Succeeding in a Man's World

FountainBlue's January 12, When She Speaks Women in Leadership Series event was on Succeeding in a Man's World. Our panelists included Patti Wilson, CareerCompany; Linda Fosler, Linda Prowse Fosler & Associates; Francine Gordon, President of FGordon Group and President of ATW for 2007; Mona Hudak Senior Diversity and Inclusion Program Manager from Cisco Systems; and Panelist Praveena Varadarajan, director of engineering at Sun Microsystems.

Below are some big-picture take-aways from the meeting:

Historical events have impacted a woman's participation and leadership in the workplace

• in the 40s, women went to work to support our country, and our men who were serving in the war.
• in the late 40s when the men returned, the women gave up their jobs
• in the late 50s women who went to college were generally looking for a husband and got married and raised families
• in the 60s, more women were in the workplace, but the types of jobs available for women such as teaching, nursing, administration, were generally lower level or more lowly paid
• in the 70s, more women entered the workforce out of necessity. They were known as the 'displaced homemaker'.
• in the 80s, with affirmative action, there was a rise in women in non-traditional women jobs from firemen to engineers
• in the 90s, with the dot com boom, salaries for men and women jobs were fairly comparable
• now, in the 2000s, women are back to earning .7-.8 for every dollar a man does, and are not well represented in traditionally male professionals and at the most senior levels

Advice for women seeking to succeed in a man's world:

Be a good leader

• Be true to yourself
  Have passion and desire for what you are doing
  Know yourself - your strengths and challenges
  Have a strong moral compass
  Don't tie your ego with your position
  Stop competing with your self Work Hard
• Focus on relationships: Be trustworthy, have integrity
• Collaborate
  Bring out the best in other
  Leverage your strengths and partner with others to help you address your areas of need
  Focus on the ideas rather than the politics
• Focus on the ideas rather than the politics
• Have high standards and make plans to achieve them
  Decide to be successful
  Correct the mistakes you make
  Be competent, and do your homework
  Know when to cut your losses
  Be powerfully focused
  Don't shy from conflict, but don't invite it
  Be better today than you were yesterday, better tomorrow than you were today
• Communicate your effectiveness as a leader
  Behave as if you belong at the table
  Don't downplay your accomplishments
  Don't give away your power
  Take the initiative at meetings when appropriate
  Have and project confidence:
  Watch your body movements and amount of space you take at a table
  Monitor your voice intonations
  Communicate your confidence with your handshake
  Consider the cultural and personal background of those you're interacting with. Be sensitive to the feedback you are receiving regarding the confidence you are projecting.
• Have and project confidence:
  Watch your body movements and amount of space you take at a table
  Monitor your voice intonations
  Communicate your confidence with your handshake
  Consider the cultural and personal background of those you're interacting with. Be sensitive to the feedback you are receiving regarding the confidence you are projecting.
• Be opportunitistic
  Be prepared and take advantage of serendipitous opportunities as they present themselves
  Ask for help when you need it
  Find ways to support others and give back
• Find a way to fit into male-dominated culture
  Accept that the high tech world in Silicon Valley is a man's world and work from there
  Be conversant about sports and/or participate in male dominated sports like golf
  Be comfortable and confident about being a woman
  Leverage traditionally female strengths, from collaboration to communication, from empathy to multi-tasking
  Don't conform to standards that don't fit your identity as a woman, as a leader
  Don't use femininity in negative ways
• Advice on how to integrate work and life as you're rising up the corporate ladder:
  Collaborate with your spouse as a partner
  Plan your work around your family's needs. Sometimes working in a global economy with late-evening phone calls helps you make that balance.