Starting the year right with Ideaspace. Meeting with ED Diane Dugan Eustaquio, Accelerator head Brenda Valerio and Coach Manny Martinez to engage a conversation on how psychology can be used as a force for motivating and encouraging the team as they grow the program.
Along the way of developing a evidence-based program for women in the workplace, get to read much research done on gender issues in the corporate space. Despite the years of advancement, achievement , and plethora of work by women, its sad to see how many remain out of the spotlight because they are afraid to shine.
Resourcing as gender issues expert for the workplace at Cosmopolitan Magazine May 2017 issue, I have identified 8 traits to be a great boss that will show ‘gravitas’:
Catch the full Article in the May 2017 issue of Cosmopolitan Philippines
Here I am with Susan Dimacali, the head of a foremost advertising company attending a Women’s Summit in Manila on creating strong women leaders. Leadership is not about gender. It is about acumen, skills, and gravitas. Women can create and then lead great organisations because they have the skills. Research has proven that with a good gender mix in the workplace, company productivity and performance increase significantly. Women have different insights from men. They lead and strategise differently. They make decisions differently. Having women leaders creates a new synergy among management teams.
Walking into the wards today, I was met with my new client who had a full blown depression complicated by a social anxiety disorder. A former high performing executive in the actuarial department of an Insurance firm, he answered doubtfully as I went through the simple math exercises in the mini mental exam.
Having depression combined with a social anxiety disorder is bad enough…yet is a doubly hard and heart-wrenching for someone who is head of the family, a provider for his brothers & sisters, the head for all big strategic decisions in their family corporation. His sense of self was shaken—his confidence and self-esteem plummeting, he questioned why he was even alive.
The blessings in all this were his family and staff who were allying around him: picking up the slack that he single-handedly carried all those years. Little sister now took charge of running the parent’s house and taking all kids to school, eldest brother took over the chairmanship of the family corporation, department supervisors and staff made all the business plans for the department. The condition thankfully pried off his tight grip, control freak grip on life. And, that letting go is how he is going to be saved.
As a leader, when you are able to distribute power and decision-making, and allow other people to shine, you inspire—-develop leadership gravitas. Rather than burn out from micro-managing projects–delegate based on employee’s skill and inclinations. Rather than developing and implementing projects on your own, develop and invest in key relationships within and above your management level. Instead of doing all the work , re-assign it and provide value by mentoring to elevate staff competence. While the saying goes ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’, in high stakes management, collaboration is the only way to survive. It is impossible to be, know, and do all projects and expect to have a balanced, happy, and fulfilling life.
Sometimes, it does take a crisis to grow into the leaders we are supposed to be.
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