And one of the things which has often kept change from happening is that “good old boys”, the entrenched and entitled, are often fond of the “status quo”, whatever that may be.  It’s what has kept them in office and empowered, and, lately, digging a deeper financial hole for ourselves.  A trillion dollar hole,  we now are discovering, with other trillions of dollars of debt to come.  Not a very good performance review.

So, when someone mentions “change”, I’m all for it.  I’m particularly for it when “change” may be embodied and spear headed by a particularly capable woman.

Obama to tap new position- CNN.com.

That’s why, when I see President-elect Obama has created a new position, “chief performance officer,” to work on the federal budget and on reforming government, and is selecting a woman with credentials as long as your arm for the job, I am both relieved and glad to hear it.

The woman selected is Nancy Killefer, a senior director for McKinsey & Company,management consulting firm and former assistant secretary of the treasury in the Clinton administration.

Nancy Killefer is a senior director in the Washington, D.C. office of McKinsey & Company, Inc. and a leader of of their Public Sector Practice, specializing in developing strategies and improving organizational effectiveness for government clients.

Killefer has the credentials, big time.

After receiving a B.A. with honors in economics from Vassar College and her M.B.A. from the Sloan School of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Killefer joined McKinsey in 1979. McKinsey, by the way, was once again named by Working Mother magazine as one of the “100 Best Companies” for working mothers. So, Killefer has selected an employer that offers a supportive environment for women, leading by example.

From 1997 to 2000, Killefer served as Assistant Secretary for Management, CFO, and COO at the United States Department of the Treasury.  In addition to overall management responsibilities for Treasury’s 14 bureaus and 160,000 people, she led a major modernization at the Internal Revenue Service, prepared Treasury’s systems for Y2K, and reshaped management processes, including installing an asset management program across the Treasury Department.

After returning to McKinsey in 2000, she joined the IRS Oversight Board, a public-private entity akin to a corporate board that oversees the IRS.  She served there from 2000 to 2005 and was its Chairperson from 2002 to 2004.

Yep.  Ms. Killefer knows how to manage people and money.

Evidently, she knows how to slice through bureaucracy to do it.

We get it. She’s good.  That should always be the first bar.  But we can see that it often hasn’t been. Performance during the Katrina crisis and other such catastophic failures show us that selecting from “the old boy’s club” is a dicey proposition, a gamble that often does not pay off.  And, when it fails, it takes us all down with it.  Two wars and a recession, simultaneously, offer further evidence that this criteria for leadership is deeply flawed.

But Nancy Killefer offers a lot more than her abilities.

She brings her values.

Killeferis’ public service gives us a glimpse us into her values.

Killeferis serves on The Retirement Security Project, which released a paper recently on “Retirement Security for Women: Progress to Date and Policies for Tomorrow.” With half of all working women, due to lower wages and time off for child birth, saving an estimated $34,000 in IRA or 401(k)-style saving accounts, as compared to an estimated $70,000 for men, this paper offers an array of policy solutions aimed at closing the saving gap between men and women.

Ok.  Ms. Killeferis is concerned about working women and the economic policies affecting them.

Even more convincing proof of Ms. Killeferis’ values and priorities is her service on the Board of Advisors of  Catalyst. Catalyst is a premier organization which seeks to level the playing field for women by setting benchmarks and working with Fortune 500 and other companies to support them in achieving those goals.

(Catayst was founded at the beginning of the modern U.S. women’s movement and declared it was “time to fix the companies, not the women”. One of their research papers, released in 2005, for example, was Women “Take Care,” Men “Take Charge:” Stereotyping of U.S. Business Leaders Exposed )

We don’t know very much about Nancy Killeferis yet.  But we like what see.  And this is change we can believe in.

Hilda Solis, according to Harold Meyerson in the Los Angeles Times is “the Latina daughter of immigrants, a product and champion of the labor movement, a staunch environmentalist, an ardent feminist and one of the gutsiest elected officials in American politics.”

Now, that’s what we’re talking about.

“I’m very excited,” said Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. “This is an extraordinary moment for all women, but especially for the Latino community.”

One of seven siblings and daughter of Nicaraguan and Mexican parents, her father a union shop steward, Solis has been concerned all her life with the lives of the working poor. ” In 1996, as a first-term member of the California state Senate (and its first Latina member), Solis did something elected officials just don’t do: She took money out of her own campaign treasury to jump-start an initiative campaign to raise the California minimum wage. Californians passed it overwhelmingly.”

In the state senate, Solis  focused on cleaning up the air and environment in factory neighborhoods and projects to improve poor communities.  She stood up against domestic violence in cultures where male dominance and female submissiveness were ancient and ingrained habits and families often turned a blind eye to this type of abuse.

In 2000, in another gutsy move, Solis challenged a member of her own party for his seat in Congress and won by 69% to 31%.  Her victory signaled a tidal wave of change that had been building in L.A. with the influx of immigrants and the gradual transformation of red neighborhoods to blue.

Coming from a Waspy backround, but partnered with an Hispanic, living in a vibrant city with over 50% Hispanics and imbued with Latin culture and having lived in Latin America for five years, I had long seen the handwriting on the wall. As the Latin population has grown in all of the U.S.‘s major cities, new identities, forged by the challenge of equal rights and labor struggles, education, immigration, bi-lingualism and other daunting issues, have created new power for Latinos who are seizing success in virtually every arena of life in the U.S. From cinema to restaurants, singing to salsa.  Latinas are no longer on the fringes of power, but in the white hot center.

I wanted for Latinas and Latinos the same thing I seek for women in our culture: genuine equity.  And, after many years of working for women’s rights, I realize that comes from two things: succeeding in pocket book issues and wining office in politics.  So I was appropriately thrilled to learn of Hilda Solis’s nomination to prominent office, where she will, without a doubt, be a groundbreaker.

“It was no coincidence that shortly after Solis’s 2000 victory, virtually every Democratic elected official in Los Angeles marched alongside striking union janitors. As the janitors could (and did) attest, Solis’ victory had been theirs too.

“Known as a coalition builder in Congress, Solis has continued to focus on labor, immigration and environmental issues, “coauthoring the Green Jobs Act, providing federal funds for job training in retrofitting, solar panel installation and other environmentally friendly occupations.”

Hilda Solis is clearly a change agent. She has a proven record of change.  And, once in office, we will look forward to her, with passion and her hallmark fearlessness, continuing to transform the landscape around her.

If you ask me, Hilda Solis is change we can believe in.

Book cover via Amazon

AdvancingWomen.com

Whether you are a home office worker, an entrepreneur, or a corporate CEO, your job as the leader of your business is to succeed. Success does not come from good ideas of even brilliant performance unless it is totally integrated with the mission or your company, which, in one way or another, must come down to the bottom line of making money.

Recognizing that inescapable fact, a leader’s job is both less complex, but more difficult than one might imagine.

At a tech conference I attended, Glyn Meek, President and CEO of Triactive, now President and CEO of Software On Sailboats explained his theory that the job of CEO, has only 2 components:

• Never stop raising money.

• Create a buzz about the company.

Someone Else Can Do Everything Else

True, although this is particularly applicable to high tech start ups where “two young geeks in a garage” create the original technology and, at some point, someone has to bring in venture capital and they definitely will want an adult, that is someone with major big company experience,to run the company.

From this skeletal beginning three other jobs of a boss/leader become clear.

Building An A Team

The CEO or leader must be a team builder. Having a marketing whiz or a tech guru or even a bona fide genius on hand is simply not enough in today’s increasingly complex, rapidly changing, intensely competitive business environment. To both keep pace and solve complex problems quickly you need a team and not just any team. Having an A team is absolutely mandatory. A CEO must be secure enough to hire A players, people who are as smart and talented and driven as he or she is, and more accomplished in their particular area of expertise.

A Players vs B Players

If you don’t hire A players but rather B players, you will not only not achieve the results you want, but your company’s performance will tend to deteriorate, or, at the least, require a lot more energy to sustain as time goes on. B players trigger certain dynamics, since they aren’t likely to hire A players and may not be secure enough to hire even B players. Your company’s performance may decrease as employees begin to consist of more and more C players. This is what Glyn Meek called the Meek Theory of Company Deterioration.

Install Systems to Insure Communication and Synchronization

Once you have your A team on board, then you must constantly communicate with them and put in place systems within your organization which allow your team to stay in constant contact with each other.

Ram Charan, advisor to CEOs of Fortune companies like GE, Ford, DuPont, EDS, Universal Studios and Verizon, believes that continuous and focused exchange of information leads to synchronization in a company which leads to success.

“A synchronized organization is like a champion rowing team-people working together with a certain rhythm that allows the group to do things the individual could not do. Synchronization expands the capacity of the whole group” Ram Charan points out in What the CEO Wants You to Know.

The reason why many small businesses never expand is because they don’t know how to create mechanisms for constant communication between individual employees and managers.

Whether it’s through regular conference calls, emails or personal meetings, it is the job of the CEO to see that there is continuous communication and feedback throughout the organization.

Where the Rubber Meets the Road-Creating a Sales Organization

Giving your organization a sales orientation, rather than a development orientation will make or break your company. No matter how superior your product or effective your service, there are no positive financial results, which business is all about, until you get a customer, and consequently generate revenue. ( Meek developed a very unique and fresh approach to solving this as-old-as-selling problem. Clearly the Internet has changed the face of sales prospecting. More information is available now than ever before. Raw business information is available from open-sources like LinkedIn, Spoke or Jigsaw. So his company integrated a browser within Desktop Sales Explorer to help you gather business details into your prospecting database. And Desktop Sales Explorer directs the integrated browser to help you find email addresses, home pages, contact information and more. Pretty slick, no?)

As Meek put it, “Rome didn’t build a great empire by holding meetings. They did it by killing all who opposed them.”

Metaphorically speaking, the only way to douse your competitor’s flame is to overwhelm them with so many successful sales by your organization that they become increasingly unable to compete.

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A non-profit, non-partisan organization and forum, The Women’s Conference educates, inspires and empowers women through an annual convention and the WE Empower network. Under the leadership of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver, The Women’s Conference has grown from a small government initiative for working professionals into a far-reaching organization, a life-changing experience, and an international network of women from all walks of life, backgrounds and perspectives.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

First First Lady Maria Shriver is calling on all attendees of The Women’s Conference 2008 to help alleviate the food shortage in California. As Honorary Chair of CaliforniaVolunteers, she believes that all 37 million Californians have the ability to serve and make a positive impact in their communities. By launching the largest statewide volunteer matching network at www.CaliforniaVolunteers.org, the people of California can connect with thousands of volunteer opportunities.Lady Maria Shriver is calling on all attendees of The Women’s Conference 2008 to help alleviate the food shortage in California. As Honorary Chair of CaliforniaVolunteers, she believes that all 37 million Californians have the ability to serve and make a positive impact in their communities. By launching the largest statewide volunteer matching network at www.CaliforniaVolunteers.org, the people of California can connect with thousands of volunteer opportunities.

Shriver has transformed the Women’s Conference into one of the nation’s largest and most successful one-day women’s conferences, with past speakers including Oprah Winfrey, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Jane Fonda, Queen Noor of Jordan and Suze Orman. She also created the Minerva Awards (named after the Goddess Minerva on the California State Seal who epitomizes courage, wisdom and strength), given annually at the conference, to highlight the achievements of California women who make extraordinary contributions to their communities and the state.

This is the type of community building and empowerment which AdvancingWomen.com fully supports and is dedicated to supporting.  Do you have any thoughts or stories you want to share with others, any experiences about how you’ve helped empower others or been empowered yourself?  If so, please do share them.

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Women In Leadership-AdvancingWomen.com

There currently are 12 women CEOs of Fortune 500 Companies heading up these giant enterprises from health care, to agriculture to food and beverages.

Considering that almost half the workforce consists of women, and half of management and professionals are women – Why so few? Leaving aside for the moment the systemic issues in our society which devalue women’s work, let’s look at an area we do control: ourselves.  At the heart of the matter may be the hesitation of women to sell themselves, to practice AFTO, “Ask for the order”. Even salespeople sometimes fail to directly “ask for the order” that they have worked hard to acquire. Women can make the same mistake. Women often wait to be invited to participate, whereas men, in general, seem to have a level of confidence in believing that others want to hear what they have to say. Women have often been trained in humility, but humility does not breed opportunity.

A workshop at a New Jersey campus offers seven tips for women leaders that can be categorized as wellbeing, networking, asking, negotiating, focusing, fitting, and announcing. These seven outliers define how asking for the order can help women become more outspoken about what they want. Examining these seven tips for women leaders from the perspective of having an “ask for the order” mentality can equal success. Let’s look at a couple of them:

Networking

Build a network of mentors and allies who will challenge and support you. Networking is the avenue to gaining knowledge and introductions, and it’s the time to make the best of what you’ve got. Because application of performance improvement is a very good way to demonstrate its benefits, strive to showcase what you have done to apply your knowledge. Apply a networking approach that includes attention, attitude, and attendance to help you realize your networking goals.

• Maintain attention; stay alert to opportunities
• Maintain attitude; stay motivated
• Maintain attendance stay in the forefront

Asking

Know what you want and ask for it, whether it is a promotion or a new assignment. This is the key component in asking for the order. This mere act of doing in conjunction with the other tips for women leaders can bring about amazing results.

Negotiating

Rather than permit a NO to stop you, negotiate to an even better YES, but only when the time is right. We need to weigh the situation and determine if it is better to seek to change the condition, do nothing, or run away from the situation. There are times appropriate to each of these choices. Sometimes it is best to work through the issue. Other times you must run for your life. And other times it is best to do nothing when in doubt. So there is more than fight or flight in decision making, there is the option to freeze. Ask for the order when the time is right.

• Fight means to battle or negotiate to solve the situation.
• Freeze means to do nothing and tolerate the situation.
• Flee means to run away or leave the situation.

Focusing

Define your unique leadership values that will contribute to the success of the organization or community. We are all unique and special, but we need to identify how that bears upon the leadership role we seek. Asking for the order in this area means to be able to identify what you bring to the role. It might help you to identify your strengths, opportunities, and restrictions, permitting you to focus upon those areas in which you excel, where you can find support, and where you have weaknesses or threats standing in your way. This can be a kind of self-evaluation process to determine readiness for the targeted endeavor.

• Evaluate your strengths (Internal Environmental Factors)

Strengths are those internal assets you posses that will aid you in your ability to accomplish your objectives. Strengths are among your internal environmental factors.

• Explore your opportunities (External Environmental Factors)

Opportunities are those external aids that can assist you in managing the problem at a particular time and enhance your ability to accomplish your objectives. Opportunities are among your external environmental factors.

• Estimate your restrictions (Internal and External Environmental Factors)

Restrictions are those internal and external conditions such as weaknesses or threats that can impede your progress or your ability to accomplish your objectives. Weaknesses are those restrictions among your internal environmental factors and threats are those restrictions among your external environmental factors.

Fitting

Seek a match between you and the task or job. Do what you like. Chances are the job is one that best fits your personality and skills. In order to know this you might use some of the personality type indicators that can help you to assess where you might best fit into a leadership role. Once you are sure about your match for the job, you will have greater confidence in asking for the order.

Go ahead….ask for the Order

Sharon L. Bender, Ph.D. is an educator and author. She is also the inventor of a plethora of problem solving models. To contact Sharon, please visit sharonbender.com.

To read all of this go to Women In Leadership-AdvancingWomen.com