Women –
Leaders for
tomorrow?
Julie O’Neill, 15 April, 2003
Why women make great
leaders
A bit about me
What is changing in the world of
organisations?
What about women?
What about leadership?
Me
Currently the only female Secretary General of a
Government Department
3rd female Secretary General in the history of the
State
Variously described as “hugely ambitious”, “tough
as nails”, “always determined to break through the
glass ceiling”, and “always immaculately turned
out”
Married, two children
BComm. & MSc in Public Sector Analysis
Career
Career civil servant since age of 17
Served in Office of the Revenue Commissioners,
Departments of Public Service, Department Finance
and Social Welfare
Defining stint in Management Training &
Development in 1980s
Assistant Secretary in the Office of the Tanaiste,
Department of Tourism, Sport & Recreation
Secretary General Department of Marine & Natural
Resources and now Department of Transport
“If you don’t like
change, you’re
going to like
irrelevance even
less.” —General Eric Shinseki, Chief of
Staff, U. S. Army
“We are in a
brawl with
no rules.”
Paul Allaire
“The period 2000-2002 will bring
the single greatest change in
worldwide economic and
business conditions since we
came down from the trees.”
David Schneider & Grady Means,
MetaCapitalism
“The corporation as we know it,
which is now 120 years old, is
not likely to survive the
next 25 years. Legally and
financially, yes, but not
structurally and economically.”
Peter Drucker, Business 2.0 (08.00)
The New Economy …
Shout goodbye to
“command and control”!
Shout goodbye to hierarchy!
Shout goodbye to “knowing
one’s place”!
2010 “Demographics”:
By 2010, full-time
workers will be in the
minority
Source: MIT study (28-08-00)
“Strategy meetings held
once or twice a year” to
“Strategy meetings
needed several times
a week.” –Meg Whitman, CEO, eBay
Forget>“Learn”
“The problem is never how
to get new, innovative
thoughts into your mind,
but how to get the old
ones out.”
Dee Hock
“It is generally much
easier to kill an
organization than
change it
substantially.”
Kevin Kelly, Out of Control
“There’s no use trying,” said Alice.
“One can’t believe impossible things.”
“I daresay you haven’t had much
practice,” said the Queen. “When I was
your age, I always did it for half an
hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve
believed as many as six impossible
things before breakfast.”
Lewis Carroll
The greatest danger
for most of us
is not that our aim is
too high
and we miss it,
but that it is
too low
and we reach it.
Michelangelo
Message: Everything is up for
grabs. Chaos = Opportunity.
Always has. This is the ideal
moment for the next Giant Step
for women.
“Greater opportunity for
women is probably the
most significant gain
for human freedom in
the last century.”
Andrew Sullivan, The New Republic
“Tomorrow
belongs to
women.”
Helen Fisher, The First Sex: The Natural
Talents of Women and How They Are
Changing the World
And …
What a Future!
Still: The No.1
Untapped Source
of Leadership
Talent
“On average, women and men
possess a number of different innate
skills. And current trends suggest
that many sectors of the twentyfirst-century economic community
are going to need the natural
talents of women.”
Helen Fisher, The First Sex: The Natural Talents of
Women and How They Are Changing the World
Women’s Strengths Match New Economy
Imperatives: Link [rather than rank] workers;
favor interactive-collaborative leadership style
[empowerment beats top-down decision making];
sustain fruitful collaborations; comfortable with
sharing information; see redistribution of power
as victory, not surrender; favor multi-dimensional
feedback; value technical & interpersonal skills,
individual & group contributions equally; readily
accept ambiguity; honor intuition as well as pure
“rationality”; inherently flexible; appreciate
cultural diversity.
Source: Judy B. Rosener, America’s Competitive Secret
“Women have many exceptional faculties
bred in deep history: a talent with words; a
capacity to read non-verbal cues;
emotional sensitivity; empathy; patience;
an ability to do and think several things
simultaneously; a gift for networking and
negotiating; an ability to take the long
view; and a gift for cooperating, reaching
consensus and leading via egalitarian
teams.”
Helen Fisher, The First Sex
Women’s Natural Talents and
the New World of Work
Interactive style of management
Proclivity to share information
Need to strive for group consensus
Desire to empower workers
Comfort with ambiguity
Seek win-win solutions to thorny
problems
Source: Helen Fisher, The First Sex
“The ‘Connection Proclivity’ in
women starts early. When asked,
‘How was school today?’ a girl
usually tells her mother every
detail of what happened, while a
boy might grunt, ‘Fine.’ ”
EVEolution
“TAKE THIS QUICK QUIZ: Who manages more things
at once? Who puts more effort into their appearance?
Who usually takes care of the details? Who finds it
easier to meet new people? Who asks more
questions in a conversation? Who is a better
listener? Who has more interest in communication
skills? Who is more inclined to get involved?
Who encourages harmony and agreement? Who
has better intuition? Who works with a longer ‘to do’
list? Who enjoys a recap to the day’s events?
Who is better at keeping in touch with others?”
Source: Selling Is a Woman’s Game: 15 Powerful Reasons Why
Women Can Outsell Men, Nicki Joy & Susan Kane-Benson
For light relief read: Barbara & Allan Pease’s
Why Men Don’t
Listen & Women
Can’t Read Maps
“It is obvious to a woman when
another woman is upset, while a man
generally has to physically witness
tears or a temper tantrum or be
slapped in the face before he even has
a clue that anything is going on. Like
most female mammals, women are
equipped with far more finely tuned
sensory skills than men.”
Barbara & Allan Pease, Why Men Don’t Listen & Women Can’t Read Maps
“A woman knows her children’s
friends, hopes, dreams, romances,
secret fears, what they are
thinking, how they are feeling. Men
are vaguely aware of some short
people also living in the house.”
Barbara & Allan Pease, Why Men Don’t Listen & Women Can’t Read Maps
“As a hunter, a man needed vision that
would allow him to zero in on targets in the
distance … whereas a woman needed eyes
to allow a wide arc of vision so that she
could monitor any predators sneaking up
on the nest. This is why modern men can
find their way effortlessly to a distant pub,
but can never find things in fridges,
cupboards or drawers.”
Barbara & Allan Pease, Why Men Don’t Listen & Women Can’t Read Maps
“Female hearing advantage
contributes significantly to what is
called ‘women’s intuition’ and is one
of the reasons why a woman can read
between the lines of what people say.
Men, however, shouldn’t despair.
They are excellent at imitating
animal sounds.”
Barbara & Allan Pease, Why Men Don’t Listen & Women Can’t Read Maps
“When a woman is upset,
she talks emotionally to
her friends; but an upset
man rebuilds a motor or
fixes a leaking tap.”
Barbara & Allan Pease, Why Men Don’t Listen &
Women Can’t Read Maps
“Women speak and hear a language of
connection and intimacy, and men
speak and hear a language of status
and independence. Men communicate
to obtain information, establish their
status, and show independence.
Women communicate to create
relationships, encourage interaction,
and exchange feelings.”
Judy Rosener, America’s Competitive Secret
“I only really understand
myself, what I’m really thinking
and feeling, when I’ve talked it
over with my circle of female
friends. When days go by
without that connection, I feel
like a radio playing in an empty
room.”
Anna Quindlen
“AS LEADERS, WOMEN
RULE: New Studies find
that female managers
outshine their male
counterparts in almost
every measure”
Title, Special Report, Business Week, 20.11.00
Opportunity!
U.S.
M.Mgt.
41%
T.Mgt.
4%
Peak Partic. Age 45
% Coll. Stud.
52%
G.B. E.U. Ja.
29% 18% 6%
3%
2%
<1%
22
27
19
50% 48% 26%
Source: Judy Rosener, America’s Competitive Secret
Top Management: the “rule
of three”
Source: Judy Rosener, America’s
Competitive Secret
My Leadership 25
1. Leadership Is a …
Mutual
Discovery
Process.
“I don’t
know.”
Leaders-Teachers Do Not “Transform People”!
Instead leaders-mentors-teachers (1) provide a
context which is marked by (2) access to a luxuriant
portfolio of meaningful opportunities (projects) which
(3) allow people to fully (and safely, mostly—caveat: “they”
don’t engage unless they’re “mad about something”) express
their innate curiosity and (4) engage in a vigorous
discovery voyage (alone and in small teams, assisted by an
extensive self-constructed network) by which those people
(5) go to-create places they (and their mentors-teachersleaders) had never dreamed existed—and then the
leaders-mentors-teachers (6) applaud like hell, stage
“photo-ops,” and ring the church bells
100 times to commemorate the bravery of their
“followers’ ” explorations!
Joe J. Jones
1942 – 2002
HE WOULDA DONE SOME
REALLY COOL STUFF
BUT …
HIS BOSS WOULDN’T
HIM!
LET
“A leader is a
dealer in
hope.”
Napoleon
2. Great Leaders on Snorting
Steeds Are Important – but
Great Talent
Developers
are the Bedrock of Organizations
that Perform Over the Long Haul.
Boss Job One:
The Talent
Obsession.
The Top 5 “Revelations”
Better talent wins.
Talent management is my job as leader.
Talented leaders are looking for the moon
and stars.
Over-deliver on people’s dreams – they are
volunteers.
Pump talent in at all levels, from all
conceivable sources, all the time.
Source: Ed Michaels et al., The War for Talent
3. The Leader Is
Rarely/Never the
Best Performer.
4. Leaders …
SHOW UP!
“The first and greatest
imperative of command
is to be present in
person. Those who
impose risk must be
seen to share it.” —John
Keegan, The Mask of Command
5. Leaders …
LOVE the
MESS!
“If things seem
under control,
you’re just not
going
fast enough.”
Mario Andretti
6. Leaders Are …
Optimists.
7. Leaders …
DELIVER!
“Leaders don’t
‘want to’ win.
Leaders ‘need
to’ win.”
“When assessing candidates, the first
thing I looked for was energy and
enthusiasm for execution. Does she
talk about the thrill of getting things
done, the obstacles overcome, the role
her people played—or does she keep
wandering back to strategy or
philosophy?” —Larry Bossidy,
Honeywell/AlliedSignal, in Execution
8. Leaders
FOCUS!
9. Leaders … Set
CLEAR DESIGN
SPECS.
Danger:
S.I.O.
(Strategic
Initiative Overload)
10. Leaders …
Send V-E-R-Y
Clear Signals About
Design Specs!
11. Leaders
Trust in
TRUST!
12. Leaders Make
[Lotsa] Mistakes
– and MAKE NO
BONES ABOUT IT!
“Success is the ability
to go from failure to
failure without losing
your enthusiasm.”
Winston Churchill
(as quoted by John Peterman)
13. Leaders Make …
BIG MISTAKES!
14. Leaders …
Out Their
PASSION!
15. Leaders Know:
ENTHUSIASM
BEGETS
ENTHUSIASM!
Brand Leadership:
ENTHUSIASM RULES!
“I am a dispenser of
enthusiasm.”/ Ben
Zander
16. Leaders Are …
in a Hurry
17.
But … Leaders Also
Break a Lot of
China
Top-performing Companies
“Extremely contentious
boards that regard
dissent as an obligation
and that treat no subject
as undiscussable”
—Jeffrey
Sonnenfeld, Yale School of Management
18. Leaders
Give …
RESPECT!
19. Leaders Say
“Thank
You.”
“The two most powerful things
a kind
word and a
thoughtful
gesture.”
in existence:
Ken Langone, CEO, Invemed Associates [from Ronna
Lichtenberg, It’s Not Business, It’s Personal]
“The deepest human
need to
be appreciated.”
need is the
William James
20. Leaders
Are …
Curious.
21. Leadership
Is a …
Performance.
“Leadership is a
performance. You have to be
conscious of your behavior,
because everybody else is.”
Carly Fiorina
22.
Leaders …
Are
The Brand
“Warren, I know you
want to ‘be’
president. But do
you want to ‘do’
president?”
Individuals (would-be leaders)
cannot engage in a
liberating mutual discovery
process unless they are
comfortable with their
own skin. (“Leaders” who are not
comfortable with themselves become petty
control freaks.)
23. But … Leaders
have
MENTORS.
Upon
having the Leadership
Mantle placed upon thine
head, thou shalt never
hear the unvarnished
truth again!*
The Gospel According to TP:
(*Therefore, thy needs one faithful
compatriot to lay it on with no jelly.)
24. Leaders …
Take Breaks.
25. Leaders Know
WHEN TO
LEAVE!
“You are the storyteller of
your own life, and you
can create your own
legend or not.”
Isabel Allende
Thank You