Mary Barra or Miley Cyrus

For all those skeptics who have always complained of the glass ceiling, and that they cannot get to their goals because of XYZ, there was yet another piece of evidence yesterday, Tuesday Dec. 10^th.  Mary Barra was named GM CEO the successor of CEO Dan Akerson.  The first female CEO in GM history, she is scheduled to start her new role in January this coming year.  Mary Barra has worked at GM for 33 years and has experience with positions in manufacturing, engineering and senior management. She began her GM career a co-op student in the Pontiac Motor Division in 1980 and gradually worked her way up the corporate ladder.  So although her goals in making CEO didn’t exactly happen overnight, her proven track record and careful career planning certainly did payoff. 

Within the past decade, many organizations have realized the essential need for diversity in sustainable growth, innovation and success.  Although historically women have been underrepresented in the automotive industry similar to engineering and technology, organizations such as GM have made a formal commitment to focus on women as a strategic lever for growth. 

Organizations who are driven for success, are increasing the percentage of female recruits, they effectively identify and mentor women with management potential, and increase the number of women in leadership positions.  Women can help organizations relate to a customer base that includes a higher percentage of women.  Leading companies recognize the importance of having women involved in product development and innovation. 

The most important initiative that a company can take to improve their gender diversity as well as their overall strategic Human Capital planning as it relates to competitive advantage, is to measure where they are in total numbers.  Metrics is the only sure way of expecting change and growth. 

Beyond measuring, training can make a significant difference because company leaders and hiring managers may not even realize their own gender bias.  Recruiting, retaining and advancing women is not about quotas or a checklist, but rather it’s about identifying the best possible talent and heading them toward the goals of gaining economic and innovative competitiveness.  Women are currently underpaid and under-recognized, and that’s a fact.  In fact, the gender pay gap has hover at 77 cents on the dollar since 2007 (Huffington Post). However, an organization simply cannot have the goal of by excellence in service and quality in product development, if only 50% of its employee population are given a seat at the table. 

Unlike the automotive industry, the entertainment industry has realized the value of women in driving the bottom-line.  Although she is no Miley Cyrus when it comes to popularity in the media,  Mary Barra who currently ranks 35^th on the Forbes List of 100 Most Powerful Women, is proof that organizations are slowly but surely waking up and jumping on the band wagon to the best kept secret; the Woman Human Capital Advantage. 

Transformers Ultimate Power

Now days, when we hear the words Transformer, we automatically think of the entertainment franchise co-produced between the Japanese Takara Tomy and American Hasbro toy companies back from the 1980’s. The original forms of the transformers utilized varying humanoid-type figures while later versions presented robots able to transform into everyday vehicles, electronic items or weapons.  On the other hand, the word Transformer has been in the engineering and physics realm for many years, dating back to the early days of the use of electricity. A transformer is an electrical device that takes electricity of one voltage and changes it into another voltage. You'll see transformers at the top of utility poles and even changing the voltage in a toy train set.  Although it seems the terms are worlds apart, there is a common theme between the two and that is Change. 

So why are we suddenly talking about engineering and the entertainment industry?  That’s because as leadership development strategists, we are in the business of change.  Preparing leaders and organizations for change outside of themselves in the case of their organization, but also change within them.  In today’s’ fast paced and highly volatile economic environment, it is even more imperative that people and organizations not only adapt to change, but to also invite it.  What’s the difference? From an organization development perspective, benchmarking, strategy planning and competitive advantage are based on the premise that in order to stay competitive, our offerings need to stay innovative in the eyes of our customers.  This is not unchartered territory.  From the days of Ford Motor Companies to McDonalds and up to now, this basic principle has had to take precedence.  However, what about from the viewpoint of employee productivity and team leadership? 

There has always been the discussion that one can be a good manager without being a good leader. In fact, there was a theory discussed not too long ago called transactional leadership.   Transactional leadership would encompass the exchange of traditionally expected tasks: managing, supervising, organizing work, and monitoring performance. This would mean following procedures, a set of guidelines and tasks.  Bringing this back to our original discussion of organization development, the question I want to pose to you is:  in a transactional environment, what behavior if any is the manager going to encourage?  My answer:  Status Quo.  The truth is, a manager is only avoiding failure by managing, meaning prevention and cannot be the catalyst to change, meaning proactive.  The change we are referring to here would cover many areas including adapting to individual employees needs, motivating employees according to their motivational triggers, job design based on talents rather than just resume matching, and proactive team productivity measures, such as innovation days, and culture change in general, just to name a few.  These examples are all in a sense, babies born out of the marriage of a learning organization culture, and transformational leadership.  The initiatives and processes leading to each of them require constant cultivation and nurturing.

It was James MacGregor Burns who first used the term transformational leadership in 1978 to describe a process in which “leaders and followers help each other to advance to a higher level of morale and motivation.”

In any circumstance, if you want to have someone perform according to your liking, they have to want to perform.  Long gone are the days of the iron fist, or the “I will fire you”.  Having influence comes from trust, support, and the match between the intrinsic motivation of the follower and the influencing power of the leader. We have seen even under circumstances of severe punishment, whether physical or emotional, such as the Nazi Concentration Camps, or the Abolishment of Slavery during the Civil War, that over a period of time, people will only follow those, whom they believe in. 

Reasons Transformational Leadership has an influential effect:

• It is able to create a supportive environment where responsibility is shared
• It is able to encourage actions that support the organization rather than personal interests
• It is able to break through status quo; have freedom to set strategy and change direction
• It is able to allow one to earn genuine trust, respect, and admiration of their team
• It is able motivate performance and business impact beyond expectations

In our next article, we will discuss, suggested ways a leader can find their transformational voice.  In the mean time, stay tuned to our Interview Series Titled:  The Voice of Leadership on Blog Talk Radio.

Transformer Photo Credit: HD Wallpapers

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If you had the pain of sitting at the recruiting chair, you would no longer just dislike the interviewing process, you would find it intriguing. The thing to remember is that the recruiter really doesn't want to interview one more person or look at one more resume if they had enough confidence in who was in front of them. However, the sadness is that just like the new iPhone 5S, what’s on the other side of the door, is sometimes disappointing.

Bad interview stories are a dime a dozen. One of our favorites is a story told by

Bruce A. Hurwitz, who overheard his potential new hire mouthing off to a woman before entering the elevator for the job interview:

"There were maybe 10 of us waiting [for the elevator] on the ground floor, one of which was an attractive woman. A man joined us in line, and started to chat with her. She responded politely and then chose to ignore him. He then started to yell at her [saying] something about how he was interviewing for a great job with a great salary and he could buy and sell her...I started to recognize his voice [and] asked him if his name was, let's say, Bob. He said, 'Ya.' I asked him, 'Is your meeting with Bruce?' He went white and said 'Ya.' I said, 'It's cancelled.' And, no, I never heard from Bob again." -- Bruce A. Hurwitz, president and CEO of Hurwitz Strategic Staffing (Cited from CBS News)

Dwight from the Office
Photo Credit TenTonHammer.com

It's intriguing to look at these horror stories in retrospect, but in all seriousness, a first impression is make or break. You've been told a million times to dress the part, have your LinkedIn profile proofread, and your references updated, but how do you really shine for a top level position?

Executive Interview Tips:

* Remember it's not suddenly all about you because you have a big interview. Losing your temper shouldn't be your normal behavior anyway, but don't yell at random people on the way to your interview. You’ll land yourself a big pass card, like “Bob” in Bruce’s story. Your behavior from the first phone conversation to the farewell after the interview all counts, so make every moment great. Emotional Intelligence, communication and leadership skills are becoming highly valued qualities for leading professionals. In fact, reports in 2006 pointed to lack of these leadership skills as a top cause of CEO turnover.

* Do the company culture research ahead of time. Are you a fit? How so? Forbes Contributor, Erika Anderson has this to say “Over the past year, I watched as two newly hired, talented senior executives failed pretty spectacularly at two different companies – and in both cases, the problem was a poor cultural fit.” This is big concern for employers and should be for you as well. 

* In the Forbes article Top Executive Recruiters Agree There Are Only Three True Job Interview Questions, Contributor Geroge Bradt cites "can you do the job?" as one of the three primary questions of importance to interviewers. Based on the job description, review which of your strengths best apply to the tasks you will be performing. This seems like a given, but try to figure out how to make your most relative skills pop off the resume and become more tangible. Consider seeking written references for those skills or creating a portfolio. Above and beyond never hurts. 

* If you are working with an executive placement firm, make sure they know you well, and have taken the time to assess the position as far as leadership, values and long-term strategic goals of the organization.  Many executive recruitment firms don’t have a formal pre-employment assessment process.  So that homework falls on you to inquire and get the firm to work on your side.  Even if you do take the job, at least you know your goals going in.  No Surprises!

These tips have already given you an advantage, but it’s up to you to make the goal. Remember, your interviewer is human just like you. Go in with a positively genuine and can-do attitude. Above all, figure out how to connect with the interviewer on a personal level. It isn't easy to do, but in order to reduce stress, try to view the interaction as more of a discussion. Worst comes to worst, you have a greater network than before if you are a networking champion. If it’s meant to be, it will be.

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