Mentoring Women From Top
When most people think of communicating, they visualize talking and getting a point across in a clear, effective manner. Better Leadership, Better World identifies six leadership competencies critical to successfully developing business opportunities in line with the Global Goals: long-term thinking, innovation, collaboration, transparency, environmental management, and social inclusiveness.
The inroads of women into positions of power and authority reflect many underlying changes ( Eagly & Carli, 2003 , in press)—above all, women's high level of paid employment ( U.S. Census Bureau, 2007 ) and a lessening of the time demands of women's housework, accompanied by greater sharing of childcare and housework with husbands and partners ( Bianchi, Robinson, & Milkie, 2006 ; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2005 ). Associated with these shifts in roles is a large increase in women's education, whereby young women have become more educated than young men ( U. S. National Center for Education Statistics, 2005 ). Because these changes in employment and education are accompanied by psychological changes in the form of increasing agency Achievement in women (e.g., Twenge, 1997, 2001 ) and greater career ambition (e.g., Astin, Oseguera, Sax, & Korn, 2002 ), women have achieved many more leadership positions than in the past.
The broad classification of women business owners include women who establish, inherit, or acquire a business; women who start businesses with spouses or business partners but are either at the forefront or behind the scenes; and finally, women who start fast-growing or part-time or slow-growing firms.
As a woman, and mom of three daughters, with a 25-year career from sales, to consulting, to packaged goods and now leading North America for ManpowerGroup, my experience has taught me that if companies address culture as a priority in their business, we would accelerate progress.
Current writings on leadership seem to agree. The Canadian Women's Foundation Leadership Institute gave me the opportunity to connect with 25 women leaders from across Canada. Kristyn Haywood believes you shouldn't hire women in leadership roles to balance the numbers.
Perhaps it is the mother instinct that enables women to posses such a natural leadership potential. This realization was very intriguing and we have spent a good deal of time trying to learn more about women in leadership and how they can better leverage their unique strengths.
