Friday, July 24, 2009

Women Leaders - contextual environment

Dusk brings a still point to my day.



As the waves roll over the rocks, I think of the many women I work with who lead with such brilliance. I pause and reflect on how the world is a better place because they do what they do.



Women leaders can leverage their understanding of their contextual environment to enhance their leadership success.

In what contextual environment are you leading?
(personally, organizationally, globally, and historically) A leader’s understanding of these areas holds the most potential to leverage success as a leader. Hint: gender, ideology, economics, class, purpose, crisis, stability, demographics…

Strategies for incorporating contextual environment into your leadership:

Learn your organization’s view of services and mandate. For example, does it work from a feminist perspective, a mainstream perspective, a corporate perspective? What are the ideologies influencing the organization within the larger community?

Learn to lead while setting your ego aside. For example, get beyond that whatever is happening “is all about me.” Read current research, trends and studies about leadership and women’s leadership practice. Discover what factors in your context may be influencing your leadership and how your leadership is received. This perspective allows us to lead with curiosity and discovery.

Learn to lead with boldness. Step up to an act of leadership boldly, and with clarity about the environment where you as leader are engaging. Think about what it will take to achieve your leadership goal within the current context.

Vision, Persistence, Success - Lead with brilliance

Terrill Welch
Executive Leadership Coach


twitter: https://twitter.com/terrillwelch

A vision not lived remains only a dream.

"I've learned that making a 'living' is not the same thing as 'making a life'." Maya Angelou

© 2009 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Women's Leadership Research

My top three sites for women's leadership research:

Catalyst – The leading nonprofit membership organization working globally with businesses and the professions to build inclusive workplaces and expand opportunities for women and business. http://www.catalyst.org

The Glass Cliff – Examines what happens when women (and other minority groups) take on leadership roles. Extending the metaphor of the glass ceiling, 'the glass cliff' describes the phenomenon whereby individuals belonging to particular groups are more likely to be found in leadership positions that are associated with a greater risk of failure and criticism. http://psy.ex.ac.uk/seorg/glasscliff/index.html

Women-omics – Brings together gender experts, authors, journalists and business people to debate and present the latest and greatest thinking on gender from around the globe. The website is the brainchild of consultant, coach and author Avivah Wittenberg-Cox and is the first website focused on the theme of promoting women as an economic opportunity.
http://www.women-omics.com/1-0-womenomics-the-economic-power-of-women.html

For further support to increase women in senior positions in your organization feel free to contact me directly via email at tawelch@shaw.ca.

Terrill Welch
Executive Leadership Coach

Remember - a vision not lived remains only a dream.

twitter: https://twitter.com/terrillwelch

© 2009 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Untapped ROI – Increase Women in Leadership

13 Myths and Facts plus A-G strategies

Family structure and leadership

1. Significantly more male leaders than female leaders have spouses who are not employed.

Answer: True. The May 2007 Catalyst research report “Leaders in a Global Economy: Finding the Fit for Top Talent” found that women and men have very different challenges when it comes to managing their work and family/personal lives. Of men who are senior leaders 52% have spouses or partners who are not employed. This is compared to 18% of women who are senior leaders and have spouses or partners who are not employed.

2. Today women and men are spending equal amounts of time on unpaid work around the house and childcare.

Answer: False. Statistics Canada 2006 reports that among women and men aged 25 to 54, women spend almost double the time on unpaid work around the house (meal prep, meal clean-up, indoor cleaning, laundry, etc.). Women spend an average of 4.3 hours on housework (down from 4.8 hours in 1986); men spend an average of 2.5 hours a day on this work (up from 2.1 hours in 1986). Women still take on family responsibility: In 2004, women lost an average of 10 days per year to personal and family responsibilities, vs. 1.5 days per year for men. (The number of hours for men has hardly changed since 1976, while it has increased for women.)

Between time lost at work to family and personal responsibilities and time spent on housework (and child/elder care), women continue to carry the ‘double load’ of family and work.

3. Marriage is the most influential factor contributing to the wage gap between women and men.

Answer: True. In general, of employees working full-time, women earn significantly less then men: in 2004, women earned $70 for every $100 men earned; note that women’s proportionate earnings have dropped -- it was $72 in mid 1990. However, the earnings of single, never-married women are relatively close to those of their male counterparts. Never-married women employed full-time, earn 94% of what their male colleagues earn. Among single, never-married women over 45 years of age, women actually earned more than their male counterparts. (Statistics Canada)

Workplace values and gender differences

4. Men and women leaders have very different work values.

Answer: False. Men and women leaders are almost identical in the way that their values were rank-ordered in a Catalyst global study - “We often hear that the reason women don’t advance as far in business or are more apt to leave workplaces is because they have different work values and goals…however, both men and women most want a supportive work environment and challenging work.” That said women place significantly greater emphasis than men on each of the top three ranked values; that is, they are the same values but these values matter more to women. These values are 1) a supportive workplace; 2) a challenging job; and 3) a good fit between life on and off the job.

5. Men are employed in jobs and workplaces that are more closely aligned with their values.

Answer: True. The biggest gap between what male and female leaders value and the jobs and workplaces they have is the fit between their lives on and off the job. Women are much less likely than men to have the work-life fit they desire.

6. Women leaders are more likely than men to plan to leave their employers.

Answer: True. Because women are significantly less likely than men to have jobs and workplaces that align with their values, they are significantly more likely than men to say they plan to leave their current employers. However, when statistical analysis was done to control for the extent to which leaders’ values matched the realities of their jobs and workplaces there was absolutely no differences in retention between women and men leaders. (Catalyst – Leaders in Global Economy)

Gender stereotyping and discrimination

7. Generally when we imagine a leader that person is male.

Answer: True. Women are viewed as “atypical leaders” and men are still viewed as “default leaders.” (Catalyst 2007)


8. All other factors being equal, women leaders face higher standards and lower rewards than men leaders.

Answer: True. Research shows that on top of their job, women have to prove that they can lead over and over again, plus they constantly have to manage stereotypical expectations of being too soft or too tough (Catalyst, 2007). Further, promotions come more slowly for women than men with equivalent qualifications. (Eagly & Carli Harvard Business Review 2007)

Organizational response

9. There is not much an organization can do to increase the number of women in their senior management.

Answer: False. For example, read about 2009 Catalyst Awards winners Baxter International, CH2M Hill, Gibbons, and KPMG. This Catalyst award honours exceptional initiatives from companies and firms that support and advance women in business. Note: most initiatives honoured were more than five years into their implementation.

10. Women are still experiencing the “glass-ceiling” effect.

Answer. False. While women continue to experience great difficulty advancing to senior positions, the glass-ceiling analogy implies something no one can see and women cannot get through – as if the stoppage were a unifying mystery. However, some women do get through, and the analogy fails to incorporate the complexity and variety of challenges that women can face in their leadership journeys. For example, women are not just turned away at the most senior positions. They disappear in various numbers at many points leading up to these senior positions. Alice H. Eagly and Linda Carli more aptly propose an analogy of the labyrinth of leadership.

11. If an organization hires more women into senior management positions it will be guaranteed greater success.

Answer: False. Good business fundamentals are still good business. The studies of Ryan & Haslam have discovered something they call “the glass cliff” where they found that women are more likely to be chosen for leadership position in situations where an organization is experiencing consistent poor performance. “In this way, female directors were more likely than male directors to find themselves on a glass cliff, such that their positions of leadership were more risky and precarious than those in which men found themselves.” (Ryan & Haslam, 2007)

12. Organizations cannot afford to make the changes necessary to increase women in senior management.

Answer: False. In 2007 Catalyst reports from their research that the fifth-most important concern keeping senior leaders awake at night was “finding qualified managerial talent.” The top four choices concerned delivering excellence in execution and profitability.


13. The best solution to increasing women in senior management is to mandate more women be hired into vacancies.

Answer: False. Why is this false? – because the backlash to the implementation of quotas in unsupportive work environments will not contribute to retaining women leaders, and are likely to contribute to a toxic work environment.

The most recommended strategies to increase women in senior positions include:

A) Examine talent management systems for gender stereotyping in language, leadership characteristics and the candidate selection process.

B) Develop formal mentoring programs.

C) Create accessible informal networking opportunities (keeping in mind the double-work load of many women employees).

D) Ensure women employees get high-visibility assignments (so they gain credibility with their peer and direct reports) and gain experience in line positions (so that they know the business).

E) Strong encouragement of male participation in family-friendly benefits so as not to create a further barrier for women to gain access to senior positions.

F) View former employees as potential resources for subcontracting and potential future employees. Through alumni programs, create “on ramps” for highly desirable women leaders.

G) Allow employees with significant parental responsibilities more time to prove themselves worthy of promotion. This increases the number of qualified women in the pipeline for promotional opportunities.


For further support to assess and determine the unique strategies suited to your organization feel free to contact me directly via email at tawelch@shaw.ca.

Terrill Welch
Executive Leadership Coach

Remember - a vision not lived remains only a dream.

twitter: https://twitter.com/terrillwelch

© 2009 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Create Learning Opportunities

How do we create a learning Opportunity? This can often be a challenge in over-stimulated urban lives. Inspired by Robin Sharma's book The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, I created the following images to support a presentation I am doing called "Untapped ROI: Increase Women in Senior Management."

How full is your cup with current ideas?

Often we are so settled in our current thinking that there is no room for new ideas or perspectives.









Do you know what your current capacity is for learning?

Is your cup full? Could it be overflowing?











Manage your overflowing cup by leaving room for new ideas, thoughts and possibilities...
















What will it take for your cup to be only one third full - leaving plenty of room for possibilities that you cannot even imagine at the moment?

warm regards

Terrill Welch
Executive Leadership Coach

Ambassador World Leadership Day Canada
March 20, 2010 http://worldleadershipdaycanada.ning.com


twitter: https://twitter.com/terrillwelch
facebook: Terrill Welch


email: tawelch@shaw.ca phone: 1-250-539-5877

Remember - a vision not lived remains only a dream.

© 2009 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.