Thought Leadership

When there are years of Historic Inequality, how can Meritocracy work?

2010-04-17T01:03:00.000-07:00

WILL Forum – JSW Panel
With President Ruth Simmons, Brown University in Mumbai
"Will Rationality overcome Prejudice in the Workplace?”

"One can never consent to creep-- when one wants to soar!" -- President Ruth Simmons, to the WILL Forum.

It is a rare opportunity to stand next to the accomplished presence of a shining personality like President Ruth Simmon -- without being touched by her straightforward passion, depth of understanding on the case for equality for women, and commitment to excellence in education.

In sharing her wisdom with the over 200 senior women executives and women from the social sector at the Y.B. Chavan Auditorium in Mumbai -- President Simmons seemed to have a clear message for the WILL Forum, that "when there are years of historic inequality, how can meritocracy work?"

Following are some of the views on a wide range of topics covered by President Simmons -- with discussions from the WILL Forum Panel of Sangita Jindal (JSW Group), Ritu Anand (Tata Consultancy Services), Janaki Chaudhary (GE India), Shravani Dang (Avantha Group), and Sharmila Banerjee (JSW Group) -- to "feed the fires" of your learning:

On Education:
* Education can be had in a variety of settings
* We can learn anytime we encounter something
* We can learn from tragedy -- and we can learn from challlenge
* Anything that challenges us can teach us
* Education never ends, never peaks, and is life-long
* Care for children-- make sure their needs are met
* Even the humblest task is an opportunity
* "My mother was my earliest tutor-- I learnt self-esteem and integrity from her" -- President Ruth Simmons

On Leadership:
* Need to have courage and know how to face challenges
* Sometimes the challenges may seem too great
* Cultivate the habits of Open-ness and Flexibility, Passion, and must Inspire others
* Be assertive -- but listen to others point of view
* Move from conflict to "collaboration"
* Try to bring people together on a "common vision" and "common goal"
* "I have been able to acheive my goals in life -- I can now do for others what what has been done for me" -- President Ruth Simmons

On Equality for Women:
* Meritocracy is an argument against quotas by those who do not want equality
* When there is historic inequality -- then how will meritocracy work?
* "If you are not working for equality as a nation -- you are not a nation in my point of view" -- President Ruth Simmons
* In company boardrooms, public-spiritedness and soft-skills are still regarded with disdain -- men value the profit and the bottom line
* What is going on in corporate boardrooms is "making money" -- but do corporations need to make as much money as they do?
* There are immense cultural differences between what companies value and what women aspire to do

On Affirmative Action:
* It was a wake-up call for me to know that half the stocks in the NYSE are traded by women!
* We maybe uncomfortable with activism -- but without activism, legislation, and affirmative action -- nothing will change
* If you do not want to wait for another 100 years for equality for women -- stake your claim now!
* Women should stop buying products or investing in companies that do not show women in leadership positions
* We don't need to be present -- but our voices need to be heard

WILL Women Panelists:
* Men are promoted on potential -- women on acheivement
* Women are performing better than men in all exams -- what then is the "gate" that remains closed for them to move up the ladder?
* We don't want to talk about life-cyle issues of women -- it is not relevant to our leadership qualities
* Aspiration levels among women still remains low -- mentoring will be key in corporate India
* There seems to be an eco-system with unintended barriers for women -- this needs to be acknowledged
* Research needs to be done to highlight how men speak about women in their teams -- there are clearly different yardsticks for women

All thoughts and contributions are welcome -- and thank you for your continuing leadership.

Sincerely,

Poonam Barua
Founder Convener
Forum for Women in Leadership

2010-03-07T17:33:00.000-08:00

WILL Women's Day Pledge:
Consensus for Voluntary Affirmative Action on "Balanced Leadership"

The energy, intelligence, discourse, talent, and commitment for fast-forward movement was shining amongst the group of over 100 senior women executives who gathered at the "WILL Open Tea House" on March 5, in New Delhi.

We were most privileged to have some of the finest women executives from the best-employer companies in India present at the WILL meeting -- including KPMG, GE India, Citigroup, Genpact, Honeywell, Bharti Enterprises, Walmart, ONGC, Pepsi Foods, Benett and Coleman, Coca Cola, Monsanto, Tata Teleservices, Headstrong, Indian School of Business, and others. The WILL Forum represents over 1,500 women from over 250 companies from across corporate India and multinationals.

The consensus was clear: Corporate India needs to adopt a series of Voluntary Best Practices for bringing about "Balanced Leadership" at all levels of the organization -- and particularly for CEOs, Board Positions, and top-management decision making positions. The 5% women board directors metric has to improve -- and only 10% women as CEOs and top-management has to change, as there is no shortage of women who are qualified, talented, and aspiring to take on the positions for responsibility.

The business case is clear -- as women represent nearly 50% of future markets of customers, investors, and employees
The best-employers case is clear -- as companies want to retain women in their workforce, and overcome the shortage of talent for expanding their businesses
The leadership case is clear -- as women bring differentiating styles of women in leaderhip including collegiality, team-work, consensus-building, innovative and open thinking --needed for the new format of business success
The corporate governance case is clear -- as women bring several unique qualities as independent directors -- including a greater public-spiritedness and societal commitment, they are ready to ask the right questions, seem to be more ethical and unwilling to partake in corruption and fraud, are more candid and transparent, they are more collegial and consensus building on board decisions

The women of WILL Forum arrived at a collective-consensus for recommending the following "Best Practices for Balanced Leadership" for corporate India: 2010, on a voluntary compliance basis:
WILL "50 Best Practices for Women in the Workplace" -- for voluntary acceptance on all public companies listed on BSE
WILL "Women Mentoring Programs" for all women executives -- at least once a year, for bridging the inequity of talent pool
No jobs to be closed until there are at least 25% applications from women candidates for consideration
Each woman executive to mentor another 10 women in the organization -- as per WILL Forum best practices for women in leadership
Pressure from committed global investors like IFC, World Bank, Fortune 500 clients -- to engage with companies that show more women on top-management and boardrooms
Appoint a Chief Diversity Officer to monitor the upward career movement of women in the organization-- reporting directly to the CEO
Create the WILL "Independent Women Directors Roster" of 400 qualified and aspiring women directors -- for consideration of corporate India, to close the lack-of-supply of qualified women for boardooms
The WILL Forum would like to extend its continuing appreciation to all the enlightened executives of corporate India, both men and women --and brings greetings to all best practice stakeholders on International Women's Day: 2010.

Sincerely,

Poonam Barua
Founder Convener
Forum for Women in Leadership
pamasia@vsnl.com

2010-01-08T03:15:00.000-08:00

Celebrating International Women's Day: Pledge for Affirmative Action

Many of our wonderful WILL Forum members and women executives have asked how we should be celebrating International Women's Day in 2010.

Firstly, it is most interesting to see the flurry of activity and interest in celebrating International Women's Day every year -- and the steady flow of articles, conventions, best-in-class celebrations at work -- have already begun in companies and industry forums to showcase that women are being given a "piece-of-the-economic-pie."

At the same time, there is little recognition of the substance of hardwork, commitment, innovative ideas, contribution to leadership and company culture, profits and revenues -- that is being contributed by the women executives towards "enlarging-the-wealth-pie" -- and everyone simply hopes that this celebration and "limelight-for-a-day" will keep the women of corporate India inspired over the next 365 days in 2010.

The best-in-class laggards on International Women's Day will continue to be corporate HR, who have consistently done little to move women from low-risk, low-reward, low-compensation positions -- basing their argument on the "merits of meritocracy" and unreliable career charts of women employees for whom career is only a "second-pay-check." Unfortunately, the truth is that corporate HR has simply failed to understand the differentiating, inclusive, and non-aggressive style of women leaders that will be speaking to future markets and stakeholders.

For those who have had the honor of listening to Keynote Speakers on International Women's Day celebrations, the disappointment usually comes from two dimensions:

1. The speeches are usually applauding women for their contributions to society, education, and community projects, as if: (a) doing societal work is easier than driving a business and; (b) women are capable only for the "softer-roles", since they are not fit for boardroom discussions on corporate governance, financial disclosures, hiring the best people, legal matters concerning mergers and acquisitions, audit, or simply not male-enough!

2. The debate at such forum meetings between men and women borders on the "frivolous" and sometimes "low-intellectual" areas of work-life balance, stereotypes, sexual harassment, etc. - as if these are the only issues on the minds of the smart women executives.

The real test of International Women's Day will come when the men CEOs, HR leaders, and key executives will partner with the women in their companies, and agree to leave the company in the hands of women executives for one day.

What if we were to propose that the men executives went out of office to work on community and social projects on International Women's Day, and the women kept the office going? How many would have the courage, conviction and integrity to celebration International Women's Day with this authenticity?

Clearly, if this were to happen -- no board meetings would take place, no profits and revenue decisions would be taken, no prestigious business deals will come to closure, no changes in top-management compensations would be institute, no risk-reward decisions will be managed -- since most of the women are at the lower executive levels of responsibility in areas of corporate communications, legal services, human resources, CSR, business operations, hospitality, computer support, facilities management, and related areas.

What more confirmation do we need -- to understand the significance of International Women's Day and what it must stand for?

The WILL Handbook on "50 Best Practices for Women in the Workplace" lists celebrating International Women's Day as one of the best practices for creating an eco-system in the organization where women are encouraged, nurtured, and respected.

The "WILL 50 best practices for women" are part of the affirmative action towards correcting the years of inequality in perceiving women as business leaders and raising their aspiration levels -- which if left to its own slow osmosis process, will take years to correct.

Companies like IBM, GE, Nokia, Citigroup, KPMG, Deloitte, Tata Group must be applauded for scoring nearly 90% on the WILL 50 Best Practices for Women -- and corporate India will need to take some fine lessons on authentic leadership, if it is to seriously define the next practice in leadership.

Let us pledge to begin some affirmative action on International Women's Day -- towards creating a more 'balanced leadership' in corporate India, and join the mission and mandate for bringing progress to the women of our beloved nation.

Poonam Barua
Founder Convener
Forum for Women in Leadership
New Delhi
http://www.pamasiaglobal.com

Differentiating Styles of Women in Corporate India

2009-11-28T17:39:00.000-08:00

Forum for Women in Leadership
WILL- KPMG Survey

"Creating Women Business Leaders:
Differentiating Styles of Women Executives"

A Case Study of Women in Corporate India
November 2009
_______________________________

We are most fortunate to be living through times of high transition in business and society, and those who will embrace the challenges and winds of change -- will also be the authentic leaders who will be well rewarded with high distinction, stature, and profits of innovative thinking.

The increasing commitment of women executives to become a part of this changing business format, and the differentiating styles of leadership that women are bringing to their roles across organizations -- is forever changing the way companies are responding to future markets, ethical leadership, and defining talent for the fast-growing economies.

At the same time, there continues to be some resistance among companies and CEOs in recognizing this strong, active, nurturing, and collaborative style that women are bringing to company boards and top-management -- and it will be the endeavor of this survey report to place on record the reality of what the women leadership styles are conveying to building business, intellectual, and social capital for companies.

Although the survey has been conducted in corporate India only, we believe that the conclusions and indicators are universal in their application to companies and women executives worldwide.

We hope that this report will provide a realistic tool for mentoring the minds of top-management and enabling women to understand their potentials and strength -- and take us all one more step forward in the mission for building women in leadership.

We invite you to continue your contributions and thought-leadership on this mission and mandate.

Poonam Barua
Founder Convener
Forum for Women in Leadership
_________________________

WILL Forum@Wharton

2009-10-25T18:54:00.000-07:00

Why Wharton Shines!

Participating at The Wharton School Advanced Management Program – we come to understand why Wharton is a “living laboratory” of the finest minds of key executives from global industry and the distinction and rigour that academia brings to business and innovative thinking.

It also brings home the reality that the Wharton School has the deepest commitment to building a better society – that will nourish future business leaders for future markets, who will find ways to be “cooperatively competitive” and take responsibility for the common good and bring high performance to their business goals.

Clearly, Wharton is not engaging its advanced management program participants in a series of traditional workshops and management principles – but it is it pushing the limits of their minds to leverage their deepest energies and potentials to visualize the forces that will shape the future leadership-- and that each of us should be able and willing to make a substantive contribution to it.

At the same time, Wharton tends to build and encourage a critical process of reflective listening, an understanding that there is no linear-line -- but that each culture, each country, each company, and each organization will define the future business scenarios differently -– and that it important to bring a collective thinking to the mission for best rewards to business and society.

In fine analogy to the discourse in the classrooms, Wharton takes us on a “river-boat-experience” that reminds us that unless the high momentum and energy created by those who are leading in front-positions of the boat is well balanced by the last person on the “bow” of the boat – the boat will continue to rock on unsteady waters. The “High Performance” team will always be the one that will “get its rhythm right” and not just have the high energy and skills.

So, when did we last hear the terms “en-noble” , “collaborative competition”, “vicious cycle to virtuous cycle”, “active learning”, “intelligent failure” , “discovery driven planning”, “creativity not hyperactivity”, “network based thinking,” “Law of Requisite Variety,” “peripheral vision”, “social glue for structural holes,” and “meta-thinking” ? These will be the “jewels” that we will take back with us – if we know how to treasure them.

And, when did you last feel that you are truly a part of an on-going “larger story” – that is larger than yourself and your current goals – which if recognized well on time, will make you the authentic leader you want to be?

This is what spending time at the Wharton School can help to redefine-- for your life and thought-leadership.

Poonam Barua

Founder Convener

Forum for Women in Leadership

pamasia@vsnl.com

Work-Life Balance: What do Women Executives put on the "back-burner"?

2009-06-09T08:09:00.000-07:00

During an important session on defining the leadership context for women -- it came to pass that most of the senior women executives fully recognize that they have put some aspect of their life on the “back-burner” in their pursuit of careers in the office and managing the home “at the same time.” Some continue to nourish a “sense of regret” – while others are hopeful that they will return to it sometime in life, when all other responsibilities are completed.

One wonders if companies and fellow colleagues understand this aspect of the women’s sensibilities, when they work with them and share the same office-space for several years. And, if recognizing and understanding this more deeply will help the management create an eco-system for providing women space to grow, retain, and contribute more effectively to the organization.

Topping some of the things that women in corporate India have put on the “back-burner” are the following – which may come as a surprise to many of us:

· Planning a late- first-child, and no time for “second” child and extending the family
· Gave-up main-track career, in order to be at the same location as the husband during transfers
· Household chores and cooking -- due to lack of time
· Socializing with peers and the community
· Declining global work opportunities –in order to hold the “home” together
· Passion for Classical Music/badminton and other cultural pursuits, for family responsibilities
· Put my “husband” on the back burner! —this response comes from a women who is well-married and has 2 excellent grown-up children
· Personal fitness, sufficient sleep
· Put children in the hostel
· Gave up plans for advanced studies

Just putting these aspirations of the women executives in corporate India “on record” – reminds us of the “deep personal price” that women continue to pay to keep their companies and homes together.

How will society measure this goodwill and nurturing effort ? There is still time for us to reflect on this as partner human-beings.

Poonam Barua
Founder Convener
Forum for Women in Leadership
pamasia@vsnl.com

Who will mentor the HR Leaders?

2009-06-08T07:35:00.000-07:00

At the 7th WILL Forum meeting held last month in New Delhi – one of the hottest-topics for discussion among the senior women executives at the Open Panel Session with HR leaders – was the fact that corporate HR was often the most significant “barrier” to enhancement of women in leadership positions and creating the appropriate environment for their progress in the organization.

This come as no surprise to many of us – who have been discussing with over 250 senior women executives over the past few years – on sharing best practices for women in the workplace, building an eco-system for nurturing women leaders and creating a level-playing field, and identifying barriers to their career advancement so as to provide them with the mentoring that they may require.

Many women have been able to use the experience-sharing and insights from the WILL Forum meetings to support their case with the corporate HR leader – although not many of them have met with success. Our informal assessments indicate that while corporate HR provides all the correct company policy statements for “gender, diversity, and inclusivity” to the CEOs, customers, and global clients – there is little support forthcoming for the women within the organization.

Upon sharing these insights with senior women colleagues from the U.S. and Europe – it is interesting to find that their experiences with corporate HR is quite similar as well.

There is a unique opportunity for the HR leaders to share the perspectives of the executive women – in a spirit of joint partnership for improving business and society – and we would like to welcome all those who would be interested in attending our meetings and join us in this mission.

Poonam Barua
Founder Convener
Forum for Women in Leadership
pamasia@vsnl.com

Diversity: Takes Low Priority

2009-06-06T03:20:00.000-07:00

June 6, 2009

Dear Colleagues:

Lately, we have been receiving calls from a number of senior women executives in corporate India --primarily from well-known IT and consulting firms -- who have been leading the company's "diversity, gender, and inclusivity" intiative for the past few years, informing us that their jobs are either being deleted from the company roster or relegated to a lower position in the organization as a result of the economic slowdown and cost-cutting measures by the company.

These women are going to be without a job -- after having initiated some of the finest diversity practices in the organization -- with high passion, commitment, and a deep understanding of the importance of creating an eco-system within the company that retains, grows, and nurtures women and allows them to work with best practices and high respect in the workplace. Those who are allowed to stay back -- see their functions as the "Diversity Officer" considerably downgraded to a lower position in the corporate heirarchy that is quite de-motivating for these senior women.

This is clearly a disturbing trend for corporate India --primarily because it highlights the lack of recognition by India's leading companies about the high correlation between best business performance and diversity and innovative-thinking that is required for global leadership, and also because it challenges the mission statements and branding exercises of many companies who claim to have a deep commitment to "gender, diveristy, and inclusivity" in their boardrooms and for their customers and markets.

We do hope that CEOs and HR leaders will be able to find some way to lessen the burden on their Diversity Officers --and find some way to keep them going until the economy returns to a fast growth momentum, where women and innovative-thinking will be a key component of future market leadership.

Poonam Barua
Founder Convener
Forum for Women in Leadership
India
pamasia@vsnl.com