Women in Management

A guest blog from our lead facilitator, Kerri Blackstone:

Our very first Women in Management program kicked off in February this year at our Sydney office with a group of 63 enthusiastic women from a diverse range of industries. Our mission was twofold. First, we wanted offer the Diploma of Management qualification to a group of aspiring managers and those wanting to further themselves. Secondly, since we already have this program on scope for a mixed group, we wanted to offer an additional program designed specifically for women wanting to find ways to manage some key ‘female’ challenges with confidence and poise.

The generous feedback we received after the program was quite overwhelming. Here is a sample of the feedback from the first group:

“WOW, I have looked ‘inside’ me for the first time in a long, long time... listening and the circle of influence have transformed my approach to my team.”

“A really practical, engaging course where you can take ideas straight from the classroom to the office”

“It has been an experience to be involved in such a program.. Thank you for taking me on this journey!”

“Excellent guest speakers and facilitator, fantastic stories from the other students... worth every cent!”

“Inspiring, exciting and provides real food for thought!”

“I wish every Woman in a Management role had the opportunity to do this training!!!”

It was because of the number of success stories we saw and heard about in the first group that we decided to invite a second, third and fourth group. In each group, we have been inspired by guest speakers like Edita Torpy from Ernst and Young, Ronni Kahn from OzHarvest, Drenka Andjelic from Construction Assignments, Heidi Pollard from Leading Ladies International, Janice Perlov who consults on dress and Cheryl Bart OA

We have altered each Women in Management program slightly to be customised to suit the individuals in the room. Each group extracted its own key lessons that resonated loudly during the program. We definitely strove to push through obstacles and overcome some deep seated negative or self destructive thinking. At no point did training workshops transform into therapy sessions. Instead we found that within each group a board of trusted advisors quickly formed to help tackle an issue and then just as quickly disbanded. Depending on the issue, the board would change. This has been the trend in each group.

We’ve seen women take control of their lives, change the direction of the careers, strengthen their networks and learn valuable skills to develop their teams and advance in their roles. All this happens in e fun, extremely active and safe learning environment.

We have to this date enrolled close to 50 additional women on this program. The group on the Central Coast was particularly colourful and extremely proactive. We’re currently working with a smaller group in Sydney at our MCI headquarters in the Sydney CBD.

It has been a privilege to have been part of such an enriching learning experience. Each women who has written to me or approached me for advice or to share a moment of victory, has been etched in memory forever. Each woman has arrived with her unique story and has left with a bagful or insights and confidence. Some have even transformed their lives or careers. I hope that we continue to strengthen women in our society and find ways to draw strength from one another.

Advanced Diploma of Management

Our facilitator Alasdair worked with an amazing group of participants on our Advanced Diploma of Management program. They captured their ideas visually and demonstrated just how this strong medium really gets messages across. They prove the adage - the wall is the new table!

Learnings from the Women's Leadership Forum, Harvard Business School

I was privileged to be selected to attend the incredible ‘Women’s Leadership Forum’ in April this year at the Harvard Business School. After a whirlwind of 5, 12 hour days listening to leading professors and researchers, participating in debates with over 63 international delegates and gaining insights in to best practices, I am keen to share my key learnings with all women in leadership roles. Men read on as well please..

Women in leadership roles need a whole basket of skills and behaviours to become ‘successoholics’ who meet their goals and achieve their ambitions.

Networking emerged as one of the top leadership competencies – so members of professional and social networks are already ahead of the game! It is all about having a trusted ‘board of advisors’ that has your back AND ALSO what is referred to as “the strength of weak ties”. This is the ability to have a wide range of loose connections that in time will extend you in to other network hubs.

This demands a huge leap of faith as we sometimes do not derive immediate benefit from attending networking events and from joining industry associations. There is however definite evidence that women with strong peer groups do very well professionally.

A great question to ask yourself is – how many new contacts have I added this year?

Another leadership skill is the ability to be able to find those moments when we can exude warmth and confidence – those occasions when we can give what is called the ‘Duchenne smile’. This is the smile that is authentic and gives us wrinkles around the eyes as we smile through our entire face.

Over 80% of first impressions of others are based on their ability to be seen as being warm and confident, so it might seem a small thing, but makes the world of difference to how we are perceived. Competence is second on the list and therefore those few minutes of chit-chat before meetings with staff or clients lead to better outcomes - they set up the connections first and foremost.

The forum also highlighted for us just how important influencing and negotiating skills are for women who, when it comes to negotiating on behalf of themselves, rate at far lower levels than men. Some tips include:

• In a private area, stretch out to make yourself as physically big as possible. The come back down to normal size before you go in to the negotiating room.

• Women and men negotiate equally effectively when the parameters are transparent and known. It is up to us to ask the right questions to reduce the ambiguity. Talk to people who have a different set of information and data from what we know.

Some other useful guidelines for women in leadership roles include:

• It is all about how you ‘show up’ every day. No matter what you are experiencing personally or how hard times are, you present well with “credible optimism”.

• The way in which we “feed and water” ourselves and our team members is critically important, on a physical and metaphysical level. How do we achieve work-life management and also provide ourselves and our team with the right nutrients for health and for a positive environment

• Have an Oprah-style purpose that rings true for you. Oprah’s is to ensure that we all “live our best life” and that drives her to be authentic and to survive as a woman in a man’s world and to be successful as a fat person in a thin person’s world.

• Change can start off in minor ways and there is enormous value in the power of small wins.

• The career lattice is the new career ladder. We have so many more options in terms of where we want to go and our own business plans are only guidelines that need to be constantly shaped and updated.

We were finally reminded that “life is lived forward and understood backward” (Soren Kirkegard). It is worth developing the habit of mind of reflection so that we are mindful of what we learn and make the required changes in our personal and professional lives.

Professors worth reading and following are:

Prof Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Prof Amy Cuddy and Prof Nancy Koehn. They all blog or tweet or write numerous articles and research papers.

SHRM conference Las Vegas

4 members of the MCI team traveled to Las Vegas to attend the Society for Human Resource Management conference. This guest blog by Kerri Blackstone gives some insights in to the experience and the key learnings:

SHRM 2011 deals MCI a great hand in Las Vegas!!
As soon as the tyres hit the tarmac in Las Vegas, we know that the Society for Human Resource Management Conference 2011 was going to have to live up to its location…hot and full of energy. Along with another 18 000 eager SHRM attendees, we make our way to the Las Vegas Conference Centre to the registration stand.
The atmosphere is palpable. The book shop is already bursting at the seams, with people lining up to get their copy of the latest editions on their HR topic of choice. The Starbucks queue is out the building and doesn’t ever seem to get shorter till the end of the fourth day.
Each day begins with a general session, when everybody gathers in a massive auditorium to listen to various SHRM executives about Human Resource trends. This is shortly followed by an hour address by some of the world’s leading minds, business leaders and activists.
Okay, readers, time to test you.
Question: What would you say is the demographic event that HR professionals say will have the biggest influences on the workplace in the next decade?
Answer: Baby Boomers will be retiring.
We like to keep our readers on their toes....
Question: Are HR professionals having more or less difficulty finding job candidates for high-level jobs in 2011?
Answer: More…perhaps due to new or enhanced skill requirements for those jobs.
We hear from Richard Branson about the importance of not second guessing your employees. The point he keeps driving home is that the most successful businesses start by looking for ways to make a difference or help people, not to make money. He explains the process of making your company a fun place to work and how this can become self-evolving.
The gem he shares is to implement workplace flexibility in a meaningful way. “Provide unpaid leave for important family and personal time so that people feel they're not a cog in a big machine,” he urges.
The ever active Tweeter and creator of the phenomenal Huffington post, which sold to AOL for $315 million, Arianna Huffington, is our main course on day two.
The key insights she shares with us are how HR can facilitate this trust -“The deep trust that tribes have.” This is the first step in your company embracing and using social media for good. Arianna explains that, “The Internet has grown up. It’s passed its teens. Now we can moderate our comments.”
Something that comes across strongly is her point about the wrong and right state of mind and state of being and how to shift both for greater personal and professional success.
One of my favourite pointers are her tips on getting older CEOs to embrace new technology. “Get their kids to teach them,” she says, deadpan.
Another great highlight is on the importance of sleep. A proud sleep crusader, Arianna recommends instituting a nap room. “I make an appointment with sleep,” she announces proudly. As with Branson, one of her crucial points is ‘doing good.’
Corporate social investment was a hot topic on this year’s SHRM menu.
Main course Day Three is the charismatic owner of the largest online shoe store, Zappos-Tony Hsieh. He is extremely generous and transparent, sharing what he and his team have found works best on hiring the right people to create the WOW Culture at Zappos. “Great companies spend time on culture,” he repeats several times.
He explains how these committable core values can be defined collaboratively over time. He also shares some of his quirky recruiting and interviewing tricks. One example is how he offers each recruit, after a five weeks of training, $2000 to quit. He says this separates those who believe in the Zappos brand and those who don’t buy into it. “Keep the 2 grand. I’ll save money and my brand in the long run.”
The most potent flavour of his talk is how to motivate employees to deliver WOW! customer service, which in turn helps to build the brand ‘Delivering Happiness.”
The grand finale is Michael J. Fox. What a humble man! He hasn’t lost his youthful charm, nor his wicked sense of humour. His ongoing struggle with Parkinson ’s disease, has carried him from acting to charity. His recipe for surviving the struggle with dignity and humour: “Don't play the result. Life isn't scripted. Life changes, change with it.”
He shares some of the lessons his mentors and role models taught him that all added spice and flexibility to his life.
And those are only the main courses. The strategy for our team of four is to split up for all the concurrent afternoon sessions. Divide and conquer.
Here are some of the gems from our sessions: We get the lowdown on trust by Randy G. Pennington, how to earn it, keep it and use it to deliver results. We’re reminded of what really causes mistrust. “Mistrust paints with a large roller, not a small brush!” Randy warns. “Without trust, there can be no co-operation between people, teams, departments, divisions. Without trust, each department will protect its own immediate interests, to its long-term detriment and the detriment of the entire system.” -W. Edwards Deming
Some of the big lessons from Joe Gerstand are how to leverage from cognitive diversity and that the greater diversity, the greater the variance in performance. This highlights for us the danger of group think.
This is best summed up by Hackman & Morris, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology “Groups often fail to outperform individuals because they prematurely move to consensus, with dissenting opinions being suppressed or dismissed.” and “If everyone is thinking the same thing, someone isn’t thinking at all.” -General George S. Patton.
James and Kelly Robbins is one talk worth writing home about (and a blog.) It is both an entertaining and practical session. Some of the highlights are the vast differences in what men and women value, the way we communicate, our problem-solving styles and the way we manage stress.
My favourite takeaway: “The way men sabotage their success with women at work: not taking time for care and consideration. The way women sabotage their success with men at work: taking things personally”
Dr. David Rock, who coined the term ‘NeuroLeadership’ and co-founded the NeuroLeadership Institute, announces that the US government has just revised the food pyramid - the diagram that's been with us for decades that is supposed to remind people how to eat well.
The model needed a revision, and the new version, called ChooseMyPlate, is a big improvement. David feeds our grey matter by sharing his Healthy Mind Platter for optimal brain matter. Kimberley Lynn, author of ‘How to give a Butt-Kicking Presentation’, unpacks her pantry of presentations tips: Our favourite quotes: “Only 15% of your success is due to your technical knowledge, 85% of success is attributable to your ability to express ideas, arouse enthusiasm, and lead people” -Dale Carnegie
For those of us who deal with nerves, here’s some great advice: “If you want to develop courage, do the thing you fear and keep on doing it until you have a record of successful experiences behind you. That is the quickest and surest way yet discovered to conquer fear.” -Dale Carnegie To say that we feel well fed is an understatement. The nourishment we received has revitalised our outlook on all the human elements in our own business and we’re planning to share the nutrients with everybody we work with.

Luxury brands

A guest blog from the MCI sales and marketing team:

Last week Natasha and Jenna attended an alumni “Business of Luxury” event. The panel discussion included Kevin Nicholls (Director of Sales and Marketing for Porsche Australia) Melinda Stewart (Finance Director for Louis Vuitton Oceania) and Dr Rebecca Huntely (Director of Ispos Mackay Research.) The event was held at the Porsche Centre in Sydney; the perfect location for a luxury event! Here are the key discussion points:

Dr Huntley said that when the GFC hit the media was flooded with articles saying that consumption and consumerism is over; however the research shows Australians still love luxury brands. Research also found that ‘the average Australian’ felt “strained” but was still spending. The focus of investments was on future gains and satisfaction: renovations, children’s education and personal wellbeing.

Interesting branding facts about Louis Vuitton:

- They never go on sale

- They own all their production factories

- They only sell through Louis Vuitton stores – to maintain control of the selling environment

- Every Louis Vuitton store has the same shop window. They run a centralised campaign so that you can visit any of their 457 stores and have the same “experience”

Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson called Porsche’s design team “the laziest in the world” for never changing the 911 design but as the company holds onto their classic designs they are constantly expanding their range to meet demands. The automotive industry, like many others in Australia, has a finite number of buyers and only a certain number can afford the luxury version of that good – in this case Porsche.

Branding facts and ideas from Porsche:

- Consistency is very important to the brand – all showrooms have the exact same lights, floor tiles and paint colour

- Less than 100,000 Porsches are sold worldwide in one year. That is as many cars as Ford produces in a week. For small players in any market your focus needs to remain on having personal relationships with your customers. Stay true to your core values.

Kevin noted that marketers tend to group people because it is easier and cheaper than breaking them down further or putting the effort in. In today’s world people want a personal relationship – we need to remember this all the time.

Online purchasing has been a hot topic in recent months and Dr Huntley explained that consumers are now well informed, and they know their facts and figures and comparisons. Now more than ever we need to ensure that when we meet our customer for the first time we build a quality relationship, because that is what will make the difference.

Melinda ended off by saying that no brand is resilient to changing customers and environments. Even luxury, timeless brands cannot stop evolving. You need to constantly re-evaluate your product and your strategy – and train your staff.

Women in Management - Dr Lois Frankel

Dr Lois Frankel is a superb speaker and author of books such as 'Nice girls don't get the corner office'. Her talk this morning at the Business Chicks event was superb! Here are some really practical guidelines that we can all apply.

1. We must speak loudly and clearly - people like people with high energy!

2. Do something different to be noticed - what do I have to do differently?

3. If women think they can't do it they just don't. Men take more risks.

4. Ask yourself - What are the rules for membership in your family? These rules and how you followed them impact the way in which you interact in organisations.

5. When in a meeting be amongst the first 2 or 3 speakers. Don't always give your opinion and you can still participate by asking or answering questions. Just make your voice heard. The longer you wait the more you will be marginalised.

6. What else do you have to add to your tool kit or skills set to be successful? Get along with other people, relationships, find your voice etc

7. Trying to teach women not to cry in the workplace is like teaching pigs to sing

Immediately excuse yourself from the room ("You can see I have strong feelings about this I am going to excuse myself'). Ask what am I angry about - we often turn anger to tears. Put words to it and return and explain why you are angry.

8. There is a glass ceiling, discrimination and no gender equity.

But you can be proactive. Nice girls act like the little girls they are taught to be in childhood.

Should you be nice? Yes. But what skills do you need to use to balance out the nice?

9. Nice girl syndrome = disease to please.

You act in ways to make others like you.

Avoid being too powerful out of fear that men will reject you. You're between a rock and a hard place. Too powerful = being called names and not powerful = no goals.

There is an 'Old boys club' and we live in a white male system. The System designed to keep its power and to maintain itself.

Avoid aggressively pursuing your goals because it may make others uncomfortable.

10. You don't ask for what you really want. Usually we don't ask until it’s offered.

11. What's the opposite of a nice girl? A winning woman. Evaluate the past, vision the future. Live your values by using and sharing your connections. Prepare for push backs. Craft meaningful messages. Manage expectations. Build relationships that work for you.

12. Don't act like men. We live in a society where we don't like women who act like men and vice versa.

Think of yourself as a peach (soft on the outside and rock hard in centre) - Be a steel hard magnolia.

The top 10 mistakes nice girls make:

1. Not getting it - accept that there is a glass ceiling. Don’t wait to be invited to the glass tree house, engage in the strategies that will get you noticed. Accept what the system is and do something about it.

2. Working too hard - you work too hard. Women are miracle workers. They get the job done with fewer resources and miracle workers don't get recognized. Find the base line for hard work in every organization. Some have high baselines for hard work. You have to work up to the baseline or else you will be called out. Guys usually laugh, negotiate or delegate to a woman when asked to perform a miracle. Women jump in too soon.

3. Not setting boundaries

4. Striving for perfection - women work twice as hard to be considered half as good. You will never achieve perfection. It is an exercise in futility. Guys know when good enough is good enough.

5. Ignoring the look and sound of success - 50% of credibility comes from how you look, 40% comes from how you sound (clear, loud enough, and articulate), 10% from what you say. It is given at a certain point in your career that you know what you're talking about, now you need to differentiate yourself.

6. Unclear vision/branding - you are a brand in the workplace. We emotionally connect to certain brands. Have your own sponsors and advocates to credentialise you. Do the beer test- when I meet you do I want to sit down and have a beer with you?

7. Staying too long in a bad situation = the sunken cost dilemma. $5000 for the new car, $1000 on new tyres, then $1000 on transmission, another $750 on radiator. Sooner or later I won't have to out more money into it? Know when it is time to walk away. What am I getting out of this?

8. To wait to be given what you want, rather than asking for it. At Princeton they saw men in higher positions that women and assumed it was due to sexism but they discovered it was because women were waiting to be invited.

9. Using too many words - when we talk to guys you don't get feedback. Waiting for an interaction and keep talking hoping you will get that. The more you talk the more diluted your message. Nobody wants to know what’s in your head. Ask if the person's question has been asked? Answer first then ask. The is the cue to the other person to speak.

10. Trust your financial security to someone else - don't turn your financial portfolio to someone else and then leave it alone. Stay involved.

Tips for being in meetings:

What women do wrong in meetings:

Don't sit on your foot

Don't fold your hands in your lap - have them on the table

Don't wait for your turn to talk - everything will be said first

Don't go and get another chair if there are none - you’ll be stuck on the corner. Ask people to move over.

Always sit next to the most powerful person in the room even if there are lots if chairs

Don’t play with hair

Unless your name is Betty Crocker don't bring food to meetings

Don't volunteer to be the scribe unless it is rotated - use a sense of humor to start a rotation system

Don't apologize all the time

Interrupt people who go on and on by saying,"Llet me just make sure that I understand you correctly," and then summarize what they have said and then give your counterpoint.