Women in Leadership – Can We “Have It All”?

Women in leadership – can we “have it all”?

I recently met an incredibly motivated and driven female leader.  She is dedicated, loves the company she works for, thrives on feedback to improve and wants to achieve top performance status every year at her annual review.  In discussing her career and future plans – she stopped mid sentence and admitted that having a baby was on the horizon and having a family as well as a career was very important to her. “Can’t I have it all?” She looked at me desperate to hear of course you can! But can we?

Managing an all-female business for the majority of my career, this is a topic I have observed, managed and lived myself. It is a topic that is constantly debated and depending on what publication you read, this week women can have it all, last week we couldn’t and the week before that we can as long as we don’t have more than two children! Even the box office is cashing in on the topic with Sarah Jessica Parker staring in I Just Don’t Know How She Does It. I haven’t seen the film (yet!), but I’m pretty sure it is a similar account of what I have already observed over the years.

In my opinion, yes you can have both BUT three things. One – what are your expectations? Two – how will you logistically blend the worlds of career and kids? And three – the balance will constantly change and evolve as you do; your career progresses and the children grow up.

I’ve been blending the worlds for 7 years and even this week I said to my husband I just want it all – I always have.  My first role model of being able to achieve both was my mum, who had a teaching career combined with that of a homemaker.  I didn’t see a skewed approach to either career or being a stay at home mum. What I saw was that being able to have the whole package was certainly within my reach and my control.

Wanting it all isn’t being selfish, greedy or unrealistic – it is purely an attempt to gain satisfaction from different facets of life. So having it all is certainly a challenge and not something that just happens because you want it to. It requires a planned approach, with realistic expectations combined with the right mindset and flexibility.

Quick tips to make it work:

1. Expectations – in my experience if you think that you will be able to do the

same job, the same way, with the same level of intensity, you are probably

setting yourself up to fail.  The truth is that once there is a little person in your

world, it becomes nearly impossible to physically operate at the same

capacity.  Those 12 hours days with a networking breakfast in the morning and

a client dinner that night is not only impossible to sustain, but you probably

won’t have the same desire either with your thoughts elsewhere. Being

realistic about what you can take on and how you manage your time

becomes an essential priority.

2.  Accept change – you will potentially see things differently after having

children.  When I was pregnant with my first child, I remember my boss saying

to me “don’t worry your personality won’t change, but you will become

softer”.  As a driven type A personality, I couldn’t see how it would make me

softer in business and I saw this as potential negative.  However, having

children has made me ‘softer’ in the sense of being more aware and not so

reactive to situations and people.  Children can actually help by holding up a

mirror………monkey see monkey do! It’s okay to change, to see things

differently and learn from experiences – it can actually assist business decisions

and career plans.

3. Support networks – juggling work life and family life in my experience means

there is always one parent who is the “fallback”.  This is the person, who

carries the extra load with the family when things get busy, or the kids get sick

or the official childcare arrangements fall through. In an executive role in the

corporate world, I do think this is extremely challenging and nearly impossible

to be both.  In most circumstances, women in senior leadership roles have

great partners, families, and nannies behind the scenes supporting their

careers. In my case, my husband is the glue that keeps everything together

even when I feel that it might all be falling apart! I certainly would not have

been able to achieve what I have in the business world without this support

from him.

4. An employer who gets it – an employer who actively supports flexibility,

blending of the worlds and genuinely believes it is possible, is critical to

achieve success for all involved.  Just recently, a female executive went to an

interview and when she asked about leaving early a couple of days per week

for school pick ups, the potential employer said sure, because you’ll come

back to the office straight after that won’t you? At that point, of course she

knew it was never going to be match because there just wasn’t the level of

understanding to make it work without it becoming a major issue.

5. Remember me? In blending the worlds, there is little time left over for women

as individuals.  The all-important time to yourself is critical to continue being

able to perform at work and at home.  I learnt this lesson the hard way and

wrote about it here (Health 1^st, Family 2^nd & Work 3^rd….What’s your order?).

Planning this time and booking it in like you would a business meeting is a

necessary commitment.

To give yourself the best chance of “having it all”, be realistic and understand that life is going to be different.  Your priorities will change and some people will understand and support you, while others will frown upon your choices and from time to time you will feel the turmoil of “mummy guilt”.

Being a successful corporate woman with a thriving business career as well as an engaged, active and present mother is possible.  The systems, support networks and your personal approach are what make it possible to achieve in both worlds.

Nicole Underwood understands what it takes to create, build and grow a successful business. The essential ingredient is recruiting, engaging and retaining people. Great people. Top talent. High performers. As a previous finalist in the prestigious Telstra Business Women Awards, a regular blogger, coach and entrepreneur, Nicole works with organisations to improve their results through hiring and keeping the right people.

www.nicoleunderwood.com.au

Taking the ‘Sales’ Out of Salesperson…10 Ways to Increase Performance

Taking the ‘Sales’ Out of Salesperson…10 Ways to Increase Performance

“I’m not a sales person” “I don’t like cold calling” “I can’t sell” “sales is not a strength of mine”…are all typical to hear around the Entrée Recruitment office. My Consultants don’t see themselves as sales people, yet we have just achieved our most successful financial year in our 10-year history.  They think sales is a dirty word associated with the image of a used car salesman – someone who is annoying, not particularly helpful and is just trying to make a quick buck! I roll my eyes and mostly just laugh because my team can think they aren’t sales people, but they are and they do it without reallising they are doing it.  So how does a team of non-sales people achieve such high sales results?

Observing the behaviours of these Consultants, I have consistently found the following:

1. Action – the Consultants making the most sales are always taking action.

They are never wondering what to do next, who to call or procrastinating the

day away. They just do it. They get on the phone; they get face to face and

make decisions quickly.

2. Feedback – I’ve got a Consultant who has worked in the industry longer

than me and she is still consistently wanting to know how she is going, what

could she do differently and is welcoming of joint visits and interview

observations.  The benefits to her far outweigh the possibility of her feeling

uncomfortable. She tells me it is a small price to pay to gain one extra piece of

advice that may increase her sales and bring her more success in the long

term.

3. Referrals – my team use an effective face-to-face technique that involves

asking existing clients to recommend other people that they think we would

enjoy working with. It takes courage to ask and discipline to follow up. Much

easier than making a cold call!

4. Relationships – building longstanding relationships results in repeat purchase

clients.  When you have a huge number of clients and are always seeking new

ones, you can often forget about existing ones.  Our strategy is fewer clients

stronger relationships.

5. Curiosity in people – one of my team members says “I hate the sales stuff

but I do like meeting new people and finding out what they do”.  She has a

natural desire to ask questions and learn about businesses and people, so the

end result is that she is building relationships and selling without realising that

she is even doing it!

6. Listening skills – the best ‘sales people’ at Entrée are the best listeners. They

usually have a ratio of 80/20 of listening and talking. They understand they get

the best information when they actually shut up. The worst performing

Consultants I’ve had over the years like talking mostly about themselves and

clients don’t buy!

7. Reasons to call – you will rarely hear a top performer at Entrée saying “I’m

just calling to touch base”.  No client has time for this, we certainly don’t!

What is the purpose of the call? Get to the point as quickly as you can as not

to annoy the other person with irrelevant chitchat.

8. Belief & confidence– top sales people have a natural self-confidence. They

don’t have huge egos and can articulate their value proposition without

being overly pushy.

9. Organisation – people who are naturally good at sales always know what

they need to do, write it down and work from 1 daily to do list. These tasks are

very specific and the hardest things are done first as not to distract them from

their day. For example, one of my consultants the other day seemed a bit off

her game. By 11am, she was noticeably irritable and when I checked in, she

hadn’t ticked anything of her list and she was feeling unproductive.  It turned

out that she had to make a difficult call to a client and was putting it off.   As

soon as she had made the call, she felt clear and didn’t have this hanging

over her head, clouding the rest of her day.

10.  Deliver quality – you can’t be a top sales person without delivering what

you promise at the pitch.  High performing Consultants at Entrée consistently

deliver what they say they will. If they say they will call back in 24 hours, they

do. If they say they will be back in 3 weeks with a shortlist, they are.  Some

sales people can talk the talk, but fall down in the actual promise of walking

the walk.

In any business, being able to sell is an essential skill to achieving long-term financial success. Being able to communicate your value effectively for people to buy your product or service is critical.  In the early days of my career, it was a long hard road and  some days seemed impossible.  The turnaround for me was being persistent, consistent and determined.  I made my sales activity an every day task that I incorporated in my daily agenda rather than it being a one off event when business was quiet.

At the end of the day, successful sales is about building rapport initially and then establishing long term relationships with people.  Let’s not complicate this…. if people like you; they will spend money with you. Ask great questions, listen, deliver and your sales will sky rocket.

On reflection, maybe I should be happy in the fact that my team don’t think of themselves as ‘sales people’ – with this mindset they are focused on what really works – building relationships, delivering a quality service and being passionate about what they do. The outcome…increased sales!

Nicole Underwood understands what it takes to create, build and grow a successful business. The essential ingredient is recruiting, engaging and retaining people. Great people. Top talent. High performers. As a previous finalist in the prestigious Telstra Business Women Awards, a regular blogger, coach and entrepreneur, Nicole works with organisations to improve their results through hiring and keeping the right people.

www.nicoleunderwood.com.au

Employee Retention – How to Crack the Code

Employee Retention – How to Crack the Code

What I’ve learnt over the years is that there is no one secret ingredient to retaining staff. In my early days of running a business, I had high staff turnover and it used to drive me crazy the amount of money, effort, time and emotional energy I would invest in new recruits to only lose them within a 12-month period.  A realisation and strong commitment to knowing and understanding that people are at the core of business success was my breakthrough moment. I became acutely aware that the right people in the right roles with the right leadership is the key to keeping them. I increased the average length of service of staff to 6 years in an industry that averages 8 months for a typical Consultant role.

Here’s what I learnt:

1.    Recruit the right people

First and foremost – recruiting people is not easy. Picking the right person is even harder. I have done this every day in the recruitment industry over the past 13 years and see, hear, talk and advise clients on how to do it better. It is an ongoing battle for most business owners – finding and recruiting the right people.  The key is to look beyond what’s on paper and what’s technically being said at interview and hire for culture and motivational fit.  Forget experience and length of service in a similar role – find out what motivates them, what their values are, long term what do they want to achieve and where has been the best culture that they have worked in? Recruiting on competencies, attitude and culture are mandatory for long term fit and retention and far out weighs years of experience on a resume.

2.    Believe in people

The best approach you can take as a Leader is to assume that people want to perform at their best.  Most people come to work to do a good job – they want to perform and succeed.  As a Leader you need to relate to them as a top performer, don’t expect anything less.  The moment I took this approach, my intentions were always with their best interests in mind.  This belief speaks volumes, builds trust, delivers results and ultimately keeps top talent on your team.

3.    Empower others

For most business owners, you have created the business, know the ins and outs of how things are done and you probably enjoy being in control. However, “control freaks” don’t retain top talent – they can often drive them away.  Being the leader doesn’t mean making all the decisions and having an “I know best” attitude. Letting go, trusting others to achieve and supporting this learning curve will go a long way to increasing length of service.

4.    Flexibility

In my business I gave people the tools and freedom to get on with the job.  Being clear on the outcomes and timeframes is critical, but then get out of the way.  People want to achieve their own goals without having to work within rigid and structured environments.  Flexibility in approach, hours and blending home and work situations instantly motivates top performers.

5.    Feedback

People want feedback – they want to know what they are doing well, so they can keep doing it.  They want to know what they are not doing well, so they can stop doing it and those thirsty for greater success and reward will want to know what can they start doing to perform at a higher level. As a leader, it is your job to recognise top performance and reinforce it, so it happens again.  On the flip side, when you observe behavior that is inconsistent, giving this feedback instantly (with good intent) with push people outside their comfort zones, which is necessary for changes in behavior.

6.    Professional Development

Investing in your people is one of the best investments you can make.  Hiring an external coach or mentor for an individual is a reward that can have incredible effects such as increased performance and confidence.  To pay a professional to just listen or be an external confidante is a great way to invest upfront in new talent and prevent staff turnover. This goes a long way to reducing unnecessary replacement and re-recruitment costs as well as increase engagement levels and ultimately assists in retaining key people.

7.    Tools of the Trade

It may seem a little light or trivial, but having the right tools of the trade and the right support systems in place are critical in keeping staff happy.  A candidate once told me she left a job because she was promised a company car and after 8 weeks of using her own car, paying for parking and petrol, she gave up on the false promise and decided to move on.  Tools such as iphones, car parks, admin support, remote access, laptops are now seen as essential for a lot of roles – get it right from day one to avoid unnecessary ‘misunderstandings’.

8.    Induction

The first 90 days is an important time for a new recruit in determining whether they stay long term with an organisation and day 1 in particular plays a key role. Who is there to greet them? Is their desk set up, business cards ready and a welcome message from the CEO? Don’t spend weeks going through a recruitment process to then spend no effort at all on the induction.  This is a once-only opportunity to create a lasting impression and increase employee attachment and engagement from the first day.

9.    Invest in your own leadership skills

A leader that is continuously learning and investing in their own professional development is more inspiring to be around.  We can never know it all and we can always improve.  Being authentic and transparent with your team about your own development and desire to improve will have a flow on effect.

10. You can’t win them all

 As much as you want all top performers to stay, it sometimes just doesn’t turn out that way no matter how hard you try and what you implement.  A partner gets a transfer, a headhunter offers them something they can’t refuse – it happens.  I have certainly lost a few along the way and in these circumstances all you can do is give them the best offer you have available and then wish them well if it doesn’t fall your way.

How can you retain top talent? It’s not just about money and perks such as days off for your birthday and free yoga classes – although nice and staff will appreciate it, it isn’t what gets them to stick around long term. It’s 2 things in my experience – leadership and culture.

Become a better leader, have great systems and an inspiring culture.  Only then can you attract the top talent that will stay.

Nicole Underwood understands what it takes to create, build and grow a successful business. The essential ingredient is recruiting, engaging and retaining people. Great people. Top talent. High performers. As a previous finalist in the prestigious Telstra Business Women Awards, a regular blogger, coach and entrepreneur, Nicole works with organisations to improve their results through hiring and keeping the right people.

www.nicoleunderwood.com.au