Work/Life Balance is Not a Just for Women
With the advent of birth control in the 1960’s, women had a choice for the first time. They could plan their family/career path strategically. Often women started their careers and then took time to have a family. Whether or not they returned to their previous careers, they did have choices.
But with more and more mothers in the workforce who contributed to the income of the family, discussions began around work/life balance and how best to manage both a career and family. Women were still responsible for most of the childcare and housework along with their jobs. It became obvious that to do it all at the same time was a difficult, if not impossible task. The emphasis on self-care for women and work/life balance became a hot topic.
The lack of flexible work solutions, therefore, was initially focused on women who wanted options for balancing career and family. This assumed little if no participation from their male counterparts in childrearing. The lack of flexible work solutions was also tagged as an obstacle to women’s advancement in business as more and more women were forced to drop their careers to seek better alternatives than their companies were offering.
The concept of flexibility is emerging now as a gender neutral issue that focuses more on the need for everyone, male and female, to have a more flexible, healthy workplace. Flexibility is not just related to working mom stress as more and more men share household responsibilities. It encompasses alternative work solutions such as part time work, job sharing, telecommunting, on site child care. Men are now more interested in having options to take time off whether it’s for childcare, elder care, or personal pursuits.
Businesses are becoming increasingly aware that there is a business case around flexibility in terms of reduced overhead, improved recruitment and retention of talented employees. as well as the importance of a flexible work force.
To learn more about the options and benefits of flex at work, listen to my interview with Karol Rose, Chief Knowledge Officer at Flexpaths. www.flexpaths.com.
Are Professional Women’s Networks Passe?
What do you accomplish when you put a group of professional women together in a room? a valid question and now a controversial topic of discussion.
Professional women’s networks have recently come under fire for perpetuating the ideology that women need to be “fixed” in order to be successful in the workplace. These professional groups were for the most part originally formed for women to network and listen to senior women for mentorship and role modelling.
Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, co-author of Why Women Mean Business”, was recently quoted as saying, “We have to stop bringing groups of women together to talk about what we know is going wrong.” “We have to convince our companies to stop fixing women.”
Separating women for personal development does not seem to fit with the current line of thinking that “women’s” issues are now business issues and that advancing women’s leadership is of great benefit to an organization. If that is so, what is the best approach for supporting women’s leadership initiatives?
Many women believe that the support from a women’s network is vital to their success, but maybe the overall purpose of these groups is more about sharing and strategizing to change the overall company culture than it is to “fix” women.
Professional women’s groups offer wonderful opportunities for collaboration and support from other women. This remains important. However, in order to shift company cultures, perhaps these networks should also collaborate with mixed gender groups both internally and externaly.
Women’s groups can take the lead on shifting the attitudes and beliefs of companies by shifting their own agenda from how difficult it is to be a woman to creating better opportunities for talent management.
What are your thoughts?
Flex for Success: How Flexible Work Time Works for You and Your Company
It is a widely known fact that the lack of flexible time at work results in many talented women dropping out. This high drop out rate not only affects women and their careers, but also the companies that employ them. Today’s show addresses this important issue. My guest, Karol Rose, a leader in the field of work-life issues, is joining us to give us her perspective on the current environment and how employers and employees can affect the necessary change.
Featured Guest
Karol Rose has worked at the forefront of the work-life effectiveness field for over 25 years. She is the author of five books, including Work-Life Strategies: Bottom Line Strategies for Today’s Workforce,and was the contributing editor for the FORTUNE magazine’s annual work-life and human capital special festures.
Karol has developed flexible work practices to support the business goals of many Fortune 500 companies. She led the work-life practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers and TimeWarner Inc. and has been at the forefront of the creation of many ‘firsts’ in the work-life field, including developing one of the first on-site back up child care centers in the country.
Karol is a partner and Chief Knowledge Officer of FlexPaths, a women-owned business that provides web-based flexibility solutions that help companies find and keep professional talent and master the art of working flexibly.
She is a popular speaker and is frequently quoted in national publications and business journals.
Listen to the November 24, 2009 show, or visit our VoiceAmerica archive to hear any of our previous shows.
Why Me, Why Now?
Looking back at my own corporate career, I can see clearly some of my mistakes, and mis-steps, as well as successes. Hindsight is always 20/20, right? But one thing is really clear to me and that is I would have benefited greatly from reading Her Place at the Table by Deborah Kolb, Judith Williams, and Carol Frohlinger before I accepted some of the promotions offered to me along the way.
My recent radio interview with Deborah Kolb, PhD. was an eye-opener for me and I immediately recognized some of the mistakes and missed opportunities in my own career.
Deborah pointed out that when you are promoted to a new position, you must negotiate the conditions for your success. I admit that I succumbed to one of the basic blunders of being so flattered that I was blind to the potential challenges and obstacles. Can you relate to this?
The key question to ask yourself first is “why me, why now?” Look objectively at the situation and not only assess why you were offered the job at this point in time, but where are you most vulnerable? Why didn’t others get the job? Taking stock of the situation is vital to your ongoing success in your new position.
Determine where you are vulnerable. What resources do you need to be successful and negotiate for those resources upfront.
Make strategic alliances to support your efforts. Who are the key people in the organization or specifically on your team who need to better understand your value and what you bring to the new position? Identify these people and create a strategic plan to promote your credibility either directly or indirectly.
The lesson here is that a promotion does not speak for itself. People don’t automatically accept you in the new role. Support doesn’t necessarily line up behind you simply because you were promoted and perhaps have the endorsement of senior management.
Assess the situation and determine what you need to be successful and before you accept the promotion, negotiate for what you need.
Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office
Why don’t nice girls get ahead in business? What are the unconscious mistakes women make that sabotage their careers? My guest, Lois Frankel, PhD, will reveal how some behaviors we learn in girlhood remain with us and sabotage us as professional women. Tune into this stimulating discussion and learn some important tips from Dr. Frankel on how to eliminate these unconscious mistakes and advance your career.
Featured Guest
Dr. Lois Frankel is a bestselling author, popular keynote speaker, and President of Corporate Coaching International, a Pasadena, California consulting firm. Nice Girls Don’t Get The Corner Office and Nice Girls Don’t Get Rich have been translated into over twenty-five languages and featured on the TODAY Show, Tavis Smiley, Larry King Live, and CNN, in the New York Times, USA Today, and in People and TIME magazines. BusinessWeek named Corner Office one of the top ten business books of the year and ABC Television purchased the rights to it for a comedy series. Her most recent books, See Jane Lead, about why women make natural leaders for our time and how to harness your own leadership talent, and Stop Sabotaging Your Career, for both men and women, have been met with critical acclaim.
Listen to the November 17, 2009 show, or visit our VoiceAmerica archive to hear any of our previous shows.
Dress for Success
When I am asked whether or not a women’s appearance is important for business and leadership success, I always hesitate before responding. My gut reaction is that women should be in touch with their authenticity and wear what they feel is appropriate and professional.
My recent radio interview with Marie Wilson, president and founder of The White House Project and long time advocate for women’s leadership, reminded me, however, that women do not yet have the luxury of ignoring the basic fact that it is much more important how they, as women, present themselves then it is for men. Plain and simple; women are not judged in the same way.
The White House Project, in fact, did a media study in 1998 that addressed this very issue. They analyzed six political campaigns and found that journalists were more likely to focus on the personal characteristics of female candidates and less likely to focus on the issues.
More recently, in her book Closing the Leadership Gap, Marie Wilson states, “After the first Democratic presidential debate in 2007, MSNBC host Chris Matthews focused obsessively on the appearance of Clinton and Michelle Obama to the point and chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell reminded him that they are Yale and Harvard educated lawyers, respectively.”
When the subject of appropriate dress came up in my interview with Marie Wilson, she shared her opinion that women need to be aware of the intense scrutiny they are under as business and political leaders and if they are interested in achieving their career goals, they must dress for success.
What is appropriate attire in your business environment?
Be aware that clothing that is too frilly, too sexy, and perhaps even too masculine may not project the professional image required to succeed in that company culture.
Quite honestly, I think this may be our present reality but it still remains tough to swallow. I believe that as more women assume leadership roles, this will change.
The Power of the Purse. Marketing to Women
Do you know that women make 85% of purchasing decisions?
Do you know that companies are leaving lots of money on the table because they don’t understand how to market to women?
Today’s guest is marketing guru Marti Barletta, a recognized authority on gender-focused marketing strategies for wooing women consumers. Marti will share with us her expertise on how to capture the female market and how marketing to women is unequivocally the fastest track to sales growth, share dominance, and profit improvement.
Featured Guest
Marti Barletta helps organizations get smart about women. She is the author of the groundbreaking book, Marketing to Women, and co-authored Trends with Tom Peters. Her recent book, PrimeTime Women™:How to Win the Hearts,Minds,and Business of Boomer Big Spenders,focuses on the buying power of women ages 50-70 and details why this segment is the prime source of business growth for the next two decades.
A Wharton MBA, Marti is founder of, The TrendSight Group, (www.trendsight.com), to help companies achieve higher sales, share and brand engagement by better understanding how to motivate women buyers, including consumers,corporate executives and business owners.
As the recognized international authority on marketing to women, Marti has been quoted on CBS Evening News, ABC Money Matters, MSNBC’s Squawk Box and NPR’s Talk of the Nation, among others, as well as in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, Fast Company,Business Week, Entrepreneur and many other publications worldwide.
Listen to the November 10, 2009 show, or visit our VoiceAmerica archive to hear any of our previous shows.
If You’re Happy and You Know it….
Clap your hands! Stomp your feet! Well, apparently not too many women are clapping and stomping these days. Recently, there have been many articles and reports on how women’s happiness has declined in the last few decades. Quite honestly, it’s depressing just to read these articles.
Many theories have been tossed around; some related to the failure of feminism. These theories suggest that the more a woman’s sphere of existence expands and diversifies, the more she has to be unhappy about. In other words, increased opportunities for women raise the level of expectations and these expectations are not fulfilled causing unhappiness. I don’t see how feminism has failed. What I do see is how society has fallen short of supporting women.
What has become apparent with the release of Maria Shriver’s report, “A Women’s Nation Changes Everything”, is that women have not made significant progress in many key areas. For instance, women still earn 73 cents to every man’s dollar. Women pay more for health insurance. Old gender stereotypes do still exist to some degree and this forces women into lower paying professions. And most importantly, no matter how many hours women work, we still do most of the care-taking and housekeeping at home.
Is this all changing? Yes. In fact, many more men are now sharing the load at home. But until there is more progress toward gender equality, I don’t think you will see many women jumping up and down with joy.
Please send me your comments. I would love to hear from you about this issue.
