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8:40 AM Monday February 4, 2008
My first female boss warned me, "When the going gets tough, women lose out." This piece of conventional wisdom seems to be alive and well.
Whether one is talking about Patricia Dunn (Hewlett Packard), who was forced out in '06 over leaks to the press, or Zoe Cruz (Morgan Stanley), who was shot down in '07 in the wake of huge subprime mortgage losses, women tend to be the "fall guys" in troubled times.
However, in 2008 there are threats more serious than the ousting of a few top female executives: the gutting of programmatic initiatives that have driven and sustained women's progress. Will companies in challenging market environments use the excuse of "tough times" to undermine diversity initiatives? When red ink abounds, it becomes tempting to cut programs that are newly defined as "frills" or "luxuries."
Ana Duarte McCarthy, Chief Diversity Officer at Citi, has a view on these matters. In an interview she talked about how to preserve women's precious gains. She offered three pieces of advice:
First, now's the time to let employees know that they matter -- a time for visible leadership on the people front. At his first town hall meeting, Vikram Pandit (the new CEO of Citi) got this right. He chose to focus his remarks on Citi's employees, telling them they were the company's most important asset. In his words, "If talent is what drives success, we are destined to win as an organization."
Second, now's the time to re-emphasize the business case for diversity. Citi's signature Flexible Work Initiative already requires that applicants frame out a business plan detailing how performance standards will be maintained -- and even exceeded. Duarte McCarthy feels that 2008 might well be the year to consider the real estate savings associated with flexible work schedules. As she described it, "this will help align the business case for flexibility and help these programs survive and thrive."
Third, it's clearly the time to emphasize that many diversity and inclusion programs pump up rates of engagement, something sorely needed in a company involved in re-structuring. In Duarte McCarthy's view, the Citi's Women's Initiative, including women's councils and networks globally, are hugely important in this regard. These organizations, volunteer-led, have a proven ability to enhance feelings of loyalty and attachment to the company.
In short, diversity initiatives are a bargain not to be passed up by astute leaders of companies dealing with tough times.
What is your company doing to make sure women don't lose out?
Read all of Sylvia Ann Hewlett's "Winning the Talent War" posts.
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Sylvia Ann Hewlett is an economist and the founding president of the Center for Work-Life Policy where she directs the "Hidden Brain Drain"—a task force of 50 global companies committed to fully realizing female and multicultural talent. She also heads up the Gender & Policy Program at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University. She is a member of the World Economic Forum Council on the Gender Gap.
She is the author of eight critically acclaimed nonfiction books including When the Bough Breaks, Creating a Life, Off-Ramps and On-Ramps, and six Harvard Business Review articles. Her articles have also appeared in the New York Times, Financial Times, and International Herald Tribune. Her new book, Top Talent: Keeping Performance Up When Business Is Down (Harvard Business Press), will be published in October 2009.
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Comments
Sylvia ,
This post is very interesting.
This post does cover 3 points , viz :
a. Women, diversity and its importance at work place.
b. CEOs should believe in it.
c. The feeling of One , when you are working in a corporation.
I have a couple of thoughts on the same as well, mostly trying to arrive at mutually exclusive root causes, some which I feel resonates with the ones mentioned in the post, some which are not. Feel free to suggest if I am on the right track.
First , I feel a diversity is very important in a workplace. The reason being , women think more laterally than men, and a differential thinking makes it more thoughful and interesting in rules of engagement.They are usually more detail oriented , more innovative and can put emotions into a working environment , which in business is supposed to be very , very cold. Having women in work places thus actually increase engagement.
Coming to CEOs and others , I think the game that happens at the top are very clandestine.Its actually very lonely to sustain a revolution and stick to it at the top. Todays CIOs hardly have the terrific charisma of leaders in the past who can steer things clear of danger. If so why are there recession and job cuts. Their lives are feline like , with many lives.Most live Marie Antoinnetes life and todays nature of business @ the Wall street where you got to keep stock prices up the ladder , reduces the lateral and innovative thinking that they should be having. Thus CEO's today Manage more , than Strategically lead. The games at the top are very , very different and do not have much connection to whether they have a male or a female official. One small thing about about how CEOs are selected or ousted ,one should notice(which is not small, but gets overlooked), is that , any board of companies take/make decision , not on logic alone. Everyone decides emotionally than logically.Even though , say , Logic prevails ,the emotional component is always very compelling.
On the second point , most CEOs actually believe in work place diversity. But given that belief , work is work. Whether it takes a man or a woman to do it , is hardly considered at the top of the organization.On the initiatives that were considered important for women , but were taken off as frills , are wrong to many people but are right to many. Usually when a CEO is ousted , his/her initiatives are not spared either. Its a bad game. if you read the book , The Godfather , one quote of his shines very strongly , in the corporate world. " There is no Right and There is no Wrong . Its all POWER".
Let me also ask you something interesting on the basis of your post. For the CEOs that were ousted , what are they doing now? What initiatives are they following? Are they standing for what they believed in. Believe me , most people lose the revolution they stand up for. Specially when they achieve their goal.
To illustrate the above point ,I am quoting a thought from Osho , from his book mentioning Mahatma Gandhi. Mahatma gandhi as you know , preached "ahimsa" or non violence , and while his folks were getting killed against the British Rule ,he stood up to it. However when the India and pakistan divide happened , Mahatma Gandhi offered prayers so that the Indian Air Force could send their fighter air crafts to kill and come. If Gandhi could do that , CEOs can too.
I think the key word that matters in work is responsibility. Whether its a women driven organization or a man , Corporate games will never change. There will be people who want it all. No harm about it , but then The Godfather rule above , always applies. Diversity I guess maynot be a very strong factor as long as people think responsibly. Let me also add a bit further: Most people care about the Organization when the vision of an Organization is passed down at the bottom. the reason being ; the lower you go in the Organization , you will find people who actually execute. The people above just make them execute. if you can make those doing the execution , happy, you have achieved the cohesiveness, else you have lost the game. But who bothers ? Everyones buried in the Thick of thin Things.
The third and the last , the feeling of one with volunteers as you mentioned. This is very important , but believe me is also a bit utopian.Diversity can change a lot of things , but as long as Corporate laws remain the way it is , it wouldnt matter much.
What seems as a value to many is a frill to others, not that people dont know that its a value. Its just Power and who has it.
To conclude I would say ,only, one thing. Responsibility and Power. Whoever has it - wins it. With just Power , you win the seat , but lose the revolution.
On the last lines of the post , you mentioned "what the company is doing for women"? I think , if the sentence is tweaked a bit , it would have marvellous results. Because; it still asks the company to do something for them(women), and does NOT empower women to proactively think how to get what they wanted from the company.
It could be this : What have women done to ensure that the company actually does something good for them?
- Posted by Subhashish Acharya
February 9, 2008 10:00 PM
Sylvia,
I really think it is the time to start diversity initiatives even in these tough times. Although diversity in terms of gender, race, and religion are all significant to an organization's make-up, companies disregard and overlook the most important piece of diversity: the diversity of thought and ideas. Now more than ever companies should be fostering innovation. Bringing new ideas to an organization will allow them to differentiate themselves to the public, thus appealing to more customers and employees. IBM's CEO, Jeff Gerstner, did this in 1993 by instituting diversity task forces, and the organization definitely reaped the benefits. Although many theorists, such as Gary Yukl, believe that diversity training programs should be implemented in companies in order to avoid lawsuits and appear moral to the public, it is really benefiting companies, now more than ever, to bring in all different types of diversity that will ultimately boost innovation and profit.
- Posted by Bryanna Ransom
April 20, 2009 5:12 PM