Closing the Gap

Closing the Gap

By Michelle Meyer|2015-05-19T14:45:46-05:00June 12th, 2014|Blog, Uncategorized|

“We’re minding the gap, but how do we close it?”

That’s the question the Women Donors Network asked recently. A lot has been written lately about all the gaps that exist for women – in business leadership, in political leadership, in the imbalance of how many hours of taking care of our families women still shoulder even if they are working full time… and I could go on.

In many ways, all this talk is a good thing. It shines a light on the current state of affairs and encourages the conversations. We can only create new things through ideas and conversations.

I just wish we were creating new things.

All sorts of changes have been suggested in the current conversations to close the leadership gap for women – but almost inevitably, our ideas are tied to changing the current structures and barriers. We’re talking about having women behave in a certain way to try and succeed in the current structures. We’re not really providing an alternative – for them, or for the men they work with.

Here’s your alternative: Stop playing the old game. Create a new one.

GirlAuthentic is about helping women create new structures. What would give women the wealth and power necessary to build new structures and eventually – maybe – change the old ones? Women building significant businesses. We can build Fortune 500 companies faster in the next 40 years than we can ever hope to change the current business and political structures in any significant way.

Why build businesses? Because building businesses is the fastest way to acquire wealth.

Why is wealth important? Because wealth creates power and the ability to create social impact.

We can close the gaps faster if we build the businesses to function in a balanced way, and control the money and the power. Stop playing the old game, and start creating a new one.

0

Step one: This conversation.

Step one: This conversation.

By Michelle Meyer|2015-05-19T14:46:07-05:00May 13th, 2014|Blog|

Step one: This conversation.

A few weeks ago I had the honor of speaking at Penn State University’s wonderful “Powerful Women Paving the Way” conference. I love the conference name. I love that it was organized by a student organization, Women in Business. And I love that there was a diverse mixture of women and men both in the students and in the professionals and sponsoring organizations who attended.

But most of all, I love that conferences like this are the right first step. They are the conversation.

If we want a work environment where women can be authentic, we’re going to need to create that environment from scratch. That means more women building businesses – significant businesses.

It’s going to happen in three steps.

Conversation.
Conferences, discussions and interactions – even online, on websites like this one – are creating the possibility in many more women’s minds of building significant businesses (businesses that strive to be the Fortune 500 companies 40 years from now). I believe we can build these businesses faster than we can change the current corporate structures, which don’t really want to change. But first – we have to talk about it.

Creation.
The second step is development – generating ideas and building business plans. Now the conversation is ready for action.

Commitment.
The third step is about funding the launch of these new businesses. Women will have to put their money where their mouth is! We have money, but we are not oriented to putting it in to vehicles that will invest in women-led businesses – because there are very few today. We are going to have to create new investment structures too.

These three steps are what GirlAuthentic is about – being the platform for conversation, facilitating the development of ideas, and finding funding for the ideas and businesses that are ready.

It all starts with conversation. We need to be talking about women building significant businesses – women who are just coming out of school, and especially women who have two or three decades of experience under our belts. When they do they will create workplaces that are in balance for women – and for the men who seek that same balance, but have an even harder time asking for it!

We can make a different world together. But we start by imagining it together. We start in conversation.

0

Announcing Conversations!

By Michelle Meyer|2020-11-13T13:17:53-06:00April 14th, 2014|Blog, Bringing Forth the Feminine, Women and the Workplace|

Since the forming of GirlAuthentic, there have been many requests to tell people what the “model” looks like for a new business that is based on a balance of the feminine and masculine. I have resisted answering the requests with only my specific ideas. I do have some ideas, but I guarantee you they are only some of the ideas, and might not even be the most creative. Women have the opportunity today to build businesses that operate and feel the way we want them too.

So, in an attempt to provide examples, my creative team and I have begun to put together a series of conversations with interesting women who have created their own businesses. We also wanted to highlight the thought processes and choices behind the structures they have put in place and how their businesses operate.

Today is our first example. We’d like to present Amy Fowler Stadler, founder of Lewis & Fowler, a well-known technology consulting, strategic project management, and expert staffing services company that started with Amy and her partner, Kevin Lewis, in Denver and now provides services nationally. Please join me in hearing Amy’s vision.

Now it’s your turn: What are your ideas for new models of businesses that are built on a foundation of balance between the masculine and feminine?

1

We’re Thinking Too Small

We’re Thinking Too Small

By Michelle Meyer|2015-05-19T14:46:40-05:00February 4th, 2014|Blog|

Why do we hold ourselves accountable to mostly arbitrary numbers of achievement over short periods of time – by month, quarter, or year? – This is how we measure our success. Your company and your stockholders have been trained to think this way.

We’re thinking way too small.

Perhaps we need a different definition of success. Jim Collins’ book, “Good to Great,” only considered companies that showed sustained performance over a decade at a minimum. The first company I ever worked for took a similarly long perspective – we had a chart that showed the average up and down market cycle for our industry. It was an 8-year cycle, and the leadership made plans and decisions such as investment, hiring, gearing up and scaling back according to that 8-year timeline.

Our CEO also had a well-communicated and understood 10-year plan to be the most efficient, cost effective company in our sector of our industry, so that the largest company in that industry would want to acquire us in 10 years. In addition, we had 3 smaller, 3-year plans that tied to this 10-year goal.

And we achieved it. I started buying stock in that first company at $14 a share. A decade later, I sold my stock for $66 a share when the largest company in our industry bought our firm because we accomplished what we set out to do. Now that’s good business.

So why have I never seen another company with a 10-year plan? We measure success in months and quarters, which means there’s literally no return for tackling problems that are going to take years or decades. What happens to the biggest challenges? Where are the big solutions? How many great things simply aren’t being attempted?

If you’ve read the Girl Authentic blog before, you’ll know that our movement is about introducing feminine balance in the workplace. This isn’t a gender issue – it’s about a greater diversity of thought and behavior in the office, for women and for men.

Here are three ways we could define success:

Enough profit to allow for reinvestment over several years
The ability to provide a living wage for employees for as long as they wish to stay
Growth to a size that allows long-term sustainability and stewardship of the business model – not the sale of the business in a matter of quarters

What does company success look like to you? Over what period of time do you want to measure it?

0

I call it the Art of Coming and Going

I call it the Art of Coming and Going

By Michelle Meyer|2015-05-19T14:47:07-05:00January 13th, 2014|Blog, Women and the Workplace|

I call it “coming and going.” I have set up one form of it for myself, and I have seen others with many variations on the theme.

What do I mean? I mean the ability to “come and go” from a job place, a company, a profession – even from work altogether. The ability to choose to work for periods of time, and NOT to work for periods of time.

Why do we have this notion that we are supposed to work at least 160 hours per month for 45 years? Tolkien said it best – “not all those who wander are lost.” People who “come and go” pick up all sorts of new experiences and perspectives. If they leave a work environment and choose to return, they do so with so much more to offer. So why do policies discourage this?

What if we simply stopped viewing “coming and going” as a bad thing?

I have. I was lucky enough to garner a set of skills and work experiences that let me work independently as a consultant – which means I choose who I work with, and when. I know many who’ve found similar ways to work. It’s a trend in many professions, in fact – from journalism to various areas of computer science. And, with new national health-care policies that mean your healthcare coverage doesn’t have to be tied to employment, I think we’ll see even more workers empowered to indulge their “wandering” side.

Many are beginning to talk and write about how we are all heading toward being “free agents.” Don’t miss the key word in that phrase – “free”. What if we could fashion careers, professions, jobs, and companies that helped more of us embrace this freedom? What if we operated in a way such that we knew people would want to “come” to a job or a profession for a while; “go” for a while; and perhaps come back? Whether that is to pursue personal interests, care for family, children, etc. – for both women AND men.

When that happens, we take our power back. I read a comment once that we had become lazy – most of us had traded our freedom to corporations in exchange for security. But we’ve learned that security was an illusion, and the price was often too high.

So how about reclaiming some freedom instead?

Your true job – and mine – is to be happy. But to do so, to feel good about what we are doing, we may have to take our power back. I choose what I do, and when, and with whom. That’s the kind of world I want to live in. That’s the kind of businesses I want to see us building.

How about you?

1

Three reasons “leaning in” won’t work for women

Three reasons “leaning in” won’t work for women

By Michelle Meyer|2015-05-19T14:47:36-05:00December 12th, 2013|Blog, Persevering, Women and the Workplace, Women Leaving a Legacy|

Since I started GirlAuthentic, I’ve gotten a lot of questions about Sheryl Sandberg’s book and ongoing conversation “Lean In.” Sandberg is the COO of Facebook and one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World; her book is loaded with advice on how women can achieve their goals and realize their leadership potential.

I tell people her advice is fine – if you’re satisfied with what’s behind Door Number One.

If your goal is to become a female senior executive in one of today’s corporate structures – a statistical long shot, by the way – then Sandberg is for you. I have 3 problems with the “Lean In” conversation:

It’s a gender-based conversation.

“Lean In” is a discussion on how women can conform in order to excel in today’s masculine environment – a corporate world built by men, for men. What we need is a discussion on the absence of the feminine and how to bring it forth and have it be valued in the workplace.

It’s not news to a lot of us.

What Sandberg doesn’t seem to understand is that a lot of women have spent a couple of decades saying NO to what’s been expected and what she’s proposing. We’ve taken a good look at what’s behind Door Number One. And our response has been, “You want me to “lean in” to that?! No way!”

This rejection of the status quo is sometimes couched as women being “less ambitious.” It’s the opposite. Many women are MORE ambitious than men. We have been quietly building a new model of “having it all” – a whole and complete life, with time for our families or personal interests, for personal well-being, AND for a fulfilling professional experience.

If Door Number One means giving that up, let’s see what’s behind Door Number Two.

It doesn’t work.

For the majority of women, “leaning in” won’t work – and we have the data to prove it.

In 2011, Catalyst published a study called “The Myth of the Ideal Worker: Does Doing All the Right Things Really Get Women Ahead?” Their study included a hefty list of the “right things” to do to get ahead at work – what Sandberg calls “Leaning In” today. You can read the list on page six of the full report – it includes some obvious things like “develop a career plan” and some zingers like “communicate willingness to work long hours and weekends.”

But here’s the kicker: Catalyst found that while using these strategies worked great for men, it didn’t have the same payoff for women. Women who did the “right things” were more likely to get ahead than women who didn’t (barely). But men were still more likely to find success – “right things” or not.

So in answering the study question “Does Doing All the Right Things Really Get Women Ahead,” the answer was a resounding “no.” The problem isn’t women. We don’t just need to try harder or conform more. Leaning in won’t be enough.

We need a different world to lean into – a world that works for women and for men.

That’s going to mean more women building their own businesses, businesses where the culture is different. That’s what it means to look behind Door Number Two.

I’m ready to open that door. How about you?

0

We See What We See

We See What We See

By Michelle Meyer|2015-05-19T14:48:12-05:00November 12th, 2013|Blog|

Look at the Girl Authentic logo above. What is it?

We see what we see. Until last week, every person I asked told me they saw a man’s tie first. That’s what I saw first, too. Moments later, I also saw a woman’s dress.

Some people never see the dress until I point it out. Did you?

We see what we see. We are conditioned to see a certain way – by our media, by our historical structures, by our societal structures. If most of us see a tie first, I believe that indicates something specific about our cultural norms. We see what we see every day. We see what we are told. We see what, historically, we are used to seeing. It’s what we are conditioned to see.

Guess what? Conditioning can change.

There’s been a lot of buzz lately about the historically high rates of young girls enrolling in forensic science programs at school. It’s being attributed to the strong, powerful, female roles in various forensic science programs like “CSI”, “Bones” and “Crossing Jordan.” We see it in art and media – then we see it in real life.

See Jane, the programming arm of the Geena Davis Institute, has done the research to show what we actually see in the media. The numbers are not particularly stellar – the percentage of women shown in professional roles in television and film is disproportionately low. But it’s creating a deeper discussion about having more television shows and movies that portray women as computer scientists, engineers, and in other professional roles we don’t see a lot of yet. A change in what we see on the screen could mean a change in what we see in real life. The art often comes first.

I’m ready to see that. Are you?

2

Women, we need you to build businesses.

Women, we need you to build businesses.

By Michelle Meyer|2015-05-19T14:48:37-05:00October 15th, 2013|Blog|

The predominant business culture most of us operate in today was built by men, for men. All the rules we play by, all the expectations, all the behaviors that are talked about as helping to assure success – they’re all based on a male vibration, male patterns of behavior, male expectations. Men built these businesses. Men run them. They design for men, they build for men, they sell to men.

Yet, there is actually a business case for gender diversity. It literally pays – we have data to prove it. If you build a business that includes more women, includes more of women’s perspectives, and designs for and sells to women, you will be more profitable. The research shows it.

Unfortunately, that same research indicates our efforts at diversity aren’t really working. Corporate programs have made people better at talking about diversity and balance – not better at living it. And they have no incentive to change.

Even though the data shows they can be more profitable by including more women in their business, it doesn’t change their actual behavior. I wouldn’t expect it to. Most business models today serve many men (though not all of them) perfectly well, just as they are.

Meanwhile, every gender-based conversation we have about what a woman can do to be more successful is just that – gender-based. We’re talking about how women can succeed within a male vibration. Lets talk about how businesses could be structured to better serve everyone (we are going to have to build them).

We can change the culture by building the businesses. We have to build businesses that intentionally have a balance of the masculine and feminine. We have to build businesses with a balance of men and women working in them. And who has the best shot at building those businesses?

Who do you think?

Women, we need you building businesses. It’s not enough to succeed in a man’s world. It’s time to build a better world for everyone. And, it’s time to get started.

4

Here’s What “Feminine” Looks Like at Work

By Michelle Meyer|2013-09-13T15:47:45-05:00September 13th, 2013|Blog|

What do I mean by “the feminine”? I don’t necessarily mean female. In fact “the feminine” can be displayed by either gender in the workplace.

There’s a list of attributes and ways of interacting we can characterize as “feminine” – I’ve already listed some of them here. Here’s an example of one characteristic from that list – caring and loving kindness – as I saw it lived out in the workplace a number of years ago.

Here’s what “feminine” looks like at work.

I was working for a company in Colorado, and we had a team member in our managers’ group who found out her adult child needed very specialized heart surgery. This manager needed to go to Cleveland with her child to be present during the surgery and help with recovery.

The team member was worried about how long she would need to spend away from work to be at her child’s side during the difficult time. When our director learned of her need for an extended absence, he simply said: “You go and take care of your child. Come back when you can. The team will cover things here and we’ll see you when we get back.”

We covered her responsibilities in the meantime, and after her child’s successful surgery, she was back to work. With tears in her eyes, she thanked us for making the solution so simple. I will always remember that appreciation – there was no pondering of policies, no questions about the situation. She knew her job would be waiting for her when she returned, and as team members, she knew we had her back.

When dealing with illness and other extenuating circumstances, there is always a way to work around an absence, usually with little, if any, long-term impact to the team, project or organization…life comes first.

Unfortunately, from my experience, dealing with a crisis as a team in this way has been the exception instead of the rule. I share the story as one example of what I mean by “bringing forth the feminine” in the workplace. Can you think of other examples from your own experience?

0

Incremental Change? No, Let’s Build New Business Structures Instead

By Michelle Meyer|2013-05-13T16:20:36-05:00May 13th, 2013|Blog|

Why do I believe we are going to have to build new businesses to have the balance many of us are seeking? Because, I’m impatient. I believe the current business structures will be able to change only, at best, incrementally.

Let’s look at the numbers…in 1973 we had one woman CEO of the Fortune 500. It was Katherine Graham of the Washington Post. She essentially inherited the position (her family owned the business). But, she didn’t inherit it until her husband who was the CEO – the son-in-law – tragically died. She went on to be one of the powerhouses in the newspaper business over the next 30+ years. Today, we have 18 women of the Fortune 500, and 39 total for the Fortune 1000. That equals 3.9%. We have 232 CEO positions to go to reach parity in just the Fortune 500. At this pace, it will take 515 years to reach parity.

I would contend there isn’t a single one of the Fortune 1000 companies today that doesn’t already have a woman working for them, or available to them through the market, that would be capable of being CEO. So why so few? Many people ask why the numbers of women beyond the mid-level manager roles fall off a cliff given how many women are educated across all areas of science, engineering, business, law, etc. I believe there are two main reasons…

• There is an imbalance in our current business structures (but it is not the one you think).
• Women have been saying “No” for the past 20 years.

First, most working women today have been operating from a male vibration. We have been playing by the men’s rules. We have been trying to be empowered through a male vibration. It is a dual-edged sword – men can FEEL there is something “off”. There is inauthenticity in us operating from a male vibration. And, it inhibits us.

I came across the following quote and it provided me the clarity I needed to help me understand why I constantly felt I was struggling in my various roles in 20+ years in corporate America.

“You have nothing on which to pattern a positive image of the empowered feminine. So men are striving to be male and women are striving to be empowered through a male vibration because you do not have a clear vision of the empowered female. You must create it. (author’s italics) “Bringers of the Dawn: Teaching from the Pleiadians”, Barbara Marciniak,1992

Second, women in very large numbers have been saying “no” to the current view of “having it all”, and quietly building a new picture of living whole complete lives. Many men are also beginning to share that they don’t “have it all” either, even though they have achieved everything they “should” to make it appear that they do.

Let’s get busy creating a new vision through new businesses.

1

Michelle Meyer

About Michelle Meyer

“We’re minding the gap, but how do we close it?”

Step one: This conversation.

Now it’s your turn: What are your ideas for new models of businesses that are built on a foundation of balance between the masculine and feminine?

Why do we hold ourselves accountable to mostly arbitrary numbers of achievement over short periods of time – by month, quarter, or year? – This is how we measure our success. Your company and your stockholders have been trained to think this way.

I call it “coming and going.” I have set up one form of it for myself, and I have seen others with many variations on the theme.

I tell people her advice is fine – if you’re satisfied with what’s behind Door Number One.

Look at the Girl Authentic logo above. What is it?

Why do I believe we are going to have to build new businesses to have the balance many of us are seeking? Because, I’m impatient. I believe the current business structures will be able to change only, at best, incrementally.