Why Business Needs Feminine Leadership
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This presentation builds the business case for why embracing feminine values and traits in leadership for both men and women can help bring about innovation and change, both culturally and externally.
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Why Business Needs Feminine Leadership
- 2. What question about Feminine Leadership are you carrying with you today? INTRODUCTION
- 3. Introduction Current State of Affairs Top 3 Leadership Challenges for Women Research & Data The Feminine Leadership Model Q&A AGENDA
- 4. The Good News: 60% of Educated Talent Pool are Women 80% of Decision Making Consumers are Women 53-84% increase on Return to Equity when 2 or more women on boards CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRS
- 5. However…….. 14% of CEO’s in Fortune 500 are held by women 53% of women leave mid-career $100K to replace each mid-career women CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRS
- 6. 1) Gender Stereotypes 2) The Double Bind 3) The Likeability Gap 3 TOP LEADERSHIP CHALLENGES
- 7. Eagley & Carli. Women and the Labyrinth of Leadership. (Harvard Business Review: 2007) GENDER BIAS Gender biases are the conscious & unconscious associations we hold about women, men and leadership.
- 8. Eagley & Carli. Women and the Labyrinth of Leadership. (Harvard Business Review: 2007) THE DOUBLE BIND Confusing messages about leadership approach make it difficult for women to find a style that is appropriate & effective.
- 9. POLL If you had a choice, would you prefer to work for a male boss or a female boss?
- 10. THE LIKEABILITY GAP Studies show more women prefer to work for a man than for another female.
- 11. Definition: A style of leadership based on feminine traits and capacities Full expression of all female attributes An authentic and balanced approach to leadership Inspires collaboration, innovation and creativity WHAT IS FEMININE LEADERSHIP?
- 12. Feminine Leadership Training Mentoring & Coaching Women’s Networks Women (and Men) Supporting Women THE MULTI-PRONGED SOLUTION
- 13. Recent neuroscience data shows men and women are wired differently, but are complementary. MEN VS. WOMEN BRAINS
- 14. POLL Do you think the world would be a better place if men thought more like women?
- 15. Gerzema, John. The Athena Doctrine. (San Francisco:Jossey-Bass, 2013) THE ATHENA DOCTRINE 66% surveyed thought the world would be a better place if men thought more like women.
- 16. THE ATHENA DOCTRINE Gerzema, John. The Athena Doctrine. (San Francisco:Jossey-Bass, 2013)
- 17. LEADERSHIP TRAITS Gerzema, John. The Athena Doctrine. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2013) Masculine Traits Feminine Traits Decisive Passionate Resilient Intuitive Analytical Flexible Aggressiveness Plans for the Future Proud Loyal Arrogance Reasonable Independent Collaborative Selfish Selfless Individualistic Empathetic
- 18. Key Qualities 1) Participative decision making 2) Role Model 3) Inspiration 4) Expectations & Rewards 5) People Development 6) Intellectual Stimulation 7) Efficient Communication 8) Control & Corrective Action 9) Individualistic Decision Making Bass & Stogdill’s Handbook of Leadership, B. Bass, 1990; McKinsey analysis LEADERSHIP BEHAVIORS THAT IMPROVE ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE
- 19. Transformational, Transactional & Laissez-Faire Leadership Styles, Alice H Eagly, Johannesen-Schmidt, and Van Engen, 2003; McKinsey survey and analysis, 2008; The Leadership Styles of Women and Men, Alice H Eagly and Mary C Johannesen-Schmidt, 2001 LEADERSHIP BEHAVIORS: FEMALE STRENGTHS
- 20. Transformational, Transactional & Laissez-Faire Leadership Styles, Alice H Eagly, Johannesen-Schmidt, and Van Engen, 2003; McKinsey survey and analysis, 2008 KEY PERFORMANCE MARKERS Direction Leadership Team Motivation Accountability Work Environment & Values
- 21. Feminine Leadership approaches are effective and necessary in managing teams and resources in the 21st century. FEMININE LEADERSHIP IS KEY
- 23. FEMININE LEADERSHIP MODELTM • Requires Self- Awareness & Mindfulness Practices • Inspires Collaboration, Innovation & Creativity • Can be applied to both men and women
- 24. Allow the situation to inform you about which style of leadership to use. THE LEADERSHIP BALANCING ACT
- 25. Questions? Q&A
- 26. If you’d like more information about women’s leadership coaching, executive coaching or training: Highest Path Consulting Monique Svazlian, CEO monique@highestpath.com www.highestpath.com CONTACT
Editor's Notes
- Welcome everyone, thanks for that lovely introduction. I’m very excited to be with all of you today. Thanks to WITI for inviting me to speak to you today and thank you for taking this hour to be with me today, as we explore the topic of Why Business Needs Feminine Leadership.
- So before I move into what we’ll be covering today, I’d like to find out from all of you what drew you to this webinar today and what question about feminne Leadership are you carrying with you today? I’ll invite all of you to take a moment to reflect on that and respond by typing in your answer in the chat box. There is a chat box on the lower left hand side of your webex screen, make sure it’s set to ALL, so everyone can see your answer. I like to make my presentations as interactive as possible, but today the only way we can communicate is through the chat box, so we’ll use the chat box as a mode to communicate with each other during in the next hour. I’ll invite you to send in any questions that come up for you during the presentation via the chat box, as we’ll have a Q&A at the end.
- So here’s what we’re going to cover today, what I’d like to do is first talk about the current state of affairs and look at where we are with women’s leadership today. Then I’ll go into describing the top 3 challenges women face in the workplace, and then introduce the concept of FL and share some research and data that supports the business case on why feminine leadership is so important and a necessary leadership tool for women and men in the 21st century. I’ll then introduce the FL model that I’ve developed through my years working in the corporate world holding various leadership roles. And I’ll be sure to leave some time for Q&A at the end,
- Ok, so let’s dive in and begin by looking at the current state of affairs. There’s some good news and not so good news. I like starting with the good news, so let’s start with that. So the good news is that currently, 60% of the global educated talent pool is made up of women. Let me repeat that. 60% of the educated talent pool is made up of women. So what does this mean? It means that at the moment, women are more educated than ever before, and make up over half of the potential hires that companies are seeking out. On top of that, women are also now make 80% of the consumer decisions in the US. Because women are more educated, they are in better paying jobs than ever before, and they now hold the power of the purse string. We also know through recent studies that companies see a 53-84% increase on return on equity when there are 2 more women on a board of directors. So what do these numbers tell us? They tell us that companies can no longer women. The facts state that if you want to hire good talent, and you want to speak to your base of consumers, you have to hire women and you have to learn how to market to women. This ladies and gentleman, is one of the biggest economic opportunities of the 21st century.
- So if this is the biggest economic opportunity then business should have this gender balance thing figured out right? Unfortunately that isn’t the case. Because the facts also show a big gap as it relates to women’s leadership and what is actually happening on the ground. Right now, only 14% of CEO’s of Fortune 500’s are women. That means 86% are men. Which presents a bit of a problem when your consumer base is made up of mostly women. It’s been shown that 53% of women leave the corporate world mid-career. 53%, that’s a big number and they don’t leave because they want to be mothers or form families, contrary to popular belief. They leave because they find the work environment unsupportive, they have unclear career paths, and few role models and mentors according to the Harvard Business Review. And not only is this a loss for the women who leave, but its also a big loss for the company – it costs $100,000 to replace each mid-career woman who leaves, not to mention it diminishes the odds of closing the gender gap. So what does this tell us? This tells us that as much as we like to think we’ve made progress, shattered glass ceilings etc, companies are missing the boat on gender balance, and are continuing to pay the high cost of that – either through the cost of replacing women who leave or through the diminishing returns due to lack of hiring from the educated talent pool, or because of a lack of representation of women in senior executive positions. So today, I’d like to focus on the main reason why women are leaving which I mentioned earlier – they are leaving because they feel unsupported, unclear about their career paths and have a hard time finding supportive role models and mentors. I’d like to zoom in on this issue today and look at what are the specific challenges women face, and why this is happening.
- I’ve identified 3 Leadership challenges that women face in the modern workplace which I feel contributes greatly to this mass exodus of women mid-career. And they are gender stereotypes, The Double Bind, and the Likeability gap. Let’s move on look at each one in more detail.
- The first major challenge to women’s advancement is Gender stereotypes. These are conscious and unconscious associations about women, men and leadership. Perception can have a powerful impact on how we think and act. And there is no better example that proves this than the Heidi Roizen story. Some of you may be familiar with it, but for those of you who arent, I’ll take a minute to share that story now. Researchers from Columbia’s Business School asked students to appraise the resume of an entrepreneur called Howard Roizen. His resume showed that Mr Howard had worked at Apple, launched his own software company and been a partner at a venture capital firm. He was a proficient networker and had very powerful friends including Bill Gates. Colleagues described him as a “catalyst” and a “captain of industry”. The students thought he’d be an excellent person to have within a company because he was someone who got things done and was likeable. Now the interesting part of this experiment was that Mr Howard doesn’t exist. When students were asked to review the true owner of the resume Ms “Heidi” Roizen they judged her to be more selfish and less desirable than Mr Howard, even though she was viewed as being equally as effective. So what this tells us is that people still have trouble associating women with the word leader or leadership. The result of this is that women are faced with a double bind, which is the next challenge I want to point out.
- The little cartoon of a woman unsure which way to cross the street depicts the state of womens leadership today. There is still a lot of confusion amongst women around what leadership style is best to use in a corporate environment. Studies show that for example, if a woman is too assertive it can reduce her chances of getting a job or advancing in her career. Or things like body language – like pointing a finger can be more damaging for women than men. This puts women in a double bind where it seems they are damned if they do, damned if they don’t. And these confusing messages make it very difficult for a woman to find a leadership style that is appropriate and effective. The other piece that plays into this is that the only leadership style that women can learn from, is mostly from their male counterparts. So what’s happened is that over decades, women have begun to emulate masculine traits of leadership in order to compete and adapt to the business enviornment they work in. What has been lacking however, is a fair representation of feminine traits, which are traits that women naturally possess, like empathy, compassion, connectivity and collaboration. These traits just have not been seen in the traditional leadership styles, and so women have had to shut down this part of them, this very authentic and natural part of them, which has had unintended consequences. One of which is the third leadership challenge I’d like to talk about.
- But before I do, I’d like to ask you a question and we’re going to invite you to respond by answering the poll. If you had a choice, would you prefer to work for a male boss or a female boss Go ahead and be honest – the poll is completely anonymous, I thought it would be fun to see how you all would respond.
- if you answered that you would prefer to work for a man than another woman, then you are not alone according to a recent Gallup poll. Studies show more women prefer to work for a man than another woman. This is unfortunately a sad state of affairs, but its important to dig deeper and ask ourselves why this is happening? And my answer is the following: because of gender stereotypes, and because of the double bind, women are not able to find an authentic leadership style that is effective. And when women aren’t authentic, when they put on a “faux masculine” leadership style which is more aggressive, dominating, controlling and competitive, the fact of the matter is that people don’t respond well to that. So I’ll give you a great example of this. I heard the ex CEO Of Coffee Bean at a conference, and she was talking about her time at CB, it was her families business that she took over, and so there was a lot of pressure as you can imagine. This is really back in the early days of CB, before they were bought. And she described her leadership style as being very controlling, she loved to micro-manage, she needed to be in the loop for everything, you know she had a lot of pressure to do well, esp from her parents. And so one day she found out that there was a rumour spreading around the company that she was an Ice Queen and people just didn’t really care for her. And as you can imagine, when she found this out, she was devastated to find out that people had this perception of her. So she made a conscious decision to make a change in the way she showed up and led her teams. She began to trust people and delegate more. She opened herself up to feedback and input. She asked others to brainstorm and bring their ideas to the table. She stopped worrying about all the details, and became more compassionate about the people she worked with. And one day, they were in a brainstorming session, and they were tackling a problem they were seeing at CB, which was that people’s drink orders were getting mixed up, and people were picking up the wrong drinks, and their customers were angry and frustrated. So they were there trying to figure out how to tackle this issue. And then somebody on her team had the idea to write the name of the customer on the drink so they wouldn’t get mixed up at the pick up counter. Usually she would have blown this idea off, but this time she decided to stay open and give that person’s idea a chance, so they piloted it at one of their coffee shops, and it was a huge success. So much so that they decided to roll it out to all of their locations. A few years later, one of their competitors, Starbucks launched, and well, needless to say, that was one of their techniques as well. So what is the moral of this story? The moral is that when women lean into this style of leadership, not only is it well received, but it can be highly effective in creating innovation and stimulating creativity in your work force. And we just saw in this story with CB, it can yield highly profitable results as well
- So the style that Annie, the ex CEO of CB used, is what I call Feminine Leadership – which is a style of leadership based on feminine traits and capacities. It’s a full expression of all female attributes, its authentic and a balanced approach to leadership, and the impact is that it inspires collaboration, innovation and creativity in others. And cultivating this style of leadership, particularly in women but also in men, can help us create better results for our teams and ultimately for the businesses we’re involved with. Now, the solution might seem straightforward but it really isnt. As we saw earlier, there are a lot of different elements that are resulting in the leadership gap, and we need a structured approach to tackle these issues, and I’d like to share what I think those could be next.
- So what could solutions to close the gender gap look like– here I’ve outlined a multi-pronged beginning with feminine leadership training, all the way up to women learning how to support other women, and as I’ve indicated here its also important that men support women’s advancement as well. So let’s start at the bottom, which is feminine leadership training. I’ve developed a framework that I’d like to show you in a minute that identifies the most important feminine traits that we can adopt into our currently leadership style to become more balanced and more effective. Although these traits come naturally to women, because of the conditioning and training we’ve received for so many decades we have to learn how to make room for our natural capacities to come through and that takes training. So I’ve developed a training module that helps us lay the foundation for that. The second piece is mentoring and coaching, because once you have the foundation set, you then have the challenge of applying it on a daily basis. Again, we’re talking about behavior change, and as a coach, I know that the only way to achieve that is through systematic practice. That’s where working with a coach who is specifically guiding you to adopt these traits and principles into your leadership style is essential. Because believe me, its very easy to fall back to our old habits and ways. This stuff takes time and patience and working with a coach can really make that process go faster and more smoothly. The third element is women’s networks, and I think WITI is a great example of a supportive learning and networking enviornment where women are constantly helping and supporting one another. So you’ve got that one covered by just being here today. The fourth is women supporting women and I highlight that because for so long there was a scarcity mentality where women believed they needed to compete with each other for a seat the table and that’s created an environment where cattiness, and in-fighting and all sorts of ugly things happen, even in a business or professional setting. And we have to learn how to transcend that as women and begin supporting other women, especially women who are younger who are coming up the ranks and helping them advance. But a fundamental shift in how women view other women needs to happen and that can happen through awareness and dialogue. And along with that, men need to begin advocating and taking leadership on gender issues, rather than leaving it to women to figure out. For far too long, gender balance was a woman’s issue, and I think the time has come to make it everyone’s issue, not just a problem women have. So what I’d like to do next is set up the business case why FL is so important and why it’s essential that organizations invest in this. I’d like to present a series of data and research that I think builds a very nice case on why we need FL in business. So let’s look at that next. First, I’d like to share some of the latest neuroscience data that gives us some interesting clues.
- A recent study at the University of Pennsylvania looked at 1000 brains and found that men’s and women’s brains are wired differently but are complementary to one another. Women’s brains are highly connected across the left and right hemispheres which shows that women are wired for social skills and memory. whereas Men’s brains connect between front and back regions which means that they are wired for perception and coordinated actions, and by coordinated actions I mean things like throwing a ball or using a hammer, So for those of you who believed that there were no differences between men and women, well I’m sorry to disappoint you, but in fact as we can see there is a very big difference between men and women. To break this down even further, what the wiring tells us is that Women are better at intuitive thinking Remembering things More emotionally involved Make good listeners Strong at multi-tasking Problem solving in group situations Men better at logical thinking and sensorimotor skills, learning and performing single tasks. Now I’m not saying that women can’t excel in these things or vice versa, obviously we have some amazing women who excel in sports, and there are men who are highly intuitive. But the neurosciene tell us that men and women and wired and predisposed to excel in different areas. So we can learn a few things from this data. The first is that learning how to work with the opposite sex is essential because each brings a unique set of talents to the table. The second is that women and men need to acknowledge and honor the fact that women are predisposed to being intuitive and collaborative, and that this is really an asset that they hold. And as we’ll see in the next study, it’s an asset that more and more people are demanding of 21st century leaders. There was a great book that came out last year called the Athena Doctrine by John Gerzema, I highly recommend it, and for the research for the book, they went out and asked people this question:
- Do you think the world would be a better place if men thought more like women? Now before I tell you what they found, I’d like to take a quick poll and survey all of you on this one. Go ahead and answer the question to this poll by responding in the poll box.
- Ok. While the responses come in. Let me show you what they found. 66% of adults thought the world WOULD be a better place if men thought more like men, 63% of those respondents were men, 65% were millennials. Interesting findings, right? The study then went one step further, and they asked those same 64, 000 people to classify common leadership traits as either masculine and feminine, and then asked them to rate them according to the importance of those traits as it relates to leadership.
- This graph plots their findings. on the left side you have masculine traits, and on the right side you have feminine traits. We see that most of the traits that rate higher are on the right side on the feminine side. What they found much to their surprise that was people preferred traits like collaboration, loyalty expressiveness and patience, all of which were feminine traits. Let’s take a closer look at the list.
- The feminine traits are on the right hand column and masculine traits on the left. Their research showed that people across the globe were preferriing leaders who were passionate, intuitive, flexible, and could think strategically about the future, longer term thinking. What this is trending towards is that people across the globe in the 21st century are asking for feminine style of leadership. Now, lets take a look at see if these feminine leadership traits actually make a difference when it comes to organizational performance. There was a study done by mcKinsey which identified 9 key leadership behaviors that were the most influential as it relates to org performance.
- Here are the 9 Key traits listed here in the order of importance ranging from participative decision making and role modeling all the way to control and individualist decision making. When they looked at the behavior of men and women, They found that both men and women exhibit all 9 behaviors, but there was a difference in frequency of those behaviors between men and women as we will see next.
- Here is a graph of what they found. The first red box at the top shows the leadership behaviors that women apply more than men, the second pink box shows the behaviors that women apply slightly more than men. These behaviors include people development, expectations and rewards, role modeling, inspiration and participative decision making. What they found, was these female leadership strengths positively effected orgnizational performance in 5 out of 8 key areas.
- So what did they behaviors impact? the leadership traits that women exhibited more frequently effected things like the work enviornment and values of the organization. It pos impacted the leadership team, it impacted direction and motivation, as well as accountability. What this data shows us is that in order for organizations to perform at their best, they need leaders who exhibit feminine leadership qualities. This research shows us that women exhibit these qualities more often than men, but with the right training and persuasion, I know that men are capable of leading this way as well. But again, the question begs to be asked – if women bring these qualities more naturally, then why aren’t they holding more of the leadership positions in organizations? I think the reasons go back to the leadership challenges I spoke about earlier. The other reason is that currently these behaviors are not being fostered in the 21st century workplace. There aren’t structures in place to help develop FL traits in men or women in our current work paradigm. Many organizations are still stuck in the 20th century model, the traditional model. There needs to be a fundamental shift in the way business thinks about leadership and does leadership if we are to truly see some change. Once it becomes more accepted that FL leadership behaviors are integral to business growth, then it will become easier to put into practice. In order to get there, we need a broad, multi-pronged approach to tackle the issue.
- So what we can conclude from all of this is that, FL principles are necessary in a 21st century work enviornment, and they can be adopted by both men and women. Like I mentioned earlier, since this has not been the traditional paradigm in business, it is something that needs to be directly addressed, so that both men and women can feel comfortable expressing these traits in a work enviornment. My hope is that once women fully embody these principles and approaches, they can set the tone for men to follow. The challenge for women in the workplace is to deal with the perceived pressure to “be a certain way.” Studies show that when there is not a critical mass of women showing up with these skills, that they tend to go back to business as usual. So it’s very important that we invest in ourselves and companies invest in giving women the opportunity to develop these skills so that there can be a critical mass and a greater shift where women are encouraged and supported to lead with FL principles. So how does one shift out of the traditional mindset and behavior into one that embodies a FL style? The first thing one can do is to identify your current leadership style, find out where you are currently operating from. And we can do this by looking at where we fall on the leadership spectrum.
- Here we have the leadership spectrum so we can visualize what I mean by this. On the left hand side are masculine traits, like being direct, focused, logical, rigid, and independent, and on the right hand side we’ve got Feminine traits like being open, patient, empathic, vulnerable, flexible. Where we want to be most of the time is in the middle, where we are balanced, incorporating both masculine and feminine traits to have the best impact. The reality is that most of us are either too skewed to the left or to the right. So take a look at this and ask yourself, which side do you gravitate towards as it relates to your leadership style? Where are you more comfortable currently? Go ahead and take a moment to reflect, and then I’d like to invite you to share by responding to our third poll. Go ahead and answer, which side of the spectrum does your leadership style fall? You can respond to the poll in the lower left hand corner. The next thing you can ask yourself is how wide is your range? What are the risks and benefits of being on any point of the spectrum? What happens if you’re too far to the right, or too far to the left? And finally I’ll invite you to look to the opposite side to see which traits you might be able to adopt to balance out your leadership style. For example: If you are very direct in your communication style, maybe practicing more empathy will help you listen better and offer different perspectives you might not have considered in the past. Or if you are too independent, maybe asking for help and reaching out to others to collaborate with could make a a big impact. Think about a situation where you had to step into your leadership, think about what traits you exhibited. What would have been different if you incorporated other traits from this spectrum? I wanted to offer this to you today you can begin thinking about your leadership style and the qualities that you can begin to incorporate to become more balanced and have the impact that’s going to lead to motivated and engaged teams, and ultimately better business results.
- And finally I’d like to share the FL model I’ve developed based on the research I presented to you today as well as my own personal experience working in a leadership capacity. I’ve identified 7 capacities which are traditionally more feminine. They are vision, vulnerability, care, intuition, empathy, collaboration and humility and I believe if women begin to incorporate these traits alongside their traditional approach, they can have a more balanced and effective leadership style. Now developing these traits does require self-awareness and mindfulness, because although they do come more inherently natural to women, they aren’t the norm in the business world. So it’s going to take some practice to cultivate these capacities. And when we do begin to lead from this place, we begin to see an increase in collaboration, innovation and creativity – which are so crucial in today’s competitive market. You may have heard of inclusive leadership as one of the buzzwords or even authentic leadership, and when we fully develop these capacities, we do become more inclusive and authentic leaders. So just briefly I’ll talk about what I mean by each capacitiy, and I have a one pager that you can download from my website that maps this out in more detail, it’s a handy to refer back to and reflect on as I encourage all of you to think about which capacities on this model you would like to work on developing. You can download that from my website directly by going to www.highestpath.com. So first and foremost we have to a strong vision as leaders so people have something to follow, and we have to be able to communicate that vision in an authentic and compelling way, so this capacity is about developing the ability to see the big picture and take the time to get everyone on board with that direction to lead people towards your desired outcome. And to this we need vulnerability, because often times esp when it comes to big vision goals, we can’t do it alone, we need help. So by viewing vulnerability as a strength, we can begin to admit when we need help we can delegate tasks better instead of being totally overwhelmed an we can empower our people to take responsibility over their specific tasks. This inspires creativity and increases motivation and engagement. Moving on to Care – this is about bringing out the nurturing side of ourselves without being afraid of the fact that we nurturing, and that could look like taking in an interest in other’s development or making sure the company we work with is aligned with it’s values and the is doing the socially responsible thing for all stakeholders including the planet. Care also can be turned inward as it’s so important that we focus on our well-being and take the time to nurture ourselves so we don’t burn out. The next one is Intuition, and this is really about balancing our iintellectual mind with our intuition and learning how to trust it, developing a better relationship with ourselves and having the confidence in our convictions. Empathy is so important these days as we look at developing customer focused solutions, but also as we learn how to relate to one another in an empathic way, so learning how to see from another’s perspective and learn how to communicate your needs in a compassionate way. Collaboration is next, and this is pretty self-explanatory – to foster the innovative cultures we all strive for, we need to foster collaboration and learn to include people with diverse backgrounds and personalities. And finally we have humility, which is the ability to put our ego’s aside, admit that we don’t have all the answers and give credit where credit is due so people feel acknowledged and respected for their contributions. So go ahead and ask yourself which capacities would you choose to develop to become a more balanced and effective leader? Go ahead and make a note of that and begin to incorporate those qualities in your everyday leadership style. Notice if it is difficult or hard. Notice the impact of what happens when you do. This is how you can begin building awareness and developing your range on the leadership spectrum.
- So I’ll just leave you with this thought which is leadership is a balancing act. Traditional forms of leadership are not bad and they can be useful in certain situations. The key is to have awareness of the impact we’re having on ourselves, on our teams and our organization. Different situations call for different styles of leadership and feminine leadership offers us one alternative, one approach that we can use in situations that call for it and where it makes sense. What my hope is is that we’ll give ourselves the permission to exhibit these feminine values and qualities more fully in corporate enviornments, so that the workplace may become a place for innovation and creativity, as well as a place where connection and compassion are valued. And I think that is one small step to making the world being a better place.
- Well That’s the end of my presentation, I’d be happy to open it up to questions now. It’s been a pleasure being here with you today, I hope this was a valuable use of your time. Thank you for having me here today.