The Son Also Rises

Jan 15, 2013 | Uncategorized

Timing, as they say, is everything. My last column — “And now a word from her sponsor” — discussed the appalling and persistent paucity of women in top leadership positions and questioned how, after all this time, we still can’t break through to gender parity in business (and academia and politics and science, etc, etc). Lots of time, resources and intellectual capital have been expended on all manner of interventions and yet we’re left with an ironic state of affairs: women are still struggling to attain professional critical mass, despite the facts that 1. more women are attending and graduating from college than men, and 2. their beneficial effect on business results (i.e. shareholder value, profitability, stability) is undeniable and well-documented. Clearly, significant roadblocks — some real, some imagined, some personal, some institutional and some sociological — still remain. Granted, and this is no small factor, professional women often leave a lot on the table themselves by not just taking their seat already instead of waiting for the invitation or worse, for permission. Contriving safety in numbers to fortify our resolve, we’ve created women’s networking groups, women’s empowerment groups, women’s leadership groups, women’s support groups — all great but, necessary (hopefully not in perpetuity) just not entirely sufficient. Why? First, because they’re stopgap measures, interventions of a sort, that occur at a way late juncture and therefore qualify as remediation, not real change. The women who continue to fight these battles in real time understand the need for legacy, that something needs to be better or at least different for the next generation of women, our daughters, from the...

Fighting Trim

May 3, 2011 | coaching, job security

The job outlook for our Spring, 2012 college graduates is looking up, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. Apparently, the companies surveyed project they will hire 10.2 percent more graduates in 2012 than they did in 2011. Indeed, hiring is up overall, with this being the second consecutive year in which employers have adjusted their hiring expectations upward. As far as hopeful trends go, this one’s right up there; after four hideous years for job seekers, we’ll take even the most modest uptick. Finally, then, there’s reason for encouragement. In the spirit of the season, Hallelujah! But, if we know nothing else from the recent recession, we’ve learned that there are no guarantees. There was a time, in the not too distant past, when job security, generous benefits and funded retirement were practically birthrights and a college degree was the ticket in. Not so, anymore, on any of those counts. Now, despite the much ballyhooed upward trend in hiring, there simply won’t be enough jobs to satisfy the Class of 2012, as we still haven’t absorbed the class of 2011 and even the class of 2010. Plus, there are other realities that the little darlings of we-the-one percent have to recognize: there are tougher, more resilient, hungrier, harder working and, yes, more appreciative candidates also competing for the same jobs. As examples, I give you: * International students who are not only coming out of school with more desirable skills and degrees but also understand the notions of continual learning and betterment. These are the kids who go the extra mile to find out what it...