Women, and the Corporate Career Track

As part of some personal brand strategy work I'm doing, I decided to revisit the book "Off-Ramps and On-Ramps" by Sylvia Ann Hewlett. Hewlett gives a clear view as to why fast-tracked women "step off" the corporate ladder - to raise children, take care of elderly parents, attend to family needs, have some additional flexibility, and perhaps in today's environment, because they were downsized - and she talks about how corporate environments need to transform so as not to lose these valuable resources permanently.

A little data makes the case that this issue is mainstream: Women leave the workforce in substantial numbers. A survey of Stanford University's class of 1981 showed that 57% of women graduates leave the work force; three other surveys of Harvard Business School women graduates showed that only 38% end-up in full-time careers. Another study of women holding MBAs from across the country showed that one in three women are not working full-time, versus one in 20 men with MBAs.

There are underlying reasons that drive women out of the corporate environment according to Hewlett, and fundamentally she makes the argument that corporate criteria for advancement has simply not changed since the 1950s. Here are the cultural contributors that she identifies: Lock step career progression, in office face time, necessity of long hours, need for flattery and obeisance, ability to golf (this one did stop me), and a myriad of male bonding rituals.

To attract women back into the workforce, and retain them over the long haul, Hewlett believes that companies need to adopt the following principles into their corporate culture:

1. Flex work arrangements - Offer options regarding when, where, and how work gets done

2. Arc-of-career flexibility - Offer alternative paths that support women during potential on-ramping and off-ramping phases

3. Re-imagination of work life - Offer women ways to keep a hand in their chosen field, short of full-time involvement

4. Continuation of ambition - Establish "old girls" networks enabling women to build skills, contacts, and confidence

5. Harnessing of activism - Find ways of supporting women's potential and rights for these natural career adaptations

6. Reduction of stigmas and stereotypes - Combat the stigmas that often follow in the trail of someone's alternative work arrangement

As a women who did not maintain a traditional corporate career trajectory - when I left the corporate world to run a successful marketing consulting firm - I truly appreciate the challenges talented women face in making the decision to leave the corporate workforce and the obstacles they encounter re-entering that environment.

Corporate career rebuilding efforts is a big job, and the process can be long and often disheartening; it takes sheer drive to persevere and get back "on track." Now into my third year at Microsoft, I have spent considerable effort re-earning my brand position from a corporate perspective. Without mentors and guides, and the sheer force of my career-long business contributions, I'm not sure how possible it would have been to be back in the game. And regardless, the track I'm back on is not the same as the one I left.

Movement up into the highest levels of the corporate echelon is hard enough without taking "time off" for other pursuits - even if those pursuits are professional, as mine were. Hewlett makes a strong case for what type of original cultural thinking/actions are needed to keep strong professional women in the corporate game, and/or help them transition back into it.

Rethinking Work

Best-selling author and London Business School professor Gary Hamel recently spoke at Microsoft on "Inventing Management 2.0" - making the argument that management innovation is essential to any organization's competitive success, while simultaneously claiming that most of us are prisoners of hand-me-down management beliefs that turn human beings into semi-programmable robots.

The challenges are as follows: The pace of change has gone hypercritical during the average professional's working life, and we've hit the inflection point where success is dependent on the pace of management change. Strategy life cycles have shrunk beyond almost time recognition and organizations are challenging their deepest beliefs and reinventing their core missions.

Whereas the historically valued professional attributes of intelligence, diligence, and obedience were once the hallmark of a great employee who could make meaningful contributions to executing strategy, these old world skills don't lead to the type of breakthrough thinking that is required of everyone in business today. In short, you are a professional commodity if this is the hierarchical philosophy you accept and follow at work.

Going forward, real organizational value will come from professionals who exhibit passion, creativity, and initiative - but Hamel correctly notes that these skills cannot be commanded. To consistently inspire behavior that results in using these skills and thus produces new types of outcomes, management philosophy and execution needs to be turned upside down and inside out.

Hamel believes that "lattices" need to replace hierarchies - where there are no titles, but plenty of "leads." All commitments should be voluntary - hence following the true definition of commitments as a set of objectives you choose as opposed to accept. If organizations follow these principles, they become more like thoughtocracies - environments where new, breakthrough ideas flow naturally and where every idea has the chance to garner support.

To get there from where they are will not be a simple exercise for many organizations, but the striking global shifts that have occurred over the last year may be the impetus for organizations to truly re-examine what makes people tick and work at their peak. Hard to do, harder even still to manage or believe.

Getting the Job Done Right

Last week I heard Harvard professor and world-renowned innovation expert Clay Christensen speak on why disruptive, innovative thinking is required for continued business success.

His core thread was that because of the constantly changing market forces at play, innovation is by definition needed yet intrinsically unpredictable. As a result many of the principles taught at business school aren't always true. Some of these classical biz school tenets include:

-Focusing investment where the returns are the most
-Putting the customer at the center of everything
-Stepping up to higher-end markets, and out of lower-end markets
-Keeping business value intact and costs down by outsourcing

Instead he offers the thought that it is the "job" that needs to get done that should be the fundamental unit of business analysis as well as the catalyst for corporate action. That is, it is continuously getting the job right that determines a company's sustainable success. Each job has a functional, emotional, and social dimension - and mastering all these dimensions is what sets companies truly apart.

Think furniture type retailing companies. Some retailers think their business is best structured by product/price categories. IKEA however has achieved broad success because they have focused on the job that needs to get done: Furnish the place, in its entirety, by tomorrow.

According to Professor Christensen, market dominance is achieved when a company delivers on the job needed, not by following traditional business practices.

Think You Can Be Swayed?

During my annual August sojurn at our Sierra cabin, I happily plowed through several stacks of reading books (after beautiful days of hiking and swimming). Although I always bring a couple of non-fiction or business oriented books, I tend to stick to consuming the fiction I normally don't have time to immerse myself in.

This trip I tripped into Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior and was thoroughly riveted by the stories of completely incomprehensible behavior and decisions by normally sensible, responsible people and the psychological forces that prompted their seemingly unexplainable behavior.

Take one example: The sequence of events experienced/driven by the captain of KLM flight 4805, which led to the completely avoidable collision of two temporarily grounded airplanes and 584 deaths. Because he was concerned about his crew's mandatory rest requirements, and the fact there weren't enough hotel-accommodations options for his passengers, this captain forced a take-off (and crash) that just shouldn't have happened. What's especially ironic is that he also headed up his airline's safety program.

Why did he make his increasingly bad decisions? He was dealing with a range of psychological undercurrents that were forcing irrational behavior. In his case he was grappling with strong loss aversion - his flight time record and expenses for his passengers - that proved the human tendency to go to great lengths to avoid perceived future losses. For our psyche's standpoint, losses are just bigger than gains - and dominate our thinking. And the greater the perceived loss, the easier it is to be "swayed" into irrational behavior and decisions.

Secondly, as he moved through a series of decisions (such as overriding normal air flight checks and balances), the KLM captain deepened his commitment to his take-off plan - proving the profound difficulties of letting go of things/actions that you strongly bonded to.

Many more stories later, and I was convinced that all of us are susceptible to interior forces that can inexplicably create behavior that we would not believe possible of ourselves.

The Art of You, and Your Personal Brand

From Microsoft to Apple, and many non-technology companies in between, I've spent my career creating or re-shaping brands and developing positioning strategies. Much has been written about business brand development, but less about building sustainable personal brands and defining how you are positioned. Why? Because effective personal brand development is a highly nuanced activity, and hard to adhere to without strong internal resources, clear and balanced ambition, and sustained personal commitment.

It's one thing to say, here's a hot company or product - and I need to devote significant company resources to forming and shepherding a brand that builds share value. It's another thing to proclaim, I am the brand - and I need to spend the rest of my life making sure my brand reflects who I am, what I do, and how well I do it. Quite simply, meaningful personal branding is an ongoing life activity that requires degrees of introspection, regular self-examination, and plain old hard work that's demanding for anyone.

But, your personal brand happens whether you shape it or not. If you are out in the world at all, you are known for the qualities you project and the qualities external audiences believe are true of you. Your choice is simple: own your brand, or let external audiences own it for you.

So, treat your brand like you would any other brand. See yourself as the asset you must nourish, the legacy you must protect. Your personal brand is your current and future value.

Like any other brand management initiative, a well-managed personal brand follows a strategy process that completes a brand framework like the following:

1. Brand Attributes: Your brand attributes are the qualities that embody your personal brand, and should always be associated with it. To get there, distill down your core professional and personal values and the values of the key audiences you interact with, and in this intersection you'll find your most important brand attributes.

2. Brand Promise: In its most fundamental form, your personal brand promise is what you guarantee your key audiences will experience because of their relationship with you. So, as with any other commitment, promise only what you will deliver.

3. Brand Positioning: Your personal brand positioning statement will(1) define your key audiences (the most important audiences you interact with, are influencing, or trying to influence); (2) pinpoint what they care most about; and (3) synthesize the value your brand delivers to them.

4. Brand Driver: Your brand driver is the outcome your personal brand is dedicated to seeing achieved with the audiences you interact with. It is the essential idea the captures and integrates all brand actions.

5. Brand Personality: Your brand personality is comprised of the human elements connected to your personal brand, and are the characteristics that inspire (or not) specific feelings in your key audiences.

Personal brand management pays off, although the process and actions are not always the most tangible or quantifiable. However, personal branding is a critical investment in yourself, and it's an investment that will stay with you for life.

Branding the French Chef

I've just finished reading Julia Child's memoir, My Life in France, and I have been mesmerized by her story and later-in-life awakening to an all-consuming passion for fine food. It is simply one of the most authentic, compelling accounts I've read of personal transformation and discovery - and it's not even a great book in terms of structure or narrative.

Here is someone who fell in love in her thirties, moved to a new country, and over her first lunch saw (ate) something so different than what she had ever experienced that she proceeded to dedicate the rest of her life to its pursuit. In her recap, she remembers each course, each fabulous meal she ate with friends, cooked for friends, or cooked in class. Frankly, it's stunning - I remember conversations and clothes people wore, but NOT at this level of detail. You relive her days with her - and it is a day-by-day thing - and can almost smell and taste the cooking experiment that was her life.

Her voice is as riveting as you might remember from her show, and you're immediately drawn into the tangled web that became this totally outsized cooking book that took almost a dedicated decade to write. But here's the kicker: When she moved to France she couldn't cook, at all.

How is it possible to go from one extreme completely to another? Well, Child simply was open to life at such a fundamental level that she could embrace her food passion and let it infuse all of her. Basically, she did it like she wrote her book - in a step-by-step, totally pragmatic way as in writing a recipe.

But she didn't stop there, with learning or writing or cooking - she moved to marketing on a broad scale and again in a totally authentic and practical way. In doing TV and embracing the entire marketing equation (an early version of social marketing), she created an enduring brand, and one that remains very personally powerful.

She found herself through food, and then never let go of her essential sense of self. It's a good lesson for us all to pay attention to.

Creating a Best-in-Class Work Environment

Building great teams that drive to even greater results, is every manager's dream. Achieving this state is not simple and it can tax the best of leaders.

But there are guidelines that can help managers in their quest for developing a high-performing workplace. Here's my short, top ten list of managers' "musts" for inspiring people and teams to perform at their peak:

1. Create, with zero exceptions, an environment of mutual respect and trust

2. Execute a powerful, defensible, and completely clear business strategy

3. Promote the expectation of execution excellence

4. Value talent and their work by clarifying an attainable career path

5. Reward and recognize outstanding work and organizational contributions

6. Invest in the development and growth of a diverse workforce

7. Communicate regularly, and with transparency, in terms of issues and decision-making

8. Operate with consistency and with authenticity

9. Maintain a positive tone in all interactions, regardless of business or social pressures

10. Align people with work they can do best

The Consumer Imperative: Combine Content, Experience & Choice

Last week I attended Fortune's Brainstorm Tech Conference in Pasadena, where the program focused on (1) renewal and recovery; (2) technology and social transformation; (3) the 21st century consumer; and (4) business innovation. I was totally immersed in how technology companies, content creators, and other organizations are looking at how to thrive in the current recession, and take us forward into a new, integrated world.

Here are some key thoughts I captured while listening to Brainstorm Tech's line-up:

* Digital Kingdom - New Business Models for a Media Giant: Consumers are more powerful and authoritative than any other audience. All companies are going to need to practice corporate sustainability.

* Smart Cities: We need to have smart citizens first. Then, everything gets networked.

* American Technophile: The Internet is putting politicians out of business. Obama - The first administration maintaining a grassroots organization.

* Reinventing Hollywood: Consumers are looking for access, community, and experience. "We" are curators of quality entertainment experiences.

* Dollars & Demographics: The economy will be driven by the Internet demographic. The Internet introduces a lot of unstructured relationships.

* AOL - The First 100 Days: Lost consumer focus. Refocusing.

* AT&T Unplugged: In the connectivity business - making businesses and commerce go faster.

* Where's NewsCorp. Going with Digital?: People will pay for premium experiences. Brand advertising hasn't really migrated online. We'll look back and say, now is the emergence of the real-time network.

* The New Web Meets the Workplace: In early stages of how social media effects professional careers. Every individual has a brand - what is the brand of you, what do you want to be known for?

* Education Next: Can't just cram theory into heads, creates massive frustration.

* Reselling eBay: No just an online auctioneer. Largest ecommerce site. We're a marketplace, not a retailer.

* Remaking Digital Advertising: Who owns the data? Agencies are getting really educated. Creating direct links between ad and action.

* Rise of Diverse User Platforms: Platforms reach scale more quickly because of consumer behavior - creating platforms of scale. It's just easy to use Twitter. Creating an identity that will follow you wherever you go. We have no idea what is the magic that makes a successful platform happen.

* Twitter - Changing the World in 140 Characters of Less: Need to focus on value before optimizing for profit.

* Barry Diller Speaks Out: Not a believer in conglomerates. Local and search - still in formative stage.

* Power Brokers - Hollywood + Technology: Recessions are opportunities for good companies to get better. Most CEOs want to fly in the clear sky, not cloud. Data needs to be visualized.

* Digital Hollywood: An Early Adopter's View: Ashton Kutcher has 3 million Twitter followers. Twitter is a platform to syndicate content. Content can cross over TV, movies, and the Internet.