Nina Burokas on Better Living Through Brand

Network Advantage: Women

Women are naturals when it comes to building relational capital, although less effective in leveraging it. For perspective on this dynamic, check out the results of ExecuNet’s Executive Job Market Intelligence Report (executive summary free with registration; via Wendy Terwelp at Rock Your Career).

In brief, women rated their networks higher than men in categories of quality, relationship strength and reciprocity. The key factor: 2/3rds more women than men stated that they actively work on building their professional relationships. Good news? Yes, but the situation is similar to the technology adoption upside noted by Lena West in her Women & Technology Battlecry post on Lip-Sticking. In this case, only 10-15% of women rated their networks as "excellent". The majority of women (and men) rated their networks as "good". Women's highest ratings are in the "relationship strength" category, where "excellent" and "very good" total to 47%, or the same as the "good" category.

Despite a network advantage relative to men, women are still less visible in the corporate C-suite. My opinion is this is largely due to socialization (what and how we communicate as women) differences – a failure to effectively differentiate, focus and promote that translates into a lack of visibility and credibility. That is, women are often not even under consideration for key projects or promotions. Cited in a study on The Gender Equity Gap in Top Corporate Executive Positions, Towers Perrin's Manager of Executive Compensation Research and Development Pamelia Todd states: "There's a problem with women becoming highly paid. But the problem is getting the high-level job in the first place, not getting paid fairly once you get there." The study's authors, Joanne Burress & Linda Zucca, concur: "the significant differences between male and female executives (after controlling for job title, company size, and industry membership) are human capital differences such as age and years of service in their job positions rather than compensation."

Women's Networks that Work

Business Week’s article What Works in Women’s Networks is a must-read for anyone with a human resource, innovation or revenue mandate. The authors’ statement - that corporate women’s networks “rarely provide the skills or exposure that women need to rise in the ranks” - often applies to association and regional events, as well.

What’s at stake? Women represent the fastest growing segment of the labor market and are, potentially, the dominant economic and political force. A few U.S. statistics (1):
* Women account for over half of the gross domestic product
* Women make up over 50% of undergraduates, earn 50% of the bachelor's and master's degrees and over 40% of the doctoral degrees
* Women make up 50% of the workforce
* Women represent the majority of voters

In order to achieve their potential, women’s organizations and events must serve as more than social gatherings or PR - they must be designed, financed and managed as critical business initiatives.

Three practices that work:

1. Get customers in the act.
Case in point: GE Women’s Network
Key success factor: Using the network as a regional connection hub for key stakeholders

2. Tackle real business problems.
Case in point: Best Buy’s WOLF
Key success factor: Tapping the network to address core business issues such as women-centric innovation and the retention of women employees

3. Bridge the gender divide.
Case in point: Deloitte’s WIN
Key success factor: Provide a benefit to both women and men; for example, using "Women as Buyers" study results to improve internal communications and sales effectiveness

1 - Sources: Catalyst Research and Lusk-Moore & Associates

Technology Adoption Upside

The good news is that more than 70% of the women business owners surveyed in a recent study (1) leverage technology to achieve profit, innovation, quality and efficiency goals. Indeed, the study found that women business owners are as likely as men business owners and more likely than women in general to be willing to adopt new technology (Center for Women’s Business Research; via Lena West, guest blogging at Lipsticking).

However, in her Women & Technology Battlecry post, Lena highlights the upside potential: only 24% of women business owners consider themselves advanced or leading edge technology adopters. The remaining respondents fell into one of the following categories:
    51% : “average” rate of technology adoption
    15% : technology adoption laggards
    10% : trailing the adoption curve

The key takeaway, as West notes, is the opportunity for 76% of women business owners to improve their business performance through better use of technology. Her challenge: let’s step up our collective game.

What’s the action item?
Join Lena and women business owners for a discussion of how to leverage technology to improve your visibility, credibility, impact and revenue potential.

What: Women & Technology Brass Tacks Roundtable Discussion
When: Wednesday, July 11th, from 4:00-5:30P Pacific
Dial-In Information: + 1 218 486 1300
Bridge Number: 405772

1 - Solutions and Sophistication: Comparing Women and Men Business Owners' Use of Technology was conducted by the Center for Women's Business Research and commissioned by IBM.

Brand Triage: "Tough Choices" Review

“To the victors, go the spoils”. Including the option to (re)write history. Walking away from her summary firing as CEO and Chairman of the Board of Hewlett-Packard with 21 million in cash and parlaying that experience into a book deal is clearly not a total loss. However, the fact is that her personal brand was devalued in the abrupt and public ouster. Carly Fiorina’s Tough Choices is her attempt to reassert her leadership legacy and revive her brand.

As the title states, Tough Choices is a memoir: Carly’s perception of her professional history from AT&T through HP. It has an agenda, illustrated by the Wall Street Journal quote selected for the inside front flap: “So, was Carly right after all?” My mistake was assuming that, despite the signposts, Carly would have a unique and valuable perspective on gender, politics and leadership in the C-suite. Instead, it reads like a 350-page pitch - a seemingly endless series of Challenge-Action-Results statements.

If you’re looking for insight into how to navigate a “man’s world” as a woman, Tough Choices isn’t the book. Aside from a scene in a strip club and an outrageous stint at a conference – situations that would probably not translate outside a sales culture – there is nothing to be learned from a gender politics standpoint. On this topic, I recommend instead Robin Wolaner’s Naked in the Boardroom (excerpts at 800-CEO-READ).

If it’s political insight you’re seeking, go to the master: Machiavelli’s The Prince – still relevant (albeit not literally) after 500 years. In an interesting coincidence, there was an article on power and politics citing Machiavelli’s principal subject, Cesare Borgia, in the Los Angeles Times when I began reading Tough Choices, and it served as my bookmark – and, perhaps, a point of reference.

The one – and pivotal – lesson learned from Tough Choices was how to deal with shifting alliances. Generally astute and decisive, Carly “blinked” on the verge of victory. Despite clear and present danger - a board betrayal - she failed to exercise her option to remove the board and effectively surrendered. The rest, of course, is history.

Carly simply never came to life in the pages of Tough Choices. For more compelling perspectives, see her “Brand: A Guiding Light in Tumultuous Times” speech for the Nikkei Global Management Forum or watch the five minute excerpt of her presentation at the Amazon.com offices on what fear and choice have to do with leadership (scroll down on the Tough Choices listing on the site).

Excerpt of review for Women In Technology International's (WITI) Savvy magazine. Cross posted on brandingpersonal.

On Courage

Demonstrating courage and a tolerance for risk is critical in all aspects of our lives. Given the pace and complexity of our world, we need the courage to make decisions with limited information, the courage to envision possibilities, and the courage to honor our values and culture while embracing change and new ideas. To quote Anais Nin: “Our lives expand or recede based on our ability to be courageous” (via Cindy Solomon, Creating Courage).

One of the statistics Cindy cited was particularly compelling: 86% of people surveyed who were 65 or older or terminally ill indicated that they wished they had shown greater courage in their life.

I’ve been wrestling with the concept of courage for a few weeks. My friend Jenny’s mother died of cancer recently. Jen was with her mother when she died. The edited version is that her mother fought to the end. This was a woman who was 5’7” and weighed less than 75 pounds. She was physically incapacitated, her quality of life was virtually nil, and yet she kept fighting.

The question I would pose is what are you willing to fight for? All of us are in a far better position to achieve our objectives than Jen's mother was, and yet we sometimes simply abandon our dreams without a whimper, much less a battle. What haunted me about this situation is that there were a couple of goals on my 2007 list that I had summarily decided were unrealistic. I have since reversed that decision.

A follow-up question: are you fighting for what’s important to you? In the February issue of the Harvard Business Review, there’s a case study that involves a female executive who is struggling with classic parent/promotion issues. Although she’s effective in her current role, she exhibits a disturbing lack of initiative in reconciling her conflicting priorities. One of the commentators lays it on the line: “she isn’t displaying the most important qualities needed in a senior manager: decisiveness, a knack for proactively identifying and solving problems, an ability to prioritize, and courage.”

Courage is not inherited. It is not something that is awarded or bestowed. It is, to quote Ruth Gordon, “like a muscle…strengthened by use.”

Art credit: Julie Paschkis, Courage. Limited edition prints available at www.artforallofus.com. Paintings are available at Grover Thurston Gallery. Books are available at www.allforkidsbooks.com or amazon.com.

The Passion Principle

“Making success last takes a level of tenacity and passion only love can sustain.”
- Jerry Porras, Stewart Emery & Mark Thompson, Success Built to Last

Passion is the new differentiator. To excerpt from Success Built to Last: “if you don’t love what you’re doing, you’ll lose to someone who does.” Larry Bossidy, author (et.al.) of Execution and Confronting Reality, calls love “a competitive imperative”. According to (retired) Brigadier General Clara Adams-Ender, “you can survive without loving it, but you will be second-rate…not knowing why you’re there will take your power away.”

Get your (or give a) dose of passion and perspective at a 35% discount: WITI/Wharton School Publishing joint initiative.

Related links:
Knowledge@Wharton: SBTL Co-Authors Mark Thompson & Stewart Emery on How Successful People Remain Successful (4/06); Excerpts from Lasting Leadership: Lessons from the 25 Most Influential Business People of Our Times (10/04).

800-CEO-Read Interview with Larry Bossidy (10/04)

Art credits: Big Headed Girl, by Tom DePue, Nancy Dick, Mark Kregal and Artist in Residence Wendy Minor; Passion Works Studio. PBS Documentary on PassionWorks: A Story of Flying available on DVD or check your local listings.