INTRODUCTION
The Pennsylvania Conference for Women brimmed with over 7000 professionals from business, education and government. The stadium-sized hall seemed to vibrate with the excitement of a rock concert. Guest speakers; former Secretaries of State, Madeleine Albright and Hillary Clinton, former President of Wealth Management at Bank of America, Sallie Krawcheck, and former Delta Air Lines executive and host of the award winning television program “Judge Hatchett,” Glenda Hatchett, shared their personal stories of setbacks and triumphs. Their messages were consistent, urging us to help women reach their dreams, and to make sure “all those ceilings crack for every girl and every woman here and around the world.”
From my seat at table B1804, I joined in the passionate rallying cry, but later asked myself, “Why are we still talking about that glass ceiling?” While I understood from my own experience and the experiences of so many friends and colleagues on their journey to the C-suite, that those choice spots were not easy to achieve, the metaphor of a “ceiling,” an impenetrable barrier still surprised me. It occurred to me that the discoveries I’ve made and the experiences of many women as they have advanced, provide the key, tools and strategy to breaking that barrier.
I talked with many women that day, and my PhD research—particularly my development of a women’s leadership competency profile—was embraced with such enthusiasm that I was inspired. Actually I was more than inspired; I was thrilled. I started my work 14 years ago, and have continued to build upon it since then. Here I was, talking with women in their 20s, just breaking into their career stride, women in their 30s, 40s, 50s, who had truly come into their own, and women in their 60s who had a wealth of lessons learned, all captivated and truly surprised by what I had learned about what it takes to be successful, particularly in male dominated roles.
The origin of this book stemmed from my position early in my career, as an R&D scientist, when I spent a lot of time observing the few women who were principal investigators. They would mostly focus seriously on their work, not partaking in the juvenile antics that their male colleagues enjoyed. Their reward? Their seriousness was seen as officious arrogance. And I am ashamed to admit it now, but I also thought these talented senior level women were being “sticks in the mud” by not sharing in the fun. One woman chided me about going along with the guys’ work diversions. What was so bad, I thought, about rocking along to the Yes classic, “Starship Trooper” which we blasted from our lab’s sound system every Friday at 3 p.m.? I was young and it was fun; I embraced the irreverence and rebelliousness of it. But I could see that senior level women would not let their professional guard down; somehow they couldn’t afford the luxury of being a little wild and crazy at work and still be viewed as a serious force in the company (as men were). But at the same time, by being professional and serious, they were seen as choosing not to be a part of the gang. As the years passed, I began to wonder what I could do to step into their shoes without being viewed so negatively. By being wild and crazy with the guys I would not be taken seriously; but by giving up the party life and being focused and more serious I would be seen as a conceited killjoy.
This question stayed with me as I went back to graduate school to broaden my understanding of group dynamics and gender issues, simultaneously leaving the lab to begin a career in HR. Yet again, the few women who had “made it” into director and VP level roles across my company were often viewed disparagingly! The hallway chatter by both men and women and performance reviews suggested that the women who took the bull by the horns and led assertively were “brutal,” they “tried too hard,” they were “not a team player,” or all three! Unofficially, they were simply labeled “bitch.”
I was lucky enough to have a broadly well-respected senior executive woman who was a guide and protector for me. Among her nuggets of wisdom was: “Women have to walk a fine line here.” She said that she had to take a softer approach than she might otherwise take because she is a woman. But on a femininity scale of one to ten—with one being without a trace of femininity— this woman was certainly not tipping the scale; she was about a four. So assuming “softer” meant more feminine, how much “softer” of an approach did she mean? What was the right balance?
It became clear to me that gender differences, what male leaders and what female leaders could “get away with “was such an obvious double standard that I wanted to spell out for myself and others what those differences were. I wanted to develop a leadership competency model—a dictionary of success-associated behaviors— specifically for women. If I had that blueprint, I could share it and help other women become effective and respected leaders. I conducted in-depth behavioral event interviews with well-respected men and women from Fortune 100 companies, among others, male and female CEOs and a female CFO in the pharmaceutical industry, male and female CHROs in the chemical and telecommunications industries, a male COO in the chemical industry, a male CEO in the utility industry, a female CEO of a large nonprofit, a male EVP of a large ivy league university and a female SVP Marketing in the consumer products industry—to understand how women lead differently than men.
What I didn’t expect to find was that the profile of behavioral characteristics associated with the successful women leaders I interviewed comprised tempering their leadership behaviors with some stereotypical female traits and behaviors. Yikes! Was I really going to report that women have to act, well, more like women? Is this what my protector/role model meant so many years ago when she said that women need a softer approach? I was stunned. In my years of graduate study, I had read that women have to think more like men, be more like men. For years, I saw some women leaders do their level best to be gender neutral or at least downplay their femininity.
However, when you take into account that the reason women leaders have to act differently than their male counterparts is because we have gender specific expectations of them, it isn’t so surprising that women would demonstrate some stereotypical behaviors to meet those expectations. By “feminizing” competencies such as achievement drive, confidence, strategic control, and influence, and by tempering assertiveness, successful women are managing gender expectations; that is, they are balancing being a woman and being a leader. These, and the other competencies I describe in the Women’s Leadership Blueprint™, are the way that executive women make their male counterparts, and the people they lead, more comfortable with them as leaders, and thereby achieve better results.
My dissertation was complete, but my quest continued. I wanted to learn more about what makes women successful. I interviewed a new crop of women leaders in high tech firms, in healthcare, in big box retail, in the chemical industry, and the Women’s Leadership Blueprint has stood the test of time and vagaries of the new economy. This academic pursuit has come to life as it applies so readily for my own success, for my colleagues’ success and as a tool for my company’s work in leadership development and talent management.
This book is organized into three sections. The first section lays the groundwork for understanding why women in leadership require a different repertoire of behaviors by looking at the impact of gender stereotyping and the conflicting expectations we have of women and leaders. The second section focuses on the Women’s Leadership Blueprint. Each of the nine competencies is defined, with behavioral examples and supporting excerpts from the stories I heard during the executive interviews. The third section discusses how the Women’s Leadership Blueprint can be used for developing both men and women to lead companies in the new and emerging business environment and for overcoming some of the hurdles women continue to face in their journey of professional development.
It is my hope that this book will help women understand the profile of behaviors that has led to others’ success, and to customize those behaviors as they hone their own leadership style. I also hope that this book gives men and women mentors a common language for coaching women in how to be more accepted as leaders, and therefore, more effective. Though we may still have that glass ceiling, it has been cracked; and the women who have cracked it provide a guide for all of us! Much of our success is in our own hands. I hope this book strengthens your resolve and your belief in yourself to join those women up there above the glass.
“We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be.”