Close-up: Gail Kelly

In this installment of "Close-up" I would like to introduce you to Gail Kelly. Born in 1956 in Pretoria, South Africa, now residing in Australia, happily married, and mother of four, she has given birth to triplets. Oh, and she's also Australia's highest paid women, and ranks 8th in Forbes most powerful women index. She spent the first 40 years of her life living in South-Africa where apartheid was still in place, and she obtained a degree in arts and teaching, not exactly what you would expect from someone who would become so rich and powerful. Her first job was as head of the Latin department in a private school, but a few years later she got a job in a bank at the bottom of the ladder. She started as a simple teller, but while also having her children she climbed the career ladder at an extraordinary pace, and when they decided to move to Australia she had gained quite some status within the bank. And when she arrived in Australia she quickly made it to the head of a major Australian bank. How did she manage to achieve all this? According to her, the keys that made her successful are impatience and wanting to get things done, but she also has a passion for her job and only sleeps about 4 hours a day. She also says that surrounding yourself with the right people is essential. Quite an extraordinary woman.
Philip Boelens

Close-up: An introduction

In effort to see what sets apart women leaders from the rest of the pack, I will write a series of "close-ups" about some of the most influential women leaders in the world.
What makes them unique? What motivates them? Do they have families? Do they take the thougher masculine approach or did they use a softer female touch? How did they reach the top and did they ever feel held back by the glass ceiling? These and many other questions will be explored in this series of portraits of influential women leaders.
I hope that this series can be an inspiration for other women who look to achieve greatness in business. And for men it can offer a glimpse into the mysterious and diverse world of female bosses.
Philip Boelens

Where did the glass ceiling go?

On the 1^st of September, Annette Winkler started as the new CEO of Smart. People consider it impressive, because in car industry the glass ceiling is even thicker than in other sectors.

Mrs. Winkler started her new job without bringing the news too loudly. Maybe, she will be in the news more often when a new model of the Smart will be presented.

There has been told that is was a well considered decision to make a woman the new CEO of Smart.

By the way, Annette Winkler isn’t the only woman in car industry who broke through the glass ceiling. Opel and Ford, they too have appointed a woman manager.

Annette Winkler



I think this is an interesting article, because it is about the glass ceiling. Nowadays, people talk about the glass ceiling all the time. In my opinion, it is worth mentioning it.

Sarah Boone

Article: http://standaard.be/artikel/detail.aspx?artikelid=GB2UNETB&word=glazen+plafond

Picture: http://nimg.sulekha.com/business/original700/annette-winkler-2010-9-30-7-50-8.jpg

‘Is the credit crunch a feminist issue?’

Christine Lagarde posed this question at the beginning of the year. People thought she was confused but nowadays it’s a hot topic. The ‘Lehman Sisters’ question’ – whether having more women at the top of financial institutions might have tamed the crunch – has been widely aired.

Academic work proves that the suggestions, that alpha-male behaviour might have contributed to the economic crisis, are true. Dr John Coates of Cambridge University discovered a link between high levels of testosterone in traders and risk-taking. Alpha-men (or men with a high level of testosterone) are more likely to take risks.

According to a number of studies there is a positive correlation between the amount of women in a company’s board and the performance of the company. Women handle money better in a crisis than men. The value of female-run hedge funds has dropped by 9.6% in the past year, compared with 19% of the rest, according to Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research.

Annelore Demaegdt

Source: article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/dec/27/ruth-sunderland-women-boardroomn
             picture: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:UMP_regional_elections_IlM_2010-02-18_n07.jpg

Belgian channel wants more women and immigrants

Again, ‘De Standaard’ publishes an article about minorities. Today, the article is even on the front page.

The goal of the VRT (a Belgian public broadcaster) is to have 40% women on the screen and 12% people with a different skin color. By imposing that first quota, they want to give the channel a more female character.

They don’t have the intention to bring those people on the screen just to reach their goal, but they want to picture Flanders as it really is.  

The VRT doesn’t know yet how it will achieve its purpose; it is still work in progress.

The article isn’t entirely about women, but it shows again that the issue is currently a hot topic. I wonder why they impose those quotas, and if what they do is really necessary. Maybe, they are exaggerating a bit.

Sarah Boone

Article and picture: 

http://www.standaard.be/artikel/detail.aspx?artikelid=TA32ECV5

Defining success

After reading the previous blogs, it is clear that there are many differences between men and women.  Especially when it comes to, business related, decision taking. But there are also differences when it comes to the experience of success.

Working mother, a magazine with mostly female readers , polled with 200 of its readers  what success means to women. The outcome was that success is based on three key factors namely: a meaningful job, having  financial security and last but not least  enough family time.

All these women clearly agree on the fact that combining a successful job as mother and leader is mainly possible when your employer has flexible policies. However, I think that every leading mother needs to find her own work-life balance because not every job is the same and each household has its own “qualities” and characteristics.

Source: http://www.workingmother.com/BestCompanies/work-life-balance-advancement-of-women/2010/09/finding-success-for-women

Buyle Celina

What is ‘the pipeline’?

In the eighties the ‘pipeline’ was the hope for all the supporters of equity in the boardroom. It’s the idea that once there were enough women in the workplace, they would rise to the top. Unfortunately, this didn’t work out. In reality, the fact was that most of the women didn’t get to the top because they hadn’t been able to get a foot on the corporate ladder. A major study by US group Catalyst concluded that  women lag behind men in job level and in salary, already from the beginning of their career. Women earn on average $4,600 less than men every year in their initial jobs after leaving business school. Companies have failed to build a social system that allows talented women to advance. According to SocGen, it’s no longer a question whether there is any advantage of having female directors (there is), but how to get more of them on board.

Annelore Demaegdt

Source: article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/feb/21/women-graduates-catalyst-pipeline
             cartoon: http://jesuadnauseum.wordpress.com/                 

Helen Weir: Lloyds’s leading lady in search of the top job

Lloyds Banking Group, which is the leader in the mortgage and current accounts business in Britain, seeks to replace the outgoing chief Eric Daniels. Helen Weir is the leading candidate to take the helm at Lloyds Banking Group. How did she get so far?

Weir has got a lot of experience in different companies. After finishing Oxford university with a degree in mathematics, she started as a graduate trainee at Unilever. Then she obtained a MBA at Stansford. After that she was a consultant at McKinsey and then she joined Kingfisher as finance director of its B&Q division. They promoted her to finance director of the overall Kingfisher group and eventually she joined Lloyds as finance director. 

Her co-workers describe her as smart, energetic, driven, down to earth… Some of the main characteristics of successful people.

Weir herself said in an interview two years ago that you have to accept that you have to make compromises if you want to be successful as a woman. One of those compromises is working long hours. 

I think we can conclude Helen Weir is one of the main candidates to take the top job at Lloyds because of her major experience and hard working attitude.

Annelore Demaegdt

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/oct/03/helen-weir-profile-lloyds-banking-group

Mistakes of women leaders in body language

Warmth and authority are the two types of body language a follower seeks in his or her leader. It is assumed that warmth is more consistent with feminine qualities. Authority, on the other hand, is more seen as a men’s quality.

In our subconscious, we attach a lot of importance to body language. Therefore you have to pay attention to the nonverbal signs you send as women if you want to be seen as a powerful, credible and a confident female leader.

The top three mistakes women leaders make are:

-         -  Too many head tilts, try to keep your head straight up in a more neutral position

-         - Physically condense, do not minimize your size but claim your turf

-         - Acting girlish, playing with your hair is not a powerful sign

If you want to see more on this topic, watch following video:

http://video.forbes.com/fvn/forbeswoman/body-language-mistakes-women-make

This blog is made possible thanks to Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph. D. 

http://www.forbes.com/2010/07/12/body-language-mistakes-women-forbes-woman-leadership-authority.html

Celina Buyle

Women and men, work and power

This blog is based on a survey of Fast Company, this is an business magazine. Fast company asked 13 prominent women leaders what their vision is on the difference between men and women. I am now going to discuss one of those 13 visions. These are her findings:

Sharon Patrick, president and COO of Martha Steward Living, discovered that you will more likely notice a difference between men and women in management style than in management skills.
We cannot ignore the fact that women have a different view on power. Men mostly use a strategy that is referred to as the ‘go for the kill’-type. They try to get as much as possible by using more obscure methods like intimidation, pressure etc.
Women on the other hand aim for more collaborative approaches, such as: solving problems, searching for common interests etc.

Despite the fact that there is lots of research that proves that the female ‘path’ offers the best chance on high-quality results, in the real (male) world, collaboration is synonym for weakness.

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/13/womenofpr.html

Celina Buyle

How to get women in a board of directors

Women on Board

This weekend, I found an article about women leaders in ‘De Standaard’. The article is about a couple of women who raised an NPO called ‘Women on Board’. 

Their target is to bring women together who are capable and willing to take responsibilities. After that, they are brought in contact with companies who are looking for new members for the board of directors.

The NPO doesn’t particularly want quota for the amount of women in business, but it does try to convince several companies that they shouldn’t make a difference between men and women. It’s not their intention to favour women, but to give them an equal chance.

I think it’s interesting to see that NPO’s are being established to get more women in a higher position. The fact that the article was in the newspaper this weekend, proves that the issue is currently a hot topic.

Sarah Boone

Article and picture: 

http://www.standaard.be/artikel/detail.aspx?artikelid=U73258QR&word=waar+zitten+al+die+vrouwen

Do women leaders suffer?

It is like a sore thumb that women have been discriminated in the past. Their task was to lead a family and furthermore stay in the background. This results that female leaders were  influential, because of their rarity value. As for now the number of female leaders increased.

Even more than that, they came to the fore thanks to the economic crisis. The financial structures that brought out the economic crisis were developed by men. Therefore women leaders gained more trust and maybe the public hoped that they could bring change.

Let us rewind. Women are being prepared to output the task of  role model (and leader) in family life. This causes that they have a base to carry out the same in business life.

There is said from women that they are curious. That word always brings a negative co-notation, however we could interpret this otherwise: they desire to listen to other people and know their main problems. And that will improve collaboration on the work floor.

Women leaders however often stand alone and receive little support, anyhow they help each other out and that is a good begin. 

Celina Buyle

Source: http://www.megaportfestival.com/do-women-leaders-suffer/

Female leaders, why are they so rare?

According to the study of Adams and Yones, men and women have the same abilities to be good leaders. But why do women only control a small part of the important positions in the business world? And what indicates a good leader?

Dr Radovic concluded that women are a fast-growing segment of the business community worldwide. Nowadays the characteristics of being a good successful leader are very feminine. One of these characteristics is the fact that women solve problems in a different way. The strategy of women is based on family patterns, e.g.: they will think more holistic than men and solve their problems accordingly.

Despite women having the abilities to be good leaders, a lot of men still think women shouldn’t occupy important positions. It’s a pitty for them because more and more women are entering the business world.

Annelore Demaegdt

Source: http://www.advancingwomen.com/women-leaders.php

Irene Rosenfeld: behind the scenes

Irene Rosenfeld

My first article is about Irene Rosenfeld. She is not the most famous woman on earth, but she is powerful. Irene Rosenfeld is the CEO of Kraft Foods. It is generally known that she is a prosperous business woman, but not many people know her background.

Irene Rosenfeld was a successful student. Her first degree was in psychology, she also obtained a diploma of master in business administrations and a doctorate in marketing and statistics.

Some say she was “bookish but outgoing”, other say she was “low-key” (=restrained). So she was a very zealous student, but not unworldly.

Now, Irene Rosenfeld is still a restrained person, but she is not afraid of going after what she wants. She is very competitive and extremely driven.

The article already dates from the 6th of December 2009. But last month, Irene Rosenfeld is proclaimed the second most powerful woman on earth, so I think this article is quite relevant for our group assignment.

I think this article is interesting, because it shows that women don’t necessarily have to have a lot of fans and allure to hold a lot of power.

Article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/6744588/Irene-Rosenfeld-Kraft-Foodss-chief-executive-has-a-history-of-high-achievement.html

Picture: http://wexpo.biz/women_ceos

Sarah Boone