Women In Business

In 1995, none of the Fortune 500 companies had a single women CEO among them. As a classic commercial once penned, “you’ve come a long way baby.”

 

Fast forward to January 2015… And there are now 25 women CEO’s who are at the leadership helm of Fortune 500 companies. In fact, according to the latest research by the women’s leadership group “The Club”, as of January 2015 women account for 51.4% of management and professional occupations.

 

Since the dawn of the twenty first century, women have been at the forefront of entrepreneurial business launches. This clearly accounts for the fact that there are currently 10.6 million business enterprises that have 50% (or higher) ownership by women.

 

A study conducted by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman (http:// blogs.forbes.com/jackzenger) in 2011 found that women were seen as better leaders “…at every level, more women were rated by their peers, their bosses, their direct reports, and their other associates as better overall leaders than their male counterparts – and the higher the level, the wider the gap grows.”

 

Additionally, there are other studies that find that companies with a higher representation of women in their management ranks have higher employee productivity and are more “profitable”.

 

From the stand point of personal experience, I have observed that there appears to be a far greater interest on the part of women in acquiring formal leadership development training. Moreover, women tend to immerse themselves in the leadership training more earnestly, while coming to the workshops more prepared.

 

When I observe women in business today, there is a great deal of focus on women empowering other women, especially in the form of mentoring, business groups and networking. Women seem more willing to openly share the keys for their success. I find this willingness to be a remarkable leadership trait that is enabling women leaders to pull other women up by their bootstraps and equip them to join the leadership ranks as well.

 

As a woman colleague stated to me several years ago, in order for her to achieve the level of success that she desired, she had to juggle three full time jobs… her career, her family and her home.

 

There is an old adage which says that “necessity is the mother of invention”. Just perhaps, it was my colleagues three full time responsibilities that served to sharpen her time management, setting priorities, communication, problem solving and decision making skills among others.

 

The other key attribute that I have also observed in women leaders is their ability to strike a more appropriate degree of “work-life” balance.

 

At a both a personal and professional level, I have a great deal of respect and empathy for women is business. Given my profession, this would be most understandable. However, it comes from a deeper awareness in that I have a permanently disabled wife and adult son which has caused me as well to juggle those same three full time responsibilities of career, family and home.

 

All of the available research continues to confirm that we now live in a time where women are fast becoming the most talented and respected leaders in their organizations. They garner more respect and cooperation, build better teams and are more adept in assessing the talent and resources that are required to achieve their organization’s goals.

 

As your valued resource partner, we stand ready to assist your organization, its leadership and your people to… Learn more… Do more… Become more.

Copyright © 2015 Developing Forward | Thomas H. Swank, CBC

Build A Better Business

Throughout the annals of history there have been countless times when the hallowed halls of Ivy League institutions of higher learning and the walleyed investors of Wall Street simply didn’t get it right.

Given the continuing economic uncertainty… This may be such a time.

As a business executive, entrepreneur or public servant you need to shift your focus from what isn’t working and make every attempt to refocus your attention on who and what is in fact working in these tumultuous times.

For there is a very specific group of business organizations that comprise virtually every segment of business and industry that are doing extraordinarily well… even in the New Economy. These unique organizations encompass supermarkets, engineering, construction, photography, staffing, holding companies, industrial components, manufacturing, architecture, electrical equipment, environmental services, dairy, retail, sporting goods, motel management, technology and more.

The common component that all of these companies regardless of size, stature or business classification share is that they are all “employee owned”.

Some of the household names of employee owned organizations that you are undoubtedly familiar with include Publix Supermarkets, Piggly Wiggly, W.L. Gore, Davey Tree Experts, Kinney Drugs and Graybar Electric.

Unlike traditional business organizations that employ a “top down” approach to their operations, employee owned organizations hold to a “bottom up” business philosophy that accommodates each employee’s status as an owner.

Publix Super Markets is currently the largest employee owned company in the United States with revenues of over $24 billion and more than 140,000 employees. Publix has the esteemed distinction of being one of the “100 Best Companies to Work for in America”. Publix stock which is tightly held by its employee owners, has (since the company first launched) grown twice as fast the S&P 500 index at a rate of more than 19% percent per year.

A ranking of the Top 100 companies by Fortune Magazine in 2009 revealed that 14% of the companies listed were in fact employee owned. Moreover, this trend and its underlying business model are on the grow globally. The John Lewis Partnership is a 81,000 employee owned corporation that owns the largest department store chain in England, the Waitrose Supermarket chain and other brands. Over the course of the past decade, JLP grew faster than Macy’s and in 2011eclipsed 13.7 billion dollars in revenue.

One of the organizational attributes that contributes to the success of employee owned companies is that the organization’s accountability is to the employees themselves and not a group of external investors or shareholders.

In like fashion, employee owned organizations take their mission and “value” proposition earnestly to heart. It’s no longer a meaningless platitude, rather it is a set of basic principles that everyone can believe in, take pride in and govern their individual actions by.

Employee owned organizations typically have excellent communications that flow freely throughout the organization while promoting ideas, creativity and innovation. As well, employee owned organizations generally have a unique perspective with regard to organizational alignment of talent, skills, experience and expertise. This occurs through the process of having those employees with the greatest levels of expertise in a given area of operation making or recommending the decisions for that portion of the organization’s operation.

As for the benefits of an employee owned organization, you need only consider the research performed by Harvard and Rutgers which confirmed that employee ownership fosters high performance, lower employee turnover, increased trust, greater shareholder value and long term sustainability.

Clearly, there is much to be learned from employee owned organizations that can be applied to your organization regardless of size or industry that will help you to build a better business.

Copyright © 2013 Developing Forward | Thomas H. Swank, CBC | All Rights Reserved.

The Top 5 Responsibilities Of Authentic Leadership

Allow me the opportunity to ask you this frank question… Who do you honestly believe to be a great leader?

What exactly is it about this person that makes you feel that they are a great leader? Is it because of specific characteristics, attributes or qualities that they exhibit? The fact is that great leaders are not all the same. Consider the likes of General George Patton, Coach Vince Lombardi or business innovator Steve Jobs.

Clearly, these three individuals were all great leaders in their own right and each of them in their own theater of life. Three remarkably different personalities with three remarkably different leadership styles… yet each of them highly accomplished and respected leaders. So, the question remains… “Why” were they such great leaders?

It is my personal belief that what made them such great leaders was their “authenticity” and their forthright commitment to take the responsibilities of leadership seriously. Following are the Top 5 Responsibilities of Authentic Leadership which are:

Be A Great Communicator. Clear and concise communication lies at the heart of every undertaking and is essential to the ultimate achievement of the organization’s goals and objectives. According to a Wall Street Journal survey of several years ago… The most important thing that employees wanted was “open communication”.

Be Authentic. True authenticity all comes down to own thing… You have to be the “real deal”. It starts with being who you already are complete with your strengths, weaknesses and yes, even your flaws. No one is perfect and your potential followers will not expect you to be. What they do expect is that you will be genuine in nature and conduct yourself congruently with your core values and beliefs. People want to know what it is that you truly stand for and should they share the same values and beliefs… Then they will choose to stand beside and with you.

Be Accessible. As human beings, everyone has times when they are unsure of themselves or are uncertain as to exactly what or how to do what they are supposed to be doing. People have questions, need direction, require encouragement, motivation, praise and more. There will be countless times when your people will need available access to you for your varied leadership abilities, inspiration and wise counsel.

Be An Example. The really great leaders are invariably those who make the conscious decision to lead by example. When it comes to authentic leadership, the picture truly is worth a thousand words. People take notice of the leader that walks his or her talk and who is willing to roll up their sleeves and help out when the going gets tough. So, choose to be the example that people will take notice of and then follow.

Be A Mentor and Coach. The truly great leaders are also great mentors and coaches because they take advantage of every available situation by turning it into a learning opportunity for their people and organization. In business, these are the leaders who build loyal employee bases who will then in turn not only love what they do and who they do it for… They will in turn build loyal relationships with the organization’s customers.

While there are literally hundreds of characteristics, attributes and qualities that can be observed in leaders from all walks of life, highly effective leaders key on the leadership attributes that best mesh with their personal strengths and their personal leadership style.

Your quest to grow your business and thereby create a high performance organization begins and ends with your ability to create high performance people through authentic leadership.

Copyright © 2012 Developing Forward  | Thomas H. Swank, CBC | All Rights Reserved.

Are You Hiring?

Are you hiring? When you saw the title of this article, your instinctive reaction was probably something along the lines of “Are you kidding… In this economy?” Your secondary response most likely was “I actually wish that we were busier so that I was in a position to hire more people”.

As business owners we all wish that we were in a position to provide someone else with a job. While your underlying desires and intentions are in principle good, the underlying problem is that you’re just “wishing” and subsequently dismissing the issue of real job creation. What if anything are you earnestly doing in the interest of creating real jobs?

The way that I see it, we all have a shared responsibility when it comes to job creation. At last report there were approximately 14,000,000 unemployed workers in America. This statistic has undoubtedly increased as a result of the sizeable number of high school and college graduates who are now entering the work force and are as well unable to find a job, let alone suitable employment.

Depending on which report you read, there are some where between 27 million and 34 million business enterprises in the United States. From a purely statistical perspective, if half of these businesses were able to create just “1” job… the U.S. unemployment problem would be solved and there would literally be full employment… without any help or impedance from the federal government.

In one regard, I would agree that this seems a bit idealistic. On the other hand, it’s not exactly far fetched either. The real issue that I’m attempting to address here is… What CAN you do in your business to help create jobs? If your response is that there is simply nothing that you can do, then I would state that you are absolutely wrong. The basis of my position is the true story about a young man named Johnny who also thought at first that there was nothing he could do to help improve things where he worked.

Then Johnny had a very simple idea about how he could improve his own work… That simple idea ultimately transformed the entire company! If you don’t know the story about “Johnny the Bagger” then you owe it to yourself and your people to Google it and then watch the video. If you’ve seen Johnny’s story previously, you need to watch it again.

It is my earnest belief that every business is capable of making a meaningful contribution to the process of job creation. So, what would you have to do in order to create “1” job? What’s holding you back from doing this?

If you’re not prepared to “step it up” just now in an effort to create a job – then what CAN you do to help other business owners to create jobs? Be a Johnny! Start looking for ways to do something! Even if you truly think you can’t… You CAN make a real contribution toward job creation.

Let me give you a personal point of reference. As you may be aware, I have print published two books within the past year and am currently putting the finishing touches on book number three. Printed books require printing presses and ink. Books require paper stock and binding. Book covers require graphic art work and layout. Books require sales outlets. Books have to be shipped to the purchaser or distribution outlets. Books have to be marketed and advertised.

I would hope that you are getting both my message and my point. What ever business venture you may be in… Who receives the benefit of the additional work if your business sells one more car, one more washer & dryer, one more heat pump, one more water heater, processes one more mortgage application, insures one more life or delivers one more bouquet of flowers?

How many different companies, components and people does it take to manufacture and then deliver “1” of what ever you sell or service to market? As an example, a single automobile has over 10,000 components. Selling one more car directly affects 1,000’s of companies and people. What happens when your business and a thousand of your fellow business colleagues across the country all sell “1” more unit each? The all important answer is… that it creates a “job”.

So, get out there and do everything in your power to do what ever it takes to sell or service “1” more customer each week (even if you have to break even to do so) and you will find that you can in fact make a real and meaningful contribution to your industry’s and nation’s job growth!

Copyright © 2012 Developing Forward  | Thomas H. Swank, CBC | All Rights Reserved.