Elemental Leadership Solutions

Spring Nibbles

2010-03-10T12:48:37-05:00

There’s something about this spring-like weather that gets the spring cleaning bug nibbling at me. I think it is especially obvious to me right now because in recent weeks, the world has seemed so dark and dingy. Now we have the sun shining in every day, promising warmth and the new season, and so I find myself digging into things I haven’t had the energy for recently.

Do you ever find that “spring cleaning” goes beyond Windex and household cleaners? I think that’s one of the things that I especially love about this change from one season to another is that it isn’t just an outside, audible change. In the process of finding my office floor, I also dig through tasks, thoughts, and responsibilities I’ve avoided for months. What was stagnant has begun to move, like the northern ice floes in spring.

When I lived in Alaska, we referred to the advent of spring as “break-up” because absolutely everything melts at once. Suddenly, we’re playing all sorts of outside games – volleyball & football especially – because they were guaranteed to include a whole lot of mud. You’re absolutely going to get messy, and it’s a wonderful way to clean the winter out of your soul.

I always wonder if everyone absorbs these seasonal changes into their soul like I do. Now that the sun is bringing in the promise of warmer weather, do you feel this transformation in your soul as well? Are you more inclined than usual to embrace this change, or do you still avoid it like most people avoid change in general? If you tend to embrace it like I do… why do you think that is?

Epiphany

2010-03-09T12:46:39-05:00

I like exercise about as much as the next person. That is – not very much. I value it and what it can bring to my life (which is mostly the ability to "play" and actually enjoy life without killing myself), but really… it isn’t exactly the first thing on my list of what I want to do on any given day.

That being said, there’s an occasional outcome from exercise that I absolutely revel in: Epiphanies.

So there I was this morning, chugging along listening to my music. I was about three-quarters through my workout and had unknowingly zoned-out when BAM! my brain presented an answer to a problem I didn’t even know I was trying to figure out; it was a really abstract idea from six months ago that wasn’t even close to anything that’s been on my mind these days. Immediately, I got completely lost in the unraveling of the idea, walking through the crystal clear answer piece by piece. It was a beautiful answer with dark lines and yellow, sunshiny blocks, absolutely glowing in its linear clarity. As I became desperate for a piece of paper and pen to capture this answer before it drifted away, I became conscious again of where I was. Somehow I’d maintained my pace, but my eyes had been completely glazed over and my mouth was dropped open with the sense of awe. As much as I was experiencing a moment of beautiful understanding, I imagine I looked more like the village idiot. Nevertheless, I found my focus, closed my mouth, and held on to the vision until I got home where I could capture it on paper.

These epiphanies are moments that I revel in because they are leaps forward rather than the small steps of everyday life. I turn a corner where I didn’t even know there was an intersection, and find a whole new neighborhood of possibilities. It’s like a shocking moment of springtime, right in the middle of an ordinary day.

The Impact of Anticipation

2010-02-24T12:00:31-05:00

IN BRIEF: Women on Board

According to a study completed by Amy Dittmar & Kenneth Ahearn, a colleague at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, a mandatory requirement to increase the number of female board members in all public firms to the qty of 40% within the next two years negatively impacted the stock prices of 130 Norwegian firms dropping them an average of 2.6% - not after the women were put in place, but much sooner: within three days after the announcement of the new law back in 2002. If the organization didn't have any women on its board at the time, stock prices dropped as much as 5%.

The researchers connected this anticipatory stock price drop to a decrease in a firm's value when they increased the number of women on the board to by 10%.

WHAT THEY NOTE:

The impact here is not of gender, but of the experience & educational make-up of the new board members. Women are newer in the pipeline, gathering less and often different experience than their male counterparts. That difference is seen as negative, thus decreasing trust and expectation in the advice & decisions offered by the directors.

Also - the impact here is anticipatory. The stock prices dropped after the announcement of the new law, not after its implementation.

WHAT THEY DON'T SAY:

The difference that women bring to the table from men is the point and the purpose of bringing women to that table. The fact that women bring in different experiences, different viewpoints, and different types of advice is the reason that a board should be gender-balanced. This isn't just about being fair to both genders; this is about drawing from 100% of the viewpoints & possibilities offered by the employees of the organization. If you only ask the men how the organization should decide about something, you only get one particular viewpoint. Women consider perspectives that men often don't: relationships, compassion, empathy. These are elements that serve the organization over the long term, and a firm is doing itself - and its stock holders - a disservice if it intentionally closes its ears to this other perspective.

The statistics gathered in the study mentioned above are about anticipating change and fearing difference. While these are natural responses of the human condition (nobody likes change), it is simply to the best interest of an organization, its stock holders, its employees, and its future, to hold on and ride the waves of change to this gender-balanced place where they will make better decisions. What the masses are afraid might happen, and what will happen, are often two vastly different things. Don't kill your chickens before they hatch and prove to you they can do the job you hired them for...

Innies & Outies

2010-01-25T15:57:29-05:00

INTROVERTS & EXTROVERTS

Introverts tend to be quiet in group settings. They interact more comfortably in smaller groups, and keep themselves more at a distance from other people.

Extroverts tend to be more outgoing. They usually talk to people more readily, and are less shy when in group settings.

(I tend to think of introverts as "innies" because they spend time in their heads, and extroverts as "outies" because they are so outgoing.)

WHICH ONE?

Do you know which one you are? Look at how you spend your time and answer this question:

Which activities make me feel more energized?

If you find that the time you spend interacting with other people is where you “reset,” and you come out of those experiences feeling better or even “refocused,” then you’re an extrovert.

If you find that you are re-centered and reenergized after having spent some time on your own – be it with your nose in a book, or an a walk alone, quietly thinking, or however you choose to spend that downtime --- then you’re an introvert.

So introversion & extroversion are about our level of interaction with the world around us. Not just our tendencies, but where we operate from; where we each consider ‘home base’ or ‘center’ to be.

WHY DOES IT MATTER?

Planning:

Knowing your tendency to be either extroverted or introverted can help you understand which types of social environments you will do well in naturally, and which situations will bring you a greater challenge.

For example: Let’s say that this Saturday night you will be attending a party where you won’t know too many people. If you are an extrovert, you likely have habits and skills already in place to help you manage a social environment mostly full of strangers; if you are an introvert, it will probably take more work for you to access skills to help you manage that party. This is not to say that the extrovert will necessarily enjoy the party any more than the introvert. Rather, the extrovert will have easier access to the nerve and skills necessary to manage the event effectively.

On the other hand, let’s say you are interested in taking a new job that requires a lot more alone-time than your current job entails. If you are an introvert, that is probably an excellent opportunity for you. In fact, the alone time might even be one of the reasons you are attracted to that job and will likely thrive in it. As an extrovert, the alone-time that this proposed job entails should raise some concerns. It would be wise to learn what communicative outlets there will be to help you balance that alone-time before you decide to pursue that opportunity.

Limits & Re-Charging:

We all have limits, and it’s important to know what they are and also how to serve ourselves best when we get near them. The limit might be fatigue or stress, or it could be over- or under-stimulation, hunger… many things can take us to our limit.

Knowing what those limits feel like can help you manage your energy. If you are feeling run down, knowing how you recharge can help you do so more quickly and efficiently. You can discern, at that extreme moment, what you need and also what you may need to say “no” to:

· If you are an introvert that has had a full day of interaction and you are feeling overwhelmed, you recognize the importance of finding some time to power-down and reset before tonight’s business dinner if you are going to be your best.

· Conversely, if you are an extrovert that has been locked in your office alone all day, you might realize that your desire to interact is a bit on the high side and that you are better served to find a social outlet to defuse your need to interact just a little before you show up at the business dinner, so that you don’t come across too strongly.

The Middle

It is possible that you land someplace between introvert and extrovert. It may even be circumstantial – that you are usually one, but in particular circumstances you behave like the other.

For example, I am distinctly an extrovert who can talk to just about anyone anytime. However, if you put me in a room with a mass of people mingling about, I can get incredibly distracted. The buzz of people overwhelms me, and it impedes my ability to have a normal conversation. I have learned how to manage this distraction, but it has taken a lot of time and experience to get my head around it. Conversely, I can reach a level of exhaustion that requires me to find some serious alone-time. However, I can only stay in that alone-time for so long before am craving people again. So, at my base I am definitely extroverted, and interaction is how I recharge and reset. At the same time, there are situations that bring out the introvert in me.

We each have our needs, our limits, and our natural skills. Knowing what they are, recognizing how they feel, and learning to access them can bring us a sense of control over the various events that make up our lives.

Work and Money: Her Fair Share

2010-01-12T17:42:22-05:00

Women now make up approximately half of the workforce, and yet their earnings equal only 80% of what men take home. That is up just 4% from ten years ago, when women earned about 76% vs men. At this rate, we should hit parity around the year 2058. Personally, I think that’s a long wait. I like to think that some 50 years from now, I’ll be enjoying a leisurely ride on my BMW through the Swiss Alps amidst some version of retirement, worrying more about where I’m going to find that night’s dinner than I am about the gender pay ratio in the U.S.

But here in the present, my antennae go up when I hear how people frame their advice to “fix” this ratio imbalance. I see writing on this subject focus on the cause that women simply do not ask for more money, therefore they do not receive as much. The message here is that the responsibility is in the woman’s hand. It belongs to her and if she would simply step up and negotiate like a man, she would be paid like one. In an effort to “help” women out of this situation, these writings highlight the successful negotiating strategies that men use, and recommend them to women.

Most of these articles and books follow up their advice to women with some acknowledgment that there are expectations in our society that train women to not ask, but then the discussion seems to fade. I get very frustrated at this point because the idea that there might be a systematic problem is lost behind the noise of what women can do to fix their own problem. The overall message one walks away with is that the responsibility is more on women to adjust to the ways of business, and less on business to find a way to help.

Is this truly where the onus of this problem lies? I don’t think so.

There is common agreement that women and men communicate differently. Specifically, women are expected to have a more feminine style of communication, and often do. In fact, when they don’t align with the expected feminine style, it can play against them and earn women negative labels like aggressive or bitch. Similarly, though less stringently, men are expected to communicate in a more masculine style, and often do. However, when a man wanders into a more feminine style of communication, it doesn’t seem to play against him as harshly as it does a woman. Rather, a man is considered surprisingly insightful and well-rounded, and the better for it. With these specific differences and expectations in mind, the negotiation styles that men use should not be expected to work for most women. In fact, to suggest that a woman behave in ways that belong to the masculine style is to suggest that she play a hand that will most likely work against her.

With all of this in mind, I want to emphasize that asking should not be an expectation or a requirement. As much as I am in the business of helping women successfully negotiate situations like these, it cannot be overlooked that this behavior is a masculine style of communication in a patriarchal work environment. If U.S. business is going to benefit from 100% of the brain power this country offers, then it needs to put aside gender and consider 100% of the people. That means, implicitly, that it needs to put aside a requirement that falls so strongly within the masculine style of communication so that they can be more open to the feminine communication style as well.

I’m not saying that negotiating is wrong; I’m not saying that there’s something wrong with asking. What I am saying is that the expectation of the asking – the step in the process that involves the interviewee challenging the offered pay and requesting more– falls outside of the feminine style of communication. That step in the hiring process is where women are seen to lose the extra money that men earn. If that step is the common denominator, change it. Change that step, that expectation, and you change the result.

New Year Musings

2010-01-02T14:22:28-05:00

For most of us, the New Year is a time of reflection: Assess how the last year went; Plan for the next year, realign your sights, and try again. Thing is, I don’t like repeats. That doesn’t even make sense to me. One year following another isn’t a do-over. Time moves forward and I need to move forward with it. Last year is complete. I did as much as I did, and now it is simply time to move forward on that base, whatever it may be.

Over the years, I’ve found life to be a bit of a moving object. A year seems like a lot to plan for when you just don’t know what’s coming. So rather than setting a distinct plan, which would involve steps, tracking progress, and distinct goals, I set a theme. Similar to a plan, a theme gives me a line to walk; an overall play to run for the coming year with a general anticipated outcome… but with the steps undefined and outcome set as a rough idea rather than a landing spot.

Last year at this time, I was trying to get my head around how to pull together the extensive variety of experiences, education, and learning I’ve gathered throughout my life thus far, and somehow organize it into something that stands on its own. I envisioned a business where I could be contracted rather than employed; hired for what my skills bring to the table as is, not how they may possibly fit into someone else’s puzzle if we just bend, twist, and hone them to fit someone else’s preference. I’d had enough of that.

As a working adult, I have drawn on the various every piece of my knowledge and expertise here and there, but never all at once towards one goal – and yet I’ve always thought that ought to be possible "someday". Last year, looking into 2009, I felt like I was at that crux; the rubber was hitting the road and the time of coalescing had come. What that might look like, I had only a vague idea… but it sounded inviting and exciting. Thus, the theme was born: organization. I would spend the next year in search of a way to organize my world in such a way that all my different pieces somehow fit together to work in harmony towards one purpose. I was curious to see how that would look… and felt that there was no way to actually plan for it since I didn’t have a clue how it going to evolve. So I set the theme, and rumbled on.

One year later, I do in fact feel more organized. I have created an organization – a company – complete with a mission. Aiming at a particular set of niches, I am focusing my skills and knowledge in a direction that will touch the people that I think will benefit the most: women; male-dominated organizations and industries; and small, family-owned companies. And the difference from last year is palpable. I feel purposeful in a way that I never have. I feel focused, centered, and organized.(Although honestly, if you looked around my office, that's not the impression you'd get.)

Leveraging off of last year’s theme, I’ve come to believe that this coming year, 2010, will be based on the theme activation. I am looking forward to activating ideas and concepts that came along last year while conceiving my organization. I feel like it’s a process of moving from passive energy (contemplative) to kinetic energy (active). As I look forward, I anticipate being inspired by last year’s ideas and formulations, as I will now be actively moving on those possibilities and seeing where they take me. It sounds inviting… and exciting.

I will be curious to see what this all looks like one year from now (and also whether I can draw on it to activate some organization in my office while I'm at it).

The Red Shoe

2009-12-05T10:50:15-05:00

I absolutely love this DSW TV commercial from Fall 2009, specifically because it shows how our clothes can say things that we would never dare utter out loud.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuSftsLWh64

So I watch the ad a few times and it gets me thinking…

One of the reasons this ad stands out for me is because the red shoe isn’t the only woman in the room. There’s a high boot and a black heel – and, in fact, with the addition of the red shoe, gender ratio in the room becomes 50:50. But I had to watch the ad a couple of times to pick that out. All the other shoes are a very conservative black so that, regardless of gender, they all look alike. And then the new board member wanders in and she’s a bright, shiny red. Do you think all of the other shoes in that room were black to begin with? Or did they become the same color as they all conformed to the requirements of their position? Will the shiny, red shoe eventually fade to black?

The red shoe tells the board’s chair that she is smarter and younger than him, and that she’ll be taking his job. While it always makes me grin, my ear picks up on the word ”younger” and I find myself wondering... What does “younger” really mean? I think it equals more energy and, somehow, the word “virile” comes to mind. With her youth and energy, will the younger shoe spawn ideas that are more current, represent the younger, upcoming generation? Perhaps. Will she keep striding forward long after her counterparts have worn out their soles? Perhaps.

But then I wonder… without the experience that comes with age, what does the red shoe not have? What scuffs would help her make better decisions “because she’s made those mistakes”? Similarly, might a worn shoe also engender trust that it’s been there before so it knows the way and can go there again?

Does the red shoe, young and shiny as she is, know what her weaknesses are as well as her strengths? It occurs to me that she can be the big shot in the board room, but she also needs those board members to help her succeed. They know the lay of the land, and they know the back-story behind where they are right now. Without them, she’d lose the history of the company, and you need to know where you’ve been and where you are if you’re going to know where you are going. There’s a benefit to her youth and energy, but the red shoe needs to tread lightly if she is going to step into her role on the board and be effective. She’ll need to be able to work productively with the rest of the board as part of her team if she’s going to succeed.

It might be fun to let the other shoes know where they stand, but alienating them as soon as she steps in the room might not be her wisest move.

I hope she knows all of this. I like that shoe.

The Decision-Making Continuum

2009-11-04T15:38:55-05:00

Do you decide things very quickly, or do you like to “try things on” and see how an idea fits before you make that final commitment? These are two ends to a continuum, and neither is right or wrong. Still – I notice people tend to gravitate to one end or the other, when both ends of the continuum are valuable for different moments in the decision-making process.

Deciding things quickly can be useful when factors are few and choices are obvious. This is also a great trait when time is short and conditions are urgent.

But what about when choices are complex and options are overwhelming? It is important to spend time in the window of uncertainty, even if it is uncomfortable… or possibly even because it is uncomfortable.

Discomfort is likely part of what makes a person gravitate to one or the other end of this decision-making continuum. Some people are “planners” and so tend to prefer things worked out, decided on, and known. Other people are more comfortable in a “shoot-from-the-hip,” flexible environment where decisions may be held off until the last minute. Similarly, even if plans were set long ago, they are open to shifting and adjusting as needed. That "adjustable" decision-making style can drive planners nuts! Understandably… but sometimes there is a place and a need for the flexibility of holding off decisions until the last minute.

To some extent, I think this ties to whether you make decisions based on facts (judgment) or on impressions (intuition). Again, both are valuable, and both have their place, time, and circumstance. And again, a mixture of the ends of the continuum so that you end up someplace along the line between them is often a more useful place to be.

Which end of the decision-making continuum do you gravitate towards? When was the last time you shifted towards the other end of the continuum?

Here's an opportunity: Consciously spend some time drifting towards the opposite end of the continuum from which you normally gravitate. If you're a planner, hold off deciding something until the last moment. If you tend to decide at the last minute, make a decision early and stick with it. (In both of these cases, you might want to start out with something small.)

Shifting your normal routine can shift your entire perspective.