Ginny Wilson-Peters' Blog
“I’ve served on a number of boards where I was the only woman. The first time, I looked around the room and said, ‘This is wrong’.” Ruth Harkin, during Q&A portion of Des Moines Women in the Boardroom session. She went on to say that not only do women need to be vocal about raising the number of women on boards, but men need to have an awareness and a voice about it as well.
Last Tuesday I attended an excellent session in Des Moines called “Women in the Boardroom”. http://www.womenintheboardroom.com/. The panel speakers were Ruth Harkin, attorney and retired Senior VP, United Technologies Corporation; Dr Sheila McGuire Riggs, Chair of the Department of Primary Care, University of Minnesota School of Dentistry, and Mary O’Keefe, Senior VP and Chief Marketing Officer, The Principal Financial Group. The panel was facilitated by Mary Kramer, retired Ambassador.
The intention of the 2 hour panel was to hear from these women about their experiences on public, private and not-for-profit boards in order to encourage more women to get involved with board at all of these levels. The overwhelming message from the panel was this, “Yes, you ARE qualified to be board members.” In the past five years, the number of women on public and private boards has barely changed and we women need to take ahold of the opportunity to change these numbers.
I left inspired and informed and wanted to share just a few of my notes with you. Many of these stories are relevant for men as well as women. Please note that the items in quotes are based on what I wrote down as having heard the women say and I have not checked them with the speakers themselves.
Ruth Harkin shared a story that she decided in her late twenties that she wanted to be on the Iowa Board of Regents. She kept moving toward that goal, and 30 years later, in 2005, was named to the board.
Ruth also shared another inspiring story. She was in her forties and working as an attorney. She was also pursuing opportunities to serve on a publicly held board. At the same time that she had an opportunity to serve on the Conoco Phillips Board, she was also offered a job with United Technologies. Unfortunately United Technologies didn’t want her on outside boards. After careful thought, she told United that would be a deal breaker for her as she really wanted to serve on the Conoco Board. United came back a day later and said they would make an exception.
Her advice: “You have to be aggressive and let people know you want to be on boards.” Once on a board she talked about the importance of doing your homework and also going into the workplaces of the business. “Your ability to be effective keeps changing because the needs change and the dynamics of the board will also change.” You said we have to stay current in order to continue to have the credibility to raise the issues.
Dr Sheila Riggs told the group that the state of Iowa is one of only 2 states in the U.S. where state wide boards and commissions are required to be 50% women. In talking about serving on not-for-profit boards, she suggested women join because 1) you have a passion; 2) it is great networking opportunity and 3) it is great training for leadership. She also reminded us that women need to be very proactive about championing other women for board membership.
Mary O’Keefe said her journey began when she started volunteering. She also staffed boards and commissions for her organization. The private board memberships came to her as a result of relationships she built over the years. She did say however that is important for people to have clear expectations for what boards require of their members. One other great piece of advice she gave was that you have to be willing to ask the tough questions. “Being polite isn’t a good idea as a board member.”
Of note: Four out of eleven members of the board of The Principal Financial Group are women. This was previously five but a retired board seat has yet to be filled.
During the Q&A session, someone asked “Norway mandates that a certain percentage of board membership be filled by women. Do you think we should have a requirement in the US of our corporate boards?”
Well now, that certainly opened up a discussion. But rather than share the thoughts, I’ll toss it out to you. Should we legislate that a certain number of women be required on our boards?
Following is an email I received from a participant in a recent session on personal branding I facilitated for a company. Imagine a room of approximately 150 people. Each person has a paper plate and marker. I asked each person to first draw a circle on their plate and to include the numbers from 1 through 12 as you would see on the face of a clock.
The group was then told they had 3 minutes to “fill their plate” with 12 appointments for the day—with 12 different people.
Let the chaos began! As you might imagine, most of the people in the room ran around in order to do their very best to fill their plate. At the end of the 3 minutes I called time and asked people to pause for a minute and look at their plates. “Now,” I said, “How many of you remember the people that you put down on your plate?” There were more than a few groans in the room.I then instructed them to find their 11:00 appointment and have a discussion directed toward our topic at hand.
Here is the email I received (with the names changed to protect the “innocent”):
I particularly enjoyed what I called the ‘clock’ exercise where we ran around and networked for a few minutes to meet 12 people to fill our time on the clock. Believe me, I was feeling pretty smug when I finished ahead of schedule and had my clock all filled in with names (first names only) of people to meet with.
Imagine then, my horror, when you told us some time later that we were to find our 11:00 appointment and go meet with that person to follow up. Oh my gosh, I realized I had missed the whole point of the exercise. In being so results-oriented, I must admit to you that I basically flung myself at people, reading their badges (many of whom were acting just like me, I mention in self-defense!) and scribbling down their names. I never dreamed I ‘d have to follow up. Fortunately, I did happen to know my 11:00 appointment as I had worked with him years ago. So I had no trouble finding him and we had a great little discussion. Phew – I dodged a bullet there. But then you were clever and asked us to do the same thing with our 4:00 appointment !! Oh dear, I thought, I am in trouble now. My 4:00 appointment name was “John”. I turned to Sally (who came with me) and said (in my typical loud voice) “oh dear, I just wrote down ‘John’. I don’t even remember what he looked like! How will I ever find him again?” (by this time, I was starting to feel pretty ashamed of myself for focusing on the TASK, not the people)
The man in the row directly in front of us turned around and grinned at me and said “don’t worry, Lisa. It was me you met with at 4 pm.”
Oh lord, how embarrassing was THAT, Ginny! Fortunately, for me, he had a good sense of humor. To add to my chagrin, he told me that he had “met” me over the phone about a month ago when he called me with a question. (at that point, I was wondering if I was starting to experience memory loss…)
Well, we re-introduced ourselves and had an excellent discussion and it turned out he was in a position here at work where we really did need to connect and start working together. Trust me, Ginny – I have kept the paper plate clock with his name (last name now included!) and am going to set up a time to network with him soon.
But wait – - my story of embarrassment doesn’t end there. That night at home over dinner, my husband says to me “hey, one of my colleagues met you today over the noon hour, and he said he practically had to chase you down to get more than two words out of you because you were in such a hurry to get to the next person”. I cringed inside at the truth of those words.
Anyway, this True Confession may be more than you wanted to know, but I thought it was worth giving you the feedback that I learned probably more than you intended by that little exercise. I re-learned that you never get a second chance to make a first impression, and it is more important to give people the full impact of your respectful attention – Be Here Now, as the buzzwords say.
I get asked a lot if there are differences between leadership qualities around the globe. And my answer is “no”, the essential qualities for leaders don’t differ, no matter where you are in the world.
Today, in the leadership class I’m teaching for CIMBA MBA students in Italy, we heard from an Italian entrepreneurial leader. Luca Seminati is the founder of Ideal Work company. (www.idealwork.it). He kicked off our class this morning by sharing stories and his 5 points of advice about leadership.
1. Get leadership skills and ideas from areas outside of just business. “You can learn a lot from people outside of business. “ Look to religion, community and politics for perspectives. “When I was a participant in leadership courses through CIMBA,” he said, “It was like they walked into my house and pointed to a box that was already there, and said, ‘open it.’ I realized that I already had a great deal of leadership skills but had kept them locked away inside.”
2. Don’t copy other people’s leadership style. Have your own style and remember that other people are always watching you. He cited the experience of the French soccer coach in the World Cup who didn’t cross the field to shake the hand of the other coach after France lost the game. He was later fired by the President of France.
3. Have Passion and Vision. “I have 2o people in my company and we’re constantly talking about the vision of where we are headed.”
4. Find a way to get feedback about your leadership skills. “As you move up the organization, you’ll find that people are more and more reluctant to give you candid feedback. That is when it is even more important.” When he found he was getting niceities and not feedback he asked “Are you SURE there isn’t anything I can do better?” After a couple times of asking, he started to hear better feedback.
5. The most visible person isn’t necessarily the leader. Last year, in 2009, his company sustained heavy damage from a tornado . “It impacted 50% of my business,” he said. He was honest and upbeat with his people and said that while this was going to be a tough time, “we do have insurance and we’ll cover the rest. It will be a difficult couple of months but we’ll get through.” And NOW, the kicker. A number of his people voluntarily slept in the building at night for up to three weeks in order to protect it from intruders. “All because they wanted to do it.”
Thank you Luca for your many words of wisdom!
Posted in MBA Class, Passion, Vision | 3 Comments »
I thanked the gentleman beside me for asking the question. We were at the Illinois Quad City Chamber’s Executive breakfast this morning and our guest speaker was Murry Gerber, the CEO and Chairman of EQT Corporation. At the end of his informative presentation, John, sitting next to me asked Murry what he looks for in new employees. Murry perked up and said, “I know we’re running low on time, but I really want to answer this one thoroughly.”
He went on to say that one of the things he is most proud of is his commitment to transforming the culture at EQT. Murry became CEO of EQT in 1998 and was elected Chairman in 2000. He said there were two important things they did. One was to make a commitment to hire managers from within the organization. “We’ve tried hiring from outside and it didn’t work. I even hired a few managers from outside and I did a poor job.”
The ability to promote from within requires the second commitment. EQT identified four leadership competencies. “And we’re not just talking about competencies from identified leaders. We’re talking about competencies for anyone in the organization.” The four competencies that he identified were:
1. Be Forthright. Be willing to say what needs to be said at any level of the organization. “If you say it around the water cooler, be willing to say it to the CEO.”
2. Make informed decisions. Use data and use the knowledge of colleagues. He talked about the fact that they didn’t create a number of formal teams, but expect people to create ad hoc discussions with colleagues as necessary.
3. Achieve results. Do what you say you will do.
4. Build Capability. And not just in others. If you supervise people then you should be building capability in yourself as well as in others. If you’re not supervising, then you are still responsible for developing yourself.
Thank you Murry for the inspiration!
“It’s not about the direction you take. It’s about the direction you give.” Mr Holland’s Opus
I felt better the moment I began sharing with Greg, my husband. “ Honey,” I said, “I have been consumed the past few weeks with a desire to win this upcoming leadership award.” There—it was out and I could finally discuss it with him and begin to move forward. I knew I’d been operating from a place of anger and frustration for a period of time and that wasn’t how I wanted to be.
As I said, I had been consumed with a desire to win a coveted leadership award, and I found myself thinking about it throughout the day and especially at night before I went to sleep. I knew it wasn’t healthy, and I knew it was all about my ego attachment to winning an award. One of my teachers used to talk about the “Small ego” and the “healthy ego”. The small ego is the place where we attach our worth to other people’s opinion of us. The healthy ego is where we operate from our purpose, our mission in life. My desire to win the award was definitely coming from the small ego place.
Shortly after my talk with Greg I talked through my feelings with a group of close girlfriends. Thanks to my “Z” sisters, my movement out of the small ego and back toward the healthy ego continued. Throughout the ensuing week, I found myself interacting with person after person, and group after group from a more purposeful place. And the week culminated with a powerful experience on Friday.
Friday morning I met with a group that I’d met with several times prior. I thought I had the session planned out until I got in the shower that morning. I’ve learned to trust my intuitive insights, especially ones that come in the early mornings at shower time. As I thought about the group, I clearly heard a message to do the passion exercise with them. “Really,” I thought, “I’m pretty sure they’re going to resist that one.”
But, as I said, I’ve learned to trust my intuition. So, as I met with the group, I explained the exercise. In a nutshell, I asked each member of the group of eight to take 15 minutes and write an impromptu speech about a passion of theirs. Once done, they would each stand and give their speeches to the entire group.
“What if you don’t have any passions?” said one of the participants. I responded by gently telling her that I’d never met anyone that wasn’t passionate about something—their kids, a sport, or something. She continued to put up some resistance for a period of time, and I continued to gently ask her to give it her best shot. Within about five minutes, I saw her beginning to write some notes.
After about fifteen minutes, I invited each member of the group to share their speech with the group, and I was BLOWN away. The first person to volunteer was the woman who initially said she didn’t have a passion. She talked for almost five minutes about her passion around preventing teenage pregnancy. She talked candidly about how her own experience as a teen mom had impacted her life and how important it was to her to share her experience with others. A few of us were in tears before she was even done.
Another person talked about his dream to participate in one of the Honor Flights to Washington DC to accompany our veterans in viewing the World War II memorial there. Another person talked about her desire to be a role model for her children and how that also manifested with her role as a supervisor. Story after story that was shared was heartfelt and moving.
In hearing those stories, and experiencing the growth from that session, I knew that my purpose in life has nothing to do with winning awards, but really is about finding ways to nurture and inspire others to reach for the stars. To the authors of the passion stories, I say a big thank you. And a big “thank you” to so many people that have also changed my life in so many positive ways.
Oh, and I didn’t win the coveted leadership award.
“Of all the lives he changed, the one that changed the most was his own.” Mr Holland’s Opus.
“Experience is not what happens to you; it is what you do with what happens to you.” Aldous Huxley
The following post was written by John Burnley. John is a graduate of the U of Iowa MBA program for Professionals Managers and a former student in my Leadership Course taught as part of that program. John and I are interested in creating a dialogue amongst all of you blog readers around lessons you’ve learned from other leaders. Many of the lessons learned come from poor leaders as well as those who inspire us to be our best. What has been your experience?
Here is a true story from John…
“They come from all walks of life – our bosses, executive management, social, civic and political leaders, or even close knit friends. No one is exempt from the possibility of taking the wrong turn that inevitably came back to haunt them.
We have all heard the tales from friends and coworkers. How many times have you cringed from the descriptions and stories? Have you ever stood still in fear that you would trip over your dropping jaw? At some point in your professional career, you will witness one example for yourself. What, you ask? It is when good people do crazy things that impact their ability to lead others.
Let’s face it, some people are poor leaders. But as Ginny has taught hundreds (or thousands) of students, good leadership practices and behaviors can be learned and incorporated into our everyday lives. I’ve had the opportunity to benefit from her tutelage, as many others reading this blog posting have.
When I first approached Ginny with the idea for ‘When Leadership Fails’, it was to provide a forum for Integrity Integrated clients and friends to continue to learn about leadership practices. The intent is to provide situational information and let the group comment, with Ginny including her comments as appropriate. The examples will ideally be based on real organizations and individuals, however, anonymity rules the day as organizations and individuals will never be named.
How can you join the discussion? Post your comments on examples posted and keep the conversation going. And send your own examples to Ginny at gwpeters@integrityintegrated.com.
So let’s get started and have some fun! Our first example is simple and straight forward.
Over the last 15 years, a small manufacturing company experienced tremendous growth resulting not only in satellite operations nationwide, but multiple facilities in the metro area where corporate headquarters was located. The growth was so fast that it was somewhat hard to manage.
Eventually, the growth slowed to a more reasonable rate. However, the organization had outgrown facilities at all locations in the headquarters area. The senior management team decided to seek a larger facility that would allow the company to consolidate into one location.
A site was soon selected and preparations began for the build out and eventual physical move. The facility transformation was on schedule, when market forces unexpectedly turned unfavorable. Sales plummeted and as the company lost market share, adjustments were made by eliminating staff. The leadership team also postponed some of the new facilities build out, delaying until the organization was more financially viable. Over the next year the economic climate did not improve resulting in another seven rounds of layoffs.
The CEO regularly held company wide town hall meetings where important issues were discussed. Technology allowed all employees to participate regardless of location. The executive leadership team, comprised of several Vice Presidents and the CEO, manned the various conference rooms not only to be visible to the employees, but to help explain and deliver a common message to staff. Each Vice President would get a turn to speak and update the organization on their respective area of responsibility. As you might expect, financial metrics were always on the focal point of staff’s interest.
During one of these company wide meetings, the CEO explained how the build out of the new facility would not be completed before moving into the facility. However, as business recovered and staffing grew, the project would be completed. The CEO also explained that the new facility had a parking garage in the basement – a first for any company building. However, the company was not going to use the garage as it would lower the lease payment. The CEO continued and stated that everyone would be treated the same. This seemed to be an important point as the leader repeated it several times.
Months later during the long winter, the building was completed and the organization moved operations to the new facility. Not long after the move completed, staff noticed one of the Vice Presidents parking in the underground garage. The organizational grapevine became very active and it was soon discovered that the entire executive leadership team and their administrative assistants, including the CEO, were utilizing the underground and heated parking facility.
Did leadership fail?”
Posted in MBA Class, Success | 2 Comments »
I kept trying to disguise it, name it something more positive, but it didn’t work. It continued to gnaw at me until I decided to fully own it: jealousy. In a number of situations, I was feeling jealous of individuals who were accomplishing more than me—in better physical shape, better teachers, better consultants, better stepmoms. You name it, in one way or another, each of these has reared its ugly head in the past few months. And the funny thing is that work-wise I’ve had a very successful 2009 and the prospects for 2010 are even brighter. So Ginny, what’s up with this jealousy thing?
In late December I posted a note on our Facebook fan page that said, “ABUNDANCE* is the word I’m choosing to focus on in 2010. What’s your word for 2010?” And then it hit me in the shower one morning this past week. Jealously comes from a place of scarcity thinking. And scarcity thinking is the opposite of abundance. In times when I was feeling jealous, it’s quite possible that I was also thinking that just because “they” had something I wanted, that meant that I couldn’t have the same thing.
I’m also trying to reconcile the idea of competition and wanting the best for myself. I fell into the hole of confusing competition with jealousy. Competition is a good thing, for me and for everyone. But I want to make sure I am competing mostly with myself—am I doing the VERY best that I can do—and in a way that focuses on the things I’m good at? For me, competition isn’t about looking to beat out someone else, but rather going after what I want. In the process sometimes it will be necessary for me to beat someone else, especially when it comes to obtaining new client work. The difference for me is going after something because I want it, not because I want to prevent someone else from getting it.
Does that make me a weak competitor or a strong one?
What is your word for 2010? If you want to see what others said, check out our Integrity Integrated fan page. http://tinyurl.com/yzoo4vx
Recommended Reading: “Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us” by Daniel Pink. See Dan speak about this in a video at http://tinyurl.com/nfxme9
Good article by Martha Beck about abundance and scarcity thinking: http://www.oprah.com/article/omagazine/200904-omag-beck
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead
It started as a Facebook posting and resulted in raising $10,500 (so far) for the American Heart Association Go Red for Women. Last spring I agreed to chair the Circle of Red committee for this November’s Go Red luncheon. The Circle of Red is comprised of women who contribute $500 or more to Go Red. This was actually my first involvement with the luncheon but I was drawn to the cause.
Sometime around April or May I posted a note on my Facebook page and asked for volunteers for the committee. I was pleasantly surprised when six women I know stepped quickly forward and expressed an interest. Some of the women had personal histories with heart disease; others were concerned about family histories or had lost women they loved to heart disease.
Author Margaret Wheatley says “a leader is anyone who is willing to help.” The Circle of Red committee took this to heart. They also expanded the definition to remind us that leadership is also about getting results. They are doing this through passion, vision and the use of effective storytelling.
PASSION: This is the first year the Go Red luncheon has created a Circle of Red in our Quad City community so our challenge was to generate interest and raise at least $10,000. Our planning meetings at the Waterfront Deli were fun and energizing and it was clear to me that I had the privilege of working with a very passionate and committed group of women. But I BLOWN away about three months into the process when each member of our committee stepped forth in a meeting and made their own personal commitment to become members of the Circle of Red. I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes as each of them talked about their commitment and reasons for doing so. These are not a group of women that you’ll find on the list of regular donors in the Quad Cities. They probably aren’t women you’d expect to be writing $500 checks, especially in this economy. But, these ARE women with passion and commitment and I am honored to call them friends.
STORYTELLING: At our Circle of Red promotional event in September, two women shared their stories. Both women, Kelly Hennell and Tina Morris shared their own personal stories of heart disease. As I looked around the room, and chatted with women afterwards, it was clear that their stories touched the hearts of many women present. Those stories also reinforced my personal commitment. I Go Red for Women because I want us to move from saying, ‘I wish I had known’ to saying, ‘thank goodness I knew about the risks of heart disease.’
VISION: We had two major goals. One goal was to raise at least $10,000 this year. Our second goal was to create a compelling reason for women to want to join the Circle of Red (beyond the joy of financial giving). Thanks to the leadership of our committee, more women have stepped forward to join the Circle of Red and we have surpassed our (initial) goal of 20 women committing $500. And we’ve created ongoing opportunities for women in the Circle of Red to come together and continue to learn more about heart disease. You can find that list of activities at the end of this blog.
“Vision without action is a dream. Action without vision is simply passing time. Action with vision is making a positive difference. Joel Barker
A healthy and heartful thank you to our Circle of Red committee members: Amy Pousson, Carol Cowan, Chelsea Hillman, LuAnn Haydon, Kristen Veto and Teri Behrends.
Circle of Red members in the Quad Cities receive the following benefits with their $500 donation:
*One Seat at the Go Red For Women® Luncheon, November 18th at The Waterfront Convention Center and special recognition at the event
* Limited edition Circle of Red Bagolita clutch purse
* Invitation to an intimate breakfast with local cardiologist, Dr. Rafat Padaria, to answer your questions about heart disease
* Tour of the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital led by Dr. Vicki Pyevich, a hands-on opportunity for Circle of Red women to see where a portion of the American Heart Association’s research dollars are making a big impact.
The cost for the above activities are underwritten by others and do NOT come out of your $500 contribution.
Even if you’re not able to make a Circle of Red contribution, I hope you’ll attend an upcoming Circle of Red event.
Quad Cities: Wednesday November 18th at the Waterfront Convention Center http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3068146
Cedar Rapids: Friday November 20th at Kirkwood Center for Continuing Education http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3067947
Johnson County: Thursday December 19th at Coralville Marriott Hotel http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3065965
Posted in Passion, Storytelling, Success, Teams, Vision | No Comments »
“Okay, I’m just going to get this over with.” And then she stepped up the tee for the first time in her life…and hit a perfect shot in the middle of the fairway.
A couple weeks ago I organized a Tuesday golf outing for women; no special occasion or fund raiser but simply a late season outing for golfers of all levels to get together and have some fun. We ended up with two teams of women and had decided ahead of time to play preferred ball. My team included two women who BRAVELY decided to come out and play, even though one of them had never touched a club before, and the other hadn’t golfed for about 20 years.
And so it was that we began the first hole. Darcie had borrowed clubs from a friend, and had that look of “what did I get myself into” on her face. I suggested that she start with her seven iron just to get the feel of things. She agreed, stepped up to the tee and said, “Okay, let’s just get this over with.” And then she took one swing and hit a perfect shot, right in the middle of the fairway.
We of course gave her a hard time, “Are you serious that you have never golfed before in your life??” She assured us she hadn’t but it was clear she had some natural athletic ability that kicked into gear. And after the initial shock, she had a big smile on her face.
The rest of the afternoon was pure joy. Both the non-golfers had some great shots and by the end of the day, Darcie was saying she had no idea she could enjoy the game of golf so much. I can honestly say that the biggest joy I had that day was watching both of them have some great shots, and begin to enjoy the game more so than I think either of them imagined.
My activating vision is to be an internationally respected leadership teacher whose work ignites people to explore new possibilities in their lives. A leader’s work is change, and we can’t create change if we aren’t willing to step out of our comfort zone and try things we never imagined possible.
Where are you willing to face adversity and create positive change in your life?
“The brick walls are there for a reason. They’re not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.” Randy Pausch.
Posted in Change, Vision | No Comments »
