Mumblings on Moments: Leading with Grace

This is one of my most avid passions....trying to live with more grace in this world. This is a term we associate with the feminine, but I would like to think it refers to being conscious of how we tread and touch our fellow travelers on this earth.

In the last two decades I worked with only a handful of people whom I would consider to be great leaders, with very few of them being women. As is often the case, in order to survive, and because our teachers and sponsors are often male, we loose our natural grace and femininity, which is a wonderful part of being a woman. It is also, in my opinion, one of the elements sorely lacking in the Corporate world. It is ironic that there are so few women in top leadership positions in the world. Prime Ministers, Governors, Premiers, CEO's and (help us) Presidents are mostly male. Not only because they are outvoted or patronised through employment equity numbers from both genders, but because there is a choice to be made: Who said we can have it all at once...a career and a happy family! They lied! Something, or someone has to give...mostly the wife, but sometimes the (house) husband, or sometimes it has to be a timing thing - But the piper must be paid. Hence the accounts from women at the top are often, if truth be told, a very sore and solitary tale of glamorous editorials and lonely celebrations.

In this left-brain dominated, winner-takes-all world, which often looks at the short term results, the money, the quick fixes, I think a softer and more sustainable hand is required in building relationships and connecting people. I feel blessed that grace comes naturally to women. I would hate to conclude that in order to reach the top, we have to hide, or shed any notion of these "labels". It would be a sacrilege to ban women from the Directorships or keep them in HR or Marketing, or in Operations where, strangely they gain invaluable experience in building relationships by managing all the "lower level staff" and interestingly, are often very close to the customer! This makes us immensely knowledgeable... if we could only make ourselves be heard in the Boardrooms. I know, now I am projecting :)

Yesterday I saw this article and was again reminded that there should be more compelling reasons to have more women in leadership positions than to balance the HR numbers. They should be darn good at what they do, they should bring the balance, the "other perspective", the sustainable factor that comes with with being a natural negotiater and nurturer. They must assist to make companies and the world a better place...They MUST have grace.

bloomberg.com - Companies with women on their boards performed better in challenging markets than those with all-male boards in a study suggesting that mixing genders may temper risky investment moves and increase return on equity.