For
the last day and a half, you’ve heard from some of the most successful
women in business. You’ve heard how these remarkable women handle
a range of talent management and other leadership issues. You’ve
heard a lot of what it takes to thrive as a woman in the workplace.
You’ve heard the “sound of leadership” from many women’s
voices.
From my reading of the conference agenda, it appears I am the only man
you will hear from. So I am honored to be here and provide my perspective
or perhaps you might say “the flip side of the coin” –
what is it like to empower strong, successful women in the workplace?
If our goal is to attract, retain, and grow women leaders – what
works? And what can we do better?
Let’s start out with a case study.
A young woman
– we’ll call her “Maria” – begins an entry-level
job with high hopes of success. But she soon discovers it’s a
much more restrictive environment than she had imagined.
It seems like she’s at work 24/7. Her supervisors expect her to
perform the tasks assigned to her the same way every time, with no leeway
to add her own personality. All of her work has to be done at the workplace,
with no exceptions made for any other pursuits in which she would like
to engage. For instance, she could never leave work early to go to her
child’s softball game.
Fortunately
for Maria, she doesn’t have any children...yet. But she does have
something she loves to do – and her work schedule definitely interferes
with it. So every once in a while, Maria just ducks out of the office,
unannounced. Where does she go? She grabs her guitar and runs off into
a lush, mountain pasture. Then, twirling her skirt joyfully, she bursts
into song.
In case you haven’t recognized her by now, Maria is the protagonist
of the great musical The Sound of Music. In the movie, she’s played
by Julie Andrews and, while it’s practically un-American to be
critical of any character played by Julie Andrews, let’s consider
Maria from her managers’ point of view.
Maria was a postulant at the convent – kind of a nun-intern. It’s
a job she really wanted – at least that’s what she told
her interviewers. But now it’s clear that she either doesn’t
understand or doesn’t respect the rules that have governed work
at the convent for as long as anyone can remember.
She won’t stick to the duties or the working hours she’s
assigned. Compliance is a real challenge for her. Eventually, her coworkers
get so frustrated that they complain to management – singing,
“How do you solve a problem like Maria?” But Maria wasn’t
a “problem.” She was a leader, even a pioneer.
The problem was that her employer – the convent – wasn’t
set up to recognize, nurture, and capitalize on those leadership skills.
So they encountered a situation that many businesses deal with today:
generational differences in work styles led to the loss of a promising
recruit.
When Maria was given a different opportunity – a more self-directed
job in the secular world – she thrived. She rapidly changed the
culture of her new organization and dramatically improved the morale
of her new colleagues. And, if that weren’t enough, she employed
a combination of quick thinking and bold action to save her entire team
from certain death at the hands of the Nazis. I don’t know about
you, but that’s the kind of leader I want in my organization.
Maria’s story is a true story. Okay, maybe not the part about
the singing nuns – but Maria von Trapp was a real woman. She really
did set out to become a nun and she left the convent to become a governess.
There are
“Marias” in companies everywhere in the world. Women whose
talents have not been properly recognized or deployed. Whose different
modes of problem-solving have been overlooked instead of celebrated.
Women whose out-of-the-box thinking has not been received well and perhaps
been stuffed right back in the box, lest it CHANGE the way things have
always been done.
For more than half
my career, Deloitte has been working to ensure that fewer and fewer
Marias slip through the cracks….
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