Popular TED Talks

Here are some interesting TED Talks for your leadership library. 

Barry Schwartz:   The Paradox of Choice

Psychologist Barry Schwartz takes aim at a central tenet of western societies: freedom of choice. In Schwartz's estimation, a choice has made us not freer but more paralyzed, not happier but more dissatisfied.

Dan Pink: The puzzle of motivation

Career analyst Dan Pink examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don't: Traditional rewards aren't always as effective as we think. Listen for illuminating stories — and maybe, a way forward.

Pranav Mistry: The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology

At TEDIndia, Pranav Mistry demos several tools that help the physical world interact with the world of data — including a deep look at his SixthSense device and a new, paradigm-shifting paper "laptop." In an onstage Q&A, Mistry says he'll open-source the software behind SixthSense, to open its possibilities to all.

David Gallo: Underwater astonishments

David Gallo shows jaw-dropping footage of amazing sea creatures, including a color-shifting cuttlefish, a perfectly camouflaged octopus, and a Times Square's worth of neon light displays from fish who live in the blackest depths of the ocean.

Dan Gilbert: The surprising science of happiness

Dan Gilbert, author of "Stumbling on Happiness," challenges the idea that we’ll be miserable if we don’t get what we want. Our "psychological immune system" lets us feel truly happy even when things don’t go as planned.

TED Talks are copyrighted material and free.

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Profitable Growth

"By itself, there is no virtue in business growth. A company is not necessarily better because it is bigger, any more than the elephant is better because he is bigger than the honeybee."

--Peter F. Drucker

In the fourth and final installment on principles of business growth, we turn our attention to additional findings on this elusive subject.   

Our premise from the beginning:

That a one-dimensional strategy is insufficient to achieve sustained growth and create a future for the organization. In addition, healthy and sustained growth, even with the right people and processes, is as much a mystery as a planned strategy.

In the book, The Alchemy of Growth, we are reminded of two key factors for growth:

• That accelerating growth lies in turning ideas into reality 
• A group cannot profit from an opportunity, no matter how attractive, if it does not have the capabilities to capture and defend it

An article published in the McKinsey Quarterly raised this question, "Is your growth strategy your worst enemy?"

The authors then asked: "Why do plans that look good on paper go so bad when they are executed?"

Not accounting for how the competition might react is a secondary reason why plans don't go well. Rivals often threaten the best-laid plans with inventive responses. Put another way every action produces a reaction, some of which may not be anticipated in the planning process. 

Good growth and bad growth

What else does management writer Peter Drucker have to say about business growth?  

• While every business would likely claim a desire to grow only a handful have a growth policy or growth strategy. Fewer know whether they are really growing or just becoming more obese.
• A business has to be the right size for its market, its economy, and its technology. The danger is becoming marginalized in any markets the business may be in. An enterprise is always the wrong size if it is marginal in its market.
• A company must know its minimum growth goal or it has no growth policy. 
• The first step in a growth strategy is not to decide where and how to grow. It is to decide what to abandon. To grow you must have a systematic policy to get rid of the outgrown, the obsolete, and the unproductive. The foundation of a growth strategy is the freeing of resources for new opportunities.
• It is not how much growth we want?"Rather it is how much growth do we need so as not to become marginal as our market grows?"
• The greatest mistake in a growth strategy is to try to grow in too many areas.  

Changing Mindsets

Coming out of a very deep recession, how do leaders manage the polarity between expense and growth? 

"Going after revenue productivity requires a different corporate mindset than the one for achieving cost productivity," says consultant Ram Charan. 

"Here, what you spend is less important than what you spend it on and the revenue it produces. And just as you get everyone to focus on cost-cutting, you need to get everyone focused on revenue productivity," Charan adds.

He goes on to propose a "growth budget" for getting silos to work together; to lay out a growth plan; and most importantly, how to fund that plan.  

A growth budget would be separated from the traditional budget so it could be identified and have its discipline and review. That way everyone could see the funding for growth. This design focuses on building the business while encouraging and rewarding cooperation to reach a common goal.

Charan makes the point that having a social engine (not a task force), centered around open communication and relationships built on trust, enables collaboration to occur naturally and helps foster growth.   

Do you have a growth budget to pursue the right opportunities?

More than the right organizational chart, do you have a healthy social system to get things done?

The next big thing

"Everybody is fleeing into the future just as fast as they can," says Paul Saffo, of Discern Analytics. He adds, "They don't know what they are going to need in their toolkit, so they are grabbing stuff as they go."

So Google and Facebook start a bidding war for Titan Aerospace, a drone start-up that makes high-flying robots. Google bought Titan (terms not disclosed) as Facebook acquired U. K.-based Ascenta, another drone maker. 

That Facebook deal puts in place another building block of beaming the Internet to a third of the world's population who can't get it any other way.  

In the meantime, Apple pays $3 billion to acquire popular headphone maker Beats Electronics, and its related streaming music service Beats Music, to shore up iTunes.    

With billions in reserves (Apple alone has more than $137 billion in cash--greater than Microsoft and Google combined), these technology and social media giants can afford to place multiple bets on the next big thing and wait for their investments to pay off if they ever do.

Unfortunately, most cannot participate in that kind of big-dollar acquisition spree with an uncertain or likely delayed return on investment.

How then does everyone else grow profitably (including nonprofits who also need to show a profit or have reserves)?

To answer that question let's come back to our original post in this series. As the Alchemy writers conclude, in addition to hard work and timing, most businesses and nonprofits grow and sustain that growth by extending and strengthening the core of an existing business; developing new entities (faster than existing ones are extinguished); and instituting a process for creating viable options--stretching the mind for future possibilities

Perhaps that three-dimensional approach is worth a look during your next strategic planning cycle, especially if profitable growth, however, defined, is the ultimate goal.

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Hindrances to Growth

“You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself.”

--Jim Rohn, Entrepreneur, and Speaker

In the third installment on business growth, we look at barriers to success. When doing so it’s important to recognize there’s a lot beyond our reach. External factors weigh on the sustained growth of any organization. They include smart competitors, government regulation, interest rates, recessions, and consumer confidence.

However, that leaves much under our control, including attitude and behavior.

Getting ready to grow

Recent posts drew insights from the book, The Alchemy of Growth.  Here are five principles from the book to help us think about preconditions for growth that if not met impede our progress:

• Laying the foundation for growth can take between 1 to 4 years of extremely hard work

• In most organizations it takes 6 months to 2 years of reflection, debate, and personal development to get ready to grow—this may include needed changes in personnel

• So difficult is the task that the whole leadership team must share the resolve to grow—creating that resolve is foundational for success

• No growth program can begin without a strategically and operationally sound base

• Growth calls for investment—people and money

What else should we know?

There are potential enemies of the enterprise which reside, in varying degrees, inside all organizational cultures:

Success. It’s not only fleeting it can be fatal. Success allows pride to overtake a business or nonprofit and may contribute to its collapse. Everyone assumes things are great when they’re not. Swelling egos must have some adverse effect on hearing since those in power don’t like listening to bad news.  

Building on success is one thing. Taking it for granted is another.  Beware of success.

Comfort. It’s a thief. Why?  It steals creativity, ideas, energy, and maybe even the future.   Being comfortable stunts careers. It keeps us from discovering solutions to our most pressing problems as we tire and give up too soon. Comfort ties us to the past and presents putting the future aside.  

It’s a thief that needs to be caught.     

Inexperience. The problem with inexperience is that it allows the same mistakes to be repeated. An offset to inexperience is surrounding ourselves with experience. This is done by hiring, collaborating, or contracting for help.  

Groups such as the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) give free advice. 

Time and the right experiences are what it takes to learn, grow and change. Everyone goes through a phase of inexperience--the goal is to graduate on time. 

Inertia. Doing nothing is one definition of inertia. Inaction is a dangerous place to be especially during a crisis. Standing still may be appropriate in certain circumstances but not many. 

Dysfunction. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team has been on the best-seller list for a decade.  

When it comes to teams, haven’t companies been there and done that? 

Perhaps one of the reasons Patrick Lencioni’s book continues selling is that human beings, in all settings, still find it difficult working together to get something done.  

Dysfunction means “having poor or unhealthy behaviors and attitudes within a group of people.” It's a serious problem. Trust, or the lack of it, contributes significantly to this condition. 

Need help?  Buy the book Lencioni's book.

What doth hinder us?

It’s a reality that everyone at some point will face extenuating circumstances and events. The “great recession” of recent times is an example of an overwhelming economic force that even the largest corporations such as G. E. and Citicorp were unprepared to handle.

A version of Oliver Hazard Perry's words after a naval battle, and first used in the comic strip “Pogo,” by Walt Kelly, in the 1960s, maybe the best way to sum up the biggest internal impediment to growth:  "We have met the enemy and they are us."

Up next:   Achieving sustained growth

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© Bredholt & Co.

   

What's In the Pipeline?

"Never look back unless you are planning to go that way."

Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.

Henry David Thoreau

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/h/henrydavid382352.html#QM8prUD8Qs8v7uYb.99

--Henry David Thoreau

This is the second installment on the topic of business growth. We begin where we left off in our 1 March 2014 post, "The Mystery of Process."

Here's a long-held belief underscored in the instructive book, "The Alchemy of Growth:"

That a one-dimensional strategy is insufficient to achieve sustained growth and create a future for the enterprise. And healthy growth, with the right people and processes, is as much "mystery" as it is intended strategy.

What does a healthy business look like? The authors use the term "horizons" and there are three:

• Horizon I:     The core of an existing business is extended and strengthened
• Horizon II:   New entities are developed
• Horizon III:  There is a learning process for creating viable options (H-III, a mind-stretching time for future possibilities, is often the missing piece to the pipeline puzzle)

At all costs avoid the following predicament:

• The core is in poor shape
• There is little in the pipeline
• Nothing new is on the horizon

The reality

Very few businesses (and nonprofits) sustain average growth year after year. Think about that statement and what it means if you're the owner, shareholder, or person in charge--maybe all three. For most the road to profitability is an uphill climb.  

Additionally, businesses mature and decline.  

As the authors point out, "Successful organizations can and must outlive their individual business units. If continued growth is the goal, the pace of replenishment must be faster than the pace of decline," they write. 

The challenge is to innovate at the core and build new ventures at the same time. That's easier said than done for the smaller business but can be as difficult for the largest of corporations.  

Dr. Mark Perry, Professor of Economics at the University of Michigan, posted on his Carpe Diem blog:

Comparing the Fortune 500 companies in 1955 and 2011, there are only 67 companies that appear in both lists. In other words, only 13.4% of the Fortune 500 companies in 1955 were still on the list 56 years later in 2011, and almost 87% of the companies have either gone bankrupt, merged, gone private, or still exist but have fallen from the top Fortune 500 companies (ranked by gross revenue)." 

Who's managing the pipeline?

It's a juggling act to run a business. 

So as we come back to the idea of stewarding the pipeline--short, medium, and longer-term--the reference to juggling multiple product or service ideas, along with processes, needs further attention.

How to convert promising ideas into future generators of profitable income is what someone has to contemplate even while running the company or one of its units. That's precisely why management should periodically step aside from the urgent to think ahead. This requires moving outside the press of daily operations (preferably away from the office) and into a future mindset with others where things like budgets and reviews are off limits, at least in that setting. 

A "future mindset" practice should be on the calendar just like staff meetings and lunch.

Growth in a business comes from thinking and acting a certain way. Having said that, the book cautions about an excessive focus on growth, which can be just as much of a problem as ignoring it. This has more to do with being "obsessed" with all things new and the novelty of new opportunities.  

Keep in mind that if everyone is in charge of the pipeline no one is in charge.

What about efficiency?

There's no question that overhead and other types of expenses have to be carefully monitored and controlled. That may be the biggest lesson from the "great recession"--the importance of liquidity and cash flow.

Those who impose financial controls stay in business longer than those that don't. However, expense management has its limits. 

Everyone needs to find ways to develop and take advantage of new opportunities that are a good match with the company's values and capabilities--as well as the needs of its current and potential customers. That means freeing up cash to fund new ventures. 

What are your top two or three priorities and possible sources to fund them?

Improving vision

How is the future created?

• The core business is strengthened and extended
• New products or services are created
• The creation of new ideas is institutionalized  
• Offerings that have run their course are abandoned

Leadership throughout a business or nonprofit is good. Having strategic thinkers and implementers in the right places is even better. 


Up next:  Overcoming inertia in the organization

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(C) Bredholt & Co.

The Mystery of Process

"A mystery is not something you can't know anything about, but is something that you can't know everything about."

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
George Bernard
Read more at http://www.woopidoo.com/business_quotes/business-growth.htm#2VcAJh1ipxm7b3TS.99

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
George Bernard
Read more at http://www.woopidoo.com/business_quotes/business-growth.htm#2VcAJh1ipxm7b3TS.99

--Maria Harris

Before boarding what was to be a long flight across the Atlantic several years ago, I stopped in an airport bookstore looking for something to read. After scanning the standard fare on "leadership" I decided to purchase a book with an unusual title, "The Alchemy of Growth."  (Baghai-Coley-White, Texere Publishing)

It turned out to be a good decision. 

What's alchemy? 

If you're unfamiliar with the term alchemy it's "a power or process that changes or mysteriously transforms something." (Merriam-Webster) 

As most businesses and nonprofits are constantly looking for ways to grow--more customers, more markets, more donors, etc.--understanding just how transformational the right process can be is an important insight for strategy development or tactical change.

Think how much time and money are spent annually on strategies, planning retreats, incentives, and brainpower, all attempting to make growth happen. What tends to be left out of the conversation is the relationship between process and results--and how much can't be known.

Growth comes from where?

Whenever you read about a company on a growth trajectory it helps to dig a little deeper and understand why and how that's happening. Two decades ago, when the "Alchemy" book was published, most growth in the for-profit sector came as a direct result of four things (mostly the first two on this list):

1. Mergers and acquisitions
2. Creative accounting
3. Increase in revenue from existing customer base
4. Increase in customer base

While not all lessons from business apply to nonprofits there's something to be learned from studying that list. It's a challenge in any kind of enterprise to see natural or organic growth year-after-year, which helps explain the need for mergers and acquisitions. The demand for growth never justifies creative accounting. 

The last two items, increasing revenue from current customers and a bigger customer base, are the results of hard work. Pay attention to companies who grow from Nos. 3 and 4.   

Good advice

Here's a lesson from the book that's potentially worth a lot of money: A single-pronged strategy is insufficient to achieve sustained growth.  

Avoid focusing on one aspect of strategy to the exclusion of other opportunities. Focus is good but not if it limits your vision for other possibilities.

What underpins sustained growth?

The authors say the long-term is realized by having a continuous pipeline of initiatives. Keeping other ideas alive helps the pipeline stay full with new growth engines ready when the existing ones begin to falter--and falter they will.

What's the problem in making that concept work?

Being pre-occupied with existing operations is one answer. Another is that leadership often lacks a way to talk coherently about current operations, new products coming on stream, and future options--all at the same time.

Stewarding the pipeline

The art of managing the pipeline comes through a disciplined and focused effort. Most fail at this point. Even having a list of promising ideas can be a false sense of security since there's nothing tangible until action is taken.

The authors state that the leadership task is to nurture promising options while excising those with diminishing potential.  

It's management's responsibility to steward the pipeline--for the short, medium, and long-term future.


Up next:  What should be in the pipeline?

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(C) Bredholt & Co.

  

Succession at McDonald's

If the most important decision a board of directors makes is selecting the chief executive officer (CEO), then why do so many businesses and nonprofits fail to have a succession plan in place?  Those who have a plan often struggle to implement it properly.

In 2008, at the 1,000 largest American companies (by revenue), 80 new CEOs were appointed, and only 44 of them — 55% — were from within.  

According to Steven Miles, vice chairman of the executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles, this may be a clear signal of failure on the part of many boards. "If you view a board's having to go outside to hire a CEO as a failure in succession planning, that represents a breakdown in the system. A failure rate of 45% means far too many plans aren't working," Miles was quoted as saying in a Forbes Magazine article.  

Coming back to "why" there aren't more plans in place, the answer may be three-fold:

• Succession is not a priority
• It makes the current CEO a "lame duck."
• Corporations may not be sure how to go about it

A good example

One company that stands out for consistently doing well with the process is McDonald's Corp, headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois. While the past decade has been a stumble for the world's largest fast-food chain, it has been good for the chain, which operates 33,000 locations in 118 countries. 

Current CEO Don Thompson inherited from his predecessor, Jim Skinner, eight years of solid sales growth and a nearly 188% increase in McDonald's stock.  Longer-term McDonald's stock has returned 8,000% over the last 30 years. (My Daily Finance)

Prepared to act

Behind the scenes at McDonald's is a board of directors that seems to know what to do when trouble and even tragedy come along.  If you are a CEO or a board member, there is much to learn from McDonald's board practices regarding succession.

In 25 months, from December 2002 to November 2004, McDonald's had four CEOs:

• Jack Greenburg
• Jim Cantalupo
• Charlie Bell
• Jim Skinner

From April 2004 to November 2004, just eight months, the company had three CEOs:

• Jim Cantalupo
• Charlie Bell
• Jim Skinner

A tragic timeline

Here is an unimaginable timeline of CEO succession guided by seasoned board leadership and detailed preparation: 

April 19, 2004, 1:30 a.m.



Jim Cantalupo, Chairman and CEO, age 60, had a massive heart attack at the Peabody Hotel, Orlando, Florida, while attending McDonald’s company-wide convention, and died later that morning.

April 19, 2004, 5 a.m.

Andrew J. McKenna, lead director at the time, receives a call from McDonald's President Charlie Bell informing him of the death of CEO Cantalupo.

April 19, 2004, 6:45 a.m.

Eight board members assemble while two join by conference call.

April 19, 2004, 8 a.m.

Charlie Bell, 43, was elected CEO by the board.

April 19, 2004, 9:30 a.m.

The New York Stock Exchange opens with a news release issued that morning.

November 2004, just eight months later

Charlie Bell resigns, and Jim Skinner, 59, is elected Vice Chairman and CEO.

January 17, 2005

  

The former CEO, Charlie Bell, died of cancer at age 44 in Sydney, Australia, where he became the youngest store manager in his native country at age 19.

June 30, 2012



Jim Skinner steps down as Vice Chairman and CEO after eight years at the helm, where he led the company through a period of solid growth. 

July 1, 2012

Don Thompson becomes the new CEO.  

Learning from McDonald's

Although McDonald's situation in 2004 was extreme and rare, it underscores the importance of having a succession plan in place. That should include the current CEO, the board of directors, legal counsel, the chief financial officer (CFO), and human resources (HR), each knowing their role in preparing and executing the plan.

What are some lessons from the McDonald's experience that might be helpful to your organization?

1. Be prepared, most have no succession plan in place
2. CEO succession belongs to the entire board--not just a committee
3. A succession plan is only as good as the people on it
4. Know the current criteria for the job, don't rely on past criteria, and look for a good fit
5. Sometimes it's best to promote from within, and other times not. Know which time it is.
6. The McDonald's Corp. board of directors rehearsed the succession process during the year, just in case
7. Make succession a priority throughout management ranks--not just at the top

More change coming?

In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, CEO Thompson admitted that McDonald's had lost "relevance" with some customers and needed to improve its complicated menu and provide better value.

Last year, same-store sales dropped 0.1%, dragged down by a 3.8% decline in USA sales.  

All businesses get in trouble at some point. The question is how to deal with problems promptly, something the McDonald's management team says it plans to do in 2014.

Debora Wahl is coming on board as the new chief marketing officer, and $3 billion has been allocated for capital expenditures. That figure will cover up to 1,600 new restaurant openings and the refurbishing of 1,000 existing locations, according to published reports.    

McDonald's has a largely in-grown culture but a long-term view.  An interesting combination.  However, the board will expect progress in making the company more "relevant" to its global customers who buy some six billion hamburgers and other products each year.  

In an increasingly time-sensitive culture, McDonald's says it needs to find ways of simplifying its menu and restaurants to keep customers happy, profits flowing, and its stock rising in value.   

How difficult can it be to order an Egg McMuffin, or for that matter, a Big Mac and fries?

Evidently, it's too hard for some customers who've gone elsewhere for faster food. McDonald's needs them back at the Golden Arches to achieve another decade of growth and keep succession at bay.

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© Bredholt & Co.

Breaking the Glass Ceiling

Any guess as to the more popular articles on Fortune.com in 2013?   Was it investment advice?  CEO changes?  Health care implementation?  The roaring stock market?   

The top three was a piece entitled, "Warren Buffett is bullish on ... women." 

In an exclusive essay, the Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO attempted to make a case for why women are the key to America's (perhaps the world's) prosperity.  In speaking of the future, Buffett calls himself an "unqualified optimist" and notes that "women are the reason we will do so well."

The 83-year-old "Oracle of Omaha" offered the following ideas:

1. Americans today enjoy an abundance of goods and services that no one could have dreamed of just a few centuries ago.
2. That America has forged this success while utilizing in large part, only half of the country's talent.  For most of our history, women--whatever their abilities--have been relegated to the sidelines.
3. Resistance among the powerful is natural when changing clashes with their self-interest.  Business, politics, and religions provide examples of this behavior.
4. An even greater enemy of change may well be the ingrained attitudes of those who simply can't imagine a world different from the one they've lived in.
5. An obstacle remains--too many women continue to impose limitations on themselves, talking themselves out of achieving their potential. 

Buffett's concluding thought may be one of economic self-interest:  "The closer that America comes to fully employ the talents of all its citizens, the greater the output of goods and services will be."

In other words, 100% instead of 50% human capacity is the better proposition.

Progress is slow--but in motion

Is the president of the United States the most powerful position in the world?  It's powerful in many ways but there are political and legislative limitations to that job.

The position with nearly unlimited power and influence is chairing of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board of Governors.   The current chair, Ben Bernanke, will be retiring in 2014 and his position will be filled by Janet Yellen, the first woman to head the Federal Reserve.  Dr. Yellen, not President Barack Obama, will be in the seat of power. 

Angela Merkel won another term as chancellor of Germany, and Park Geun Hye took office as South Korea's president.  Kathleen Taylor was named the next chair of the Royal Bank of Canada, the nation's most profitable company. 

While women did not get more seats in the boardrooms and C-suites according to Catalyst.org, there were some impressive gains in other areas in the past year.

Broken glass at General Motors

On 10 December 2013 General Motors' Board of Directors voted unanimously to have Mary Barra serve as its next Chief Executive Officer.  The appointment is effective on 15 January 2014. 

A female CEO is not only a first for GM but for the U. S. auto industry as well.  

Ms. Barra, 51, now head of worldwide product development, is taking over a revitalized GM from the current chair and CEO, Dan Akerson, who is leaving the global automaker to care for his wife, Karin, seriously ill with cancer.

Incoming CEO Barra is a graduate of General Motors Institute (GMI), now Kettering University, Flint, Michigan, and holds an MBA from Stanford University.  

While working at GM in the late 1960s I served as a clerk alongside GMI co-op students who were preparing for careers at the auto giant.  It's worth noting that 45 years ago Mary Barra could not have clerked for superintendents in GM's plant offices because of her gender.

In 33 years at GM, Ms. Barra, who is reported to possess strong people skills, has worked in engineering, communications, and human resources.  Holes in sales and marketing experience will be filled quickly by other members of her team, according to insiders.

“When you put her in a position that’s completely new to her, she does an amazing job of getting grounded, understanding what’s important and what’s not, and executing very well,” said Gary Cowger, a former GM executive who mentored Barra.

With taxpayer help, she will be taking over a going concern.  GM has racked up almost $20 billion in profit since leaving bankruptcy in 2009.  Barra will have overall responsibility for 212,000 employees scattered across 23 time zones.    

Timely interventions

There are other Mary Barras in the workforce.  What keeps them from breaking "the glass ceiling," a term first used by Gay Bryant, editor of Family Circle Magazine?

Women’s career development is slowed by companies’ underestimation of their readiness to assume leadership roles, a Conference Board of Canada (CBC) study concludes. As a result, women lower their career expectations, harming both their own advancement and the companies where they work.

“This ‘unconscious bias’ means young women are consistently underestimated and overlooked, right from the outset of their careers,” said Ruth Wright, CBC director of Human Resource Management Research.

“Organizations need to implement objective and transparent talent management practices that guard against unconscious bias. Otherwise, the effects are both cumulative and costly—for young women who are denied access to critical developmental opportunities, and for organizations that fail to recognize and develop top talent,” Wright added.

A changing workforce

Two important values of society, education and work itself are in the process of being altered in significant ways.  First, the estimated percentage of all bachelor's degrees earned by women in 2013 is 57%.  Women are also expected to have received 60% of all master's degrees and 52% of all doctorate degrees. (TIME Magazine)

Additionally, there was a 6.2% increase in the labor-force participation rate for women from 1980 to 2012 with 67.5 million now in the workplace, a record number.  (U. S. Labor Department)  The labor-force participation rate for men declined by 7.2% over the same period. (U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics) 

What could these statistical shifts mean for institutions of higher learning, household formation, and the economy in general?

It takes courage

What's the answer to more significant progress?

Entrepreneurship is a route some females are taking.  It's not an easy one but there can be big payoffs.  Examples include Cher Wang, founder of HTC; Clara Shih, Faceconnector; and the late Anita Roddick, who started The Body Shop.  Each was successful in growing and sustaining their companies. 

The vast majority of women, however, will find themselves working in existing businesses or nonprofits.  That necessitates a combination of encouragement, mentoring, sponsorship, and learning to make their own breaks along the way--just like everyone else.

An article published in Psychology Today on women in the workforce concluded that changing behavior begins with having the courage to do so:

"Leaders must see diversity as a business imperative, not just a matter of compliance or an add-on program, and be willing to take a bold approach. 

"It takes courage on the part of the CEO, senior people, and board members to create an inclusive culture of different leadership styles, different ways of communicating and different ways of interacting, that will empower the whole talent pool."

Perhaps Warren Buffett has it right.  Leaders need to visualize the benefits of having "100%" human capacity.  If they act on that vision, it might increase everyone's optimism about the future.         

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(C) Bredholt & Co.