MY KITCHEN — Nothing like a Saturday morning read of the papers to generate a good old rant.
This morning I am caught by the Independent’s cover story on women in senior business roles in the UK. Have a read if you want numbers and even if you just want to read quotes from male executives that will make your blood boil.
There lots of good arguments for why there aren’t more women in senior roles in business. You can even try to make them compelling. You can call for new government policy, or new regulations to promote or “positively discriminate” against women. But that’s not the problem. The problem is that we spend too much time finding reason why women can’t take senior roles — and not enough time putting them into the jobs.
There is no earthly way that some of the women I have worked with need any support or positive discrimination. They are on average better consultants and managers than most of the men I have worked with. They just need to be hired and promoted.
You can grab a piece of paper and start writing reasons why women aren’t being hired and promoted into senior jobs. But it is irrelevant.
There are many reasons why we should never have created a pension programme for people. There are good reasons why we should never have pursued manned air flight. There are millions of reasons not to get out of bed tomorrow. But we still did and we still will.
We’re a tiny business and we have senior people off on maternity leave. We have people on flexible hours. We’re not making a lot of money. But we strongly feel that we still don’t have enough women in the office. We’re trying to hire more.
If you have ever worked with people you don’t need to ask what it is that women add to business that men can’t. You know. You just have to go sit with a bunch of guys at the pub to know that boys have their limitations.
Let’s stop making excuses and just get more women into senior roles. Business, the economy, the country and society will definitely be better for it.
/df
HYDE PARK — I watched an episode of Mission: Impossible with my 11-year-old yesterday. It was 1968 and they had to trick a bad guy into believing it he’d been frozen for 12 years. So they froze him and he “woke up in 1980″.
It was great to see what 1980 looked like from 1968. There were rocket cars, flat screen TVs, lots of buttons to push, and no more money. It was all just cards. But, yea, there was still an attractive woman to take your order and/ or your bedpan.
I often wonder how far short we have fallen of my grandmothers’ sense of what the future would hold?
Last week a lady came in for a visit, she’s been laid off while on maternity leave and had been told convincingly by someone that ‘mothers never get their good jobs back’.
That winds me up.
She’ll need flexible hours and maybe short weeks, but she’s ready to work… and yet she’s convinced the world is not ready for her.
There must be a better way.
We’ve got the flat screen TVs, the Internet, we’ve even got cars that go like rockets. But 51% of the population think they can’t work and have a family.
/df
TCR — My mother’s maiden name was Young. And her sister’s called Carol. So, I know it’s a bit of a stretch, but I feel quite proprietary about Carl Jung.
Jung and Freud are also set to be the subject of a saucy film about their relationship with a Russian emigree. It will be out next spring and star Keira Knightley. So I’m sure we’ll all feel a but different about Carl and Sigmund soon.
Today though the subject is Carl Jung, leadership and communication. Jung’s view on human behaviour, motivations and character types has been fully adopted into our world view. Western societies (at least) just assume his views to be true.
Which is remarkable when you consider how mad they were at the time. And even how controversial Jung and Freud’s lives were seen to be even after they had died. If you talk to business leaders about MBTI (as I don’t really like to do) or about the transition curve, performance management, reward, promotions, and the like they’ll often spout something about enlightened self-interest or leading with the need which all owe some debt of gratitude to my errant Swiss relative.
What radical ideas on business are we creating today that will be a commonly held belief by the time my grandchildren are retiring?
It’s worth thinking about.
/df
PICCADILLY LINE — Sometimes you have to wonder if they say these things just to wind up the Brits. UEFA and FIFA officials that is.
Sepp Blatter, the president of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) has commented on the England football captain John Terry losing his job. Terry, who is [...]
EARLSFIELD — There’s a Caffe Nero on the high street here where I take refuge on Saturday morning while waiting for kids’ activities to finish. This morning I have counted 15 dads and babies. Other days I have seen more.
There’s no special club or association as far as I know.
It’s just that Saturday morning in South West London [...]
DUBAI AIRPORT — I am not sure why, but I have avoided writing about this in the 6 years I have been blogging. I think it’s like some strange martial art — the moment you have the gall to think you are good enough, you will be taught a lesson.
I love working across cultures. In the last 12 [...]
THE CENTRAL LINE — I read an article this morning that I have been mulling over all day. There are probably many reasons not to write about it… not least because I am not a woman… but I can’t think of any reason that is really good enough.
It has to do with the different way in which [...]
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