Tag: stereotypes

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Leadership, Gender, and Confidence: Another Take

Another take on leadership, gender, and confidence from Jill Flynn, Kathryn Heath, and Mary Davis Holt, authors of the new book, Break Your Own Rules: How to Change the Patterns of Thinking that Block Women’s Paths to Power – and good advice for women and men seeking to increase their impact. 

The book is a fascinating read – and a recommendation that women finally discard the rules that have traditionally guided their leadership (and have been seen as women’s “strengths”). Women are a mere 11% of senior leadership in corporate American, and that number hasn’t changed in 30 years. The authors suggest it’s time to think seriously about how to make that change happen. 

Their advice: out with the old, please, and in with the new.  Reframe the everyday beliefs that women bring about how to lead and do themselves in the workplace.  For example:

Traditional approach: focus on others — New advice: take center stage

Traditional approach: seek approval — New advice: proceed until apprehended

Traditional approach: be modest — New advice: project personal power

Traditional approach: work harder — New advice: be politically savvy

Traditional approach: play it safe — New advice: play to win

Traditional approach: it’s all or nothing — New advice: it’s both-and

I’m not doing he book justice, but I want to get back to the confidence theme from my last post:

In a recent post of the HBR site, the authors assert they found – and “by a wide margin” – that the primary criticism men have about their female colleagues at work is that the women exhibit low self-confidence.

imageThe authors concede this may partly be perception — men can interpret a willingness to share credit or defer judgment as a lack of confidence. But they also note that there is plenty of research that suggests women feel less self-assured at work. See yesterday’s blog post, for one example. Another is a 2011 workforce study by Europe’s Institute of Leadership and Management that reports:

Men were more confident across all age groups: 70% of the men reported high or very high levels of self-confidence, compared to 50% of the women

Half of women managers admitted feelings of self-doubt about their performance and career, 31% of men reported the same

Lack of confidence makes women more cautious in applying for jobs and promotions: 20% of men said they would apply despite only partially meeting its job description, compared to 14% of women.

The authors turned to their own data and identified four specific low-confidence behaviors cited by male and female managers alike:

Being overly modest. Men are more willing to take public credit for their successes. Women believe their accomplishments should speak for themselves. They may – or they may be overlooked by all the busy people around them.

Not asking. Not asking means you’ve lost the chance to get what you need.  No more need be said on that one!

Blending in. The authors note that some women go to great lengths to avoid attention in the workplace. They want to do their work, stay professional, and wait to be appreciated.  A perfect strategy for remaining invisible!

Remaining silent. Don’t speak up and you won’t get in the conversation – or the game.

The author’s conclusion: Career momentum is not just about adding job skills. It’s about changing everyday thinking and behaviors.  Amen! 

Glad I could bring you these helpful insights. I ask you to share them – and this blog site – with others interested in improving their leadership.  I’d love to attract more readers – and I have plenty more to say about how to lead and how to lead for greater impact.

So how am I doing?  I’m practicing the suggested new behaviors!  Are you?

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Hiring a Leader or Hiring a Stereotype?

The Chronicle of Higher Education Online had a piece on hiring that gave me pause. It tells the story of three candidates interviewing for a senior campus leadership position. Two played it safe and maintained distance from their audience with formal titles and podiums during their public forums. The third – who had tremendous support after a day of interviews and the strongest scholarly record among the three candidates – tried to demonstrate the values that would underpin her inclusive leadership style by suggesting more informality. Guess which two candidates were seen as real leaders?

[Skip to the text under the dotted line below if you want more case details before reading my comments.]

As a leadership scholar, I am struck by three things in the story. First, the power of the implicit leadership models we all carry – and how quickly and effortlessly they surface. If a candidate looks like what we think a leader should, acts like we think a leader would, then we must be seeing a leader, right? Maybe. Or we might be mindlessly projecting assumptions that have more to do with history and stereotypes than real leadership.

Second, our tacit models are often very traditional. In an increasingly complex, global world with serious challenges that we seem unable to resolve – war, poverty, violence, disease, oppression, threat of nuclear holocaust, destruction of the environment, and more – we need diverse ways of leading that capture collective wisdom and mobilize action like never before. Real leadership is about shared purpose and innovative problem solving, not blind adherence to hierarchy and protocol. To quote Einstein: We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. Substitute leadership for thinking in the quotation, and you get my point.

Third, gender’s at play one more time. “Acting like a girl” wasn’t intended as a compliment, I’m sure – even though I love the free spiritedness and exuberance implied in a non-evaluative use of that imagery. Nor was it an objective way to describe that the informal introduction and chair moving didn’t accomplish their intended purpose. A different framing of the event might have seen risk taking, an attempt to create real dialogue, and authenticity.

I have had lots of experience in academia and seen differential treatment of male and female candidates in searches of all kinds over the years. That leads me to posit that a male candidate trying the same seating circle might have been praised for his frame-breaking behavior and his humble expression of his humanity. If not praised, I doubt anyone would have pejoratively said he’s “acting like a boy” for trying it.

It’s time to expand how we see and think about leadership.

Holding onto stereotypes and traditional views – the leader as superman, the white knight on his trusty steed, the valiant warrior, the lone hero in search of the holy grail – clouds our perspectives toward leadership and wastes energy holding onto an outdated fantasy. It makes it hard to understand how ordinary people – those who differ from the stereotype because of gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, and other reasons – can successfully wear the leadership mantle. It also blinds us from looking below the surface of leadership’s perceived aura to identify what leadership really is and how it works.

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From What Does a Leader Look Like?[1]

Quick, when I say “leader,” what comes to mind? The question is prompted by a story a colleague shared about her university’s recent search for a senior leadership position during which one candidate had an amazing day on campus and then went down in flames in the final hour.

As is the case in many senior searches, candidates spent the day meeting and meeting and meeting. At the end of their day on campus, members of the campus community were invited to a large room with theater-style seating to hear each of the candidates speak. The format was to be the same for each meeting. The search chair would introduce the candidate, the candidate would speak for 20 minutes, and the audience would be invited to ask questions for the remainder of the hour.

Candidate No. 1, a man, came to campus first. Said candidate was introduced as “Dr. Candidate,” he spoke and then took questions.

Candidate No. 2, also a man, came to campus second. He was introduced as “Dr. Candidate,” he spoke and then took questions.

Candidate No. 3, a woman, came to campus last. As he had during each visit, the search-committee chair approached the podium. This time, he said to the audience, “While I would normally introduce today’s guest as ‘Dr. Candidate,’ she specifically asked me to introduce her as ‘first name,’ so let me introduce you to ‘first name last name.’” This prompted smiles from some and raised eyebrows from others. And then it was time for the talk. Did Candidate Three stand up and begin with her prepared remarks? No, she asked everyone to move chairs into a circle “so we can really talk.” Ten chairs in a circle might not be hard. Fifty plus? Apparently awkward.

Candidate No. 3 was clearly trying to demonstrate her commitment to inclusion and show that she is a good listener, and her supporters argued that she would introduce a consensus-style form of leadership that would bring the campus together. While not disputing that she was the most accomplished scholar, her opponents criticized her for failing to behave like a leader. Some even criticized her for “acting like a girl.”

Clearly, many people have views about how a leader is expected to behave, and candidates take a risk when acting outside of expected norms. What do you think? Are we holding on to old mental models of leadership?

[1] Allison M. Vaillancourt (2011). What Does a Leader Look Like? Chronicle of Higher Education Online.

June 20, 2011, 10:40 am

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Day 6: Out of the Big Cities

Spending time in the two major, big cities of China gives a distorted view of the country and of its economic development. This year, our Executive MBAs are venturing out.

We travel by train today to Tianjin: smaller scale, more industrial. A good example of how the economic boom sweeping China is rapidly spreading: a rising tide does lift all boats.

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We were warned in planning that we couldn’t get the kind of nice motor coaches (tour buses) used elsewhere in our travels; that we’d find a different dialect, ethic composition (Hui), and cuisine in the city despite its closeness to Beijing; and everything would be a little plainer. I was thrilled. This is exactly what we need to experience.

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China has great diversity in its population. The majority of Chinese are Han; but in a country of 1.3 billion people, there are still a lot of Chinese who are not.

 

Here’s a visual feel for the magnitude of the ethnic differences. I think you’ll be surprised. Take a look and study the faces.  http://personal.inet.fi/koti/chayangshu/56national.html 

A big shock to first time Western visitors to China is that all Chinese people don’t look alike – and that many look a whole lot more like us (and our ethnic ancestors) than they do our Chinese stereotypes.

We ethnocentric Westerners also tend to think all Chinese speak the same Chinese language. Not true. China has 36 officially recognized ethnic groups with their own cultures, religion, traditions, languages, and distinctive facial and physical features – and beyond the official count, there are many other sub-cultures.  That makes communication and planning within China difficult and complex.

Imagine what it would be like if people in Chicago, LA, and New York City couldn’t easily communicate with each other. That’s what we are talking about – but, ever the professor, I digress. Back to Tianjin.

By our standards, Tianjin is still a big city (11.9 million people) and China’s 4th largest; but not by comparison to Shanghai (China’s largest with 18.9 million) or Beijing (its historic capital in second place with 17.4 million).

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And like other cities in China, Tianjin has (and continues to build) beautiful structures with amazing aesthetic appeal. For example, their Olympic stadium

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The Raffles Hotel clip_image010

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We return to Beijing by train in the evening – and to the comfort of our hotel – after visits to a large multi-national; the “internationally active domestic company,” Lights Medical Manufacture; and an ethnic lunch.

Our local planner suggests an informal Beijing evening of karaoke or a visit to the night market at Wafuging near our hotel for a different taste (literally) of China. (Yes, those are scorpions on a stick, along with other tasty options.)

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I suggest bed!

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Shimomura’s Art: Moving Beyond East-West Stereotypes

I’ve recently discovered Roger Shimomura’s art. It’s gorgeous, engaging, and provocative – and can be found in the permanent collections of over 80 museums. (Thanks, Brian!)

It’s also a powerful vehicle for thinking about the East-West stereotypes we hold and about how they interfere with our capacities to connect with those different from us.

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Shimomura’s paintings, prints, and theatre pieces address sociopolitical issues for Asian America, and many have been inspired by diaries kept by his late immigrant grandmother for 56 years of her life. They also reflect the artist’s own experiences, including as a child in a U.S. internment camp for Japanese Americans during World War II.

Oh, the power of art to provide opportunities to discuss the undiscussable!

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It’s human nature to have assumptions and to try and understand others by grouping and evaluating them against the standards and culture that we know. When that process anchors us in bias and fear, we and the world are in trouble.

Take a look at Shimomura’s art. It’ll enable you to appreciate more deeply what that really means.

His pieces speak about the pain in being objectified, misunderstood, excluded, and dehumanized. Equally important, they remind us of all the everyday missed opportunities to connect with others whose differences can make our world richer, brighter, and deeper.