Today I was notified that a manifesto entitled "The Female Vision: Defining Womens Strategic Strengths" published on the changethis.com website. Written by Sally Helgesen & Julie Johnson the manifesto assess the strengths that ladies bring and acknowledges the differences that these strengths bring and how they need to be embraced within the modern organisation.
So here are a few of my observations about ladies in organisations 0
1. In my experience women tend to be a bit more hesitant than the men to make a decision. Is this a bad thing? Absolutely not. The problem is that because business is dominated by men who want quick actions, responses and answers - there is little time to contemplate or to be viewed as being hesitant.
2. Also in my experience ladies tend to not work to talk about or impress others with their skills and results. I think women assume someone is going to notice their good work and reward them accordingly. I think there is still a great deal of sexism that needs to be overcome on this point. Men (generally) notice other men's work before they notice the results being produced by a lady.
3. Women require closer social links and relationships than men. The higher one gets in an organisation the less and less opportunities there are to relate to and interact with other females at the same level. There is an old adage that "It's lonely at the top". This is true for men and even more true for women. In my view I think ladies find being at the top an incredibly place to be at without having the emotional support and interaction with others.
The CE f my organisation recognises that ladies bring different skills and attributes to the job. And we have almost a 50/50 split at the very top level. If only other organisations could work in the same way...
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