I am not quite good enough

2085942 — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 08:17:00 GMT

Like many women of my generation, I thought of myself as not quite good enough for the various powerful positions in politics. Baroness Shirley Williams talks openly on radio 4 about how she and many women always think about themselves as the Deputy...the deputy eduction minister but not the education minister, the deputy prime minister but not the prime minister...

Why do so many women although qualified, never put themselves for the top jobs? Why, when asked do women say they make a good no 2 but not a good no 1? Why do they often say they are not visionary or entrepreneurial but are more happy just doing the job? If you go back to show and tell in American schools, more often than not the boys are the first to put their hand up to' show.' As girls, we are often taught not to put ourselves forward but stand back and watch from the sidelines. I have some wonderful, smart confident female friends. None of them think they would make great leaders or could run their own business.

I am convinced that this has nothing to do with their ability. It is more about the way society and their families set expectations about what girls should do. Rather than what they could do. The reason for this perceived lack of ability, according to Baroness Williams, is that women perceive men as 'giant size' and themselves as ordinary human size. She concludes by observing that it took all her political life to realise that while those men had projected a giant size image, they were not themselves giants either. Whatever the reason, the fact remains that while women are not represented in the higher echelons of corporate life (62% of FTSE 100 companies still have NO women on their boards), men continue to dictate what products and services are available to women, particularly in areas such as technology and science which are still dominated by men.

We must ensure women have a voice, if not a seat, in the boardroom. We must raise the agenda collectively and make sure women are seen not as a 'niche' audience but as the future drivers of growth and profitability.

Women Know Your Place: The Boardroom

2085942 — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:00:00 GMT

I feel like a Russian doll. I get smaller and smaller as the testosterone in the boardroom gets bigger and bigger. I tell myself I am a confident woman yet the environment I am in makes me feel I must change my persona and adapt to my 'male' surroundings. I must cut across people when they speak. I must hammer my point home with authority. I must emit an odour of superiority. I must show the world I am King.

So many women behave like men in the Boardroom. They feel they must emulate men to be successful. Many of the senior women I work with are not women I would aspire to be like. More like men in drag. This lack of appeal is one of the reasons why only 6% of women make up company board members. Cranfield's survey finds Alliance Trust, AMEC and Marks and Spencer as the companies with the most women on their boards.

I want to propose a new style of Boardroom where women can openly use the traits they have: femininity, intimacy and authenticity. To create an agenda that is open, transparent and supportive. The Boardroom should not be a place for corporate politics but a place for productive intimate business.

Gestalt talks about how boards of directors tend to operate in ways that seek to minimise ineffectiveness. Trevor J Bentley, in relation to Gestalt, says

“Relationships on boards are often tenuous, superficial and dishonest. They are quite often transitory subsytems of people who support each other out of personal interest. The best that most boards achieve often through share option schemes, is to align the self interest of individual directors with the interest of shareholders. This approach tends to create a short term price focus that is nearly always to the detriment of the long-term sustainable growth and well-being of the business.”

This pretty much sums up why we are in a financial crisis. A group of money hungry men had short term personal goals of becoming richer without thinking about the long term consequences of their actions.

I want a far more 'intimate' and 'authentic' environment: Bentley states that there are 2 parts to working in an intimate system.

The first is knowing what I am prepared to offer others is what they want.

The second is knowing that what I want is what others are prepared to offer me.

My experience is that most people in meetings are never clear or open about what they want. It takes a series of long pointless and frankly ineffective meetings before you start to find out the other party actually wants. You have to “play the game” (countless times I have been asked to “play the game”-each time I am told this, I feel myself revert back to my Russian doll).

Once you are finally clear about what the other parties want, the quality of contact increases and people relate to each other with a degree of authenticity. Its a bit like when you have the frank conversation with your new boyfriend about what you want from the relationship. Once the hazy fog of second guessing has been lifted and everything is so much simpler and more enjoyable.

Today in the boardroom, I watch women emulate men, leaving the men to dictate the rules of the boardroom. Women must be prepared to use their feminine skills in a productive way and men must be prepared to build cultures that thrive on diversity and tolerance not conformity.

A feminised boardroom is not one where you would pink up the environment and dumb down the agenda. A feminised boardroom is a supportive place where both women and men feel safe in revealing what their intentions are upfront and then get on with the job at hand. How refreshing.

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I am not quite good enough

Women Know Your Place: The Boardroom