What Makes a 21st Century Woman Executive - FlexJobs

What Makes a “21st Century Woman Executive” - FlexJobs What Makes a “21st Century Woman Executive” 34NewsOnWomen.com, which holds over 6000 women in its search engine, works for more women in management, more women on boards of directors, and more women interested in Math and Science. NewsonWomen.com has also been named one of the top 100 women blogs and it is the largest search engine of women achievers available on the internet.   A woman executive in the 21st century understands: How to Change with the Times Let’s start with Ginni Rometty, now CEO and Chairman of the Board of IBM, the traditional bastion of Corporate America. And what did Ginni do there? Ginni changed it! Earlier in her career when she was Senior Vice President of IBM Global Business Services, she successfully integrated PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting into IBM, forever changing the culture and the direction of Big Blue (do we all know that’s what they used to call IBM?). The acquisition of PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting by IBM was the largest in professional services history! So, right off the bat we see that this 21st century executive knew IBM needed to change with the times. Ginni also realized that business is global. She pioneered IBMs expansion in the emerging economies, establishing IBM’s “Growth Markets” organization. Ginni recognized the need for change and for a global approach to business and as a leader was able to persuade her co-workers that her strategy was right, and time has proven it so. I wonder if anyone at Northwestern University recognized the greatness in this electrical engineering and computer science major when she was in school. Let‘s recap. The 21st century woman executive is aware of the need to change with the times, takes a global approach to business, and is a persuasive leader ready to implement the strategies she believes in. But what else is she? How to be a   Source of Help and Guidance to Other Women Amy Schulman is a good example of this. An innovative leader in healthcare, Amy is Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Pfizer, President of Pfizer Nutrition, Business Unit Lead for Pfizer Consumer Healthcare, and the Executive Sponsor of Pfizer’s Global Women’s Council. Amy has been repeatedly honored for paving the way to success for other women. She is passionate about helping women and finding creative ways to increase opportunities for them. “There are various things that derail women institutionally,“ said Amy. “Unconscious bias, gender fatigue. You get nearly to the top and then you don’t get a sponsor over the finish line. I want to ensure that doesn’t happen to people in my organization. ” Amy excels as a lawyer, and when her company was purchasing Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Amy played a key role negotiating what was the largest pharmaceutical acquisition in history. How to Demand Flexible Work Options Now we can add being innovative and a good negotiator to our list. Innovation is everything in the 21st century and  leads us to our next set of skills technology. The 21st century women leading the technology charge include Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo!, Susan Wocjicki, Senior Vice President of Product at Google, and Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Facebook. What do these women have in common besides all the skills mentioned above? They are all mothers. And how do they manage? One way is to set family time.  Susan Wojcicki tells her team she will not answer emails from 6 to 9 pm. Sheryl Sandberg tries to always go home for dinner. Marissa Mayer took maternity leave almost immediately after starting a high visibility and extremely difficult job. All these women are telling the world women need time for their families, whether its flextime, or part time or dinner time, families need to come first during certain phases of a 21st century woman executive’s career. And technology allows it to be possible. How to Ask to Get She must be good at “The Ask. We all have good ideas, but if we don’t ask, we don’t get. A good example of “asking” is Christy Ferer, CEO and Founder of Vidicom. Christy had some great ideas about videos early on. She taped fashion shows, and made videos of what’s happening in her city. And she asked if people wanted them. Now she has a hugely successful business in Vidicom, which not only keeps you up on what’s happening with CityBuzz, but also helps brands reach their customers in new and exciting ways. All because she asked! Asking is one of the hardest things for some of us to do, but practice makes it easier, so take advantage of events and meetings and practice asking! The 21st century woman executive is, as we have seen, full of skill and tenacity innovative and tech savvy, flexible, able to change with the times, able to take a global approach to business, able to be a persuasive leader and implement strategies and, of course, good at “The Ask. While we all can’t be CEO of IBM or General Counsel of Pfizer or COO of Facebook, we can learn how to develop our abilities and learn how to be better at these skills which would most certainly help us make our way to the top.