LeadershipConneXtions

Not embarrassed to talk about God . . .

Here is a little quote and a wise perspective from Dorothy Day, a truly remarkable woman in the history of the church.

"If I have accomplished anything in my life,
it is because I wasn't embarrassed to talk about God."

Sometimes, it seems, we are embarrassed to talk about God. Or we are "selectively" embarrassed to talk about some aspects of God with some people.

It also seems to me that among the most important work of leadership is initiating and sustaining conversations about God and the things that matter the most.

Which we probably won't do if we are embarrassed about God.

What embarrasses you about God in such a way that you are not having conversations with those people around you?

By the way, Dorothy Day is a great "historic mentor" for women. I suggest you look for some of the best books about her and by her.

Tomorrow - Wordsmiths and living in the "Tower of Babble" as we try to speak about God.

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

Statistics on How Women are Doing

From time to time I read some statistics on how the status of women is slowly chaining. Here are a few important stats.

Women are increasingly dominating in higher education. Women are now 60% of the college population!

70% of American females work outside the home.

Women make up 50% of the American workforce.

The earning power of women is soaring and so is their purchasing power and their decision making power.

A male-centric world is rapidly disappearing.

So, one observation and one question are in order.

The Observation:  Women, even though you still find it rough going, you are vital and you are making a difference. Your contributions to God's kingdom are only going to increase in the future. So carpe diem and carpe mannana.

 And the Question:  Men, how are you adjusting to the emerging reality? How are you changing how you lead, how you relate, how you invite, and how you make room for women leaders? 

Brian K. Rice 
Leadership ConneXtions International 
www.lci.typepad.com

 

Historic Mentors (With a Special Focus for Women Leaders)

A great way to learn about leadership is to read about and study the lives of great leaders. Today, we have no end of opportunities to do this.

Bobby Clinton calls this "historic mentoring" where we are guided by our reflections on the lives of these people indirectly. We learn from them "at-a-distance." They may be far removed from us  (I like to read about past American presidents). They may be current (Bush or Obama). They may be biblical figures (Moses, David, Esther) or from the history of the church (Wilberforce, Luther). They may be from the world of business (Jack Welch) or sports (Tony Dungy).

And for women leaders, there is a good list of great women leaders to learn from. In the past, I have recommended books on Queen Elizabeth, Mother Teresa, Esther (the biblical figure), Joan of Arc, Catherine Booth (Salvation Army), Amy Carmichael (served in India), and Dorothy Day (profound worker for social justice).

If you want a nice introduction to a good variety of women who have made major contributions to the church and mission, read Ruth Tucker's Daughters of the Church.

In the world of business, I recently came across an outstanding women leader through a review of her autobiography. It is Katherine Graham and the book is Personal History. After her husband died, Katherine took over the leadership of the Washington Post Company which had divisions devoted to the newspaper industry, TV and radio stations across the nation.  And Time Magazine.

In her book, you will discover a woman of stellar character, commendable skills, an avid life-long learner, and at the same time, a very real person who worked hard on her weaknesses and insecurities.

Women - find some of the best historic woman leaders you can and read good books about them.

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

Women in Leadership: Some Interesting Studies

I thought a very good chapter in Ruth Tucker's book, Leadership Reconsidered, was the one that looked at the issue of woman in leadership. Most of the thoughts I have here are launched out of her thoughts, and the studies I list are directly lifted from her book (page 113-114).  Get the book if you want more good stuff.

Is there a difference between the way men and women lead? I'm not sure that is even a good question? Mainly because it may be very overly simplified. 

This is the same simplification that is involved in wondering - is there a female personality and a male personality?  Well the answer is NO. Personality is much more nuanced and complicated than gender. Gender may influence personality, but it is not the only influence, nor is it the decisive influence. Personality is much more varied than two types. 

If you are familiar with the DISC profile and the 16+ main personality variations, you know what I mean. As I have worked with women over the years, I have found women scattered all across those 16+ variations. 

If you are familiar with the MBTI and the diversity of options, you know that women fall into all the possibilities. The one category where women are very likely to fall is the F (feeling) category and men are much more regular in the T (thinking) category. For the other spectrums (extroversion - introversion;  sensing - intuition;  judging - perceiving) there is no real statistical difference. 

I believe the same is true for leadership. There is a wide variety of leadership giftings, strengths, styles, skills, roles and responsibility preferences. The way of leadership is very diverse and the possible leadership profiles are all over the map.

Now, (on the other hand) it is possible that woman may be stronger than men in some of the styles, strengths and skills. And, in fact, that is what some of the studies seem to clearly show. Here is a list of studies provided by Ruth Tucker that come from Jim Collins (not the Good to Great Jim Collins) about how men and women compare as leaders.

The Hagberg Consulting Group study. This consulting group examined evaluations of 425 high-level executives.  Each leader was evaluated by 25 people. The women executives scored higher ratings on 42 of the 52 skills measured.

The Personnel Decisions International study. This consulting firm examined 25,000 managers. It gave the women the advantage in 20 of 23 areas.

The Lawrence A. Pfaff and Associates study. This one examined 2482 executives and found that women outperformed men on 17 of the 20 measures.

The Management Research Group study. This one compared male and female managers at the same firms, with similar jobs, at the same management level, with the same amount of experience. 1,800 supervisors were evaluated on 22 management skills. The women outranked the men on half of the skills.

The Janet Irwin study. This study had 6,400 respondents. Women ranked higher than men on 28 of the 31 measures.

I think this is pretty interesting. On the skills measured, the women leaders did pretty good and, to be blunt, significantly outperformed the men leaders. 

To the women leaders who read this blog-site: I hope this post encourages you. Your leadership is valuable and your leadership is needed.

To the male leaders who read this blog-site:  I hope this post enlightens you (if you need it).

Brian "a definitely male, but sadly deficient leader" Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

Taking Jesus Seriously: Dorothy Day

In his book, the New Monasticism, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove had a fascinating and beautiful description of Dorothy Day by author Robert Coles

"She was always taking Jesus as seriously as possible."

Dorothy Day was many things.  She was a:

leader

teacher

social activist/visionary

prolific author

and a woman of deep, spirituality.

In significant ways, she integrated the many different streams of living water that Richard Foster describes in his book by that title.

For the women leaders who visit this site, one of the challenges you face is to discover women who can mentor you. One way to do that is to find historic mentors and allow them to mentor you through their writings.

I'd like to recommend Dorothy Day be a woman you consider as a historic mentor. I am far from an expert on her life, but here are a few thoughts to assist you in finding good resources.

Here is a blogsite devoted to Dorothy Day. You can check it out.

It is almost always worthwhile to do a quick visit to Wikipedia to see what resources are there. So, check out their article. 

You'll have to do a little surfing to figure out some of the better books, but I'll recommend one that I haven't read, but which has been recommended to me and which I am going to get.

Dorothy Day: A Radical Devotion by Robert Coles

Blessings on your journey to find women leaders to learn from.

If any of you choose Dorothy Day as a historic mentor, let me know what you find useful from her life and writings.

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

Women in Leadership and the Double Standard (Thoughts on Sarah Palin)

This blogsite almost never looks at issues of politics. It is not the focus. But leadership is the focus and this election year has such rich leadership material that I decided to do some blogging about the campaign to be our next senior political leaders.

There has been some fascinating discussion (AGAIN) about women in leadership with the nomination of Sarah Palin, govenor of Alaska, as the Republican Vice-President.

Laura Bush talked about the double standard that is already being applied to Palin. Laura Bush asked, why does the media make a big deal of her children but ignore the male candidates on the same issues? Are children only a consideration for women?

Obama, much to his credit, told the media that the children of candidates are not the point of this election and the media should stay away from them.

On another note . . .

Some observers have noted that it will be very hard for Biden to really go after Palin on issues, because she is a woman and the Democrats don't want to appear (AGAIN) as anti-women. There it is - the double standard.  Go after her as you would have gone after a male candidate! Beat her up and chew her out and knock her down (all with civility and respect of course).  But don't go after her because she is a woman. Go after her record, her stances, her qualifications. Good grief.  

The double standard.  Sometimes it is in her favor and  other times it is against her. 

As Hillary Clinton painfully learned, a woman in senior leadership has a hard path to walk. If you lead like a woman, then you may be accused of being too emotional and too weak to lead. If you lead like a man, (i.e. tough, agressive, etc.) then you earn the b _ _ _ _  label. Darned if you do and darned if you don't.

On another note . . .

Some observers have noted that feminists are opposed to her because, though she is a woman, she does not hold the feminist ideology on most issues. She has been labelled a non-feminist woman! Are you now only a woman to be respected depending on your political policies?

By the way, do a Google Search for images of Sarah Palin and you'll find a "photoshopped picture" of Palin on the cover of Vogue Magazine. Pretty funny!  Maybe the Republicans have found a photogenic candidate of their own who may start to make the round of magazine covers. 

Look for her to appear on a cover of Outdoors Magazine or Hunting. That would be a stitch.

And on a note right after her Wednesday night speech . . .

Bright, articulate, sassy, spunky, funny, earthy - quite an introduction to a national audience.

And to have Giuliani as her warmup...  By the way, I thought the  Democrat speakers blew away the Republicans for the 2004 conventions. After the 2008 Democratic primary, I assumed it would be a repeat oratory victory for the Democrats. But Thompson, Leiberman, Giuliani . . . makes it a close call. 

And I don't think Biden will have to hold back his punches in a VP debate.  if you missed Palin's speech, click here and look under Videos.

And one final note . . .

I think she belongs to a Pentecostal church!  Who knows, we might see Joyce Meyers or Joel Olsteen making appearances at the White House!!!    Hmmm....

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

Women in Leadership: A leader that is all of herself . . .

Here are some words (very slightly modified) by Ron Carucci from Leadership Divided (pp. 162). They are an encourgement to women leaders.

Before you are a leader, you are a woman. You are a mother. You are a wife. You are a sister a friend. Then, you are a leader, a mentor, a boss, a visionary. And women do those things differently from men. In fact, in some cases you do them better. Don't try and compete on men's terms. At least for the rest of your career, there will probably always be more of them than you. You are a leader and you are a women. Be proud of both.

And if you are, you will give your organization one of the greatest gifts you could ever offer. A leader that is all of herself - talented, smart, imperfect, learning, impatient, tender, driven, anxious - all of which she is . . . as a woman. (Ron Carucci)

I greatly appreciate and value the women leaders I know and want to say thank you for your faithfulness to God as you navigate the terrain of leadership in our day.

Brian Rice

Bleak News for Young, Women Leaders (and a word about the Quarter-Life Crisis)

Here is a thought from The Trouble With Paris, pages 69-70, by Sayers.  (See the book under Current Reads.)

Many young women particuarly feel pressure as they are expected to have an exciting career and a fantastic social life; be in a relationship; travel when possible; have children at some point; appear attractive, fit, and fashionable; and have enough disposable income to live well.

To achieve all these things is almost impossible. Yet we are told that it is possible. We hear the pop culture mantras of our day: "Believe in yourself." "Reach for the stars." "Follow your dreams." These mantras sound as if they would be good ideas to apply to our lives, but they simply do not cut it in the real world.

*****************

For those of you who do any kind of mentoring with young women leaders - these are issues they inevitably face and they be easily resolved. Some of this is the below the water line work of values formation.

For all young leaders (not just women) there is a somewhat new phenomenon called the Quarter Life Crisis that happens in the late 20's.  (Apparently there is no longer the need to wait until middle age to have a Mid-Life Crisis.) The Quarter Life Crisis happens when you discover you are not even close to reaching the impossible dreams and goals/norms of the Hyper-Real World.

The Hyper Real World promises much, sets the standard impossibly high and then fails to deliver the goods.

For these young leaders, when this happens, anxiety and depression are common occurrences.

These are some of the contextual realities we live in and those who mentor young leaders will have to understand them as part of the developmental process.

I am working on a review/essay of this brilliant short book - The Trouble With Paris. I'll have it posted by the end of June.

For Byron's review, go to:  http://www.heartsandmindsbooks.com/booknotes/the_trouble_with_paris/

Brian Rice

Through the Labyrinth: The Truth About How Women Become Leaders

Through the Labyrinth: The Truth About How Women Become Leaders, by Alice Eagly and Linda Carli is a very substantial work on the subject, published on the Harvard Business School Press.

This book is not written from a Christian or biblical perspective, nor is its audience or subject, that of the biblical discussion on women as leaders.

Rather, the focus is on the role of women in the marketplace, in the highest echelons of leadership. It covers many of the core issues women leaders must deal with, including:

1. the glass ceiling,
2. where are the women who are going to lead,
3. the issue of family responsibilities and how women leaders navigate those responsibilities,
4. issues of discrimination and prejudice,
5. how women in leadership are perceived,
6. the question of differences in leadership between men and women,
7. and more.

The book has about 200 pages of text and another 100 pages of endnotes and indices. It will be a bit of a challenge to read, since it written by two authors who are psychologists studying the themes of leadership and substantiating everything by the research literature that is out there.

Whether you want a good introduction to the subject, or want to engage with the core issues once again, I recommend this book.

Brian Rice

Follow Up Article on Women in Leadership

Tony Sheng passed on this article Only the Men Survive: The Crash of Zoe Cruz. (Pictured to the right.) It is a very substantial assessment of one of the highest paid women in the financial world and her firing from Morgan Stanley (a company by the way, for whom she had earned billions of dollars).

The article has many pages to it. It will be easiest to scoll down to the bottom of the page and click  the PRINT icon. That will bring up the entire article for you to read.

Thanks Tony for this link.

Also check out Tony's blog site. He does a lot of work mobilizing young people for global missions.

Brian

Women in the Labyrinth of Leadership (Plus I need a favor)

Here is a summary review of a very good article on the challenges women face moving into positions of senior leadership in the workplace.  (The picture to the right is one of the issues talked about in the article...)

It was in HBR, September 2007.

Download women_in_the_labyrinth_of_leadership.pdf

For some just released brief articles on women in leadership go to The Center for Creative Leadership site and check them out.

Also, I need a favor. I have some feedback that there are some pdfs that some of you are having trouble accessing.  Could I hear from some of you as to whether you can or cannot access the pdf linked above?

Also, try the pdf file from yesterday's post.

Email me at lcibrice@gmail.com and just let me know if you can or cannot access these files.

Brian Rice