Career women get a hand up

Businesswomen are encouraged to find role models in their industries to help improve their performance. Photo / NZ herald

Many career women on the rise can scale the corporate ladder for years and suddenly come to a point where they want to test out some ideas of their own.

Or maybe they are just looking for some inspiration to help them progress to the upper echelons of their industry, where few role models currently exist.

According to Mai Chen, the high-profile constitutional lawyer and chair of the newly launched women's business group, NZ Global Women, these were the reasons some 160 attendees gave her for attending "Thinking Globally", the new group's first conference in November.

Many high-profile members gave presentations about their ambitions locally and internationally, including Genesis Energy chair and global adviser Jenny Shipley, Theresa Gattung, Ezibuy's Mary Devine, board director Anne Blackburn and Dr Helen Anderson, chief executive of the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology.

Women's attitudes towards business and barriers to their ability to progress were a key topic at the event.

Katrina Troughton, director of IBM's WebSphere Software Group based in Shanghai, talked about a time where she was recruiting for a team leader to handle a technical team of 85 spread around the Asian region. One man on the shortlist had never led a team of bigger than 12 or 15 but seemed convinced he could do the job.

The leading woman candidate, who was experienced in leading large teams, voiced a lack of confidence because she wasn't sure she had the technical skills for the job. Troughton says: "She nearly talked us out of hiring her!"

The IBM director, who has been with IBM since she was 19, says: "Women don't always value the things that we bring to a role."

Meanwhile, Annah Stretton, chief executive of Stretton Clothing and Stretton Publishing, gave some food for thought to her all-woman audience when she put down her success to her black-and-white, almost male attitude toward business.

While researchers on women in leadership claim women bring something different to boards, Stretton said she makes her position plain: "There is no room for grey in business."

Women on their way up need to develop a more pragmatic approach to business, says Stretton. "Business is just business, it's not personal. And unless you communicate well and clearly, you are never going to drive your business forward. "I work with 150 women every day and I see the behaviours - especially with women suppliers that I deal with. They don't cope well with a challenge in the relationship. There is always an undercurrent (afterwards) that makes it difficult to deal with them.

"With men, what they say is what they mean. With women, it's generally quite the opposite. Therefore, we need to think differently when it comes to the business environment. If there is an altercation, you need to be able to deal with it and move on. "I have taken on the philosophy that when an issue arises, if lessons can be learnt, you make changes and then move on."

Her own industry, fashion, has not seen as many high achievers as it should, says Stretton, possibly because up-and-coming talent is not nurtured enough. Designers also tend to be quite individualistic: "The industry is very much about doing your own thing."

The businesswoman says her background early in her career, selling her designs to experienced fashion retailers like Tim Glasson, founder of Glassons and Gerard Gillespie, co-founder of EziBuy, has stood her in good stead. They were tough taskmasters who didn't suffer mistakes.

At the event, the fashion designer had four or five women ask her to help them with their businesses. Mentoring other women could take up 50 per cent of her week, said Stretton.

"I think that a lot of women do business from the back foot, not the front foot. My message is: don't second guess, just make it happen."

Finding a mentor can be an excellent first step, she adds: "What's the worse thing that can happen? The worst thing is they can say no. "Find someone who inspires you. It's about knowing that you need help, that there's only so much that can do yourself."

Stretton recently advised a beautician to find the best mentor she could and the businesswoman reported back she had approached Air New Zealand chief executive Rob Fyfe and he had said yes.

One of the remits of this group of 80 women is to help progress the careers of senior women further and plans were announced in November of how the group intends to do this.

The first group of "breakthrough leaders" are to come from large organisations in all parts of business. The intent is to pair every participant with a Global Women member.

The co-ordinator of this programme, Bridget Liddell, head of Fahrenheit Ventures based in New York and chair of the NZTE Beachheads programme in the US, explains the reasoning.

"The Breakthrough Leaders Programme is intended to be the initial flagship programme for the initiative, focusing on senior women from large public, private and non-profit organisations," says Liddell.

"The focus changed during our scoping interviews from emerging leaders to senior women on the verge of `breaking through' to very senior executive and governance roles. We believe we will be able to be more immediately effective with this group and thereby create the momentum for change more broadly.

"We now believe the most immediate and urgent need is to work with companies who have a strong interest and commitment to women in leadership roles, and to focus on senior women _ those in senior management teams who are seeking to progress to CEO or board roles."

The major objective of the breakthrough leaders programme is to significantly increase the number of participant women progressing to very senior executive and board positions one to three years after programme completion, she says.

Working with a cohort of 15 senior women, the year-long development programme will provide high-calibre, diverse peer networks; access to very senior female and male mentors, from Global Women and others; monthly facilitated sessions; targeted learning around professional and personal development and one-on-one sessions with hand-picked experts on fundamental leadership.

"We will also seek to involve other business leaders, including potentially the CEOs and chairs of participant organisations," adds Liddell.

This, she argues, will support and encourage participants in their ongoing learning and self-reflection, which will lead to personal performance improvement and the development of their leadership talent.

"Mentoring can help women leaders by encouraging them to be more proactive about seeking new positions," she says.. For example, Hewlett-Packard found that women apply for open positions only if they believe they meet 100 per cent of the listed criteria, whereas men apply if they feel they meet 60 per cent of the requirements, according to a 2008 study. "From a personal point of view, I have benefited greatly from mentors, both male and female, during my career.

"They have created opportunities for me to take leadership roles far outside my comfort zone. I have always found the stories of inspiring leaders, women and men, have motivated me to take risks with my own career."