program, the person selected presents monthly financial data to the rest of the staff, even if he or she lacks a financial background. Company president Andrew Levine feels the program fosters greater employee interest in profits and a sense of involvement, and is also a key part of open-book management. Employees also learn basic financial concepts, he notes. Keeping terms simple is an important part of the program--for instance, the concept of profit-sharing payouts on profit margins is explained by Levine as a bucket filled with sand, with sand representing profits. Employees receive a check whenever the sand overflows, Levine explains. The person selected CFO for a day is required to spend an hour with Levine and DCI controller Carrie Nepo prior to offering his or her presentation. They discuss things like the month's revenue increases and decreases, expenses, irregularities and trends, cost-cutting, and profit goals. The presenter is also required to practice the presentation in front of Levine and Nepo. Levine reveals that DCI has been profitable ever since the program was launched in 1996. Employees are staying longer at the firm as well, averaging five years today compared to two-and-a-half years in the 1990s. The length of customer relationships has doubled as well, to approximately four-and-a-half-years, notes Levine.
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Teamwork Fosters Faster Solutions Than Going Solo
Wall Street Journal (09/20/05) P. B6 ; Hymowitz, Carol

Problems in the workplace can be solved more quickly when employees share their knowledge and their skills, and this type of collegial environment also can give workers more personal satisfaction. For example, workers at United Parcel Service used teamwork to relocate a package containing a generator part that New Orleans City Hall needed to light its building in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. After receiving a call from a city official last one recent evening, Ed Johnson--package division manager of UPS's northwest division in Shreveport, La.--called UPS facilities across the country until the missing package was found in Oklahoma at about 9:30 p.m. But because it was too late to send by air, Johnson had five managers at facilities between Oklahoma and Hammond, La., "pony express" the package by car, handing it off to one another over the course of 764 miles. "We were a determined group, and we all felt wonderful when we got the job done," Johnson said of delivering the package to City Hall at noon on the following day. Strong communications skills and logistical expertise are the foundation of effective teamwork in a global economy, and leaders will need to praise the team rather than attempt to credit themselves. By recognizing employees who work well with one another, through employee performance evaluations, companies can encourage more teamwork in the workplace.
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The Executive Club: Oprah Meets Operations
Inc. Magazine (09/05) Vol. 27, No. 9, P. 88 ; Dahl, Darren

In Newburyport, Mass., an innovative book club called the Better Business Book Club (BBBC) convenes on the second Tuesday of every month. The more than 100 members discuss how they implement the business lessons they learn from books, including "Good to Great" by Jim Collins, "The Toyota Way" by Jeffery Liker, and "Jack: Straight From the Gut" by Jack Welch. In a recent meeting, members discussed "One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way" by Robert Maurer, which involves splitting large changes into smaller, easier to manage pieces. One member recounted how he helped improve a staff member's performance day by day using the lessons. BBBC was created by Don Crane, the creative director at Aloft Group, a marketing company. He envisioned BBBC as a way to attract new clients, but that has yet to be realized. Members meet at Aloft Group's headquarters. Membership is free and involves simply attending meetings and providing an email address. Members include M.B.A.s, Ph.D.s, attorneys, and business owners.
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Why Women Are Wary
Wall Street Journal (09/21/05) P. R5 ; Alsop, Ronald

M.B.A. recruiters participating in the 2005 Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive business-school survey say women need to improve their quantitative skills. The comments of M.B.A recruiters are in line with test data as well as a 2000 landmark study by New York research group Catalyst and the University of Michigan, which found that concerns about their mathematical abilities are discouraging many women from applying to business school. Men continue to outperform women on the Graduate Management Admission Test, with the largest difference in results occurring on the quantitative portion of the exam. In 2003-2004, men averaged 36.4 on the quantitative section compared with 32.3 for women, 28 on the verbal portion while women averaged 26.5, and the groups performed similarly on analytical writing, giving men a final total of 541 and women 501. In addition to a fear of math, the Catalyst-Michigan study found that a lack of female mentors and role models, concerns about balancing work and home life, and a lack of encouragement from employers were other reasons why women are not as interested in pursuing M.B.A.s. The number of women in many schools has settled at about 25 percent to 30 percent of total enrollment, after growing rapidly in the 1980s and 1990s. Schools with reputations of having strong quantitative programs have had a more difficult time attracting women.
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Be A Catalyst

Female Bosses Less Likely to Cut Health Benefits
USA Today (10/05/05) ; Hopkins, Jim

Small business owners are faced with a tough choice: keep health care benefits or eliminate them to bring down operational costs. In many cases, there appears to be a gender divide emerging, with women less likely to consider eliminating the benefits than male business owners. According to recent Census Bureau statistics, women employ about 9 percent of all non-farm workers in the private sector or about 10 million workers. While the number of employers offering health care benefits has declined from 69 percent to 60 percent over a five year period according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, researchers note that most of those cuts have come from male business owners. A majority of women indicated in entrepreneurial surveys that they became self-employed to create a more family-friendly environment and offer health care benefits to workers and themselves. Women are not blind to the costs of rising health care benefits, but they are more inclined to retain them in order to keep talented and productive workers and worry about their business's bottom line second.
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Corporate Boards Still Lack Enough Women, Study Says
Philadelphia Inquirer (09/23/05) ; Von Bergen, Jane M.

Forum of Executive Women's recent survey of Philadelphia-area firms revealed that the businesses have made little progress in promoting women to company boards and executive offices. Women in the city hold only about 9 percent of board seats at local companies, which is lower than the national average of 13.6 percent. Corporations generally made the excuse that there were not enough women with executive talent to fill board posts, but now there are over 40 women in executive posts, including CFO, general counsel, and CEO, but only five of those hold board positions at companies in the Philadelphia area.
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Female Equation
Washington Times (10/03/05) P. B1 ; Widhalm, Shelley

There are fewer women professionals in the math and computer science fields because fewer female college and university students are pursuing studies in those areas. Jill Landsman with the Technology Student Association in Virginia attributes this downward trend to a lack of female role models. Mary Jean Harrold with the National Science Foundation's Advance program says girls taking computer science classes may perceive a computer science career as socially isolating and personally unrewarding. National Alliance for Partnership Equity executive director Mimi Lufkin thinks such views are nurtured by the competitive environment of computer science classes and their emphasis on theory and individual performance rather than practical application and teamwork, while additional discouragement can come from the media and parents. Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology CEO Telle Whitney says, "What women often express is that they do feel alone. They look around and don't see people who look like them." Colleges in the Washington, D.C., metro area are attempting to provide female role models for students: Sanjay Rai, dean of Montgomery College's science, engineering, and mathematics department, says more than half of his department's personnel are women. American University recruits female faculty members to encourage higher enrollments of female students in its math department, according to AU professor Mary Gray. In addition, the AU math department encourages students to socialize with faculty members or each other through special events.
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Leadership Needs the X and Y Factors
Human Resources (09/05) ; Finch, Melinda

Speaking at a business breakfast hosted by Robert Half International, AH Revelations executive director Avril Henry said that organizations need to invest in training and development for managers to assure they are attuned to the needs of Generation X and Y employees, who, according to Henry, are driven by a different set of priorities than their predecessors. "Generations X and Y are firstly loyal to their career path, and secondly to a great manager or team," Henry said. "'Gen X' responds well to ‘effective' leadership and ‘Gen Y' craves ‘inspirational' leadership. Both want leaders who listen and involve them." Finding such managers poses a challenge to many companies that still rely on leadership from the "veteran" demographic, or those born before 1946, who are often resistant to change. "Organizations need to invest in training and development for managers, placing particular emphasis on ‘soft' skills, such as performance management and conflict resolution," Henry said.
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Be Fearless

Time Out
Washington Business Journal (09/22/05) P. 58 ; Webb, Lucy

Professionals seeking to take a sabbatical are usually looking to enrich their lives with greater meaning, says Clive Prout, a former software developer who now calls himself a "sabbatical coach." For some people, a sabbatical is a chance to spend 6 months or more re-energizing themselves before going back to their careers, while others may use the opportunity to make a complete lifestyle and career change. Sabbatical seekers should start by identifying what aspects of their current careers they need to get away from and what new passions and experiences they desire to have during the sabbatical period. Once those priorities are in place, sabbatical seekers need to consider the practicalities of their departures. For example, will they quit their jobs or try to work with their employers to take leave with the intention of eventually returning? Professionals preparing for sabbatical should also draw up a comprehensive budget to determine how the sabbatical will be financed: for example, by saving money ahead of time, getting a new job for the sabbatical period, or a combination of the two.
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Inspire

Mosley: How to Break Barriers in Business
Knoxville News-Sentinel (TN) (09/28/05) ; Harrington, Carly

Women in Cable & Telecommunications (WICT) President Benita Fitzgerald Mosley praised the results of the Civil Rights Act and Title IX legislation at a recent breakfast discussion sponsored by Scripps Network and the Knoxville Area Urban League. She noted that while women and minorities have reached many heights due to those pieces of legislation, greater opportunities lie ahead as well as further obstacles. She highlighted the accomplishments of groups like WICT and their efforts to encourage businesses to have equitable pay for all workers, equal advancement opportunities, and resources to help women balance their work and personal lives. Mosley commented: "Those companies with women in top positions outperform those that don't. It's smart business to develop women as managers."

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The Top 50: The Most Influential Minorities in Cable
Cable World (09/05) Vol. 17, No. 17,

Cable World's ranking of the Top 50 Most Influential Minorities in Cable determined that more minorities are working as programming executives compared to operators; however, more minorities appeared among senior operators this year compared to last year. Placing second on the list, MTV president Christina Norman was promoted to president in May after heading VH1. Norman actively works to boost diversity on television. BET president and COO Debra Lee, who placed fifth on the list, recently replaced longtime founder/chairman Bob Johnson and will work with filmmaker Reginald Hudlin to boost the channel's industry profile. Placing sixth, National Geographic Channel president Laureen Ong is leading the company through many years of significant growth. At 12th on the list, COX SVP and chief people officer Mae Douglas is the second-highest cable operator employee on the list and is one of the most honored executives this year. Douglas won the Diversity Champion Award, and she helped Cox win Women in Cable & Telecommunications' best cable operator for women award two years in a row.
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