March 2007

Executive Summaries

Most observers are discouraged about the progress of women reaching the executive level. The scarcity of women in senior leadership positions is all too evident in the numbers: 1.4 percent of Fortune 500 companies have a female CEO. Just 13 percent of corporate board members and 16 percent of Fortune 500 corporate officers are women, according to research by Catalyst, a New York-based organization that researches women’s roles in the workplace.

Numerous organizations have launched leadership initiatives designed exclusively to identify and recruit women for the executive level. There are indications that a successful female leader is a different breed, providing a sharp contrast with male leaders and females at the staff level. A recent study conducted by the Caliper Group, a Princeton, New Jersey-based consultancy, indicates that women leaders possess a more accelerated sense of ambition than their male colleagues and do not abide by gender stereotypes.

Formal and informal networks for women are emerging in large corporations such as Novartus Pharmaceuticals, Goldman Sachs, and Deloitte & Touche. Mentoring programs are likely the only remedy to bridge the gap between the knowledge many male executives possess and the knowledge some women seek to reach the next level.

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Match Made!
By Clare Novak

Although mature leaders have gained knowledge and skills throughout their careers, they view training as “a refresher, a reminder to use the skills I already have.”
They enjoy conferences and speakers for the purpose of either refreshing ideas or for highlighting business and industry trends. Neither, however, is sufficient for supporting their energy, interest, and passion for leadership. But that’s where advisors come into play.

The leader-advisor relationship is founded on mutual trust and is characterized by a unique fit between the two people—the right balance between the leader’s needs and the advisor’s skills and knowledge.

This article highlights the relationships of four CEOs and their advisors. While each relationship is unique, all are founded on mutual respect and trust. The four CEOs profiled represent four separate industries as well as organizations of various sizes and maturity.

“A good advisor will be a nonthreatening listener—someone who doesn’t feel less about me, knowing my faults and problems,” says Franklin L. Fox, CEO of InterFace Solutions.

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The Rock and the Fish: Teachable Points of View for Leadership
By Edward Betof

Success as a leader requires a number of characteristics and capabilities. The most effective leaders are able to derive and articulate a vision, and execute that vision by working with and through others.

High-performance leaders value the opportunity to transfer their knowledge to others and always have leadership teachable points of view—key values and ideas that have influenced a leader’s personal development, performance, and career success—that are shown through stories or powerful descriptions of important topics.

Participants in Becton, Dickinson and Company’s Advanced Leadership Development Program are asked to describe their teachable points of view, the key circumstances and people behind this perspective, and the lessons learned from the experience. Through narratives, these future leaders shape their thinking and apply their outlooks to everyday workplace settings.

To design their teachable points of view, leaders should teach, not lead. All effective leaders have teachable points of view, which should be modeled regularly and communicated in works—preferably stories.

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Lies About Consultants and Vendors
By Charlene J. Zeiberg

An excerpt from the ASTD Press publication, Lies About Learning, this article highlights eight lies that workplace learning and performance professionals should be aware of before signing a contract with a consultant or vendor.

Many learning professionals consider consultants a necessary evil, whereas others have had rewarding consultant partnerships. Some of you may fall somewhere in the middle, being cautiously optimistic about your vendor relationships. So, it goes without saying that the lies I share with you are not universal or meant to be stereotypes.

The lies are standard tales that I have heard as a client or that my clients have shared with me. These lies are generalized statements or proclamations that have been made by some vendors. I hope that these revelations will lead to more productive vendor alliances and partnerships.

Asking all the right questions won’t always get you the answers you want to hear, but it will alert your partners that you are on top of things and make you aware of potential issues down the road.

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Tips From the Top

Four top-level learning executives gathered at the Sharing@LearnShare conference in Atlanta to discuss the skills necessary to be a good business partner in their companies, offer advice about how to effectively manage a diverse workforce, and suggest ways to sell employee development to company CEOs.

Offering insights and advice were Bill Byron Concevitch, chief talent and learning officer for Witness Systems; Greg Dardis, director of the leadership institute at Home Depot; Karen Hendrix, director of learning and development at Coca-Cola North America; and Donnee Ramelli, president of GM University at General Motors.

ASTD Executive Editor Pat Galagan moderated this panel discussion.

“To be successful business partners at the Coca-Cola Company, we need to understand the dynamics of our business and how our people efforts impact the business,” says Hendrix.

Dardis agrees, adding, “I think to be a good business partner, you’ve got to speak to the language of business and understand the business as well as the leaders do.”

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Training in a Risky Industry
By Jenni Jarventaus

In today’s highly competitive financial services market, life comes at insurers fast—and if they do not possess the skills and knowledge to adapt swiftly, they risk ending up in harm’s way.

The need for a well-prepared workforce became evident after the record-setting hurricane season of 2005, in which five hurricanes—Katrina, Wilma, Rita, Ophelia, and Dennis—caused $57.7 billion in insured damages.

In addition to natural disasters, issues, such as the ever-changing state and federal regulations, rapid change of the industry through mergers and acquisitions, and the introduction of complex products, all challenge insurance companies to not only keep abreast of changes but to invest in staff training to prepare them to better respond to the shifting environment.

“There continues to be a need for technical knowledge—understanding the insurance coverage, knowing how to analyze the policies, and having a broad understanding of insurance operations and corporate finances,” says Christine L. Lewis, senior vice president of the American Institute for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters and the Insurance Institute of America.

The winners in the upcoming years, according to Betsy Allen of the Bob Pike Group, are the companies that will strategically use pilot learning interventions.

So before investing $500 million in new learning systems, companies will need to spend $4 or $5 million to test them to ensure that they work and positively affect business goals.

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