It’s a story that has been heard many times: an ambitious businesswoman works long hours, does a great job and puts her heart and soul in to her job but doesn’t quite now how to climb the career ladder to the boardroom. The numbers speak for themselves. More than half the companies in the ASX200 have no female directors. And only 2% of chairs and chief executives on boards are women. Women are poorly represented (usually between 10-20%) on many entrepreneurial lists such as the Smart Company’s Smart 50 and BRW’s Rich 200 or Fast 100.
These findings highlight that few significant changes have occurred in the business landscape to address why capable women are still prevented from contributing at high levels of business.
For small business owners, this disparity between women and men in leadership positions really illustrates how a different approach and different business styles can affect your career.
For example, recent research conducted by the Harvard Business Review found that while women outshone men on most leadership dimensions, women fell short in one area: developing strategy, a vision and selling that vision to stakeholders. Interestingly, that was the most prized skill that men value when assessing aspiring leaders. According to the results of the research, women tend to focus too much on being great at their job when they should be looking upwards at not just being good at their job, but also on developing strategy, vision and selling that upwards.
Macquarie University’s flagship Women, Management and Work Conference on 28-29 July 2011 will examine these issues and inspire women to take the next step by utilizing and building on their signature strengths to become influential leaders.
Leading women speakers will focus on strategies to achieve higher levels of women in leadership roles throughout Australia. The conference will share practical tools and tips to facilitate career progress and success.
For more information, program details and registration, please visit www.lmsf.mq.edu.au/womenandleadership
Something to think about:
How does your personality affect how you do business? What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? How do you think your way of conducting business is perceived by others? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
And one final thing…
Your business is a part of you. If you’d like to learn how to market your business in your own way, the Small Business Marketing Intensive workshop on July 7 and 8 is for you.
Over two intensive, highly interactive days we’ll help you simplify and crystallise your own business’ marketing strategy and teach you the marketing basics. You’ll also learn how to:
- Generate better quality enquiries
- Target the right customers so you don’t waste time and money
- Define your perfect customer’s problems so your offers are precisely pitched
- Develop a rock solid brand position that sets you apart and is perfectly matched to your target customer
And you’ll walk away with the outline of your simple marketing promotions system and easy-to-implement action plan that you can start on straight away.
THERE ARE ONLY FOUR SPACES LEFT IN THE WORKSHOP SO GET IN QUICK!
Enrol in the Small Business Marketing Intensive NOW or download a course outline.
