Archive for Recognition
3 Lessons for CEO’s from Reality TV Show Undercover Boss
Posted by: | CommentsThe top rated CBS reality show, Undercover Boss, offers some real and valuable lessons for the business world. If you’ve never watched, the reality show follows chief executives at companies, such as Waste Management, 7-Eleven and even Hooters, as they work “undercover” alongside their unknowing employees. And although I’m not a big fan of reality TV (to say the least), I am a big fan of Undercover Boss because of the business lessons it shares.
When was the last time you operated on the line, did the work of your assistant, or went back out to make sales? You may be amazed by what you could learn. Following are three business lessons I gathered from just a few episodes of the show.
1. When you walk in my shoes, you see the business as others do (and are able to make better business decisions). Making the best decisions may require walking in the shoes of others in your company. Now it may be surprising… but some CEO’s are fairly removed from what their firms are actually delivering. The boss can become so separated from the day-to-day operations of the company that he/she can’t possibly make the best decisions. One can become so focused on reaching company goals, increasing productivity, streamlining, etc. and loose sight of how these objectives are achieved. Is it at the expense of your employees?
Women Leaders and Male Partnership
Posted by: | CommentsIn any learning process, there is a tendency to go to extremes before finding middle ground. Take driving, for example. Most teens start by driving very, very slowly, learning when to accelerate and when to put the brakes on. Then there is a time when we all want to experiment with speed, until either fender hits fender, or a ticket is handed by an unsmiling policeman.
Most of us then find the safe space of the middle ground where fast and slow are dependent on the territory.
So it is with all relationships. Sometimes a hug is perfectly timed, in other situations a metaphorical “right to the jaw” is called for. In all partnerships, all life happenings, it is all in the timing.
Margaret Thatcher was a woman leader who had a great sense of timing. She was strong and gracious. She entered the territory of male domination early on and set the stage for women to follow, to learn the art of push and pull.
Maybe We Really Have Changed
Posted by: | CommentsI
was very conscious of role changes yesterday. First, my husband and I needed to get some basics for our new home in Sonoma County California. We were running late and made a last stop at the closest Costco. The Super Bowl had started about ten minutes before and as Saints fans, we wanted to get home to cheer this special team to success.
I stopped at the bank of televisions and became engrossed with the game and stood there with a few guys who had pulled up chairs and obviously planned to make an afternoon of it.
My husband, a macho kind of male, said he would get the items we needed including an ironing board and dish drainer for the kitchen. He suggested I pull up a chair. I did. And the men, without blinking an eye, included me in their conversation about strategy.
I must admit, I am a superficial fan of the game and it only peaks my attention when there is a story like the New Orleans team that has captured the imagination of the whole country. I was in the French Quarter several weeks ago when the Saints won the right to be in the Super Bowl and it was, so I heard, even better than Mardi Gras.
Leadership and a Cup of Tea
Posted by: | Comments
The next six weeks of winter are the challenging ones with the flu, colds, and general challenges for all of us until those first green shoots of spring brighten the day.
A vital question for all of us, and especially women in business who tend to be caretakers and pleasers is “What do you do to renew your spirit?” I’d love to hear responses that can give all of us some new ideas or even underline what we already know. Some I’ve asked say a long soak in a tub at night helps, others are runners and bikers, still others put on hot music, close the door and dance till they fall in a heap on the floor.
The New England Journal of Medicine found that those who engaged in social dancing at least several times a week had a 76 percent lower risk of dementia than those who did not. So, find a partner and get to it!
For me a cup of tea is a powerful stress reliever. A recent study in Britain had groups either drink water or tea and then were measured on stress related tests. Those who had a warm cup of tea were less prone to give in to anxiety than those who merely drank a glass of water.
Leadership Partnership and Business Possibilities
Posted by: | CommentsClearing out the old to make way for the new is a wonderful practice as we enter a new year. This time, as we graduate into a new decade, the teen years of the century, we have an amazing opportunity to find a better balance and create a different kind of partnership between men and women.
I believe that female leaders in the work world can lead the way in positive and exciting ways. It struck me, and with pride, I acknowledged our successes to date. While we have a rocky road ahead, any transformation worth its weight means twists and turns and boulders to be confronted. Yet, if we stay centered with our eyes on the goal of male/female partnership, we can and will change the world for the better.
Here is what happened as I dove into some dusty, old boxes. I found a journal, like really old. One my daughter wrote as a teenager. I did call and ask permission to read before I sent it to her in San Francisco. I remember learning my lesson about snooping a long time ago!
Female Nobel Prize Winners Make a Statement
Posted by: | CommentsPost by Jane K. Stimmler, contributing Women On Business writer
I was pleased – and a little surprised – to see that the two female winners of this year’s Nobel Prize in medicine immediately used their new fame and vast amount of credibility to urge change in career structures to help more women reach top positions. Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn and Dr. Carol Greider gave a press conference ahead of their Nobel Prize ceremony, keying in on the obstacles to advancement for women with children due to a lack of flexibility by scientific institutions.
Blackburn said by adopting a more flexible approach allowing part-time research and career breaks, institutions would be able to take advantage of the talent of women in science. She stated that “The career structure is very much a…structure that has worked for men…and (many women) are very daunted by (it). Not by the science in which they are doing really well.” Greider added that she would like to see more women get onto committees and into decision-making positions and said, “I think that something active needs to be done…because there have been many, many years where there have been women coming in at 50%, and yet the levels of the upper echelon haven’t really changed…”
Busting Stereotypes
Posted by: | CommentsEvery once in a while I meet a woman who has quietly taken stereotypes, looked them in the eye and with a quick flick of the wrist lobbed them into the discard pile.
Rosie Saez a Senior V.P. of H.R. at Wachovia Bank is a stereotype buster. She has been in the world of banking for over 20 years and has participated in helping change this mainly male dominated world over several decades.
I asked her what patterns of behavior were the hardest for her to change as a woman in a man’s world. There is a two step answer. First, she told me, that growing up as a Latino she was taught women answered second and did what they were told, that they were programmed to be pleasers. There was a pecking order not to be messed with. So, it took her time to find her voice and speak up without hesitation.
I thought about this and all the women I have interviewed and worked with. Speaking up has been a tough up hill battle for many woman, and one main reason has been cultural orientation. Many cultures have required woman to be on the second tier of decision making, especially of important decisions. It is hard to believe that we only have the right to vote since 1920.
