02 March 2012
Women get the top job when it may not be for long!
Psychological research suggests that women stand a better chance of getting the top job when a company is in crisis. Psychologist Michelle Ryan's findings suggest that the more precarious and risky the situation is, the more likely a woman is to be appointed to the board. The evidence suggests that female CEO's have far shorter tenures than their male counterparts, which might suggest that they are often set up to fail.
Women's top jobs linked to falls in share price?
Ryan discovered in her studies and experiments that historical data linked the appointment of women to Boards of Directors to slumps in share price. She also discovered that this slump preceded the appointment and that in experimental investigations using hypothetical situations women became the preferred candidate when the position had a high chance of failure.
It could be that women are seen as better crisis managers than men or that men are seen as having traits better suited to leading in a more stable environment. Or it may be that women accept riskier positions because they have fewer opportunities. No one can really be sure. All that's clear is that measures of equality in the workplace can't be based solely on numbers alone. The quality of the situations available to women as well as the number of them matter just as much.
Double the number of women in top jobs
In August last year (2011) it was reported that Britains biggest companies had doubled the number of women on their boards and that within 4 years a quarter of all senior bosses should be female.
Is this a result of good sense, the Davies report (and filling quotas).... or could it just be that top jobs are that bit more risky right now?
Who knows? Time will tell.
16 February 2012
Just...DON'T!!!
I've been surfing lots of coaching websites and reading loads of posts on linkedin coaching groups. After reading far too many, here's what I've learned:
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Don't pretend to know what the future holds because you can't know what even tomorrow will bring.
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Don't tell me how wonderful you are, let your testimonials speak for you.
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Don't rage against the things you wish you had and pretend it's actually some kind of crusade.
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Don't play politics but be honest and clear about what you believe, what you want, and why you want it.
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Don't underestimate the power of friendship and the building of relationships; it's not just about 'sales'.
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Don't ignore the truth of your experience, stand up and be counted even in the face of opposition even if it may not be instantly popular.
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Don't allow unfairness to creep up on you and cloud your judgement.
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Don't pretend to care about other people for appearance sake.
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Don't betray your own values under pressure; remain consistent and it will pay dividends.
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Don't expect from your friends (Facebook or otherwise) more than you give to them.
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Don't expect to share in someone else's glory if you haven't stood firm with them in their struggle to get there.
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Don't expect to look in the mirror and see what isn't there; other people see you for what you are.
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Don't assume anyone else will be as conscientious as you around your affairs or care like you do.
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Don't expect the sun to shine on you forever; there will be rainy days so at least act like you are prepared.
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Don't look for what isn't in your life but rejoice in the things that are.
06 February 2012
Shock horror; it snowed at the weekend and it was cold. It’s January; what do you expect?
It’s January now but it doesn’t matter what month it might be when you read this; the choice to focus thinking either on the past or the future will be the same.
Well, one thing you can definitely expect is that if we do the same as we’ve always done, we are likely to get the same result. I think it was Albert Einstien who for all his wonderful achievements is remembered by some for saying that doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result is akin to madness. Based on that definition the leadership of the UK is stark raving bonkers.
Predictably there was travel chaos. Problems on the main rail line from the north of the country to the capital meant that thousands of passengers were delayed for hours on end. A long stretch of a major roadway was closed for many hours because of multiple accidents. Medical emergencies needed to be airlifted to hospital because of mayhem on the roads. Almost half the scheduled flights from the UK’s busiest airport were cancelled because of three inches of snow.
It has happened again and it will happen again in the future. For so long as attention is paid to dealing with the symptoms, the cause will continue to be ignored. It’s not the weather that’s the problem. The problem is the vast numbers of people needing to move around. A little weather problem can be absorbed into the management of travel plans if there is room to absorb it. However if capacity is already stretched to the limit then any disruption will create a major issue. Backlogs stack up in no time and chaos ensues.
Instead of focusing effort and resources onto increasing travelling capacity or dealing with the odd patch of inclement weather, wouldn’t it make more sense to attempt to affect the cause of the problem?
Reduce the need to travel
I’m currently working on a project with a major university to help them reduce their needs for non revenue generating space. They may save up to a million pounds a year on the cost of space provision alone by reducing the need for some of their employees to travel into an office. They are focused on the future and not the past. The idea of bringing workers together into a room so that they can be physically supervised or brought together as a team is something thought up by the Victorians. It was a great idea for its time but is it still the way we need to be working today? Clearly, the advent of fabulous technologies that are now relatively inexpensive means that the situation can be reviewed. Of course it’s not as easy as simply asking people to work from home. We are working hard to help create environmental ‘bubbles’ for them at home that are even better than being physically together with their workmates in the office. Their needs to be able to interact, work as a team and feel supported are just as necessary as the provision of the tools to do the job. However the benefits of addressing the cause rather than the symptom are enormous; not just the cash savings on reducing non revenue generating space, but also potential improvements in productivity, longevity in the job and employee satisfaction.
Ridiculous wasting of resources
It’s plainly a waste of time for people to travel when they could do a better job by staying at home. Why then are the government spending the unbelievable sum of £8 billion on a new version of another Victorian invention?
I love the railways. Travelling by train is super if I genuinely need to go somewhere in person. I love my iPad even more. I can travel further and quicker on that little machine than the railways could ever take me. It’s not unusual for me to work in South Africa, the Canary Islands, Portugal and the USA without leaving my desk. Of course the use of technology like the iPad is fairly limited. Yet the mind boggles at what technology I might have access to if instead of wasting £8 billion on technology of the past, it was spent on technology of the future.
I can imagine being able to hold group meetings in my office. The technology already exists to see a whole room in holographic three dimensional detail on my desk. I know it’s possible to use that same technology to replicate any meeting situation right there in my office rather than having me travel in person to physically be there. The only thing that prevents us all from having it is the cost of its development. A cost that could easily be met if the resources were spent looking forward rather than backwards.
How much better for the UK economy would it be to have more business being done with less travel, versus a few paying for the privilege of getting from Birmingham to London a few minutes faster on a train?
So in whatever month you happen to be reading this, make sure you are thinking about the future rather than the past. If you have any influence with the great and the good then urge them to change their plans. The HS2 is only one example of backwards thinking and it would do us all a favour (except those with a vested interest in securing building contracts) if the money were spent on helping us stay where we are rather than need to travel.
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