Once you examine some of the common traits of women’s leadership, it is clear that there are many benefits to having women in leadership positions. One excellent way to encourage your organization to focus on developing women as leaders is to articulate the many benefits of having women in such positions. While we can never assume that ever woman leader will demonstrate all the common traits of women’s leadership – nor can we assume that male leaders will not demonstrate any of these traits – putting women in leadership positions does increase the chances of your organization benefiting from these practices.

Greater Collaboration

One of the greatest benefits of having women in leadership positions is that they foster greater collaboration. Because women tend to be relationship focused, they are often able to draw in stakeholders from many different areas to work toward a common goal. Add in the tendency of women leaders to unite diverse groups around common goals and values, and it becomes clear that women leaders value and encourage collaboration. A culture of greater collaboration is beneficial for countless reasons. Collaboration helps to build relationships among employees and across traditional divisions such as department or function. It helps to clarify common goal and values, which can further boost employee investment in the organization. When people collaborate, they invest in each other. And when people feel invested in, they have higher morale, are more productive, and are more likely to stay and grow within the organization. Finally, greater collaboration makes the best use of the organization’s most valuable resource – its people.

Culture of Work-Life Balance

Organizations with women in leadership positions tend to have cultures of work-life balance. They may offer flexible work arrangements – working from home, flextime, shared positions, or part-time options – that allow employees to maintain their career while also attending to life outside the office. Organizations with a culture of work-life balance also help to foster a sense that employees’ lives and happiness outside the office are beneficial to the organization, too. A culture of work-life balance means that employees don’t feel as if they have to choose work or family life, but can instead attend to both equally. Even more, a culture of work-life balance tends to promote employee satisfaction and happiness, stave off burnout, and promote retention. Employees may also end up taking fewer sick days or otherwise being absent, which is good for the bottom line. A culture of work-life balance helps employees feel like people, not just cogs in a machine. This in turn promotes happier, healthier workplaces.

Culture of Accountability

Because they value personal accountability, for themselves and others, women leaders tend to promote a culture of accountability across the organization. A culture of accountability is one in which people take responsibility for their actions rather than seek to blame others, in which people are rewarded and recognized for their efforts and successes, and in which people act with honesty and integrity. The benefits of such a culture are clear and obvious. Accountability fosters a greater sense of trust, both between employee and peers and between employees and management. The knowledge that one will not be blamed for things they did not do, and that they will not be punished for owning up to a mistake, makes people feel safer and more valued at work. On a larger scale, accountability and transparency help to discourage stealing, dishonesty, policy violations, and more – including sexual harassment, financial misconduct, and even more egregious violations. A culture of accountability promotes workplace safety and workplace harmony, which results in better productivity, better retention, better morale, and a better bottom line.

Assists in Recruiting Millennials

One of the most surprising benefits of having women in leadership positions is that it helps in recruiting millennials – an incredibly important group of new workers. Millennials overwhelmingly want to work for organizations where they see women in leadership positions. This appears to hold true for both male and female millennials. Young women, especially, are likely to be less attracted to work at organizations where they do not see women in the ranks of leadership. Seeing women in leadership demonstrates to these young women that they have the potential to advance within the organization. It also indicates a dedication to gender equality, something that millennials of both genders say in repeated studies is important to them. Millennials are also likely to value the traits common to women’s leadership, such as accountability, diversity, and relationships. If you organization wishes to recruit millennials – and there is hardly an organization that does not – having women in visible leadership positions is one key component of your recruiting strategy.

Even with all the gains women have made in education and workforce participation, many barriers to women’s leadership still exist. Some of these barriers are the result of deeply entrenched cultural messages about women. They may seem invisible, or simply the result of common sense, rather than any systematic effort to bar women from leadership. It is important to explore these barriers and create ways to surmount them if women are to assume more leadership positions.

Gender Differences are Overemphasized

No one would argue that men and women are exactly the same. However, the differences between men and women are often overemphasized, and used to justify the lack of women in leadership. For instance, the idea that men are “more rational” and women are “more emotional” is often used to explain why women do not assume executive functions more often. Similarly, physical differences in size or strength may be used to justify the lack of women in some fields. Ideas about women as natural caregivers are also commonly invoked to explain why women make good managers but poor executives. In truth, all humans are capable of a wide range of traits. And while men and women may approach the world differently, based on how they are socialized, these differences seldom mean that one gender is automatically better at leadership, management, or any other aspect of life. This overemphasis on gender differences means that qualified female candidates are often dismissed out of hand for leadership positions.

Gender Differences are Undervalued

Men and women are socialized differently – they learn how to operate in the world differently, and this can impact their approach to leadership. Research shows that men and women often use very different communication styles, for instance, with women more focused on relationships and men more focused on communicating facts. Women tend to be more collaborative, and men more competitive, according to research. These gender differences are often undervalued, and used to justify the dominance of men in leadership. For instance, our “get it done” culture may undervalue female leaders’ focus on building relationships. Learning to see women’s leadership traits and styles as different from, but equally valuable as, men’s leadership styles in one key step in increasing women’s leadership.

Women Lack Professional Networks

One of the most profound barriers to women’s leadership is the degree to which women lack professional networks. Numerous studies have shown that men’s professional networks are instrumental to their success. A strong network alerts you to opportunities, may give you a foot in the door with a new organization, serves as a source of support and development, and generally encourages personal and professional growth. People who lack a strong professional network typically lag behind those with solid networks in terms of employment, promotion, and compensation. Women may face barriers to forming networks for many reasons. Men may be reluctant to network with women because of an overemphasis on gender differences or because of fear of appearing to engage in inappropriate relationships by socializing with female colleagues. (Our culture still lacks a good script for non-sexual or non-romantic friendships between men and women.) Women may be reluctant to network with men for the same reasons. Women are also the primary caregivers and homemakers, and so family responsibilities may mean that after-work socializing and other networking activities are not possible or not prioritized.

Work and Family Conflict

The conflict between work and family often underlies the lack of women in leadership. Even in two-partner families, women tend to take on the bulk of responsibility for childcare, housework, and other family needs. Many women also find themselves the primary caretaker for an aging parent. Cultural messages that a woman who puts her career before her family is a “bad mother” put a great deal of pressure on women to balance work and family, and to sacrifice career for family if it becomes necessary. While not all women who are in the paid labor force have children or otherwise engage in care work, a large proportion do and thus face this dilemma. Because many organizations do not promote work-life balance, women who must balance career and family often miss out on opportunities that other colleagues can leverage. When it comes time for promotion, this may be used against a female candidate who is seen to not be sufficiently invested in her career due to family obligations. Family obligations may also mean women forgo important educational and development opportunities that would help them advance into leadership.

In order to be the most productive that you can be, you must create the most appropriate environment. This post will give you some ideas for creating an effective, ergonomic workspace in any office.

Setting Up the Physical Layout

One key aspect of an effective workspace is the physical layout. Keep these tips in mind:

Ergonomics 101

Ergonomics is the study of how workers relate to their environment. It has been proven that particular factors can increase or decrease the risk of certain injuries and conditions, such as repetitive strain injuries (RSI’s), back problems, and eye problems.

Here are some things that you can adjust to make your workspace more ergonomic.

Using Your Computer Efficiently

In the last two topics, we focused on creating an effective, productive physical workspace. In this topic, we’ll switch focus to your virtual workspace.

To use your computer most efficiently, customize your working areas as much as you can. Here are some ideas to get you started.

As with your physical workspace, your company may limit your customization capabilities. Stay positive and focus on the changes that you can make, and the positive effects that those have.

This post is from July’s topic on Personal Productivity, which is also a course on our Executive Mini-MBA program online from Harvard Square.

When you’re assigned a new task or project, it’s important to create a plan at the beginning so you get off to a good start. This post will look at some different techniques that you can use to tackle new to-do items.

The Sliding Scale

When planning and organizing, try to create the right size plan for the task. If your goal is to organize your inbox, for example, it’s probably not necessary to spend several hours planning each action. On the other hand, if you’re handed a complex project, you may want to spend several days or even weeks gathering information and creating a plan.

For small tasks, basic tools such as a to-do list or calendar will probably be the best choice. For medium-sized tasks or projects, you might want to use:

And for large projects, consider:

A Checklist for Getting Started

For most tasks, you will need some background information before you begin. Remember, you’ll need very little information for simple tasks, and more detailed information for complex tasks.

Basic information you will gather should include:

Evaluating and Adapting

For most medium to large sized tasks, you will want to build evaluation points into your plan. Typically, these occur at key gateways (called milestones in the project management world). At these gateways, you will look at your plan, determine what is working and what is not working, and adjust as necessary.

Some other signs that it may be time to review your plan:

This post is from July’s topic on Personal Productivity, which is also a course on our Executive Mini-MBA program online from Harvard Square.

Orientation is a critical aspect of employee retention. Since the orientation process takes time and planning in order to be effective, this post will focus on the next critical aspect, which is following up with new employees.

Checking In

Where a company is committed to drawing the right people, in turn they develop good people. This can help a company that is making an effort to be an “employer of choice.” If you speak to people who work for just such organizations, you probably know that their recruiting efforts are eased by the fact that candidates come to them asking for the privilege of working together.

So how do you do your part to help your employer achieve that prestigious status? The answer is simple: by checking in with new employees. Just think of it this way: checking in with your employees will help them from checking out.

Following Up

Sometimes your follow up will be based on the employee orientation checklist from the previous module, and simply making sure that each area is covered adequately. Other items may get added to your checklist based on your conversations with the employee.

These regular interactions, which may be short and seem informal, or follow a more formal tone, also give the employee the opportunity to ensure that he or she has made the best decision possible in coming to work with you. If that person is able to get the information they need when they need it, your chances of developing a strong, engaged employee, continue to grow.

Designing the Follow-Up Schedule

We recommend that you set up and follow a regular schedule to integrate your new employee. Depending on the role they are hired to, and your role, the schedule will vary, but there are a few key things to focus on:

The employee should meet with you each day in the first week.

The employee should meet with you (or your designate) every two weeks for the first three months on the job, and monthly thereafter.

If you are new at providing this level of follow up for a new employee, and think it’s too much, then temper your approach accordingly. Always keep in mind, however, the way that the new employee feels about your workplace, their level of engagement, and what those meetings can do to ensure that you have made a good choice hiring this person.

This post is from June’s topic on Human Resource Management, which is also a course on our Mini-MBA program online from Harvard Square.

Marketing goals provide the direction of your marketing campaign. Without goals, it is impossible to know what needs to be done. Goals need to be long-term, broad, and provide aspirations for what you want to achieve through marketing. Once the goals are established, you need to create specific objectives and plans to help reach your goals.

Brand Switching

Increasing your market share is one of the main goals of marketing. Customers are not easily swayed from choosing a product or service they have become accustomed to and used for a long time. Having a customer choose your unknown product over your competitors known and trusted product takes a special set of circumstances. Releasing a new or improved product is a great time to make that push and poach consumers away from your competition.

Despite your goal for brand changing, customers do not always accept change easily. The transition requires effective advertising. The marketing needs to focus on improvements for the customer, but it also needs to show advantages in price, quality, and availability. Switching can also move the other way, so listen, and give your customers a voice and they will feel more connected. It will make it harder for your competition to steal your market share.

Repeat Purchases

Repeat customers are essential to your business. They make up a majority of your sales, and you can count on them to share your brand with their friends. It is important to remember repeat customers on your marketing campaign, especially since you spend less money engaging repeat customers. Repeat purchases require you to build relationships. Fortunately, there are different ways to improve relationships with customers and create repeat purchases. They are found in a variety of marketing strategies.

Brand Loyalty

Brand loyalty is the loyalty that customers show to your brand. This can be seen through actions such as repurchases, and paying more for the products than competitors charge, and investing time in the purchase. Think about the lines at stores when the iPads were released. Loyal customers can be turned into brand champions for the company. Brand champions provide the word of mouth marketing that will improve the brand and increase the customer base.

Brand Champions:

Inform and Educate

Marketing must do more than appeal to emotions, certain marketing methods need to inform and educate customers. The best way to inform customers and educate people about your product is through content. Content is provided through different media:

The content needs to be relevant, interesting, and well written (or well edited in the case of a webcast). When creating content, it is important to focus on one topic at a time, and use subheadings to break up information. This will allow customers to focus on small portions of information at a time.

This post is from May’s topic on Marketing Basics, which is also a course on our Mini-MBA program online from Harvard Square.

Communication is essential to successful marketing. Poor or unfocused communication will not help close a sale. Communication requires practice, understanding of value, and entertainment. It is also essential that all communication occur through the media that will best reach the customers.

The Marketing Pitch

The marketing pitch is a traditional method of communication. Done correctly, it will create interest in your product. If it is done incorrectly, potential customers will lose interest quickly. The pitch may take place in person or online. Regardless of the method, there are basic steps that will improve the success of the pitch.

Sell Value, Not the Price

When communicating with consumers, the message shouldn’t be all about better or lower prices; it should be about the value and service you can offer. Only 1/3 of customers completely base purchases on price. Most customers are looking for value. In order to sell value to customers, you need to understand what it is they value. Knowing your target market is essential to this process. For example, young, eco-friendly customers are willing to pay more for products that reduce their carbon footprints. Once you have established the values of your market, you need to follow a few basic guidelines.

Fun and Entertaining is Powerful

Communication should be all facts and figures. While it is important for potential customers to understand everything that you have to offer, you need to catch and maintain their interest. Fun and entertaining communication will easily catch the interest of your target market. Additionally, entertaining content will help customers forget that you are trying to sell them something, and they are likely to discuss the marketing attempt with others. For example, consider the commercials that air during the Super Bowl and how much attention people are willing to give them.

Choosing the Right Media

It is impossible to communicate with your target audience if you do not use the correct media. For example, overlooking social media for younger customers will almost guarantee that they do not receive your communication. Choosing the right media depends on your customer and your budget.

Types of Media:

This post is from May’s topic on Marketing Basics, which is also a course on our Mini-MBA program online from Harvard Square.

Sometimes, as a manager, we can feel like we are on our own little island doing our job as intended. But don’t forget to look up and see your team of employees that are there to work for and with you, as well as partners in upper management. No one can manage everything by themselves, and will need to reach out from time to time. Sometimes we find that we may need to reach out to those we’ve just met, or even someone we thought we’d left behind.

Never Burn a Bridge

Whether you left another company to come to this one or you are moving departments, there is always a bridge behind you that is moving you forward. Our natural instinct is to let out our frustrations on the people you no longer have to see, but burning that bridge behind you won’t erase the past and could harm your future. You never know when or where you’ll need to face the company or person again. You’ll want to ensure if you do meet again or if you ever need their assistance (a reference perhaps), that you’ll be in their favor.

Tips:

Take the High Road

“Taking the high road” simply means to make a decision based on moral, or to act ethically. When faced with a difficult decision, the manager should ‘take the high road’ to either resolve the problem or correct what they might have done wrong. The key to doing this is to have certain boundaries and use them when needed. Acknowledge the position someone else may hold, even if you do not like it or agree with them, and then use your boundaries to express your side with being negative or unethical. Even if the situation is not any better, it certainly did not get worse.

Helpful tips:

Trust is a Two-Way Street

Employees want to trust their manager and depend on them for their needs at work. It is important for the manager to build trust between themselves and their employees, especially since this may help repair any trust deficiencies made somewhere else. When managers show trust in their employees and believe in their hard work, employees will continue to strive to do well for their managers and show their trust in return.

Tips to help build trust:

Don’t Hide in Your Office

Office employees count on their managers to be leaders and want to know that they are there to face tough office situation when they arise. Some managers try to find the benefit of staying in their office, perhaps to gain focus or ignore non-office related chatter, but in reality it is actually hurting the team they are trying to focus on. When the manager spends most of their time behind a closed door, employees begin to feel neglected and can start to resent their manager. Make it a point to come out of the office and speak with your employees and how they are doing on the job. Your employees will respect you more as a coworker and an ally then the stuffy manager that hides behind closed doors.

Sometimes it can seem hard to gain support behind your office projects, but don’t throw in the towel so early. Some of the key aspects of gaining support are building relationships with the staff, making allies that can give you a boost, and not being afraid to show others what you have to offer. Using honest and ‘good’ politics cannot only gain support for any project you may be carrying, but will propel your career forward without burning bridges behind you.

Gain Trust Through Honesty

A manager that instills confidence and mutual trust creates an office environment that holds to high standards and clear ethics. Although office politics can make some people think of terms like deception and trickery. Keep in mind that honesty and trust will provide a more powerful and lasting benefit to the employee and propel their career further. Don’t lie or cover up recent mistakes you might have made. Be open about steps you’ve had to take to correct situations.  When asked for statistics or reports for your project, offer them freely. It’s important to build trusting relationships that people can depend on to gain support over time. Relationships built on dishonesty and misguidances do not hold up.

Helpful tips:

Be Assertive

Being assertive can often be misconstrued as being mean or just being a jerk. But belittling, intimidating or trying to control those that could very well help you will cause trouble in the office and will cause you to lose others’ respect. Being assertive requires one to be confident without being aggressive. Don’t be afraid to say what you want or need, and as long you do it tactfully and respectfully. If your answer is no, don’t give up right away. Regroup and rethink what you need to do in order to go for your goal.

Helpful tips:

Blow Your Own Horn

One of the best ways to gain support for your cause is to let others know what you have accomplished or what you can bring to the table in the future. Be cautious of the fine line between blowing your horn and downright bragging or being boastful. When speaking with those who can potentially give the support you need, subtly add in some of your recent successes or a good comment made on your last evaluation. Once they see your value and potential, you will have more people on your side next time you present your case in a staff meeting. Keep your comments truthful and realistic. Be sure not to just make up great things to say – those that want to back you will most likely check their facts first.

Make Allies

Don’t underestimate the power and value of having allies not only in your department, but other departments as well. To win them over, take time to learn how you can help and contribute with your time. Staying on good terms with different department heads can put you right in the middle of the networking movement in the company, and allow you to tap into every department when needed. This also allows you to not only build credibility, but strong office alliances that will prove very helpful.

Helpful tips:

Sometimes we forget that it can take an entire team to run a project or office. But when you have a team of managers, it is important to remember their unique traits and qualities that made them part of the team. Know that they made it onto your team for a reason, and that they were taught everything they needed to know to start out. Trust that you have taught them well and rely on them to do a good job.

Do Not Micromanage

Assuring that your managers do a good job without crossing the line into micromanaging can be hard for anyone. It can be hard to navigate through the office without wanting to constantly check in on them or offer your input randomly. One of the best ways to remedy this is to; first of all, trust your managers and their job abilities. Once you can do that, you can let the manager seek accountability for their actions and own their responsibilities. When they feel in charge of their position and themselves, managers will perform better and not feel as though you are breathing down their neck to do so.

Promote Open and Honest Communication

One thing that can hinder a relationship among managers is poor communication. It’s easy to believe that your managers will always be forward with you and will have no trouble approaching you with problems; but this isn’t necessarily true for some groups. To ensure your employees feel comfortable with you and with each other, promote communication that is open and honest with each other. Allow everyone to give their input and to not hold back on their wants and needs. Be responsive to them and support feedback from others. Having this type of communication builds respect among the group and helps build trust along the way.

Reward Initiative

Managing your team and helping them grow can be a challenging experience. As a leader, it is important to encourage initiative among your managers and motivate them to do better. One way to accomplish this is to by rewarding the initiative that managers take on the job. Whether they reached out to help other employees or took on a new task by themselves, managers are always showing us how they are taking on more initiative.

In return, upper management should reward these actions and can do so in various ways. Some rewards include simple recognitions, gifts, or even promotions. When the manager feels rewarded for the hard work they’ve embarked on, they are more willing to take pride in their work and continue doing a good job. It is important to recognize the initiative itself, and not just the outcome.

Trust, But Verify

“Trust, but verify” is a common tool used by many leaders today in helping manage their group of employees. We can’t always assume the job is done right; sometimes the work needs to be verified or reviewed. It doesn’t involve micromanaging, but it involves periodic steps of checking in or verifying an employee’s work. Common methods include asking an employee to send an email when they are finished with certain phases or setting reminders to speak with the manager in person to check on progress. Managers often make the mistake that previous information is automatically absorbed and understood and overlook the need for verification. But taking a few minutes to look over any project periodically can save everyone a lot of time and man hours in the event that something needs to be corrected.

This post is from March’s topic on Manager Management, which is also a course on our Mini-MBA program online from Harvard Square.

The term “networking” is frequently tossed around the business world. It is easy to talk about networking, but implementing it is another matter, particularly when you have to go beyond the confines of the workplace. Fortunately, you will improve your networking skills when you create a solid network and position yourself for success. Networking outside of your company takes time and energy, but the reward is certainly worth the effort.

Create a Solid Network

Creating a solid network requires you to make connections. It is not enough to simply meet people; you need to meet the right people, people who are likely to develop a professional relationship with you. This requires you to search for connections carefully.

Where to find possible connections:

Meet Strategic Alliance Partners

Strategic alliance partners are made when two companies work together on a joint venture. The partnership may be formal or informal. When two separate businesses begin to work together, however, tension is inevitable. This is why you need to carefully screen potential strategic alliance partners.

This is where networking is indispensable. Since strategic alliance partners need a mutually beneficial working relationship, so you need to get to know your partners ahead of time. You may choose to partner with someone you already know or work with someone new. There are strategic alliance partner networking groups to help you make valuable connections. Like any connection, you need to consider the characteristic that you need in a partnership before you look for one. What strengths do you need to see? Build relationships and make a list of contacts you would be interested in partnering with in the future, and meet with them to assess interest.

Generate Leads

Networking is invaluable when it comes to generating business leads. People are always more comfortable doing business with individuals they know and trust. You can generate leads from networking events as well as from social networking sites. We will go into more detail about the methods later. Networking to generate leads is time consuming, but it is very effective.

When using networking to generate leads, your focus should be on offering value and selling yourself. Meet with different prospects. After meeting individuals who may become leads, follow-up and connect with them. As you build relationships, you will develop new leads.

Position Yourself

Networking can be used to help you position yourself in your industry. People will contact you once you build a reputation as a reliable expert. Your reputation will develop as people in your network share your strengths as well as the strengths of your company. For example, your network may share an expert article that you write. As the article is shared, you will gain exposure, and your reputation will grow.

There are various reasons to network. Networking affects your reputation and your social circle. Engaging in networking can result in jobs, partnerships, and support. The benefits include an increase in trust and visibility. Networking can also provide an inside advantage when it comes to your professional and personal life.

Gain Trust

When done correctly, networking helps people gain trust. The more people trust you, the more likely they are to want to do business with you. There are a few steps that anyone can take to gain trust from contacts. These steps are common sense, but their importance cannot be overemphasized.

Gaining Trust:

Be Visible

Networking can help increase your visibility in the market place, where it doesn’t hurt to stand out. Job listings tend to draw piles of applicants, and many of them are qualified. In this competitive atmosphere, it is essential that you stand out from the rest. There are a number of ways to increase visibility. Your circumstances will determine which actions will be effective for you.

Increase Visibility:

Be an Insider

Networking can help make you an insider. People in your network will be able to guide you to new opportunities. Remember that not every job you want will be advertised. The right connections can provide you with insider opportunities. If a connection feels that you would be perfect for a job, he or she will recommend you. You may be offered it before it is ever posted. You should expect to do the same for your contacts should the opportunity present itself.

Gain Advantage

Networking will help you gain an advantage as your visibility increases. You will be able to stay in the forefront of the decision makers’ minds. There are steps to take to ensure that you will have a positive relationship with the decision makers: