Perhaps no issue has been stirring as much discussion in the leadership field as the continual lack of balanced representation of women in senior management. Faced with the discouraging reality that only 3% of the Fortune 500 CEOs are women, despite their growing numbers in the lower management positions, it’s not surprising why this topic is getting a lot attention, if not concern given the growing rate at which women now represent current graduates coming out of universities.

Granted, it’s difficult, if not impossible for me to truly speak with any authority as to the challenges women face in the business world. However, that doesn’t make this a topic that doesn’t matter to me, especially given my own relationships as a father, husband and brother who’d like to know the women in his life have just as many opportunities as he does irrespective of gender or other divisive social categorizations.

That’s why I’m delighted to share this story courtesy of Susan T. Spencer. Susan came upon my blog some months ago and in that time, we’ve been corresponding about the issues of women, leadership and the changing business environment. Susan has had plenty of experience working in various male-dominated industries – from serving as the VP and acting GM of the NFL franchise Philadelphia Eagles, to being the successful owner of several meat processing plants which had combined annual revenues of $50 million US.

She recently sent me an advance copy of her upcoming book “Briefcase Essentials”, which not only chronicles Click here to continue reading »”Women and Leadership – A Look From Inside The Boardroom”

Last week, Dorothy Dalton shared an intriguing guest piece on my blog which questioned whether management training should take into account the inherent differences between men and women. Not surprisingly, her piece resonated greatly among women readers, who both participated in the follow-up discussion, as well as sharing this piece with others on Twitter. Although on the surface this might seem to be a “women’s issue”, the reality is that gender issues should be viewed as an important topic for those involved in managing an organization’s workforce.

While Dorothy’s piece posed the question of whether such gender-specific measures are needed today, the points she put forth got me thinking about what we should expect in the decades to come based on some issues arising from today’s education system.

A dramatic shift in gender strengths in education

There have been numerous reports over the last couple of years that have shown that girls are excelling in the fields of mathematics and science, areas of knowledge which in the past were dominated by boys both in terms of grades and interest. At first glance, these results seem to indicate that girls are finally catching up with boys in their mastery of these subjects. A closer examination of the situation though, reveals something more problematic at play here.

In order to address the obvious difficulty girls were having with math and science, many education boards took on Click here to continue reading »”Are We Ready For The Workplace Gender Shift?”

Today’s piece is a guest post by global talent management strategist and international executive search professional, Dorothy Dalton.  Dorothy is based in Brussels, but also works in the UK and Spain and is a Partner at Hansar Transition Services. She’s a certified coach and trainer with a focus on career transition and management, with a special interest in supporting organizations in the creation and development of the best possible talent pipelines.  She has written several interesting pieces about how gender differences impact workplace interactions on her blog, insights that she shares in this guest piece below.

Let’s stop being trapped by political correctness. Do men and women need different types of management training? I think so.

A number of spin off issues came from my recent research on bullying by women in the workplace – but several were particularly interesting.

Workplace Mars and Venus

One of them was that both men and women alike, shared the need for management and organizational training with a specifically gender related thread. A sort of Mars / Venus for work place skills. This wasn’t specifically just about sexual harassment, but basic communication, conflict resolution and managing expectations. This flies in the face of the common corporate gender-neutral, one-size-fits all management training that exists in most organizations today.

Many would view this as a backward step. But is it really?

Jane Gunn, the Corporate Peacemaker and author of the book “How to Beat Bedlam in the Boardroom and Boredom in the Bedroom”, suggests that “difference is the starting point for adding or creating value. What is needed most is to understand the value that each gender brings to the workplace and how each gender can learn from, rather than feel threatened by, the other”.

Differences are not negative. They’re just different.

Shouldn’t we just be acknowledging the existence of gender differences and recognize that we all need training on how to deal with them, rather than assuming as we do now, that we can all slip into business (gender) neutral on our own. Click here to continue reading »”A Case For Gender-Related Management Training”