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Keep your eye on the ball and don’t do a ‘Gordon’
07 March 2010
So the PM announces on International Women’s Day that there aren’t enough women directors
Priorities and focus
…will determine how successful anyone becomes in business. A laser focused determination wins out over an unfocused shotgun approach every time. The ‘butterfly’ entrepreneur may flit from idea to idea but only starts to make serious money when one venture takes precedence over everything else and receives their full attention. It’s the difference between hustling and having a bona fide sustainable business. That’s why the brilliant but scatterbrained entrepreneur with an apparent attention deficit disorder, ends up hiring people around them to ‘steady the ship’ and provide the consistency and clarity of focus any successful business needs.
The psychology of running a country isn’t so different
…from that of managing a successful business; hoping from one ‘good idea’ to another may look appealing but it’s not good for business. Sometimes (what might appear at first sight to be) good ideas must be set aside in favour of a consistent approach to solving more important issues. There are good (and not so good) reasons why there aren’t as many women as men in UK boardrooms. One of the inescapable and universal causes is that of choice; many women CHOOSE not to progress their life in that way. The biological imperative for women to conceive and then nurture children inevitably takes a large number of them out of the potential director ‘pool’. Of course there are many who DO want such a career and don’t make it. But let’s not forget that there are also men who aspire to greatness too but never get there. Chat’s at number ten to talk about helping more women into top posts is all well and good, and I’m sure all the participants had a lovely time, but is it really something the leader of the country should be doing at this particular time? It’s not wrong to engage in debate but it IS damaging to exchange high value opportunities for the relatively inconsequential. There are only 24 hours in a day and only 1 Prime Minister. The country has never been in such a financial state. There are companies sinking in a tumultuous business sea. It is therefore hard to believe that ruminating on gender ‘fairness’ can be justified no matter how ‘politically correct’ it might appear to be. Will he host a meeting next week to promote the number of gay directors? Why not more left handed directors or more directors who support Chelsea? I have no idea if there is merit in having more gay directors left-handed directors, Chelsea supporting directors, or indeed any gay, left-handed Chelsea supporters as directors. There may well be, but that’s not the point. The point is, should the leadership of a country in such difficulty be spending their time at that particular coal-face or perhaps one that offers a seam of hope for turn-around?
Business is already a meritocracy
…particularly entrepreneurial business. Only the best make it to the top and the ‘bottom line’ makes no gender distinctions. Those who make it to the boardroom do so because their best has been combined with preparation and opportunity; in other words they were both good and lucky. That doesn’t always happen. Trying to force equality with quota’s or edicts and hot air about there not being enough female directors is an example of ‘flitting’. At best it’s a distraction and at worse an attempt to run away from the ‘real’ issues far more deserving of the Prime Minister’s attention. Whatever the issues are in your business right now, make THEM your focus of attention. DON’T be sidetracked by fancy ideas or the siren calls of distraction. Stick to your knitting, do what you know will eventually work, and be consistent – because that is what will see you through.
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