Posted in Periscope Post
February 24, 2012
Hidden Power: Women who aspire to lead globally – the view from Dubai
By: Cari E. Guittard
February 24, 2012
Women in the Middle East are just beginning to realise their business potential.
Last December, I travelled to Dubai where I taught at the Hult Pocket MBA for Women Who Aspire to Lead seminar. The Hult Pocket MBA for Women was a 2-day intensive which brought 60 mid-career women from throughout the region to Hult International Business School’s Dubai campus for an extraordinary learning experiment.
The setting was an intimate, transformative and engaging platform, unlike any I’ve ever experienced. Demand for this seminar was overwhelming — nearly 300 were placed on a waiting list for the free seminar and others asked if we would reprise the course in Cairo, Tunis, Manama, Doha and Riyadh. Given the turmoil and upheaval over the past year in the region, it is gratifying to see the Middle East is hungry for programs that empower and advance women in business and women as leaders.
You Can’t Be What You Can’t See
The global faculty and presenters assembled to teach in the pocket MBA ranged from social and behavioral psychologists, to global management, communications, finance, and HR. Dr. Amanda Nimon-Peters, Managing Director and Founder of Sara Black International, led the course with an opening discussion of influences contributing to self-belief and self-doubt, factors that subconsciously affect performance in women. She guided us through experimental social psychology research which included a candid discussion of stereotypes, the negative effects they have on women in the workforce, and how they contribute to self-sabotage on a subconscious level.
She further underscored the importance of role models for women and noted that they increase a woman’s belief in her ability to succeed particularly when women have overcome relevant difficulties on their paths to success. Unfortunately, there are too few women in senior leadership identified and showcased for more junior women to emulate. When it comes to leadership role models, men dominate the headlines.
In my session on Global Skillsets, Global Mindsets, I shared research from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and the Thunderbird School of Global Management’s Global Mindset Institute. The research resonated with the class, as many women shared their difficulties in balancing what they felt were expected “masculine” traits with their innate “feminine” traits in the workplace. Finding balance and adapting while navigating a global career is the Holy Grail of success. Additionally, these are skillsets women, and in particular mothers, are incredibly adept at, though we are never taught to promote those traits and in many cases taught to diminish them early on. As women, we need to seek out more opportunities like the Hult Pocket MBA to better understand, develop and leverage these skillsets as well as nurture a network that supports our continued learning in this space.
The Hidden Power of Women in Business & The Men Who Get It
We ended the Pocket MBA with a powerful panel on Men Who Contribute to Boosting Women’s Careers, or what I like to call The Men Who Get It. Here were three educated, successful men married to equally sharp, successful women. They shared frank views on the balance of power in their relationships and the positive benefits they derived from having a working and succeeding spouse. One shared how he had sacrificed his career for his wife to pursue an expansive global corporate role and the fulfillment he obtained by looking after their children full-time. The panel’s sensitivity to work-life balance and deep appreciation for women’s contribution to and strengths in business was evident and applauded. It is also important to recognize that we were having such a discussion in the UAE which is leading the region when it comes to women’s rights and the empowerment of women.
There was nothing pocket-sized about the energy in the room during our Pocket MBA. When women get together like this, transformation occurs. We acknowledged that we spend so much of our lives focused on what we think we’re supposed to do, that we rarely discover what we’re meant to do. Many of the participants in the Pocket MBA shared that this two-day intensive sparked in them the confidence to seek out a new direction, an exploration into finding their true passions and to develop their unique talents and abilities.
Whether they know it or not, women yield a tremendous amount of power and influence in business globally. Unfortunately, more and more women in the mid to senior career levels – just when they are beginning to take the leadership reigns — are opting out. Much of this power is hidden, underestimated, and undervalued many times by women themselves.
It is important to reflect on the impact women have in business and to find a way to capture and hold up stories of relevant female role models, abolish stereotypes, and find new creative ways to support and empower them. Even the smallest of efforts can make an extraordinary impact.
I flew a very long way to inspire and leave an impact on a group of women who are just beginning to realize their own power in the global workforce. What I didn’t anticipate was how much I would learn from them and how I would be the one leaving inspired, optimistic and energized for the future.
Showing posts with label united states • public diplomacy • water diplomacy • women • entrepreneurship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label united states • public diplomacy • water diplomacy • women • entrepreneurship. Show all posts
Friday, February 24, 2012
Saturday, January 7, 2012
FOUR KEY GLOBAL CORPORATE DIPLOMACY TRENDS FOR 2012
Water, Women, Entrepreneurs, Emerging Markets - Four Key Global Corporate Diplomacy Trends for 2012
Last summer I had the opportunity to lead a session on Corporate Diplomacy for the USC Center on Public Diplomacy’s Summer Institute. It is always a pleasure and humbling experience to engage with global public diplomacy practitioners and this summer’s group was no different. Participants hailed from every corner of the globe and I learned so much from my brief interactions with them. In preparation for my class, I compiled Key Corporate Diplomacy Trends that will lead corporate diplomacy efforts through the end of 2011 and well into 2012. This list is by no means exhaustive as there are dozens of efforts in the corporate diplomacy space within any given sector. The trends I selected reflect activity across sectors and regions and provide ample opportunity for public diplomacy practitioners and corporate diplomats alike to partner and have impact in the months and years to come. The Key Corporate Diplomacy Trends (in equal order of importance):
•Water
•Women
•Entrepreneurs
•Emerging Markets & Economic Development
Several of these, principally Women and Entrepreneurs, I’ve discussed in past blogs and both will continue to grow in prominence in the corporate diplomacy space, principally as areas for development and partnership in emerging and developed economies. I have also underscored the shift from CSR related efforts to an increased focus on economic development efforts by companies. In my next post I will delve deeper into emerging markets with a list of key countries to watch on the corporate diplomacy front. The one new trend that is gaining prominence and which I’ll focus this post on is the issue of water globally.
Water Diplomacy – A Thirsty World
I recently read The Big Thirst by Charles Fishman. For anyone seeking to understand water today this book is an essential. Fishman is best known for his previous work The Wal-Mart Effect which won him critical acclaim for his in-depth review of Wal-Mart’s business practices and impact on economies and our daily lives. The Big Thirst, in similar fashion, goes deep into understanding the origins of our relationship with water and calls for a better understanding, appreciation and respect for this precious natural resource. As Fishman writes, “Many civilizations have been crippled or destroyed by an inability to understand water or manage it. We have a huge advantage over the generations of people who have come before us, because we can understand water and we can use it smartly.” Some key insights Fishman draws out:
For Americans at home, flushing the toilet is the main way we use water, typical American flushes five times per day at home and uses 18.5 gallons; every day Americans flush 5.7 billion gallons of clean drinking water down the toilet.
The largest single consumer of water in the United States, 201 billion gallons each day…hydroelectric plants – coal, gas, and nuclear power plants for cooling and steam.
40 percent of the world’s 6.9 billion people don’t have easy access to water. By 2050 there will be 2.4 billion more people on the planet.
And according to Water.org, a non-profit dedicated to providing safe drinking water and sanitation to people in developing countries, lack of access to clean water is at a crisis point for over 1 billion people. With demand compounding and shrinking supplies, global water is big business. Many economists argue that water is not a public good, rather a rapidly developing commodity and growth market with some predicting it will eventually outpace the oil market. Citigroup is now recommending that investors purchase water companies given current global trends. And as noted in a recent WSJ article, China is investing heavily in water with 251 dam projects in 57 countries. The construction of dams remains a hotly debated and intensely scrutinized issue for the local communities it displaces as well as the potential environment damage that will result. Finding a balance between energy needs and conservation going forward will be key. The issue of water may be one of the most challenging public diplomacy efforts of our time. Governments, companies, NGOs and individuals will have to work together to address the compounding challenges surrounding global water.
Conquerors of the Useless
End of summer for me is always a time of reflection and renewal, taking time out for a mind and body detox from all the clutter and chaos in our daily lives. And yes, drink a ton of water. Just thinking about water now makes me thirsty. Flush the body, clear the mind. My focus on researching global water trends was punctuated recently by a film a family friend shared which left an indelible impression and homes in on many emerging corporate diplomacy themes in addition to water, 180◦ South.
180◦ South tracks one man’s trek to Patagonia re-tracing the journey from 40 years earlier of Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia and his friend Doug Tomkins, founder of North Face . The film’s tagline Conquerors of the Useless, actually threads in pressing issues of our time – depletion of natural resources, urbanization, consumerism, growing energy demands, cultural preservation and economic development.
The film at its core is all about seeking and finding balance. Balance with nature, balance within governments, companies and communities, balance within oneself. Finding balance has historically been incredibly difficult to achieve. To find balance however, one must first seek balance. Today I see too few examples of companies, governments, and individuals actively seeking balance. So much of modern life is lived in extremes and we’re paying the price.
There is a great line which became a running theme of the film where Chouinard, begins to address the concept of balance and progress, “If you approach the edge of a cliff, do you step forward? Or turn 180 degrees and then take a step? And which is considered progress?”
When it comes to water we are at the cliff’s edge. Where we go from there will have consequences for generations to come.
**Reposted from original post on Aug 5, 2011
Last summer I had the opportunity to lead a session on Corporate Diplomacy for the USC Center on Public Diplomacy’s Summer Institute. It is always a pleasure and humbling experience to engage with global public diplomacy practitioners and this summer’s group was no different. Participants hailed from every corner of the globe and I learned so much from my brief interactions with them. In preparation for my class, I compiled Key Corporate Diplomacy Trends that will lead corporate diplomacy efforts through the end of 2011 and well into 2012. This list is by no means exhaustive as there are dozens of efforts in the corporate diplomacy space within any given sector. The trends I selected reflect activity across sectors and regions and provide ample opportunity for public diplomacy practitioners and corporate diplomats alike to partner and have impact in the months and years to come. The Key Corporate Diplomacy Trends (in equal order of importance):
•Water
•Women
•Entrepreneurs
•Emerging Markets & Economic Development
Several of these, principally Women and Entrepreneurs, I’ve discussed in past blogs and both will continue to grow in prominence in the corporate diplomacy space, principally as areas for development and partnership in emerging and developed economies. I have also underscored the shift from CSR related efforts to an increased focus on economic development efforts by companies. In my next post I will delve deeper into emerging markets with a list of key countries to watch on the corporate diplomacy front. The one new trend that is gaining prominence and which I’ll focus this post on is the issue of water globally.
Water Diplomacy – A Thirsty World
I recently read The Big Thirst by Charles Fishman. For anyone seeking to understand water today this book is an essential. Fishman is best known for his previous work The Wal-Mart Effect which won him critical acclaim for his in-depth review of Wal-Mart’s business practices and impact on economies and our daily lives. The Big Thirst, in similar fashion, goes deep into understanding the origins of our relationship with water and calls for a better understanding, appreciation and respect for this precious natural resource. As Fishman writes, “Many civilizations have been crippled or destroyed by an inability to understand water or manage it. We have a huge advantage over the generations of people who have come before us, because we can understand water and we can use it smartly.” Some key insights Fishman draws out:
For Americans at home, flushing the toilet is the main way we use water, typical American flushes five times per day at home and uses 18.5 gallons; every day Americans flush 5.7 billion gallons of clean drinking water down the toilet.
The largest single consumer of water in the United States, 201 billion gallons each day…hydroelectric plants – coal, gas, and nuclear power plants for cooling and steam.
40 percent of the world’s 6.9 billion people don’t have easy access to water. By 2050 there will be 2.4 billion more people on the planet.
And according to Water.org, a non-profit dedicated to providing safe drinking water and sanitation to people in developing countries, lack of access to clean water is at a crisis point for over 1 billion people. With demand compounding and shrinking supplies, global water is big business. Many economists argue that water is not a public good, rather a rapidly developing commodity and growth market with some predicting it will eventually outpace the oil market. Citigroup is now recommending that investors purchase water companies given current global trends. And as noted in a recent WSJ article, China is investing heavily in water with 251 dam projects in 57 countries. The construction of dams remains a hotly debated and intensely scrutinized issue for the local communities it displaces as well as the potential environment damage that will result. Finding a balance between energy needs and conservation going forward will be key. The issue of water may be one of the most challenging public diplomacy efforts of our time. Governments, companies, NGOs and individuals will have to work together to address the compounding challenges surrounding global water.
Conquerors of the Useless
End of summer for me is always a time of reflection and renewal, taking time out for a mind and body detox from all the clutter and chaos in our daily lives. And yes, drink a ton of water. Just thinking about water now makes me thirsty. Flush the body, clear the mind. My focus on researching global water trends was punctuated recently by a film a family friend shared which left an indelible impression and homes in on many emerging corporate diplomacy themes in addition to water, 180◦ South.
180◦ South tracks one man’s trek to Patagonia re-tracing the journey from 40 years earlier of Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia and his friend Doug Tomkins, founder of North Face . The film’s tagline Conquerors of the Useless, actually threads in pressing issues of our time – depletion of natural resources, urbanization, consumerism, growing energy demands, cultural preservation and economic development.
The film at its core is all about seeking and finding balance. Balance with nature, balance within governments, companies and communities, balance within oneself. Finding balance has historically been incredibly difficult to achieve. To find balance however, one must first seek balance. Today I see too few examples of companies, governments, and individuals actively seeking balance. So much of modern life is lived in extremes and we’re paying the price.
There is a great line which became a running theme of the film where Chouinard, begins to address the concept of balance and progress, “If you approach the edge of a cliff, do you step forward? Or turn 180 degrees and then take a step? And which is considered progress?”
When it comes to water we are at the cliff’s edge. Where we go from there will have consequences for generations to come.
**Reposted from original post on Aug 5, 2011
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