Women and Global Leadership: Coloring Outside the Lines-Around the World

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Women and Global LeadershipColoring Outside
the Lines-Around the World
Barbara T. Bauer
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Agenda

• 1030-1045 Introductions
• 1045-1115 Global Leadership
• 1115-1145 Case Study
• 1145-1215 Readout, QA

Two years ago globalization meant paring off a
function and moving it abroad a factory in
China, a call center in India. The key driver
was cost. Today, CEOs see globalization as
intrinsic to their business, the means of
accessing the best resources wherever they are.
It is the gateway to new markets.-2008 IBM CEO
Study
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Why focus on women and global leadership?
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Why focus on women and global leadership?

• The world is global, and needs women global
  leaders.
• At home school, sports, travel, immigration
• On the job executive, management, and
  individual global relationships
• In the community church, non-profits, political
  organizations

Women will change the nature of power. Power
will not change the nature of women. Bella
Abzug, State of the World, 1996
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Why focus on women and global leadership?

• The world is global, and needs women global
  leaders.
• At home
• On the job
• In the community
• Women have essential skills
• Intrinsic
• Learned

A woman leader has a distinctive approach as the
organizations chief storyteller, personifying
a sense of community and telling a story that
helps shape peoples sense of their identity.
Mary Robinson,former President of Ireland, 1996
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Why focus on women and global leadership?

• The world is global, and needs women global
  leaders.
• At home
• On the job
• In our communities
• Women have essential skills
• Intrinsic
• Learned
• Practice makes perfect

non-verbal cues, emotional sensitivity,
empathy, patience, a broad contextual view, long
term planning, networking and negotiating,
cooperating, reaching consessus, and leading via
egalitarian teams. Tom Peters quoting Helen
Fischer, The First Sex.
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Before we practice, some insight about the
challenge

• Increasing
• Geographic diversity
• Cultural diversity
• Frequency of global interactions
• Content complexity (the deal, the task)
• Both more and less in person
• Decreasing
• Jobs with no global attribute
• Situations that can rely strictly on masculine
  traits

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Lets understand some personal skills

• Cultural Intelligence the ability to understand
  and engage successfully in any environment or
  cultural setting with behaviors that optimize the
  situations.
• Emotional Intelligence a self-perceived ability
  to identify, assess, and manage the emotions of
  one's self, of others, and of groups. Leadership
  based on self-awareness, self-regulation,
  empathy.
• Social Intelligence Leadership based on
  effective group interactions and behaviors.

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Cultural Intelligence

• Guiding Principle Assume others have different
  ways to approach situations, from hand shakes to
  conversations to signing major contracts.
  Appreciate that cultural norms are stereotypes
  that may not be true of an individual.
• Examples
• Asian seating arrangements
• Saying yes in India
• It is obvious. in Germany vs. the UK
• Bare feet as a sign of respect
• Challenges
• Too many countries (e.g. APEC leadership
  meetings)
• Too easy to generalize and stereotype

There are too many different cultures and
individuals to rely strictly on the study of
cultural differences. Leaders today must adapt
to the current situation, using and integrating
all their skills.
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Cultural Intelligence

• Guiding Principle Assume others have different
  ways to approach situations, from hand shakes to
  conversations to signing major contracts.
  Appreciate that cultural norms are stereotypes
  that may not be true of an individual.
• Examples
• Asian seating arrangements
• Saying yes in India
• It is obvious. in Germany vs. the UK
• Bare feet as a sign of respect
• Challenges
• Too many countries (e.g. APEC leadership
  meetings)
• Too easy to generalize and stereotype

There are too many different cultures and
individuals to rely on the study of cultural
differences, leaders today must adapt to the
current situation, using and integrating all
their skills.
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Cultural Research Studies

• 5 common dimensions of culture (Hofstede)
• Power Distance
• Long-term orientation
• Avoiding uncertainty
• Acceptance of competitiveness
• Individualism Orientation
• Findings
• Western countries have common, strong
  individualism, lower long-term scores
• Asian countries tend toward long-term and
  power acceptance scores, but some are quite
  diverse
• France is most like Asia

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Asian versus Western Tendencies
From G. Perchthold presentation, Abeam
Consulting, 2005
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As expected, communications patterns vary
depending on culture causing miscommunication
across cultures
Tendencies in Communication Patterns
From G. Perchthold presentation, Abeam
Consulting, 2005
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Dangers of talking about culture

• Subject to generalities, there are always
  exceptions
• Always biased by preconceptions from personal
  experience
• Culture, history, truth all depend on your
  vantage point
• Most of us have experience, and dont realize our
  blind spots

Being right about cultural sensitivities is a
dead end. Being culturally intelligent is an
opportunity
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Our Task Today Practice and Reflect

• Practice in a small group case study
• 4 roles
• 4 observers
• Use intrinsic and learned personal skills
  (intelligences)
• Refer to handouts on intelligences at your
  table
• 15 min for activity
• 10 min for sharing insights at your table, and
  selecting one key insight or learning to share

Act authentically always, especially in complex
cultural settings.
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Type of Intelligence Good Example Example to Improve Suggestions
Cultural
Emotional
Social
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Case Study

• Beth works for a Denver firm with many
  international projects. She has just been
  assigned to the project team designing the
  opening ceremony for the London Olympics. Her
  team members include Li from China, Andrew from
  London, and Indira from India. This core team
  is newly appointed. There is a bigger team
  including representatives of all countries, but
  this core team is responsible for bringing the
  plan back on schedule, and directing the work of
  the larger group.
• This is the first conference call to get the new
  core team organized and off to a good start.
• Participant Choose one of the roles (US, China,
  London, India ) and carry out your roles
  behaviors. Use your instincts as well as any
  learned insights or behaviors. Think (Color???)
  outside the box.
• Observers Listen to the conversation and note
  good/not so good examples of applying
  intelligence or instincts. Think (Color???)
  outside the box.
• After 15 min, share observations and choose one
  important insight to read out to the group.

The key to working globally is not to seek
homogeneity IBM 2009 Global CEO Study
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Case Study Read Out

• Please share A good, BRIEF example of
  intelligences observed on the call.
• And, any other insights.

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Questions and Answers
Barbara T. Bauer President