What women want

In the article Tischerler investigates the reasons behind the current dearth of women CEO's in the corporate jungle. The predominant reason she suggests for it is that it's because women, many of whom work every bit as hard as their male counterparts, fail to compete as hard as most men for those top positions where the air is thin and the expectations all consuming. Any hope of achieving balance between life and work is simply not going to happen when working at such altitude. And that maintains Tischerler, is a problem for most women who simply are not willing to surrender heart and soul to the company and compete under such draconian rules.

Three Change Drivers

He adds that contrary to Tischer's gloomy prediction - that there may never be women in the corner office - there is a growing belief at TomorrowToday.biz, that women in the corner office is not only inevitable, but welcome."

Networks Dominate

He attributes this to the emergence of the Connection economy, where competitive advantage is secured through the creation of authentic relationships both inside and outside the business.

"Who you are matters most. Science too is playing an influential role. Understanding the world as a machine and the need to organise ourselves in hierarchies is giving way to an understanding of the world as a connection of dynamic relationships where networks dominate.

"This fundamental shift, given added impetuous by a generation (Generation X) who operate from a different value base to that of preceding generations, means that we are in a transition period. The outcome of this transition, unlike all previous transitions in the various eras preceding the connection economy, will be to emerge in an economy conducive to female leadership."

Coats believes that the leadership demands in a connection economy will place the emphasis on characteristics and skills such as intuition, empathy, the ability to work with paradox and uncertainty. "It will be a place where asking the relevant questions will be more important than having the answers, where leaders will need to be learners, listeners, adapters, storytellers, nurturers and synthesisers," he says.

"Relationships will lead when it comes to attracting, retaining and rewarding the 'Bright Young Things' so necessary for every business, and relationships will outweigh transactions."

Coats adds that new measuring tools will have to be fashioned as new elements, beyond the profit and loss statement, will require measurement.

All the evidence points to women, rather than men, being better equipped to lead in such an environment. Connection, not competition will be the benchmark and the Alpha-male, so long conditioned to a 'survival of the fittest' mentality will, with few exceptions, find it too difficult to adapt. The inability to unlearn entrenched habits buoyed by past success, which provides the justification for not changing, will prove to be the nemesis for many current (male) leaders. It will be a bridge too far for leaders used to simply embracing the latest management fad, instituting superficial changes and uttering all the right things but changing none of the harmful habits and policies.

Where life and work collide

"So in this emerging Connection economy it is the women who have the inside track when it comes to the corner office. And once there, best be prepared for some sweeping changes as they shed the need to 'dress-up as men', and they will lead in ways that will make sense of the changes taking place. As the corporate towers give way to the market square environment in which we live and do business, it will be women who will thrive and restore some of the much needed balance that has been missing in the intersection of where life and work collide," concludes Coats.