Women In Executive Positions - Why You Need Them…
May 10th, 2008I have an on-going joke in our company that it keeps being taken over by women. I joke about it, but it’s actually a bit true. 1 year ago our executive team was 2 men and 1 woman.
Fast forward to today and it’s now 2 men and 3 women. Every time I joke that I’m going to make sure the next hire is male (joking of course), I end up finding the perfect fit who just happens to be a woman.
If you look at our entire company, 60% are women. Now, you may be thinking, “what’s the big deal?”
The big deal is that in our industry this is incredibly STRANGE. Women are very hard to find and it’s very “male run.” But, I’ve personally never thought about it that way, hence, my team does not fit the convention.
Just as we were discussing this internally a month ago, I came across this article:
Entrepreneur.com - Why Aren’t Companies Cashing In On Women In Executive Positions…
“Women are real assets on the management teams of publicly traded companies, according to a 2007 report by Group and Organization Management, which found that women have a positive effect on a firm’s short-term performance, three-year stock price growth and growth in earnings per share.“
I was happy to see that I’m on the right track 
If just one woman can have positive impact on a firm, I guess I’ll just overload (kidding of course).
Reasons To Put Women In Executive Positions:
These are my own personal observations:
1. More logical - Women add the perfect amount of logic amongst a ton of “let’s take over the world” testosterone. They tend to think very methodically and can ask the right questions.
2. Promote balance - A company is not just about making money, it’s a culture and much more. Women are much better at promoting a “family” experience and making sure that everything is being considered with decisions - not just money.
3. Calm - During tough times, I find that women keep their calm much better - not sure why. They almost seem more confident or more optimistic (in cases). Men (including myself) can get my spastic and that’s when you make stupid decisions.
4. Better Team Players - This is my favorite because women have far lesser egos (for the most part) than men. They seem to be much more concerned about the company’s growth then they are about their personal growth.
Not to say they don’t compete to grow, but they’re the first ones to consider “what’s best for the company” - men tend to have bigger egos that get in their own way sometimes.
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I want to emphasize that I’m being “general” and there are always exceptions. I just want to push the fact that if you don’t have “the other side” in your team, you need to.
Whether that means you’re a women run company, well, then you need to bring on some male teammates.
In the end it’s all about BALANCE - men and women are different, they think differently and they react differently. Having both on the team allows you to have a good balance and “cross-check.”
How about YOUR team? Do you promote this diversity and make best use of it?
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May 10th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Read an article about women and jobs the other day, you might not realize it but men loosing their jobs have gone UP while women getting jobs have gone UP.
Wish i could give link but I’m on more news sites a day than i care to search for a link.
Anyways funny you should mention it when i read about it yesterday
I do believe at some point about men and women being different.
But on the other side i believe we’re more alike than we really wish to agree to.
All in all I’d say it’s not really correct to say if you only got females or males on your team that the next should be of the opposite sex.
When it all comes down to it, the best addition to a team would be a person with the qualities you where looking for in the first place. Be it male or female.
Well thats my 5 cents
May 10th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Yeap, I agree - I was only joking when I said “the next must be of the opposite sex…”
BUT, you should put some emphasis on it and think about who belongs where and if you can find an equally qualified person that DOES diversify your team - it may be good to take that option.
An example is that we need to hire a sales person soon - a real “go getter.”
As I said, our industry is “male driven” so we’re thinking that hiring a male sales person MAY do better here just because that’s what everyone is used to.
BUT, if I end up finding a woman sales person who has experience in this industry and is qualified - who cares, the job is hers
May 10th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Now i only need to change my gender and get some sale experience roflmao.
Launching a blog-project within a month or 2. It isn’t scheduled tight right now because of the low start capital we got.
My team right now is me and 2 more males and a female.
Since it’s blog-based I’ve put them on the team because of how they write and what their expertise is.
The female is a walking dictionary, when she chat with me i always have to say “keep it simple” or she’ll use a bunch of english words i have no clue of what means hehe.
Also she’s crazy at researching and writing reports.
One of my guys are a pc/network security professional and as a bonus have programming experience with a bunch of web-based programming languages.
Well just to take a real life example how i do it.
Can’t wait to put this baby to the test on the http://www.
I agree with you.
I talked with a women a month ago who got promoted from being out on the field as a salesperson to a managing desk-position.
She was kind of upset about her “promotion”.
She said to me “i went from a professional in the field to an overpaid good looking deskdoll”.
Basically she got promoted based on her looks and gender instead of her intelligence. I don’t know about you but I’d never do such a thing.
Cheers,
Daniel.
May 12th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Women are better workers overall than men. I have a some staff and the women at one point outnumbered the men 2:1. From all the qualified candidate and the overall work productivity, it ended up that way. It was working for a while, until they got catty with one another. Go figure. Currently, its more 50% now 1:1, which I agree is a much better balance. No more drama.
As for Executive positions, I feel that its good to bring some gender balance to the mix. You get a well rounded team of management IMHO.
- Tony
PS. and NO I too don’t hire just for looks. Three reasons why NOT:
1. Waste of Training - Need someone who can learn and pickup ideas
2. Waste of Time - Both a distraction for females and males in the office
3. Waste of Money - combine #1 and $2 can leak your bottomline
May 13th, 2008 at 9:49 am
I agree with Tony, but in the end it all comes down to who fits into the current team and got the qualities/experience to fill the spot you need filled.