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Business News/ Mint-lounge / A matter of ‘false choices’
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A matter of ‘false choices’

A matter of ‘false choices’

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Passion & Purpose: Stories from the Best and Brightest Young Business Leaders is a collection of personal stories by emerging leaders, spanning issues of globalization, sustainability, technology, people and work cultures.

The authors, John Coleman, Daniel Gulati and W. Oliver Segovia, have put together a comprehensive account of insights and learnings from those who have recently completed MBAs from Harvard Business School, US.

In my first year at Lehman a respected and successful female senior manager reprimanded my male manager in a meeting. As we were leaving the meeting he told me, “I like my women as I like my coffee—with milk and sugar." I responded, “But she gets things done." This woman, like so many others in similar positions, needed to maintain a firm approach, but often got stereotyped and ridiculed in the process.

There’s little doubt that women now have greater access to the upper echelons of the business world than they did fifty, thirty, or even twenty years ago. The fact that I could respond to my manager’s comment without any tangible repercussion is evidence of that advance; but the fact that he even made the comment is a microcosm of the work that remains to be done. Access to the business world for female professionals has too often hinged on conforming to the expectations of male colleagues and managers. In some cases, male counterparts expect women to remain feminine and not be one of the guys. In other situations, men expect their female colleagues to conform and be one of the guys. It has been the woman’s job to figure out what her colleagues and managers are expecting, consciously or subconsciously, and project that as her personality. Regardless of which bias exists, it is almost impossible for a female professional to receive the same level of “brotherly" inclusion.

Passion Purpose—Stories from the Best and Brightest Young Business Leaders:By John Coleman, Daniel Gulati and W. Oliver Segovia, Harvard Business Review Press,296 pages, 995

Currently, many organizations accommodate the specific circumstances of female employees. Usually, this involves flexible work arrangements, maternity leave, and day-care facilities. Unfortunately, these are peripheral solutions to the lack of gender diversity in businesses, especially at the top. It’s incumbent upon the next generation of female business leaders to forge their own rules based on a female-centric value system. Only after the rules of business are rebuilt to incorporate such a value system will businesses truly be able to harness the talent of all their employees. These values involve

Rejecting the false choice between family and professional success

Breaking down artificially forced gender roles

Changing how women view themselves in the workplace

These are difficult issues to discuss because they question deeply held assumptions about the role of women, the nature of meritocracy, and how we reward people in our organizations. Turning conversation into action is a two-way street. Not only must organizations understand what young female professionals hold dear in order to truly capture the value they bring, but women themselves must also strive to better articulate and champion their values in the workplace.

The next generation of female leaders must break down the false choice between career and family. Like it or not, for biological and social reasons, women are often positioned as primary caregivers in their families; and that position often involves trading success at work for stability at home. The next generation of women and employers must work to erode this trade-off. This starts with openness. Companies should become more proactive about making female managers available to female candidates to discuss openly how female managers balance family and professional success within the firm. Female candidates must become more comfortable raising these questions explicitly. When I interviewed with the CEO of Care.com, Sheila Marcelo, she described several instances of Care.com employees proactively balancing work and family. For example, she told me that the CTO worked from Greece and the head of business development took every Friday off. It seemed to me that her willingness to allow employees to create their own work experience enhanced their commitment, work ethic, and productivity. Unfortunately, in the current context, female candidates often do this more covertly, asking other women who work in the company about the “rules" around balancing family and work. Candidates shy away from asking about what they can expect of the quality of their personal life because they feel that they will be adversely judged. Companies can start to implement this openness by instructing HR professionals and managers who conduct interviews to describe the various degrees of flexibility available to the candidate and directly ask the candidate what they need to achieve work-life balance.

They of course shouldn’t be adversely impacted for prioritizing both the personal and the professional. Rather, women should be rewarded for successfully balancing both family and work (as, incidentally, should men). Women should feel free to bring their “authentic" selves to work—whether that concept of self involves family or not—and employers should create space for those discussions.

Write to us at businessoflife@livemint.com

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Published: 18 Mar 2012, 09:17 PM IST
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