In this issue of The CEO Forum Magazine, each of the articles and interviews focuses on trends in leadership relating to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG). Check out the full issue here, featuring interviews from WBC CEO Edie Fraser, and past WBC CEO Awardees Mary Barra and David Taylor!

The post The CEO Forum Magazine – “The Leadership Issue: Driving ESG” (December 2021) appeared first on Women Business Collaborative.

This piece was published in Forbes Online on December 31st, 2021

As we are ready to usher in 2022, I am reminded a decade ago, back in 2012, when I wrote in my Forbes column that we needed to get to 50 Fortune 500 women CEOs. Today, as the movement is gaining momentum, I’ve been thinking about once we achieve that goal, how we can free corporations to lead the charge for a better society … a society where innovation thrives through diversity, where all doors are open for everyone to bring their full self to work, where the first response is true listening, open-mindedness and potential for collaboration. We now are entering, I believe, an epoch where enterprises can be the model citizens who usher in what I believe can become the ‘Age of Possibilities’.

In an effort to create dialogue, on November 30, 2021 I co-moderated for Women Business Collaborative a CEO roundtable with three thought leaders:

·      Mary T. McDowell, Chair, Board of Directors, Mitel

·      Andrew Anagnost, President, CEO & Board Director, Autodesk

·      Jodie W. McLean, Chief Executive Officer, EDENS

Jodie McLean shared her advice to women, “Women are more reluctant than men to say yes to a work assignment. Even though men are 65% ready to take the risk, they often accept the opportunity, whereas women won’t, even if they are 99% ready. My advice is to take the shot! You may not make the goal, but you will never know for sure if you don’t say yes. Finding the right partners at work and in life—and with whom you can be open and transparent about your ambitions and what you want to accomplish and rely on their support as well as their honest feedback—will also set you on the path to success.”

McLean then shared her vision for workforce diversity, “Importantly, I envision a workforce of people who are comfortable bringing their whole selves, because this is where innovation really starts. In the spring of 2020, riots and street protests were having an impact on many of our properties, just as our retail partners were re-opening and learning to navigate COVID-related restrictions. Our people need safe places to have really hard discussions as to the “why” and “how.” After we conducted small group discussions for our staff around diversity and inclusion, more employees developed confidence in these moments of uncomfortableness, and as an unexpected bonus, we started to hear much more empowered voices at work. People were asking questions and coming forth with ideas where they might not have been empowered to share prior.”

Andrew Anagnost brought in the idea that the key is change is incorporating one process that opens the door to a new flow of positive outcomes — creating a more structured decision-making process. This starts with bringing more voices to the table and allowing for true collaboration.

He also suggested that to bring gender parity we start with more diverse recruiting panels. And he shared the important role of the board, which is to keep management accountable; and clarified that boards should, “stick your nose in but not your fingers”.

Anagnost then gave a message about the future highlighting that we need to look forward because the most innovative companies – and, in fact societies — are built on integration of diverse perspectives, where 10 years out anyone can be what they want to be without stereotypes.

Mary McDowell summed up what the first step in an age of possibilities might look like, as we usher in the New Year by creating workplaces of equality, “My hope for 2022 is that we move from putting the burden of gender equity in the workplace solely on the individual and acknowledge the critical role of corporate and public policies. So often, especially in the United States, we counsel a woman to “speak up” and “lean in” or that she can “have it all” if she just puts her mind to it. And while individual drive and accountability are certainly part of the equation, the number of talented, driven women that have dialed back their careers or left the workforce entirely during the pandemic make it glaringly obvious that it’s not enough.

Companies must support and develop female leaders in ways as simple as fostering networking groups or investing in targeted training for women and as meaningful as reevaluating their family leave and vacation policies. And at the macro level, public policy needs to support the real needs of working parents if we are ever to achieve true gender equity in the workplace.”

In summary, I believe the world of the next 100 years to a great degree depends on what we do over the next 10 years. Organizations have the structure, the resources and the potential to lead the world forward. That starts with removing biases and listening to all with a mindset of true inclusion and complete diversity, which sets forward great innovation and collaboration. This will elevate corporations to become companies of purpose, and open the door to what I believe can be a true “Age of Possibilities”.

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This article was originally published for Forbes on October 29th, 2021 at 10:11am.

In March 2014 I wrote an article for Leader to Leader magazine stating we were entering 4^th phase of the corporation. Phase 1 was in the 1920s when Alfred Sloan with General Motors gave birth to the concept on the modern corporation; phase 2 was in the 1950s when Peter Drucker codified the principles of management; phase 3 was in the 1980s when original Japanese best practices of quality and team became ubiquitous; and now, we are firmly in phase 4 where the concept of a great company is built around one word … purpose.

To explore this phase of purpose, on October 27, 2021 I co-moderated, for Women Business Collaborative, a special CEO roundtable where we interviewed legacy CEOs – most who were at the helm in 2014 — to talk freely about the past, their present and action steps for the future. They were leaders in telecommunications, executive search, consumer products and real estate:

–       Ralph de la Vega, former Vice Chairman, AT&T

–       Judith M. von Seldeneck, Founder and Chair, Diversified Search Group

–       Doug Conant, former CEO Campbell Soup Company

–       Walt Rakowich, former CEO, Prologis

Ralph de la Vega, a long tenured leader at AT&T, deeply understands progress as he was instrumental in working with Steve Jobs to introduce the original iPhone. He kicked off the meeting with a story of how he learned about the power of diversity, “I placed a 22 year old young lady to head the youth segment in one of our countries. She completely changed the way our wireless products were distributed and packaged. When she presented her marketing plan to me I told her that I did not like it. She said “Sir, you are not the target audience”. Her comments hit me like a lightning bolt. She was right. I funded the marketing program and we achieved success levels that we could not have imagined. The moral of the story is that you must be uncomfortable to achieve the unimaginable.”

Ralph then summed up his philosophy, “Diversity and inclusion is not about counting heads, it’s about making heads count.”

Judee von Seldeneck changed the world of search by founding Diversified Search which was the world’s first organization committed to diversity in executive searches – literally decades before others; this is of critical importance as search is the true harbinger of future selection of CEOs. She shared, “Actions speak louder than words. You have to get compensation right around diversity and inclusion as we know there have been and are disparities. That is a very important part of culture. There are so many inequities that have been allowed to go on for so long, and that sends a message to the organization. Pay equity validates your culture. Senior management needs to look at compensation and benefits-things that effect quality of life. The pendulum has swing back in favor of employees.”

Judee concluded with a thought for the future, “Purpose, quality of life and flexibility are the bywords in this changing world we live in. Employers and C-suite leaders who understand this and deliver on that are the ones who will thrive today and tomorrow.”

Doug Conant left a legacy at Campbell Soup Company by turning around what was a hard hit brand into reclaiming its eminence as an iconic leader by building a new model of employee engagement. He also selected the first woman CEO in over 140 years to be his replacement.  Doug talked about the four attributes for leaders (4 C’s): Character, Competence, Chemistry and Courage. He believes the soft stuff is the hard stuff and that leaders need to be tough minded on standards but tender hearted on people.

Doug shared the key to any turnaround, “It is a fool’s errand to expect employees to care about the agenda of a company, if the company doesn’t demonstrate that it clearly cares about the agenda of every employee. You simply must win in the workplace before you can ever expect to win in the marketplace in an enduring way.” He then gave key advise on leadership, “It is an unavoidable truth that if you aspire to lead a company of diverse individuals to a high performance level, you simply must assemble a diverse cadre of leaders to inspire and orchestrate that performance.”

Walt Rakowich was CEO of Prologis, the world’s largest owner of industrial warehouses. He shared his thoughts on diversity, “I think the most important ingredient to success in terms of workforce diversity is having a CEO and a management team that are committed to it… Tone at the top is critical. It’s not just what management says, it’s what they do that counts… Do they hold themselves accountable?”

We then asked about his role today as a board member vs. a CEO and Walt explained, “I see a lot more progress. I sit on three boards with total market capitalization of close to 100 billion dollars, so they’re fairly large companies. Thirty-two percent of my fellow board members on those companies are women; 37% of the senior management team in those companies are women; and one out of the three CEOs in those companies is a woman… There’s a lot more to do, no question about it. But I think today, we’re better aligned with our stakeholders and our customers, and I think we’re stronger companies as a result of it.”

Edie Fraser, CEO of Women Business Collaborative (WBC), pulled together the important concepts of the event with the inspirational message, “WBC and all of us are at the threshold of a revolution of companies of purpose: Fortune, private companies, investment firms, B Corps and with it, CEOs and their boards, the new role of Chief Purpose Officers. We look to CEOs who are Legacy CEOs including those on this Roundtable, to those WBC honored at our Summit, to change leaders who put purpose as the road to profits, to people first, to women and diversity that drives purpose and profits. Purpose sets strong messages and galvanizes with action to equate purposeful companies with purposeful leaders as the best places for results and impact.”

To watch CEO interviews like these go to: The CEO Forum Group

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This article was published for Forbes on Sep 29, 2021,01:56pm EDT

Women Business Collaborative held its Virtual Summit from September 21, 2021 – September 22, 2021 where eight CEOs were presented The Excellence Award in Gender and Diversity. The awards were selected from in depth criteria-based analysis.

Edie Fraser, CEO, WBC shared her excitement, “The Summit was extraordinary with the motivation of the speakers extending to the 3550 registrants. The CEO award winners individually and collectively were clear, compelling, and committed to driving results with passion and resolve.”

What was interesting was the actual conversation with these eight CEOs, which I had the privilege to moderate, along with my WBC co-host and fellow board member Becky Shambaugh. To bring you into this riveting — and incredibly important — discussion, below are actual quotes from each of the CEOs (in order of the photo):

• Laurence D. Fink, Founder, Chair & CEO, BlackRock   
• Jim Fitterling, Chair and CEO, Dow   
• David Taylor, Chair, President & CEO, P&G 
• Barbara Humpton, President and CEO, Siemens Corporation 
• Mary T. Barra, Chair and CEO, General Motors  
• Ronald P. O’Hanley, Chairman and CEO, State Street     
• Tricia Griffith, President & CEO, Progressive Insurance 
• Doug McMillon, President and CEO, Walmart Inc.

Mary Barra, General Motors: “At General Motors, we aspire to be the most inclusive company in the world. As a company, we want to reflect the world around us and make sure every employee knows they can bring their true self to work. GM has long been a global leader in advocating for women’s equality in the workplace, and I have the honor of leading the company today because of the many decades of commitment to providing opportunities and advancing women. As our industry transforms, we’re working to lead that transformation with teams made up of diverse backgrounds and experiences, which offers various points of view and can help drive better decisions.”

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