What we all can learn from top women leaders
What we all can learn from top women leaders
by Joy Kosta
Three decades ago I took a mini-survey on managerial style in Cosmopolitan magazine (which I read back in my 20’s) that said my managerial style at the time was more “male” than “female”-- not surprising, I remembered thinking, because the leader “role models” I worked with were male. Times have changed; with major shifts in workforce demographics, for the first time women make up the majority of the US workforce. And while women head up fewer than 3% of the Fortune 1,000 companies, Hay Group found that the lower you go down the organizational ranks, the better the situation gets. And we’ve all learned a lot. Mary Fontaine, global head of Hay Group's leadership and talent practice, in an interview with Business Week, said, "…outstanding women [leaders] use a better blend of what we think of as traditional masculine styles—being directive, authoritative, and leading by example and as well as feminine ones… to be more nurturing, inclusive, and collaborative." Sharon Allen, chairperson of Deloitte since 2003, has been with her company more than thirty years and earned her way up—find out what she has to say about setting an ethical climate.
Can your managers capitalize on “engage-able moments”- are they in the game with their heads, hearts and hands? When was the last time as a leader you looked at your managers’ reasons for joining and reasons they might consider leaving? Can you increase mobility in your organization through on-line mentoring?
When your reach to engage talent throughout the global enterprise is predominantly virtual, how are leaders drawing on the local context to drive engagement and support intrinsically motivated knowledge workers? Get the global leadership forecast- submit your response and a minimum of 30 non-HR leader surveys from your organization to receive a customized report comparing your organization to local and global norms.
Do you know how much you invest in preparing future leaders? The US Air Force invests in up to $250,000 per grad; no wonder they want to predict success with confidence- and they can do exactly that when selecting talent who are literally charged with saving lives- and identify future leaders in the process.
Weigh in with your thoughts and receive complimentary copy of new research leaders can use; if you’re a public sector leader, also don’t miss our Government Summit coming up Sept 20-22, where you can hear Don Packham, CHCO at the FBI and leaders from NASA, OPM, Department of Treasury, the State Department and twenty more public leaders share best and next practices in public sector talent management.
See you in Boston Oct 5-6 at HCI’s Event that re-sets engagement, where Mary Blegen, Executive Vice President Employee Engagement at US Bank Corp and over 20 other practitioner leaders will share how they are advancing best practices in talent engagement and retention.
Join the conversation! HCI Executive members buzz about our Executive Conversation series for leaders and aspiring leaders (and 100% of Executive Members responding to our survey said they looked forward to continuing to participate in the conversations):
- “Reminder that we can all reconnect with our organizations with conversations on what individuals and teams can do to contribute to improved performance, if they understand the metrics that are used for measuring success.”
- “A new approach to tackling a persistent problem.”
- “Listening to the dialogue and opinions of others was valuable.”
Have you upgraded your membership to Executive Membership? Invest 54 cents a day in your leadership development while the special upgrade opportunity is still in effect, and read daily articles from the top b-schools, consultancies and research houses in one accessible place.
You need to register in order to submit a comment.