Women are the solution to the recession

The global financial crisis was generated grid and fear. Women can heal the corporation and the whole financial system with honesty and courage.

Our fear is based on the perception of being independent, having the need to have more and being afraid of the enemy. We are afraid of the boss, of the neighbors, of our partner and most importantly, of ourselves. We are prisoners of this nightmare fear cloud. Fear does not allow us to cooperate, as in fear it is not possible to trust the other. In fact, fear also drives us to dishonesty and fraud. Have you noticed how people lie to meet the target? And how this is an “undiscussable”? In this fear framework, all outcomes tend to end in lose-lose outcomes. Does Enron ring a bell? Lehman Brothers maybe?

In the current context our identity is defined by what we have and what we do. We are our cars, houses, titles, professions, spouses…. No wonder why we buy, buy, buy… No wonder why we work, work, work… No matter why we marry, divorce, marry, divorce, marry, divorce…. We derive our worth as individuals from what we have and what we do. In this context, it is not enough just to be. Grid is the name of the game. In this context, being is not satisfactory. No wonder the high number of suicides around the financial crisis: people who lost their job, their title, their (company) car, feel that they have lost themselves. They lost the reason to live. They lost themselves.

Fortune 500 companies
with 3 or more women on the Board
gain a significant performance
advantage over those with the fewest

+ 73% return on sales
+ 83% return on equity
+ 112% return on invested capital
Catalyst


The leadership challenges of this historical moment are paramount and can be better met by women. The best leaders to guide us out of this crisis are women. The age of disregarding female perspectives and feminine success attributes needs to be over. The age of promoting/hiring women because it is politically correct needs to be over. The age of promoting/hiring women through quotas needs to be over.

We need to understand that there is a strong business case behind it. It is a win-win-win deal! The woman benefits, the company benefits, the community benefits, the staff benefits, the customers benefit and yes indeed men benefit as well. Study after study, it has been demonstrated the clear correlation between women in the corporate world and corporate performance: financial performance, corporate governance, staff retention etc. What is the cause of this overwhelming reality? The leadership challenges of this historical moment can be better met by women.

Women’s aspirations are one of the core answers why they are the solution to the crisis and the best leaders of this age. According to the Women on the Verge of the 21st Century, white paper from Grey Advertising, the women aspirations that received an importance higher the 80% are
• Make the world a better place
• See kids become really successful
• Having enough time to do what I want

Women’s aspirations are reflected in their behavior. This way it is very easy to understand their business choices, particularly when they contradict the old power based paradigms. This way it is very easy to understand why a woman would more easily turn down an unethical contract, even if it generates short term profit. Interestingly enough, there are more and more men who are also choosing for these “feminine” aspirations.

The behavior and views of women defer from those of men. Understanding the main differences can help us to appreciate how women do business, how women lead. Table 1. Gender preferences, reminds us that empathy, creativity, intuition, connectedness, meaning and play are very strong in women. It reminds us that women are best suited to deal with living systems. A corporation is a living system. Our financial system is a living system.

Table 1. Gender preferences[1]

He	She
People +things + theorems	People first, last and always
Soloist	Ensemble player
The top: May the best win	The collective: The more the merrier
Pyramid	Peer group
On-off	Details, details, details
First workable answer	The perfect answer
Key points	Full context
Establish status	Build connections
Connect through competition - Rank	Connect through affinity –Link
Facts and features	Stories and personal details
Linear thinking	Network thinking
One thing at a time	Multitasking
Facts and features	Appreciate and use intuition
Orientation to power	Orientation to empowerment

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[1] Loosely adapted from Marketing to Women, by Marti Barletta and Re-Imagine by Tom Peters

Women can become powerful in business (and everywhere actually!) when they learn to appreciate and embrace these innate characteristics that for a long time have not been regarded as world changing. Women need to wake up to the fact that these characteristics are necessary for humanity at this point in history. Building community, carrying culture, healing relationships are by no means unimportant. They are crucial and indeed what we need now the most.

It is easy to blame men for many things: from not helping with the children to the financial collapse. Blaming is not going to take us anywhere. Now women have to take on the challenge and step in the leadership shoes.

Leave your comfort zone to become a “She-Leader”!