Miles to go.....a few notable women
Why I Mentor Women Leaders in Technology - III
Round the Bend: At the peak of the summer, in July, at least three female CEOs were show-cased in the media. First, the CEO of General Motors, second, the Innovation Officer at Sales Force, third, the CIO of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg. It is such a privilege to celebrate these three remarkable women. For all three, the honors are hard-won and richly deserved. They symbolize the culmination of a journey. But, why are they such notable exceptions? When will they be the rule?
Statistically Speaking: The relatively lower percentage of women in executive leadership ranks does not bode well for young women in STEM, young female technologists. Neither is it an overwhelming vote of confidence in the tendency of a selection board to go out on a limb and choose a female candidate for a plum role, especially over four equally deserving male counterparts. It has been amply proven that it is in the selection of senior leadership or C-Level positions that one sees this gap most.
Normalize the Phenomenon. Cultural conditioning and political dynamics may be at play behind the skewed statistics. While women leaders are typically selected and applauded for their collaboration and mediation skills, Transformation leadership is still considered a male executive function. The Street, Investors, Executive Boards, all view men as the ones more competent at business critical transactions, with an acknowledged ability to make tough decisions, a hard nose for numbers, comfortable conjuring with commercials and at home with controversy.
A Few Exceptional Women: This is why Sheryl Sandberg being chosen for the position of Uber CEO was such a big deal. - it was a token example of a female leader, proven through her position in Facebook, ascending to the ranks of a controversial executive position - that too, of a start-up that was iconic for its model, a company that epitomizes millennial culture and commerce. It is equally interesting that the eminent executive, originally of eBay fame, Meg Whitman just this week, went public with her declaration that she is NOT in fact considering the Uber executive position.
Not a Popularity Contest: Most of us are tickled by the adage - "Well behaved women rarely make history". It has been attributed to the little-known Laurel Thatcher Ulrich (born July 11, 1938). She is an American historian of early America and the history of women and a professor at Harvard University. Viewed in the context of female technology leadership, Ulrich's piquant phrase, assumes an irony, and a pathos of its own.
Consider the case of Marissa Mayer. I am a huge admirer of the grit, risk-and-reward elements of former Yahoo CEO, Marissa Mayer's executive style. It is true that female leaders are automatically associated with underpinnings of compassion, commitment to work life balance, and employee retention. These are all essentially desirable principles of operational excellence in a delivery organization. I would venture to say, Marissa Mayer is an iconic Operations leader - but her rigor around remote work was not well received. It is debatable whether a male leader would have faced the same level of scrutiny. Work life balance is essential for sustaining the pace, for holistic well-being. Other than the obligatory CSR (corporate social responsibility) requirements, flex time, the ability to juggle, these are all key to employee-retention. Employee mental health is as much a commercial requirement as it is a compliance code, a social obligation. It is somewhat stereotypical, I dare say, that women leaders are expected to be instinctively committed to employee retention, flexibility in the workplace, and accommodating behavior when it comes to the sick child, the aging parent, the family reunion. Marissa Mayer fell on this sword. At the end of the day, her operational brilliance while at Google and at Yahoo, and her agility with the numbers game that reflected in at least one company's balance sheets were undermined in her corporate "eulogy" post exit from Yahoo. With élan and expected tight-lipped objectivity, Forbes reduced her not insignificant career to her net worth, her perceived failure at Yahoo, and her erstwhile (unacknowledged in the Forbes' snippet) leadership at Google where she earned her wings:
I do glimpse hope round the bend. There are strong female, and male executive voices who emerge from the babel. They are strident with the desire to strike out on a level playing field, to take no prisoners and expect no favors.
Indra Nooyi, famed CEO of Pepsi, espouses an equally emphatic and objective, transformed psyche. Her mantra: "lose the legacy over retention" recommends a willingness to let go of past history, successes, et al for a turnaround. This approach may include reductions in force and revisiting strategies that have traditionally proved successful in the life cycle of a corporation. It would be trite to simply reduce this to a "no venture, no gain" mind-set. It is more game-changing. It implies that there may be a period of painful transition and demanding leadership from all on board. But that is better than playing a zero sum game where no one wins.
Nooyi's seemingly apathetic philosophy accentuates that, to acquire the coveted positions of responsible and reputable power, the female leadership mind must turn gender-neutral - while leveraging bio-genetic skill-sets, creative competencies, intuitive insights, that maybe quite unique to this community. For this to happen, she speaks out, women must help each other, and interestingly, she articulates with maturity - women cannot do this without men. Read this for yourself: https://www.huffingtonpost.in/2016/04/12/indra-nooyi-women_n_9667678.html.
Clearly, a community of like-minded women leaders begins to emerge with one voice from the babel of voices. A new sound is audible - and it is one of confidence in strategy and execution based on success in shaping the future of organizations and demonstrated accountability to the Street. It is high noon for women leaders to step forward from the back office, and face investors, speak with passion sourced in a well of knowledge, inspired by an awareness of equality. It is past time for them to wear the positive balance sheet like a badge of honor, to ring the NASDAQ bell. The commercials, not just the conversation, must bear out the conviction, to sign, seal, and deliver, the success of female leadership.
Tuning in to the dialog of current women leaders at the helm, I do hear a confidence that necessarily floats free of any clouds of bias. Lisa Su, CEO of the embattled chip company AMD, now rising somewhat like a muted Phoenix, speaks from an angle of empowerment that skews the infinite line of the gender conversation and ends it somewhere at a full-stop, a period. Su tells Fortune’s Susie Gharib that the key to the turnaround was “focus.”
“There are so many good things to do,” she explains. “We needed to choose the things that we are really good at.” Her decision to specialize in the fast-growing game technology business, and to back away from the slow-growing PC business, really paid off. Fortune reported in December, 2016 - “The holiday sales pop is a remarkable accomplishment for CEO Lisa Su, who was tapped two years ago to helm the money-losing AMD. There were doubts Su could do much for a company many speculated was about to go out of business. But she turned out to be the game changer AMD needed: The company recently reported a 23% jump in quarterly revenues, it posted a small profit, and the stock has more than quadrupled since Su took charge." Listen to Su on this fortune interview: https://fortune.com/video/2016/12/21/the-game-changer-amd-needed/.
For those of us who are hungry for traction on our dreams, Focus is the engine to fuel. Discrimination, Inequality, Unfairness are all the undeniable realities of a flawed global business environment. However, it is only when leadership programs for women in technology can move past the analysis paralysis and inspire action that we can hope to see tangible and measurable returns on the effort invested in commendable programs to encourage and nurture female leadership. High technology with its billions of dollars of capital investment is a risk and reward game. Information Technology may not be "burdened" similarly by the cost of manufacturing, but it is equally influenced by geo-politics and macroeconomics. It demands equally swift decision making, relentless execution, and commercial accountability to investors.
Leaning In: It is heartening to see rising female senior leaders are breaking the mold. However, it is when one can stop writing about the glorious exceptions to the rule that we will have arrived. It is easy to be intimated and overwhelmed by jargon, hype, obligatory conversations governance around what should be automatic and expected. In our own minds, gender has to be erased from the equation so we can command results and at the very least, actionable requests from the powers that be, so we can shape our destiny. Let the custodians of social justice and CSR advance their laudable initiatives through informed and strategic programming and planned actions. This is all essential when viewed through a longer lens. However, as a lead actor, one cannot be director, though one can be a protagonist with a responsible voice. For a proven leader to be a mentor lends a value beyond compare, because one speaks "live wired" from within the ranks.
From Mentoring to Sponsorship. What is the Difference? Quite simply, the former is a more passive concept than the latter. Mentoring involves empathy, an understanding of specific challenges and personal experiences, tactical assistance and support, and potentially, an active promotion of the individual being mentored.
Compared to the relatively philosophical function of Mentoring, Sponsorship is the greater tactical investment from a business perspective. It requires being accountable for the next 5 years in the future of the rising leader. It involves commercials and planning, a budget, timeline, and key performance indicators (KPIs), measures of success that could/should be factored into a business unit's P&L. It is a calculated investment with expectation of return - a business move. This has more measurable impact than corporate mentoring initiatives that are guided by compliance, social responsibility, and other equally necessary policy driven incentives. Sponsorship is mentoring that can be measured. It requires both a deeper personal/professional investment from and greater accountability from only the most passionate and committed of mentors. It is therefore, destined for results and hopefully, success.
"I" instead of "We": Highly recommended - to use self-referential proper nouns, including “I” more, instead of pronouns (she, we, and us) in reference to actions and achievements, whether in a blog such as this, in daily meetings, or even elevator conversation. Pundits will constantly recommend self-effacement and non-intimidating tactics in leadership. But this is not a popularity contest though it does not preclude situational politics, navigation, and strategic behavior.
We rely on our team to shape the destiny of the business. We surround ourselves with unquestionably smart people of any gender. We take the "I" out of the "Us" and the "Them", capitalize on collaboration, communication and compassion that are innate to the female community. But ultimately, we always travel alone on this journey. Soon, I hope, we will be cruising in our lonely fashion, in a more efficient convertible. Ours will not be the road less traveled, but a well-frequented highway.
The power of Silence: Once we can claim the luxury of not fighting for what is rightfully ours and expect, not because we are entitled, but because we are accountable, we are on an even footing and the competition is equal. There is no glory in being an exception, a special consideration, or an example of diversity inclusion alone. True victory is won only when singular and senior women leaders in technology are one of many in a female leadership clan that is co-mingled with the opposite gender. A natural co-existence with male executive leadership will allow us to stop petitioning and protesting, or participating in initiatives, simply for empowerment. The male appreciation of equality of their female counterparts, from those on the front lines all the way up to the C-suite, is key. Their cognizance of the cause and implicit understanding and attention, will give us the Voice to speak with meaningful silence. It will ensure a friendly and attentive audience when we do speak in the forum that debates women's leadership rights.
To attempt to bridge the miles to the next leadership milestone for women, in my next piece, I will talk about the power of silence as a medium of communication. I will also attempt to unravel the importance of assertive speech in the moment of negotiation. Discreet verbal authority and direct articulation, are two disparate and very polarized choices. Both are essential for our inner audio-library of leadership mindset. Silence and pointed speech are both indispensable in a leader's communication style. From the female leader's view-point, it becomes a matter of having the confidence to be silent. It means taking for granted that the audience will be attentive, cognizant of her competency and conviction, and automatically allow her to be heard. Do log on - and listen.