My particular philosophy is that you can learn something from everyone. And if you're going with that spirit and that attitude, then everybody can be a blessing to you eventually in your career.
Stephanie Chung
Chief Growth Officer Wheels Up
You must continue to invest in yourself and your team. Ensure effective communication throughout the team - I cannot stress this enough. Share knowledge as it grows by investing in relationships and networks. Prioritize and act fast on these three steps because technology is moving very fast - as are the business ecosystems.
Dr. Shalini Sarin
Co-founder and Executive Director, Elektromobilitat India Pvt. Ltd.
My particular philosophy is that you can learn something from everyone. And if you're going with that spirit and that attitude, then everybody can be a blessing to you eventually in your career.
Stephanie Chung
Chief Growth Officer Wheels Up
You must continue to invest in yourself and your team. Ensure effective communication throughout the team - I cannot stress this enough. Share knowledge as it grows by investing in relationships and networks. Prioritize and act fast on these three steps because technology is moving very fast - as are the business ecosystems.
Dr. Shalini Sarin
Co-founder and Executive Director, Elektromobilitat India Pvt. Ltd.
Let's face it - the view from the top is pretty darn good. The corner office brings with it a succession of different feelings – inspiration, teamwork, pride, empathy, and inclusion. In the days of people questioning the need for a corner office, the C-suite is more than just real estate.
It defines the leadership and management skills that push the envelope - and you - to the top of the "hierarchy." It brings with it the wisdom and experience that enable you to make decisions that potentially affect the business as a whole, and with it, the talent.
The journey to the corner office is tough — more for some than others. Our conversations with some of the leading senior women executives highlighted key skills, culture, and motivators that define a great leader.
Collaborating with and developing people and teams stood high on the list of management skills for our respondents.
Developing and driving a successful team identified as the top motivator for senior leaders.
A collaborative and open-door culture that is also transparent and inclusive is the culture that leaders aim to foster in their ideal work environment.
And finally, building effective teams is the top mantra of our interviewees to maintain a balanced, successful career.
I think if you ask teams I have led and colleagues across my respective chapters, they will describe me in three ways: accountable, present, and supportive.
Catherine Krna
Chief Operating Officer and President, Syllable Healthcare
As leaders at the top, it is imperative we drive a culture that develops the required management skills and motivators for aspiring leaders. While our discussions revealed the top motivators that inspire leaders to succeed,
it also highlighted the culture women in business foster based on these motivators.
TOP CULTURE PER MOTIVATOR
Developing and Driving a Successful Team
Collaborative Leadership
Recognition/ Respect
Diverse and Inclusive Culture
Financial Rewards and Promotion
Learning and Development Opportunities
Warranting a collaborative and open-door culture that is transparent and inclusive are two of the top leadership styles chosen by our respondents. What is interesting is the addition of empathetic leadership for those who are motivated by organizations that offer a collaborative leadership style, diverse and inclusive culture, and learning and development opportunities for their workforce.
One way to ensure a collaborative culture is by educating the executive team through demonstration and discussing expectations. The key is to give feedback—not hint—on the organization's expectations of the executive's behavior.
Another is by leveraging the open-door policy by bringing your whole self and perspective to the table. You are in the room for a reason. Use the fact that you have made it there.
Being transparent and inclusive is an excellent way to establish a well-rounded, diverse culture.
If you are surrounded by people that are like you in how they've been brought up, in their education, in their thought processes, you're going to get through work pretty quickly. 90% of the time, you're going to agree and you're going to get to a reasonable solution. However, if you inject some diversity of background, of gender, of thought into your equation, you're going to find yourself in conflict an awful lot more than when you're surrounded by like-minded people. But I guarantee you are going to have much more interesting conversations and you are going to drive to a better result than if you didn't have that diversity.
But we have to allow time for that. Diversity takes time to embrace, to get over that initial "I don't agree with that," and to really understand what is driving the difference in thought process of the people sitting around the table. So that's one of the things that I think we really have to embrace, is to allow time for that diversity of thought.
Lesley Salmon
Senior Vice President and Global Chief Information Officer, Kellogg Company
Stephanie Linnartz, agreed.
I think the key to success and any company is really just surrounding yourself with the top diverse talent that is different from yourself. It could be diversity broadly, race, ethnicity, religion, thought, you name it. Building a diverse team, I think is the key to success.
Stephanie Linnartz
Former President, Marriott International
Fostering such a culture paves the way for the required management skills that, according to our interviewees, result in a great leader. These management skills were selected based on the top culture manifested by our respondents.
MANAGEMENT SKILLS PER CULTURE
Collaborative and Open-Door Culture
Transparent and Inclusive
Flexible and Agile
Competitive/ Result-Oriented
Empathetic
Collaborating with and developing people and teams; effective and open communications; and strategic vision account for the top management skills women leaders can develop in a collaborative, transparent, inclusive, agile, and empathetic cultural environment of an organization.
WOMEN ON BOARDS
The number one thing that you bring to a board is your integrity. And sometimes it's very difficult because you have to stand up and speak. When other people on the board think you're being dreadful or the management thinks you're being dreadful, you still must speak because it's your responsibility to do the right thing.
Dr. Jacqueline Kosecoff
Managing Partner, Moriah Partners
Studies show that men are very uncomfortable giving women feedback. So, therefore, we have to ask for feedback. We have to actually make it easy for people to give us feedback because if we don't, we won't get the real feedback, and if you don't get the real feedback, you can't improve yourself and, therefore, you'll hit a ceiling and you won't be able to grow.
Shellye Archambeau
Board Director, Fortune 500
Our recent article on bringing diversity into the boardroom – and promoting women as chairs – also highlighted key insights that ensure the successful management of existing and upcoming cultural dynamics in the boardroom.
Merge toward a constructive and effective contributory style of board meetings
Provide guidance on how best to interact during board meetings
Rethink and re-engage
Don't lay down and accept when it comes to activists. Instead, listen and don't get into a fight.
Be disciplined–and inclusive as it relates to tenure on boards. Board evaluations, while necessary, can also be challenging.
