LeadershipConneXtions

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