Director of Development, Wood Partners
written by Randy Bates on May 14, 2008

The issue of leadership is not as easy as some make it out to be. There are a lot of people qualified doing excellent work in the job they are in, but making them leaders of similarly talented people can be a mistake. For instance, a great chef may be totally incapable of running a restaurant. A great linebacker may not be able to coach a team. A great programer may not be able to manage a software company.

Management and leadership is not simply earned by time on the job or even competency of the fundamental business. It is more often an ability to help others understand and realize your goals. This includes salesmanship, clear communication skills, perseverence and the ability to inspire. If any of those skills are missing, that person probably won't work out as a leader.

Now, the question on the table is whether women in general have the skills to be leaders. I have known women who are natural leaders and they possess all the requisite skills mentioned above. I have also seen women (and men) who bully their way to the top, but fail to inspire or communicate ideas well. As a percent of the population, though, I would say that most women simply don't desire to be leaders in the business world. Don't flame the messenger, but that has not been my experience in 52 years of life observing people and the jobs they tend to choose.

I would say that if a woman feels wronged, their leadership skills can be tested. There are various testing services (we use one in Charlotte) that can be used to discover your abundant or missing talent.

My final thought on the subject. Most leaders are self made using their inherant skills described above. Those that really want to lead (perseverance) simply make it happen using those leadership skills they possess

Glass Ceiling, Office Politics, or Labyrinth
written by John Pontieri on December 17, 2007

It shouldn't matter what woman as a whole thinks when it comes to their lack of achieving leadership roles. Individuals should be promoted for their hard work and dedication. As an educated white male with thirty years progressive experience in the telecommunications industry I've never been recognized for my attributes in terms of any leadership role. In fact I work for the same un-educated, slightly experienced managers who golf together. Say it like it is Alice and Linda.

Blossoming Corporate Raider
written by Reyne on November 20, 2007

I can't really speak from experience on the whole glass ceiling idea BUT I can speak on the corresponding idea of the Glass Front Door. I am 25, female and have had 3 years of experience under my belt in the Real Estate and Public Relations fields. In previous positions I have added value, won awards and exceeded goals by far.

I felt like my age was the factor that was limiting me from being able to earn what I'm worth so I branched out. I tried to start my own company to no avail because I couldn't get a small business loan- yes, even with a detailed business plan and 5 yr outlook. Then, I decided to start heading back toward corporate SC.

I must have applied for 30 different positions and have only heard back from about 20 percent of those companies. The resounding answer to all my turn down e-mails (no one sends a letter anymore) is that I am too inexperienced or too early in my career. And the only positions that I can find in the Charleston area, where I'm based, are entry level marketing positions or administrative assistant positions that don't require a college degree and pay 25K per year. DOE, of course.

I can't even GET IN to a good company, show my talent and progress up the ladder to the ostensible glass ceiling because I can't get through the Glass Front Door.

It's either get a master's degree and get an under-salaried grunt job until you can claw your way into something that actually pays or take your bachelor's degree and dust the fake ficus for a living until you are called in to take up the slack for a big project and are rewarded by an "associate" title.

I'm over it, SC.

Managing Partner and Co-Founder, Pacifica Human COmmunications, LLC.
written by John W. Zinsser on November 15, 2007

I do believe the labyrinth is a better metaphor and not just for woman. It applies to both high-visability sub sets (woman, people of color) and less immediately visible but still significant (sexual prientation, religious focus, and even right brain and left brain differences) subsets of any population.

The challenge is that for the later half of the 20th century the predominant model of organizations, business or otherwise, was a mechanical one - interchangeable parts. This in turn required the parts to be in fact fundamentally similar. So the executive suite was white men of age. The mail room youthful. The washroom of color. That way when the machine needed a new "part" it was easily identifiable.

Only reccently has the importnace of divergent think and perspective been recognized as of value and use. Organizations are leaving mechanical models behind and moving, albeit slowly, toward more organic structures and utilizing the benefits of both high and low visibility difference. Organization that better reflect the world and populations they choose to serve and sell to do better. Often this creates tension and conflict - not all of which is bad. However, in the American experience most work place conflict runs the risk of great expense as derived from litigation. Thus conflict has been squelched and avoided rather than maximized for potential benefit.

The glass ceiling may not be the best metaphor. But it did serve well to describe the experience of a significant number of talented valuable woman, who fought the labyrinth long and hard, while others were given "passes" around it. The ceiling may well be described as more pourous today. We see significant roles filled by woman in business and politics which were fully unthinkable a few decades ago. However, many of their experiences help to underscore and highlight the exact prescence of the labrynith and thus the challenge of the ceiling. Carly Fiorona of HP and even the infamous Martha Stewart case, seem to point to a potnential double standard. What happened in each of this instances seems to have been exacerbated by the sex of the "perpitrator."

Woman can and do lead. In many organizational situations in which I am involved, woman make superior team leaders due to their perhaps natural abilities to care about a whole person and not just a segment of them. When I am hired to help an organization build meaningful, lasting communicative relationships, internally or externally, I generally look for the woman invoved to lead the effort because the are often superior communication nexusses. But saying woman are better communicators is just as damning as saying such and such a group is lazy, or such and such a group can not be counted on.

Organizations are built of individuals. Each must be recognized for ability and capacity, and properly deployed in order to make the most efficient, creative, and beneficial contribution to the organization.

The ceiling is not gone. It is also more porous than it was. Perspective shifting on this level takes generations not years. Hope we get it right in time.