New Tips And Triks For You

Let's move away from the concept of work life balance. There is not a single female or male executive that I have worked with who has stated that this is a realistic goal. We can strive as senior leaders to find ways to make good choices, however, it does come down to tradeoffs. Finding work life balance is similar to clients who ask me for a solution to avoid stress. The better question to ask, is how one can learn to interface with stress and minimize the impact. Similarly organizations need to determine how to mitigate senior women retention challenges by embracing how decision making, problem solving and collaboration is arrived at so women's leadership styles are both understood and valued.

Seeking work life balance is both a tired and old question. Why do we keep searching for the answer? Publishers make millions of dollars and vendors charge substantive sums to assist corporations with "the" solution. Surely by now decades later, smart minds and experts in the field would have found the path if there truly was a way to allow for substantive work life harmony.

So why do women leave jobs at the pinnacle of their careers? They are known subject matter experts. They have a wealth of corporate currency and their network is strongly established. Furthermore, they are strong leaders with the ability to attract and retain top talent. These are the very attributes organizations claim to identify and place on high potential lists. As well many of these executives are slated as part of succession planning initiatives.

When I work with female executives a common theme emerges, both from current leaders as well as ones returning from maternity leave. The essence of this dilemma centers around the need for inclusion. I am not talking about the old boys network, I actually do not believe that this is a challenge to the same degree as in previous decades.

What is critically important to recognize is that for women, decision making, problem solving, and negotiation occur as a very different process from how men work to drive results. Men and women both drive towards a goal. There is a clear understanding on the part of both genders regarding where they are going and why.

Men begin the process with the bottom line and engage in tactics. These tactics dictate the approach on how they need to grow their business, build client relationships, and be more competitive. Women on the other hand work first to build inclusion, relationships both internal and external are cultivated as the platform from which negotiations are then launched. The process of discussing the merits of an approach, sorting out who does what and when, as well as determining the best combination of skills is an approach that is articulated out loud. A collaborative process then drives consensus, agreed upon roles, and ongoing dialogue.

Women leaders often report a sense of isolation. Whether male or female it is a basic primary drive to achieve value from our contribution. Granted some leaders have a greater need for recognition than others. Assuming fair market value for our efforts, inclusion is about the need for women to feel integral to the process and measured outcomes.

So what can women do differently? How we show up dictates our presence and therefore impact. We have traditionally talked about executive presence as leading with confidence, speaking in short sound bites, and being able to paint the vision. I believe women have mastered this equally as well, yet as part of my work coaching senior leaders often a common request is to assist with enhancing executive presence.

After working with many female leaders from many industry sectors there is a common theme, and it isn't about the need to speak more loudly. But rather it is about the organization's decision makers paying attention and being much more responsive to what women leaders need. Research has demonstrated organizations that have a balance of women leaders at the senior level outperform organizations that are male dominated. This is a business and strategic imperative, not a female gender issue.

Organizations lament about the challenge of retaining their best and brightest female leaders. And they truly should if they are deeply concerned about maintaining competitive advantage.

So what can organizations do differently? Firstly diversity should be defined as diversity in communication, decision making, and problem solving. Men need to understand the approach used by women to address issues is different and incorporating these differences allow for more robust outcomes. Women need to have a platform for expressing why and how they arrived at their conclusions. This allows for context and relationship building. It also leads to the primary challenge women report which is the need to create and foster an environment of inclusion.

Women's networks and forums sprang out of this very need. Although this may appear controversial, I believe these frameworks no longer generate the same ROI. Many of my female clients are members of these organizations and enjoy opportunities to network, the very premise though now appears to be outdated. Organizations should be replacing these internal/and external networks with task forces that are designed with the primary strategic advantage of establishing and cultivating a blended gender workforce at senior levels. This entails not a quota or numbers approach, but rather understanding the differences in how men and women approach problem solving and build strategic alliances. Companies that foster and build their bench, and promote this collaborative framework have been shown to produce greater profits, and return on shareholder value. A task force comprised of senior leaders who represent and value this premise must be established to promote a framework for hiring initiatives as well as talent development. This initiative must then be promoted and rolled out to be inclusive of women at the most senior ranks.

Organizations that are not truly serious and committed to retaining their top flight women will continue to experience senior women leaving corporations. Senior male leaders must take heed regarding what women require to stay engaged and invested in over the longer term. The data are there, women as always have proven to be very articulate in identifying what they need from their senior management team. Collaboration, a process that allows for diverse perspectives, and building of relationships to establish robust dialogue is a key starting point. Educating senior leaders at the C -suite level is the first step. We are spending lots of dollars on sorting out the Millennial challenge. This too will be short sighted if we do not focus on the longer term value proposition for our very talented female senior and executive leaders.

Cindy Wahler, Ph.D. is a leadership consultant with expertise in helping organizations lead with influence and impact through executive coaching and facilitated workshops. She can be contacted at cwahler@cindywahler.com