SCN Team Update

Hi Marilyn,

you never need to run and hide.

Where to start ?

The article, I read the article and was a bit confused by the House of Commons and having never heard of the politician but then I saw it was a Canadian article, so, understanding the context, read the article.

There is a lot going on in that story, what initially struck me the most was the subject of leadership. And even before reading that article, my main response to your post was going to be,

personally having had a zillion bosses I don't mind who my boss is, all I want from a boss is strong leadership, somebody who can make decisions and who will stand by their decisions no matter what.

And there it was in that article, the guy showed weak leadership by blaming his underlings for the confusing greetings cards.

The next thing I noticed was the question of appointing judges and how that works. In February I read the John Grisham novel, The Appeal, which as part of the story puts to fiction the process for judges to be appointed.

And back to the article, a very interesting point is made about how to get more women to apply for roles and challenging the issues which are discouraging women from applying.

I agree to this point, is there any argument against that logic ?

To your questions,

Probing question: When a talented, female leader is at the helm are there more likely to be diminished male applicants for jobs in her team?

I don't know the answer to this, and wouldn't like to guess. One of the best bosses I have ever had was a woman, Ms Petra Beuchel, I was a subcontractor to Accenture and reporting to Petra, who at the time was an Associate Partner at Accenture.

As I have said above, all I want from a boss is that they can make decisions and stand by those decisions. Petra could do this. And you don't get to be an Associate Partner at Accenture by being stupid.

Are men who report to women and not threatened by that fact stronger candidates?

I think not. But can only speak for myself.

I would challenge that question, that again, if a woman boss is a strong leader, I would say that's all anybody wants, is strong leadership. There is nothing worse than weak leadership.

Something very interesting in life is perspectives, and trying to view everything from the different perspectives. For example, the question above, seems to be written by a woman and could represent the thoughts women have towards men and what men may think about women leaders. However, there are many many more perspectives, and women should try to look at the situation through men's eyes. An example, at a previous company there was a very strong woman boss and one male colleague who was also a manager was really attracted to her by her power !

I have two daughters and if I can give them one of the zillions of pieces of advice I am giving them and going to give them, the advice will be:

. be the best at what you do, or as good as you can be at what you do

. always do your best

. don't worry what other people think  - sticks and stones will break your bones but names will never hurt you

. try to see things through other people's eyes, if you want to understand people then try to get into their heads and look at things through their eyes and see what they are thinking and why

. don't play games and politics

. don't be scared of failure, if you've done your best and it didn't work, learn from it and move on

And with these rules and others, I have no fear that they will be held back or hold themselves back

Something else I take from the article, is the point of doing the best to be inclusive, but not being inclusive just for the sake of being inclusive, ie just to make up the numbers. It was interesting to read of the candidates who didn't make the grade their applications were re-assessed and the same conclusions drawn.

The point stands, the job market needs to be made more accessible to encourage wider applications.

Looking forward to your feedback,

Andy.