Friday, March 02, 2007

Women in Leadership

I read an article in the Star Ledger last week (Thursday, Feb. 22) titled "Ms.-Fortune for women in leadership: Slip from long-term trend; state's top ranks suffer loss".

The trend I read about in the article regarding the decreasing number of women at top leadership positions is disappointing. Although this wasn't something that I ever wanted, I know many powerful and bright corporate women who could fill corporate officer and board director positions. Fact is, we even have our first women (a mother!!) running for the Presidency and a somewhat slow growing number of women in government leadership positions at the local, state, and national levels.

However, in the Fortune 500 companies the numbers of women in officer positions shrank from 16.4 % in 2005 to 15.6 % in 2006. And, where I live (NJ), we can no longer claim a single one of the 23 women CEOs in the Fortune 1000 since Lucent's Patricia Russo transferred to Paris to retain her job with France's Alcatel when the companies merged.

My experience working with women in the highest leadership positions reveals the ambivalence these women sometimes face between wanting to climb the corporate ladder and wanting to be with their kids more. The demands of higher level positions are usually heavy and difficult for those with a family. Many of the women in the highest leadership positions have partners who stay home with the kids and/or full-time live-in nannies who handle much of the childcare and household responsibilities.

Women are the ones who have the kids and are genetically set to do most of the nurturing. Women leaders tend to make many sacrifices. "Work/life balance is a big challenge; we are the ones who have the kids, and that's not going to change. Corporate careers are complex and women have a lot of choices, and that's a good thing; if we want more women to stay we have to signal to them that we value them and want to help them." according to Jennifer Allyn, managing director for gender, retention and advancement at Price Waterhouse Cooper, (one of the award winners where 3 of the top 17 top executives or 18% are women and are 16% of the 2,000 partners.)

More and more women are opting out of corporate America and starting their own business where they can set their own path and achieve more of what they want when they want it!

I'm curious, what are your thoughts about the decline in top leadership positions by women? Would this be something you'd want? Email me to share your views.

Yours,

Coach Natalie Gahrmann
natalie@nrgcoaching.com

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Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Re-aligning your Priorities in your Super Busy Life

If you find there's little time left at the end of the day, you're not alone! Here's a remedy I found on the internet (Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Indra_Books) for those who want to maximize their time:

1. First evaluate the amount of time you actually spend working, commuting, sleeping, eating, spending time with your family, attending children's activities (i.e. baseball, dance lessons) , running errands, visiting friends/relatives, making purchases, etc.

2. Make a list of all of the things you do that take up the non-work related remaining hours

3. Sort the tasks by type of activity. Feel free to make up your own categories.
o Family
o Home Repairs/Maintenance
o Errands/Shopping
o Social Activities
o School Activities
o Other

4. Asterick the ones you would rather not do.

5. Estimate how much time it takes you to do each task (per week).

6. Make a list of all of the things that are on the perpetual “to do” list that never seem to get done. Sort this list, as well. (Having things that are constantly waiting to be done, does nothing but add stress to your life.)

7. Now here comes the difficult part. Giving up control to get control. You are really going to have to put on your positive change attitude to make this work. Ready???? If so, circle the items that can be hired out. The possibilities are endless. If you are serious about change, then you will not be making excuses at this point as to why someone else cannot do the job. Do NOT, use money as an excuse at this point. You can’t afford to do that. This is your life you are talking about. Here are some suggestions:
o Lawn Care
o Home Repair Specialists (painters, handyman etc)
o Errand Service
o Personal Shopper/Concierge
o Nanny/Babysitter
o Car Specialists
o Financial Specialists

8. Make another list of things you would like to do but never have time to do.

9. If you successfully completed Step 7, you should now be able to make a new list of things to do each week that include your “wants.” Can you replace the “have to” items with the “want to” items? If you answered yes, you did a great job and are well on your way to taking back control of your life. If you answered no, then we still have some work to do.

Now some of you are probably saying, this is easy for her to say. Well, no it isn’t. I have helped many clients do this so that they can have time for the items at the top of their priority list. I, myself, had to hire out some things in my business that I don't have the skills or expertise to handle and I really don't enjoy doing.

Stop now and take stock of your life and priorities. You may find that when you reprioritize you only need some reorganization or you might have bigger problems that would benefit from the regular commitment with a professional coach, organizer, or life management consultant.

If we at N-R-G Coaching Associates can be of assistance, please contact us to discuss your needs.

Best regards,

Coach Natalie

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