Breaking the Boardroom

I have had the privilege this month of being involved in a report which Telefonica created in co-partnership with the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD), on the topic of women on boards. In the UK, Lord Davies published a Women on Boards Report in 2011 and challenged UK FTSE businesses to have a female component of at least 25%. Whilst we’ve made a lot of progress; figures suggest that we still have a way to go and will not hit the target date set by Lord Davies. The research with which I have been involved is entitled ‘Breaking the Boardroom’ http://bit.ly/1umqpux and it suggests that 45% of women believe that women still aren’t occupying enough senior positions.

Yet again, the debate continues regarding why? Many different reasons surround this discussion and I am drawn back to the topic of confidence. To be clear, I’m not suggesting that as long as you feel confident then you’ll be fine; I’m just saying that there are so many extraordinary, bright, talented women with whom I’ve had the pleasure of working who suffer from lack of confidence on occasion. I think it’s a piece in the puzzle.

What’s this based on? Well, a monthly newsletter won’t do it justice but some fantastic research a few years ago talked about how women are always doing one of the 4 Ps – Pleasing, Proving, Performing, Perfecting. Like monkeys on our back or chains around our neck, as women we please, we prove, we perform and we perfect…and by so doing, have more than enough material from which to create doubt, confusion and chaos in our minds regarding our own worth and ability. If you’re a women reading this - which ones do you own? If you’re a man reading this and thinking "What? I don’t get that?” then terrific, that’s also what the research shows. Women spend a great deal more time focusing on their perceived gaps and flaws, than celebrating and developing their inherent strengths. Much more so than men. By the way; this isn’t an ‘anti–man’ vibe this month either. I celebrate, appreciate and applaud professional men for their talent and skills...it’s just a fact that they don’t always suffer from lack of confidence in the same way that women do.

Confidence is an essential facet of leaders who have Executive Presence, and my own research a couple of years ago proved that those with Executive Presence are aware of their strengths as well as their flaws and continue to work on both.

Whether you’re a woman reading this, or a man who works with professional women, check out the research at http://bit.ly/1umqpux, #breakingtheboardroom.

New Year, New Plans, New Goals

Happy New Year!

With the festive season well and truly behind us, now is the time for looking to the year ahead and making plans. 

What do you want to achieve? What projects do you want to deliver? What will success look like for you in 2015?

As a professional Executive Coach, although asking people about their goals is an everyday occurrence in my world, I am continually struck by how rarely I hear clear, well thought through goals by way of an answer.

The responses received tend to be historical; in other words I often get the back-story or history rather than the vision or desired future. I tend to hear a lot of detail; a lot of waffle; a lot of "blah, blah, blah" and it's got me wondering why….

The pace of business today seems to have pushed our behaviour to value being busy. Getting things done, reducing that inbox and being a keyboard warrior are threatening to be more important that being a crisp, clear thinker. The clarity of our thinking is betrayed in the calibre of our communication. We simply don’t spend enough time considering what exactly we’re trying to achieve before diving right in and getting busy. That translates verbally and we start talking too soon, saying too much, conveying very little. There’s not enough pausing, considering, surmising.

Setting clear goals is nothing new. Stephen Covey in his Seven Habits book talks about the importance of starting with the end in mind. I suspect there are very few professional people in the world who haven’t heard of the acronym SMART for setting objectives. Sharing that model with clients is not a "dear diary” moment. And yet in practical terms it’s really not that easy. We need to get super specific; we need to know how we’ll gauge success, we need to agree with others on the outcomes, we need to ensure relevancy and then we need to commit to a date to complete them by - and stick to it. There’s not enough envisioning, refining, prioritising.

So, a new year means new plans and that means new goals.

I’m now going to check on my mine……

Why is Leading Change so Hard?

One of the biggest differences between working with businesses today versus twenty years ago is simply this: back then there were two types of company (a) those going through change and (b) those who weren’t. Now what is certainly true is that all organisations are going through change – and the only certainty is that this will continue to be the case in the future. Change is constant.

So, if, as leaders, our job is to lead, persuade, engage, delight and ignite our people behind change – why is it so hard? This past week I have been running workshops around Europe and the topic remained a constant one for discussion.

Seemingly insignificant behaviour struck me as profound in terms of the size of the task and the relevance of this particular question. Specifically, when I run workshops that last more than a day – what is always true, no matter where I am, that people will automatically sit in the same seat that they occupied on previous days. So what? Well, let’s think about it. As human beings we create habit, ritual, certainty, familiarity at every turn. It’s part of our survival instinct and what helps us to make sense of any situation in which we find ourselves. In a professional context we don’t even think about sitting somewhere else for day two of a workshop; we automatically return to what we know – which is where we sat on day one.

So, if something so seemingly inconsequential is hard for us to do; trying to turn around a business; reinvent a toxic culture; rejuvenate a flagging workforce – these really are hard to deliver in terms of change. At a deeper level; my personal view is that our default, human response to change is that it’s hard wired to loss. In other words, we automatically focus on what change might cause us to lose and not what it might cause us to gain.

So what do leaders need in terms of skills to succeed? Well, I’m constantly saying that leadership is a relationship business and I am forever talking about ‘leadership’ or ‘executive’ presence. So we need to deeply and genuinely listen (an exhausting task in itself), help others to deal with their emotion in relation to the change, ask endless great questions, stay present, remain pragmatic and optimistic, look to the future, encourage others to focus on what they can control (and let go of that which they can’t), and ensure we have enough resources around ourselves to fend off cynicism, defeatism and exhaustion.

Who Else is Living in Your Wardrobe?

I had a conversation this month with a client (male) who asked me to help him update his look. Nothing new in that; and the wardrobe is the right place to start when considering an update to your image. So far; so easy. The booking proceeded very smoothly and we worked quickly and efficiently - until that is - he pulled out the most – well, what can I say - unflattering sweater. It was cream and green stripes (imagine that), hand knitted, moth eaten and smelt……musty. His mother had knitted it for him.

Now, before you leap to all kinds of conclusions, I was struck by a simple question: ‘who else is living in your wardrobe?’ I don’t – obviously – mean literally. However, what I was reminded of yet again was the power, the history and the emotions which are connected to our clothing. Whilst it might be all too easy (but inaccurate) to assume that dressing is an emotional experience for women alone, what was apparent for my client was that this garment had a profound relevance for him as well.

Cast your mind’s eye over your wardrobe (or better still, just open it up and take a look). Who else is living in there? Is it your younger self? An older version of you? A larger version of you? A slimmer version of you? A previous boyfriend? Girlfriend? Your best mate (whose style you love but deep down doesn’t really reflect you)? Your mother? Your husband? Your wife? Your pre-children self? Or someone else?

The point is that this is a powerful question to ask as we take stock of our clothing and the role they play in our lives. Our clothes need to reflect our true, authentic, current selves – and nothing else.

Who Cares About Colour?

On Thursday, August 28th 2014, President Barack Obama conducted a press conference in the White House. It had been a very grim week for the USA with an American being beheaded, the advance of ISIS had continued and a further crisis was developing in Ukraine. Nothing new in Obama talking to the press, and perhaps nothing new in the relentless tide of depressing and negative news….and yet something was very, very different.

The world’s most powerful man was wearing a tan suit. See the suit here!

I’ll say that again. The world’s most powerful man was wearing a tan suit. The press went into hysterics; Twitter was in meltdown and one Republican congressman was seen ranting his way into a frenzy on the topic. Fake Twitter accounts devoted to the suit were created almost instantly, and the most amusing of which that I read was a spoof Hillary Clinton account that tweeted ‘Hey Barack, welcome to my world’.

So the question has to be asked: who cares? Apparently a lot of people do. Does it matter what colour the President wears? Again, apparently so. As an image professional, whenever I talk about colour in the corporate environment it is positioned with a health warning because I’m anxious to avoid the eye rolling. And yet we need to be careful not to be too dismissive.

So why did Obama wearing a tan suit, cause such a furore? The simple answer is that, like it or not, colour is everywhere in our lives and it affects our mood, appetite and even our heart rate. We infer meaning, connection and emotion from colour. The presence of colour is directly relevant to the fabric of our social, political, cultural, historical and economic way of life. Colour is everywhere – literally.

We have ‘rules’ about colour, (all of which can be immediately contradicted depending on where you live, what you believe, and what you do, by the way). For example, don't wear white after Labour Day in the USA, don’t wear white to a wedding, you should always wear black to a funeral. The list goes on...

In the world of business, there is a reason why you don’t see many bright red or bright yellow trouser suits at work. The message behind the colour doesn’t fit with the choice of garment. The typical convention of formal business attire being a dark blue/grey or black suit with a white shirt/blouse is because it conveys authority and presence. Why is that? Quite simply because of the high colour contrast. Depth of colour when combined with lightness of colour is worn in Western society by a lot of professions who are perceived as authoritative (such as lawyers, police officers, judges, nurses, ward sisters) and so we associate this with authority and presence.

The reason why Obama caused a furore by wearing a tan suit when he came into the White House press briefing was because the visual image didn’t align with the verbal message. There was a conflict; a confusion; a distraction.

It’s too easy to say none of this matters, but the reality is that is does. Who cares about colour? We all do.

Why are Professional Relationships at Work so Difficult?

I’ve been working with clients this month who are all about engagement. Engaged employees mean engaged customers and that means more growth and more profit for the business. You can’t turn a business journal page over these days without the phrase ‘collaboration' screaming out at you. And all of my global clients are singing off this particular hymn sheet at the moment – and they are right to do so, by the way.

So if that all makes sense, then why is it so hard to do sometimes?

Working with a leader in the automotive industry this week, it struck me that he summed up the challenge beautifully. The industry in which he operates is fast-paced, results-driven, relentless, and his comment was simple: “we need to make time for people to form relationships at work”.

To be clear – he wasn’t talking about the romantic kind. He was talking about enabling moments for his team to build trust, connection, shared responsibility, honesty, understanding….and hence – teamwork in his organisation.

And he’s right.

The most consistent challenge I hear from leaders is that ‘we don’t have time’. Well guess what? If we don’t make time to do what’s important (even if we don’t think it’s urgent), then all we’re doing is piling up the pressure and requirements on ourselves. And this happens because we’ve not made the time to save time through encouraging our employees to engage with each other much more effectively.

Organisation charts and formal structures don’t tell you how things get done in a business. That’s dictated by the connections, relationships, trust and engagement that exists between colleagues to work for, and with, each other; to go the extra mile; to help out; to genuinely work together.

That means emotional engagement and connection.

Our role as leaders is to engage our talent through enabling these relationships to form.

If we do so; we achieve more together; share greater success along the way and enjoy the journey. That’s real engagement.

Looking Like a Leader

On July 15th 2014, the UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, completed one of the most radical Cabinet reshuffles in recent years.  Putting aside our personal views on the politics of it all – let me talk about something which yes, is deliberately gender biased.  Bear with me if you’re a gentleman reading this – it is important and it is relevant to you.

One of Cameron’s strategies has been to dramatically increase the number of women holding a Cabinet brief.  So a host of women have been promoted with a deliberate intent to remove the ‘pale, stale and male’ brand of politicians who have been kicking around the Westminster village for a very long time.

So, the scenario is as follows.  These women are about to be photographed as they walk into the very highest echelons of political power – Number 10 Downing Street, London.  My question is simply this: have they been successful in looking like a leader?  Does the look they have chosen for their ‘visual signature’ convey authority, credibility and yes – power? Remember, this is, after all, one of the most important moments (if not the most) in their career.  So, let’s not kid ourselves – what they wear matters.  See the images here.

So, the question is: how did they do?  Well, to be honest – not great.  I see ill-fitting garments, too big, too small, too sexy, too ‘old’, too much like I’m going to an engagement party, wedding, retirement lunch or drinks reception.

Why aren’t women better at consistently getting it right?  Perhaps because they don’t know some critical principles for consistently dressing to look like a leader:

·       Appropriate – for the occasion, time of day, climate, culture of the working environment, objectives in terms of the impression that you want to convey.

·       Fit – because folds in garments, be they vertical or horizontal, mean the clothes don’t fit properly.

·       Colour – too much bright colour or pattern are a distraction.  Where is the eye drawn when it’s so bright or vivid that it can be seen from the International Space Station?

·       Accessories and Details – they need to be business appropriate.  You’re going to work – not a disco (clutch bags for work? I think not).  In addition beware ‘old lady’ shoes; too high a heel; a good bra (one lady bounced in to Number 10), too short a split on a skirt or dress……and so it goes on.

·       Immaculate grooming – always, always, always, always.

Some women did get it right; many didn’t.

Remember, for men and women, looking like a leader means simply this: when you get it right, we notice you.  When you get it wrong, we notice the clothes.