Women Leading the Future

One of our challenges as women leaders is finding the role models we need to grow and advance our careers. They are certainly out there, but it's getting close to them that is not always possible. So when I get the opportunity to listen to an outstanding woman leader I seize it.

During the last week I had the opportunity to hear Dr. Judith Slocombe speak at a Business and Professional Women's dinner in Geelong. She is such an inspiring and amazing person and I want to share some of her story with you.

She is presently the CEO of the not for profit Alannah and Madeline Foundation. This foundation was set up by the father of these two children who were killed, along with their mother, in the Port Arthur Massacre. It's an organisation which works with children who have been subjected to violence and trauma, especially directed towards keeping children safe.

She also holds several directorships, including Open Universities Australia, Agriculture Victoria Services, South East Water Limited, and is Chairman of the Lort Smith Animal Hospital.

It's where she has been and what she's done in the past that makes her story so valuable.

What a momentous day, after a long break, for me to begin re-writing my blog - Women Leading the Future. Just a few short hours ago here in Australia we had our first female Prime Minister elected. Kevin Rudd, the former Prime Minister stood down knowing he didn't have the numbers to contest.

Julia Gillard is surely a woman who will lead the future of Australia. Let's hope we allow her to do that and not be distracted by focussing on peripherals like her hair, her dress or her voice, rather than the real issues. We have seen the media on countless occasions  distort the talent and competence of Australia's women leaders by focussing on these kinds of issues, issues that are never mentioned in relation to male leaders.

Does it matter that our Prime Minister is a woman? Is gender an issue in leadership anymore?

I am including here the url of my blog  for IWD 2008 if you'd like to re-read it.

I discussed what I had to be proud about being a woman in Australia in 2008.

http://womenleadingthefuture.com/blog/empowering-women-international-womens-day-2008

 

I still remain proud - even more so - for the same reasons.

One of the people I wrote about was Chief Commissioner of Police, Christine Nixon. We have in recent weeks seen her retire as Chief Commissioner of Police to be appointed to lead the recovery effort following the devastating Victorian bushfires - an inspired appointment.

 

 

Usually to celebrate International Women's Day, I write a reflective piece on what's been happening for women in the past year. This year I've decided to do a personal reflection, motivated to a certain extent by my last blog post - the top 10 lessons for successful entrepreneurs. My Women Leading the Future blog is where I talk about how being a woman impacts on my career, my dreams and my aspirations. My company is People Empowered. It has gone through some exciting changes in recent times and I've been thinking about what the factors have been that have inspired that success.

In a sense, it's a check list of 8 important Keys to Success in My Business. I hope it offers others inspiration and motivation.

1. Be Competent In Our Area of Expertise and Experience.

Amanda Gome wrote a great article in smartcompany.com on this topic back in February 2008. She asks what makes a successful entrepreneur and what traps she needs to overcome - traps that are often specifically related to her gender. I'm just going to list her headings here because I want to encourage you to go to the website and read the full article. Even if you don't see yourself as an "entrepreneur" or you aren't even in business, this article has much to offer any women who wants to advance her career.

Her Top 10 are:

1. Money is good - talk it, borrow it, control it, embrace it.

2. Find time and brain space to read that BlackBerry brochure.

3. Have a life partner who doesn't travel.

4. Fight discrimination and bullying.

5. Make the baby part of the business plan.

6. Don't feel guilty.

7. Pick businesses in high growth industries.

8. Join the right networks.

9. Don't wash the tea towels.

10. Get tough with staff; they are not your friends.

Whatever business development or promotion and marketing workshop I go to the message that constantly rings out is that we will only be successful if we are passionate about what we do. That always made perfect sense to me. Of course, if we are passionate, people will experience something pretty special when they interact with us. They will want to get to know us better and will want to engage with us in what we do, what we have to share. That's the theory anyway.

The challenge is finding our passion. I have many things I am passionate about, but what animates my professional and business life is the passion I have to see people become empowered, energised and enthusiastic about what they are doing in their lives. So few people are.

Did you realise that every year in Australia, almost 800,000 adults experience a depressive illness? One in every 4 of these people will be women, and one in every 6 will be men.

Did you also know that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has predicted that by 2020 depression will be the second biggest health problem world-wide behind heart disease?

On Opportunity International's website there is a banner across the top which reads:

A parking meter in Australia makes more money in

one hour than 2.7 billion people make in one day.

It is calling on people to support the United Nations International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on October 17. It is, however, very relevant for us here in this lucky country of Australia to reflect on it today - Blog Action Day 2008 - as we create awareness around poverty and its eradication.

70% of people living in absolute poverty are women.

This is a teleseminar I am conducting in early November, 2008.

I have been asked this question so often by women: How do I learn to say "no"? I remember a woman being very critical of me on an evaluation form after an assertiveness workshop because I hadn't taught her how to say "no". 

When we focus on that ability (or inability) it doesn't do us justice, as women. It raises the question that if we can't even say "no", how could we make the hard decisions that women need to make to lead and manage an organisation.

This is a teleseminar I'm conducting for women in October, 2008.

As women we are considered to have good soft skills. These are the people skills, interpersonal and communication skills that are seen to be increasingly important to people who want to grow and advance their careers.

In fact, some male managers and CEOs think we have them in abundance. That's why we often get promoted to leadership roles in soft skills areas like human resources, marketing or public relations. Have you ever stopped to wonder why women are rarely appointed to hard skills areas like finance, building and maintenance or corporate governance?

Yet, in spite of our supposedly strong affinity with soft skills, many women find them very hard to use to advance their careers. In fact, the way we use them often has the opposite effect - it damages our careers.

Time is a precious commodity, isn't it? Taking a whole day from work to attend professional development - even something we would passionately like to attend - is often a challenge. We think of what's going to be there for us tomorrow when we get back to our desk. Not to mention the emails.

Then there's the cost. Am I going to gain enough from the day to warrant spending so much of my professional development budget on one day workshop?

Of course, there's also the logistics of getting there - the travel, the parking. the organisation of children because you won't be home at the normal time.

This is why teleseminars are just so good.

If you’re reading this blog post, then you are one of the hundreds of women out there wanting to advance and grow their careers. I’m sure, however, that you all have a variety of motivations for doing that. I asked two groups of women, who did a workshop with me on “Growing Your Career”, why they wanted to grow their careers. Here are some of their responses.

“I know I have talent, expertise and potential and I want to develop it and use it.”

“I’m ambitious, and I have a vision for my life and goals I want to fulfil.”

"I’m a bit of a trail blazer. The idea of breaking through barriers, e.g., the famous glass ceiling, is a challenge that I find exciting!”

“I love the buzz of pushing the boundaries and discovering new challenges.”

“I want to prove to all the men in my family, who I don’t think really believe in my capabilities, that I have as much ability as they do.”

I came across this great blog this morning on Darren Rowse's Problogger.net. Actually Darren didn't write it. It was written by a guest writer on his site - Michelle Mitchell from Scribbit. Its captivating title was what caught my eye - "Five Reasons Why Mom Blogs Are The Blogs To Watch". Apparently on April 10, the prestigious Wall Street Journal interviewed Heather Armstrong, a mom blogger known to millions throughout the US as Dooce. The interview was widely reported in the print media around the country.

Michelle's Five Reasons to Watch Mom blogs are:

1. Moms can blog at home.

2. Moms need the sociality of the net.

3. Moms have a wealth of material to use.

4. Moms are record keepers.

5. Mom blogs wield economic power.

I recommend you go and read the full article at Problogger.net.

I came across this website for Women CEOs in Australia (see below) and thought I'd share it with you in case you were not aware of it. It is an organisation called "Chief Executive Women" and was established in 1985. It currently has 152 members who are women leaders from corporate Australia, the professions, academia, the public and not fot profit sectors.

"CEW's purpose", says the home page, "is to promote the development and effective use of Australia's leadership talent. We believe the whole community benefits if the talentts of women are fully utilised. CEW aims to accelerate talented women into senior leadership through:

• Influencing CEOs, Boards and Senior Executives,
• Fostering the development of talented women, and
• Building a supportive and collegial environment for CEW members"

There are resources on the site; especially worth noting is the kit they have developed for Women CEOs and the training that goes with the use of that kit.

So go have a look at http://www.cew.org.au

Happy International Women’s Day 2008! I realise I’m a day late, but I hope you’ll believe me when I tell you that I was celebrating yesterday. In fact, because IWD was on a Saturday here in Australia, the celebrations took place on almost every day of the past week.

What a year it has been for the women of Australia. There are a number of events that have happened this year that make me feel especially good about being a woman in Australia. They have strengthened my identity as a woman and affirmed it. In fact these things have given me something to identify with that fits with my image of womanhood in 2008. I have confidence that there are other women leaders out there working to make the sort of difference I also am wanting to make.

1. There was the election of the Rudd Labor government and everything that   came with that for women.

2. There was  the media attention given to the Victorian Chief Commissioner of Police, Christine Nixon’s leadership style as she manages the cultural transformation of the Victorian Police Force.

3. There was the celebration of the centenary of Women’s Suffrage in Victoria.

So many of us have asked the question: "How did he ever get that job? I have much more experience than he has. He's only been here five minutes anyway! I know I interviewed well and I had to interview better than him. He does not communicate well at all. It is felt by many people around here, not just me."

And if you are reflective you will go on: "What more do I have to do to be able to advance my career in this place? Or do I have to leave and try somewhere else? But then would it be any different? Is this about me or is it about the system in which we, as women, are trying to grow our careers?"

Good question, and far from feeling empowered in our workplaces, we begin to feel so disempowered. I'm always trying to find answers to these dilemmas. In fact, this is what this blog is about. So, when surfing the net one day, I came across this great organisation - Catalyst - I had to tell all of you about it. It's a good one to bookmark. I'll put the link on the bottom.