Should You Turn Down a Promotion to Management?
Linda Hill, the Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, and faculty chair of the Leadership Initiative , has just co-authored a new book with Kent Lineback called Being the Boss. It was Mr. Lineback who a decade ago wrote about entrepreneurship in the Silicon Valley with Randy Komisar in The Monk and the Riddle.
Mr. Lineback, spent 25 years as a manager and executive and has been candid about his shortcomings. The book he and Dr. Hill wrote may provide new insights for managers and leaders, in the post recession economy. It may even spare employees some grief as their new managers negotiate a learning curve. Dr.Hill says she frequently asks executives, “How many people have suffered as you tried to learn to do this job?”
Tags: leadership, management, mentoring
Few Women in Management, but Companies Fail to Identify Future Leaders
The General Accounting Office released a long overdue report on Tuesday with the ponderous title Women in Management—Female Managers’ Representation, Characteristics and Pay. And now The New York Times is reporting the news with the headline Still Few Women in Management, Report Says .
True, as of 2007 (before the Great Recession started) the latest year for which data on managers was available, women accounted for about 40 percent of managers in the United States work force. In 2000, women held 39 percent of management positions.
Still the data also pointed to some bright spots. Women were more than proportionately represented in management positions in construction and public administration, and there was no statistically significant difference between women’s representation in management and non-management positions for the transportation and utilities sectors.
All in all the results were unsurprising. Managers of either sex are more likely to be childless–sixty-three percent of female managers and fifty-five percent of male managers had no kids. Is this a reason family friendly policies still have a hard time gaining traction? And woman who are managers are more likely to be single than their male counterparts.
While life is about choices, female managers earned 81 cents for every dollar a male manager earned up 2 cents from 2000. Checking the inflation calculator, that dollar in 2000, was worth $1.19 in 2007, so women are still losing ground not gaining it.
If companies are still not promoting women to management, it may be because for some it’s not even on the radar. According to recent poll by Right Management (a division of Manpower) nearly one-third of North American companies have failed to identify future leaders within their organization. A further 30% reported identifying potential leaders for only some key roles. So many organizations, it turns out, have made practically no provision for future leadership,” said Deborah Schroeder-Saulnier, Right Management Senior Vice President for Global Solutions.
Working and Playing To Your Strengths
In December Right Management (a Manpower, Inc. subsidiary that handles outplacement) asked 900 workers, “Do you plan to pursue new job opportunities as the economy improves in 2010? More than half the workforce expected to have a foot out the door in the New Year. Fully 60% replied “yes, I intend to leave.” And nearly another quarter, 21% said “maybe, so I’m networking.” Which is better, leaving or staying? And if you do leave, will a new position play to your strength?
Marcus Buckingham has had a satisfying career advising managers and their employees about how to tap into their strengths. First Break All the Rules (1999), Now Discover Your Strengths ( 2001), One Thing You Need to Know (2005) and Go Put Your Strengths to Work (2007) encouraged individuals to build on strengths rather than work to improve weaknesses. This philosophy has earned him a well recognized place among management gurus. I first interviewed him a decade ago for a story about thoughtfulness in the workplace.
Now, though, he’s broadened his approach with the publication of Find Your Strongest Life: What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently (Thomas Nelson 2008). Before you groan, as I did, about yet another book about women, this one is different. For openers, it shocks by describing that by all subjective measures of well being, women are less happy than men. And for women, who may be juggling a home, family, a job, and perhaps aging parents, happiness and fulfillment may seem like distant goals.
To minimize a tendency toward unhappiness Mr. Buckingham says we need to have a clear idea of what choices strengthen us and give short shrift to confusing and contradictory messages. And he offers a check list.
…How often do you feel an emotional high in your life?
…How often do you find yourself positively anticipating your day?
…How often do you become so involved in what you are doing that you lose track of time?
….How often do you feel invigorated at the end of a long, busy day?
…How often do you get to do the things you really like to do?
It’s important, he says, to recognize that most responsibilities involve many different types of activities and it sometimes takes a conscious, selfishness to choose the ones that nourish you. Where have we heard that before? And how can we better do that?
It turns out that some of our unhappiness may be because we haven’t thought seriously about what invigorates us and we haven’t taken a stand for ourselves without bragging.
The book directs you to take the Strong Life Test. Some might consider it a gimmick, but it was surprisingly accurate, at least for this reporter. You only need to take ti once. I tried twice and got a different answer both times. “It’s best read the first time,” said Mr. Buckingham because on subsequent testing you’ve prepared and have time to weigh considerations.
And he says we get stronger as we get older because aging brings an acceptance of what sustains us. His name for this phenomenon is, “The Popeye Syndrome” because, he says, like Popeye, those who are reaching maturity, regardless of age acknowledge, “I am what I am.”
Mr. Buckingham offers tips to start off in the direction of what he calls a strong life…
Consider outsourcing activities that you find frustrating.
Better yet, look at the activity through the eyes of a strength. An example, at social gatherings or parties, try turning the festivity into a series of long individual conversations rather than brief cocktail party talk in a large group.
It’s more important to listen to your own voice, than social norms.
Tags: management, mentoring, satisfying work
