Businessmen know the secret to success: the old boy network has put more than one man in the executive suite. It works because people tend to pass out opportunities, do business, and associate with other professionals based on similarity and comfort level. Breaking into the old boy network, however, hasn’t been—and still isn’t—a viable option for many women.
As the nation’s 75-million strong Baby Boomers are called on to care for their elderly parents they confront tough challenges. There is a host of specialists to vet, legal and estate planning, housing and financial red tape to maneuver, medical issues to decipher, and a raft of legal documents to complete. And it is often overwhelming and emotionally charged.
Dear DW,
Only one other Bengali woman works for my company, and we’d like to get together socially. But we wonder if we’d be viewed as separating ourselves. How can we connect without seeming to self-segregate?
Signed,
Socially (Self-)Conscious
When Saman Dias was growing up in her native Sri Lanka, she could often be spotted with a first aid kit, tending to others. Noticing her caring nature, her family urged her to study medicine. But as microcomputers began entering Sri Lanka, she discovered that she had a knack for computer technology.
After winning a promotion and moving into a new department, Lisa A. Bing could be found in her office on most nights well past midnight. She was a new manager faced with new demands and a new staff. “I thought I had to figure it all out on my own and had the belief that if I asked for help, it would be seen as a sign of weakness,” Bing recalls. “I was suffering in silence.”
Before long, the demands of doing it all alone caught up with her. Her boss reprimanded her for canceling meetings. She describes it as ‘a turning point conversation.’ “I realized that working that way didn’t serve me, or anyone else, well,” Bing says. “And it was starting to have a negative effect on my performance.”
Julianne Malveaux, Ph.D, president of the historically black Bennett College for Women, leads a unique environment for developing strong businesswomen.
For many of us especially in the current economic climate—foreseeing the arc of our professional lives can be daunting. When entire industries seem doomed to disappear or be shipped, wholesale, to other countries, the ability to reinvent oneself becomes a commodity. For Dr. Malveaux, reinvention is an art.
Multicultural women represent only about 1.6 percent of corporate officers and top earners at the nation’s 500 leading industrial companies, according to Catalyst, a top women-oriented research and advisory firm. Although these leaders reached the top in a variety of ways, they do share one trait: they know that to become an effective leader, you must know yourself and how to play to your strengths and manage your weaknesses.
Business can be messy, but Porter Scientific, Inc. (PSI) doesn’t mind. In fact, it thrives on fixing such big messes and knotty problems as soil and water contamination, air pollution, and wastewater management. Based in Pembroke, North Carolina, the environmental services and consulting firm does more than get its collective hands dirty, however. It also provides site assessments and IT support for clients ranging from banks to the military.
Punam Mathur has a daunting challenge: how to engage and inspire 70,000 employees to embrace the values of diversity. As MGM Mirage’s senior vice president of corporate diversity and community affairs, she is already on her way. Since taking the reins of MGM’s diversity efforts, the company has won numerous accolades for its initiatives, including its minority representation, retention, and recruitment efforts. Diversity Woman caught up with Mathur to see how diversity took center stage.
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