A Leader’s Test: Balancing Drive and Compassion

This interview with Wendy Lea, chief executive of Get Satisfaction, a customer experience platform, was conducted and condensed by Adam Bryant.

Wendy Lea is the chief executive of Get Satisfaction, a customer experience platform.

This weekend is Mother’s day, and we wish mothers everywhere the gratitude and love that they so deserve. While it is wonderful to have this reminder to recognize the important role mothers play in our lives, it’s also a poignant reminder that, as a country, the U.S. is way behind in supporting working mothers.

It is remarkable that we consider ourselves a model for other countries – yet we are behind in legislation regarding diversity on public boards, on equal wage enforcement, flexible work practices and on maternity leave requirements. In many other countries, a minimum leave allocation is required. In Sweden, the mother and father get a total of a year and a half off to care for a new child, and they can divide that time any way they want between the two parents.  This promotes sharing childcare but more importantly, allows women to remain in the workforce and still take time off as they have children.

One of the reasons women have difficulty advancing to top level positions is that many leave their careers in their mid-thirties to raise children, and when they want to return to the work world, they have difficulty obtaining a job. Typically it is at a lower position than the one they had prior to leaving. This off-ramp/on-ramp phenomenon and its implications for women’s careers is well documented by Sylvia Ann Hewitt and the Center for Talent and Innovation.

We know that women are the next global economy and can help drive up GDP if they are on a level playing field. It therefore makes sense for the U.S. to implement legislation that mandates a more progressive maternity/paternity leave including provision for adoptive parents, to fully leverage women who work.

In the interim, the corporate sector can take a leadership position and implement stronger benefits for parents that will help with recruiting, retaining and engaging women and they will reap the benefits of greater diversity, innovation and ultimately a stronger return on investment.

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We found this great infographic, making The Case for Parental Leave, on www.whattoexpect.com. Click here to view the original post. 

You have to know yourself before you can effectively lead others. Many leadership experts call this “finding your voice”, and it is the best starting point when you decide to make improving your leadership skills a priority.

Over the past two decades, my work in executive coaching and leadership development programs always begins with assessing and focusing on an individual’s strengths and weaknesses.

I have met many leaders who have learned how to do everything smarter – they are focused, passionate and committed to their life and work, understanding the importance of self-reflection.

I offer up the following questions which were developed based on my experience coaching these successful leaders and are meant to help you create more opportunities in your life.

Ask yourself these questions:
Value of Self: Do I clearly see my dream?
If your core values and vision are not clear, no strategy will work and it will be impossible to prioritize correctly. It is vital for today’s leader to bring others along on the journey, but you first have to know where you are going.

Clarity of values will give you the confidence to make tough decisions, to act with determination, and to take charge of your life.

How do I spend my time?
After setting your priorities evaluate how you spend your time.
“Nothing separates successful people from unsuccessful people more than how they use their time.” ~John Maxwell

Are you clear on what you bring to the table?
You need to truly understand your strengths and weaknesses, be comfortable with them, and help everyone around you understand their assets. Using a tool like the DiSC assessment can help you and your team better understand one another.

The leader has to take the lead on this self-evaluation. Focus on exploring and enhancing what you do well and reap the benefits of simplicity, standardization, and deep experience.

People Are Your Most Valuable Asset: Do you have the right people on the bus, the right people off the bus and the right people in the right seats?
Determine the knowledge, skills and abilities each job requires to support the business strategy and culture, and design an interview process to find the “right” people.
“The toughest decisions in organizations are people decisions hiring, firing, promotions, etc. These are the decisions that receive the least attention and are the hardest to unmake”~Peter Drucker, management expert

Do I invest in training and employee development?
Your employees must have the tools to do their best work and this investment also strengthens their commitment to the company. According to John Maxwell, developing people means:

• I value them
• I commit time to them
• I mentor them
• I equip them
• I empower them

Are you willing to listen?
This is the most powerful tool you have to get your organization to accomplish more. Do you know what it takes to be a good listener?

Listening is the act of receiving, attending to, interpreting, and responding to verbal and non-verbal messages in ways appropriate to a situation.

Real listening takes time and patience, and the payoff is definitely worth the effort. The flow of communication within an organization can improve greatly just by making people aware of how important it is to listen.

Business Practices and Process Improvements: Do you set and clearly articulate your goals?
Unless you write your goals down they are often lost in the shuffle and excitement of new problems, challenges, and decisions.

The function of goals is to get you into action – they will give you a way to measure your effectiveness.Setting and then reconnecting with your goals on a regular basis is a powerful success discipline.

Do you cultivate good managers?
It is widely known in the HR consulting world that the biggest reason for an employee’s departure is a poor manager. Managers are the grassroots implementers of the company culture.

Successful leaders provide training and coaching to help their managers. Many leaders have abandoned management development for fear that the investment will be lost if they leave.

My question to those leaders is: “What if you don’t invest in your management and they stay?”

Do you encourage productive conflict?
If harmony comes only as a result of people holding back their opinions and honest concerns, then it’s a bad thing. Many believe that it is better for people to agree and get along than disagree and conflict with one another.

I’d trade that false kind of harmony any day for a team’s willingness to argue effectively about an issue and then walk away with an action plan and no collateral damage.

There needs to be constructive conflict and a leader must be willing to start a difficult dialogue and show vulnerability to encourage others to join the discussion.

Are you willing to make the hard decisions?
The willingness to go against the majority, to do what’s right and make the tough calls is an important leadership trait that takes discipline and courage. This is not a character trait, it is a learned practice that can be developed and help separate you from the pack.

To become a great leader, one must first become a great person. You cannot lead others until you have learned to lead yourself.

“Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better. Don’t wish for less problems; wish for more skills. Don’t wish for less challenges, wish for more wisdom.” ~ Jim Rohm

What can you do to become a better leader? Who can you effectively listen to today? Are you truly really ready to make those hard decisions?

About the Author

Kristi Royse, CEO of KLR Consulting, inspires success in individuals and teams with proven best practices that enable organizations to capitalize on their strengths. She partners with companies to improve communication, implement change, align their organizational values and goals and move to higher levels of performance. KLR Consulting’s programs are direct, specific, and drive bottom line results. Kristi is a nationally recognized speaker, facilitator, management consultant, executive coach, and trainer. Since 1987, Kristi has been coaching executives to be stronger leaders and helping organizations optimize their most vital resource – its people.

This blog was originally posted on KLR Consulting.com. Click here to read the original post. 

SUNNYVALE — Seven months after giving birth and two months after she shook up the tech world by ordering employees to stop working from home, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is now offering female employees 16 weeks of paid maternity leave while new dads get eight weeks of paid leave.

For a couple working at Yahoo, the change in policy means new Yahoo moms and dads could have a combined six months of paid time off to bond with their new babies. They’ll even get four months off combined for babies they adopt or foster.

Yahoo’s new company perks include free Yahoo gifts for both babies and pets and reimbursements for employee laundry and housekeeping costs. But the maternity and paternity policies especially pleased Mayer watchers on Tuesday who shook their heads after she banned telecommuting and ordered employees back into the office.

“I was quite concerned when the initial policy around working at the office came out that they were going to take a step backward in support of women,” said Marilyn Nagel, CEO of Watermark, a Palo Alto-based nonprofit group that supports women in their careers and in their communities.

“This current new list of programs and benefits is a step in the right direction because we know that women tend to leave their jobs if there is not flexibility or other benefits to support them. The fact that Marissa is looking at other options suggests that she has done some research and is really looking to move Yahoo forward, in contrast to that other position that took Yahoo backward a bit.”

Yahoo’s new policies for parents are hardly the best in Silicon Valley, which constantly seeks to attract and retain the brightest tech workers.

For instance Google, where Mayer worked before joining Yahoo, offers up to 22 weeks of paid leave for its new mothers, among several other perks for expectant Googler moms that include premium parking while they’re pregnant.

But Yahoo’s maternity and paternity policies are far more generous when compared with the rights of thousands of California workers who are only guaranteed partial salaries for maternity and paternity leave. Employees at small companies who take even unpaid time off to care for newborns also face the possibility of losing their jobs, said Netsy Firestein, executive director of the Berkeley-based Labor Project for Working Families.

“Huge amounts of data show that it’s really good for kids and for their brain development to have time to bond with their parents,” Firestein said. “In terms of the tech industry, 16 weeks (of maternity leave) for mothers and eight weeks for fathers seems to be the standard and that’s great. And it’s a great model for other employers to follow. But we lag grossly behind the rest of the world. Other countries offer six months to three years and Canada has almost a year. When there is paid parental leave, people come back to work in much higher numbers.”

Back home in India, Ajay Bhutoria and his wife, Vinita, would have been surrounded by family when Vinita gave birth to their youngest son, Yesh, in 2011.

But in California, Vinita could get only four weeks of paid maternity leave and took another 12 weeks of unpaid time off from her Silicon Valley tech job to care for Yesh, who developed medical problems.

“Most immigrants who live here don’t have the family support of home, where we have grandmothers and brothers and sisters all living together,” said Ajay Bhutoria, who runs Fremont-based Global Business Consulting Services. “For Yahoo this change in policy will get them new and brighter talent.”

This post was originally published by Dan Nakaso on InsideBayArea.com, the online publication of The Oakland Tribune. Click here to see the original post.

High-five to all the Watermark Members recently welcomed to the 2013 class of the Silicon Valley Business Journal’s Women of Influence. Read More >
Renu Bhatia
Julie Brooks
Catherine Courage
Lise Edwards
Ruth Gaube
Laurie Lumenti Garty
Susan Hailey
Karineh Kachatourian
Maya Strelar-Migotti

Congratulations to Karen Rodhe for her new position as Chief Human Resources Officer of Amyris Inc. Read More >

Longtime Watermark Board Member Shellye Archambeau was recently listed as the second most influential african americans in technology. Way to go! Read More >

We’re so proud of Kat Gordon, Founder of the 3% Conference, for winning a 2013 “Marketers That Matter” Award for Customer Engagement. What’s more, she was nominated by a fellow Watermark member, Dr. Barbara Mark, for the Award. Yet another great example of how Watermark women support other women! Read More >

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Want to be featured in the You Go, Girl! section of The Watermark Factor? Don’ be shy! Email usyour latest and greatest successes, and we’ll include it in next month’s version. 

*Watermark Factor successes include: Major career milestones, like a key promotion, new job, or new board seat, OR publication/news feature in a high-profile publication with national readership. The Watermark editorial team will curate which successes show up in this space.

A study of 624 directors of corporate boards indicates that the presence of women on a board of directors may shift its decision-making style towards best or “right” and away from tradition.

According to Drs. Chris Bart and Gregory McQueen in “Why Women Make Better Directors?”*, female directors scored significantly higher than their male counterparts when selecting the best or “right” path for the organization. This decision-making style, called complex moral reasoning (CMR) involves taking circumstances and competing interests into consideration.  It differs from the styles that focus on tradition and rules (normative) or self-gain (personal interest).

This author weighted the study findings to see how board decision-making styles might look if they were 100% women, 100% men, or 50-50 men and women.  The end result shows that the presence of women increases the overall presence of CMR in comparison to an all-male board.

However, the fascinating counterpoint is that the personal interest decision-making style, the “what’s in it for me?” group has the opportunity to break the tie between “best” and “traditional” in any scenario.

Think back on your own group decision-making.  Does the self-interested minority have the opportunity to tip the scale?  Does the presence of a female in the fix add more weight to the consideration of new ideas?

So, while we are all leaning in nowadays, the Bart/McQueen study adds yet another data point regarding why it is in investors’ best interest to include female decision-makers at the very pinnacle of influence: in the corporate board room.

About the Author:
Dana Kunz is the Executive Director of Watermark Institute’s Board Access™ Program. Click here to learn more.

*Int. J. Business Governance and Ethics, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 93–99. Click here to read the study.

Who else remembers those tailored pinstripe suites, the pressed white or pastel shirts, the silk bow ties and the pointy-toed pumps? This was the professional working women’s uniform when I started my career with IBM in the ‘80s. In those days it was all about conformity and blending in, because we didn’t fit in.

Today we have 18 women leading Fortune 500 companies. While not a high number, it is 17 more than we had in 1972 when Katharine Graham broke the barrier. More important than the numbers, these female CEOs are causing us to raise the discussion of women as leaders in actuality versus theoretically. And surprise, surprise, these women leaders are no longer conforming.

Now with high-profile female leaders, we are seeing that there is no single female style of leadership. As a result, we have become fascinated with the nuances of each woman’s path to leadership and her style of leadership. Especially when it doesn’t conform to expectations.

Marissa Mayer keeps making headlines and is critiqued on every move based on whether or not she is conforming. Accepting the CEO role five months pregnant – nay!; Feeding employees – yea!; Eliminating work from home – nay! By the way, Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly followed in Marissa’s footsteps with a similar ban, and there was not so much as a peep in the broader media.

Sheryl Sandberg’s new book, “Lean In,” is likewise driving discussion. Marissa, Sheryl and others are inspiring this dialogue among men and women alike.

Prior to the start of my staff meeting a few weeks back, the conversation was on Sheryl Sandberg’s “60 Minutes” segment. And the conversation isn’t just happening at the C-level, it is taking place across all levels. I recently met with one of our product managers, and in closing, I asked her if she had any questions. She took a deep breath, and said, “Yes.” She then proceeded to ask for my support in something she wanted to do at our company. She articulated the benefits to the company and to herself, and concluded by referencing Sheryl Sandberg who said more women need to ask for what they want. So she was doing just that – asking.

We still have a ways to go as demonstrate by “Donglegate” – an instance where off-color jokes were made by male developers, who were then publicly shamed by a female developer on Twitter – all of whom were immediately fired. Even this incident has contributed to this broader discussion about the role of women in the workplace.

Whether you agree with everyone or every contribution made to the discussion is irrelevant.  The fact that we are having discussions where women can openly communicate their ideas, their opinions and their requests means we are making progress toward enabling women to fit in, in their own way, at all levels. We need to continue to nurture environments where discussions like these can take place to improve understanding, so everyone can thrive.

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This article was originally posted in the Silicon Valley Business Journal on April 12. Click here to see the original post. 

Shellye Archambeau is the CEO of MetricStream, a Palo Alto, California-based company that provides governance, risk, compliance and quality management services. She employs 850 workers.

The data are clear: women are excellent decision-makers.

In the study of 624 directors of corporate boards*, women are more likely to use a decision-making style that rocks the boat and challenges tradition. As a result, male directors may be less likely to include women on boards…after all, it is traditional and more comfortable for members to be men.

According to Drs. Chris Bart and Gregory McQueen in “Why Women Make Better Directors?”, female directors scored significantly higher than their male counterparts when making the best or “right” path for the organization considering both circumstances and competing interests.

So, while we are all “leaning in” nowadays, the Bart/McQueen study adds yet another data point to why it is in investors’ best interest to include female decision-makers at the very pinnacle of influence: in the corporate board room.

About the Author:
Dana Kunz is the Executive Director of Watermark Institute’s Board Access™ Program. Click here to learn more.

*Int. J. Business Governance and Ethics, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 93–99. Click here to read the study.

Lynne Born
Chief Operating Officer, Seiler LLP

Lynne has been a member of Watermark since 2008 and serves on the Board of Directors, where she heads the Strategic Planning Committee. She has taken an entrepreneurial approach throughout her career, working with law firms, Silicon Valley organizations, and as a co-founder of an early internet retail company. During her years living in New York City, she ran an avant-garde theatre company – an experience she treasures and credits with her ability to bring creative and unique solutions to business challenges and firm initiatives.

What are some of the ways you champion other women?
I coach women professionals to understand their purpose, to know who they are and understand where they want to go in their careers. Once you understand your true purpose and individual strengths, you can align your goals with the objectives of the organization. When you think about your career path as a personal business plan that synergistically aligns with the needs of the company, it’s the best of both worlds – for you professionally and for your company.

Within my network, I try to make thoughtful and targeted connections by making business or client referrals, or recommending board positions. I particularly enjoy connecting women who can mutually support each other’s career aspirations or personal goals, share common experiences or even become friends.

As a member of Watermark’s Board of Directors, it’s a privilege to collaborate with our CEO and Board members to champion professional women on a national platform. We see a real shift in Silicon Valley and on the national stage around a heightened intensity and focus for change.

A huge percentage of highly qualified leaders with exceptional skills are not being well leveraged in the business landscape. Watermark offers a wide range of leadership and development programs for individuals and organizations that help drive this change locally, as well as programs like our Board Access Program which champion women internationally. It’s time to push for genuine change – through an intensified, focused and creative approach, I believe we can achieve real results now.

Why is it so important for women to support other women in your field?
Unfortunately, in professional services firms, there is a precipitous drop in parity at the senior levels, for a variety of reasons. It’s to the organization’s benefit to address this loss and implement initiatives that change this dynamic. Many professional services firms have developed robust and thoughtful women’s leadership programs that are successfully increasing the numbers of women at the top.

We also need to take responsibility for our own careers – no one’s going to do it for us. It’s an equally important part of the equation for professional women to speak up, to ask for what they want, to challenge themselves to be more assertive and forthright in their career goals. I’ve observed that women sometimes believe that if they do a great job and work really hard (both important attributes), someone else will recognize their value and make their case for them. We can’t expect others to champion our contributions – we have to learn the skill of communicating our value and highlighting the results we’ve achieved in driving the business forward.

Within my firm, I will always make time to support, guide, coach and advise our emerging women leaders. They’re fantastic – energetic, smart, sharp, incredibly disciplined and focused on providing value to our clients – a true inspiration to me and wonderful role models for the next generation coming up behind them.

How has being a Watermark member helped you make your mark?
Attending any Watermark function is always energizing and inspirational for me. It’s a place to compare stories, share progress, challenges and results, benchmark my experiences with peers – all in a relaxing and fun environment. Because Watermark’s home is in Silicon Valley, I stay in touch with best practices and innovative trends in one of the most exciting business communities in the world, and I always come away with creative ideas or new solutions to problems or challenges.

It’s a real honor to work with the incredible women on our Board and with Marilyn, our CEO. These are some of the most accomplished and respected women in business, nationally and globally. I think of the Board as my second professional home and it’s extremely satisfying to experience the culture and work style of these outstanding women. I deeply appreciate the opportunity to collaborate on next steps with Watermark as we reach an important milestone – celebrating our 20^th year supporting executive women locally and around the world.

More about Lynne
Lynne Born is the Chief Operating Officer of Seiler LLP, a large regional accounting firm located in Silicon Valley and San Francisco, California. The firm specializes in high-net-worth individuals and families, as well as large privately held businesses, and has been nationally recognized as a “Best of the Best Top 25” firm for nine consecutive years. Lynne also serves as a leader in the firm’s Multi-Family Office, which provides a wide range of strategic and complex financial planning services to some of the Bay Area’s most affluent and successful entrepreneurs and families.

Lynne has special expertise in the design and implementation of transformative initiatives, growth and profitability strategies, re-engineering management models and business operations. She has over twenty years of experience overseeing firm management and day-to-day operations including Finance, Human Resources, Business Development, Marketing and IT. She has planned and facilitated firm-wide business development initiatives and provides mentoring and coaching to the next generation of leadership, designing and implementing complex succession planning strategies for senior management teams.

Approximately 1 in 3 married women are the primary wage earners in their household. A Booz Allen study dubbed women “The Third Billion,” inferring that we are the next global economy. In the new knowledge-based economy, women make up a majority of the workforce in 9 of the 10 occupations that will add the most jobs in the next eight years. Women hold 51.5% of all management and professional positions, and are outpacing men in securing college or graduate degrees. And yet, women only earn an average of 77 cents for every dollar earned by males in the workforce.

This is not a “women’s issue”; it is an issue that impacts our economy. At last year’s Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Women and the Economy Summit, Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton’s keynote put it clearly: “… to achieve the economic expansion we all seek, we need to unlock a vital source of growth that can power our economies in the decades to come. And that vital source of growth is women. With economic models straining in every corner of the world, none of us can afford to perpetuate the barriers facing women in the workforce.Because by increasing women’s participation in the economy and enhancing their efficiency and productivity, we can bring about a dramatic impact on the competitiveness and growth of our economies. Because when everyone has a chance to participate in the economic life of a nation, we can all be richer. More of us can contribute to the global GDP.”

This is not something women can do by “leaning in” alone, and we can’t expect the corporate sector to close this the Gender Wage Gap. Corporate leadership’s primary focus is on shareholder return, which can be in conflict with raising wages where equity gaps exist. It must be addressed by legislation and we all can throw our support behind efforts already in progress at the federal government and encourage similar action at the state level.

Heidi Heitkamp, Debbie Stabenow and Tammy Baldwin are on a mission to rally support behind the Paycheck Fairness Act and we need help by telling the Senate to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act — and they need our support. Tell the Senate to pass Paycheck Fairness NOW!

While financial contribution is optional, we do urge you to sign the petition and leverage this opportunity to advocate for women and economic growth.