Can you Navigate the New Normal?

This month’s blog posting is an excerpt from November 11, 2015 from the Washington Technology blog, by WT contributor Nick Wakeman.

Last year, when the immixGroup launched their first Government IT Sales Summit, they asked me to moderate a panel on partnering.

Usually, these kinds of events peak in the morning, and then fade out after lunch. My session was in the afternoon, so I didn’t have high expectations. But that changed quickly. First, I struggled to find a parking spot at the hotel, and then I walked in, and it was wall-to-wall with people.

Our room was set up for maybe 75 people, and it was standing room only. Obviously, there is a hunger for what immixGroup is putting on, and this year’s event carries a similarly packed agenda with the theme of Navigating the New Normal.

The event will be held Nov. 19 in Reston, Va. Here is a link to the full agenda.

Full disclosure: Washington Technology is one of several media sponsors of the event.

I won’t be participating in any of the sessions this year, but I’ll be attending as a reporter looking for stories.

As part of the event, they’ve folded in their annual market intelligence budget briefings on defense and civilian spending. With the budget deal having passed last month, perhaps the new normal will include some broader growth.

One of the sessions that caught my eye is on picking the right contract vehicle. It’s an important question given the number of vehicles government agencies have to choose from. How do you guide your customer to the right one?

Being able to answer that question is a key to success in today’s market. The panel will give you insights into working with your customers to identify the right vehicle.

There also are several sessions on data including predictive analytics, data governance, and sharing threat data.

The theme of the new normal is admirable and is a topic I’ve heard discussed across the market. It might not have a single definition. The market has changed in the last five years with constrained budgets and a focus on affordability. The result is a hyper competitive environment with vendors facing multiple pressure points. There are no givens.

Perhaps budgets are going to loosen in the next couple years, but no one expects government buyers to become less focused on cost and efficiency or for the market to become less competitive. The current conditions are not a passing fad. In my opinion, this is the new normal.

And the best thing is to arm yourself with knowledge, which is what I see immixGroup trying to do with their event.

It also should be fun. The lunch keynote speaker is Walter Isaacson, president and CEO of the Aspen Institute. He’s the former chairman and CEO of CNN and editor of Time magazine. 

He’ll be talking about innovation, another hot topic in today’s market. He has a new book out: The Innovators: How a Group of Inventors, Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution. He’s also written biographies of Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin and Henry Kissinger.

I’m sure he’ll be floating some big ideas out to the audience, and it’s always good to hear perspective from outside the government market.

So, if you see me wandering the halls of the Hyatt Regency in Reston next week, please say "Hi."

Posted by Nick Wakeman on Nov 11, 2015 at 9:29 AM

This month’s blog posting is a topical one, speaking about the recent Republican debate. Here is an excerpt from Rebecca Shambaugh, President of SHAMBAUGH, which was posted on her blog site on September 23^rd. Please see her bio after the blog post.

How Carly’s CEO Style Helped Her Win the Republican Debate

by Rebecca Shambaugh

A record number of viewers tuned into last week’s Republican debate. While prior to the latest contest Donald Trump had steadily held a significant lead, many pundits agree that after an intense three-hour match, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina dominated the floor, emerging as the number-two candidate not far behind Trump. According to CNN, Fiorina’s support rating climbed to 15 percent—12 percentage points higher than in early September.

Meanwhile, Trump saw a substantial decrease in support post-debate, losing 8 percentage points from earlier in the month and weighing in at just 24 percent.

With less than 10 percentage points now separating Fiorina from the Republican frontrunner, the question everyone wants answered is: what is Fiorina’s secret sauce that enabled her to climb the charts so dramatically and so quickly? Fiorina demonstrated multi-dimensional layers of leadership presence—cultivated from her over five years as chief executive of one of the largest IT companies in the Fortune 500—offering viewers a glimpse of her CEO style as well as substance.

Her style was visible through her executive poise, standing tall with a sense of calm control in an electric blue suit. She was clear and succinct in her delivery and impeccable in her time management, overrunning the timing bell only once throughout the debate. Fiorina’s style also involved rising above the fray as needed, avoiding the types of direct aggressive attacks that Trump has used throughout the campaign when she knew such attacks would not serve her.

Her substance was demonstrated by her tough, calculated demeanor, calling out Trump for his lack of a policy plan and in contrast inserting her own short list of actions she would take to build up America’s military presence. She spoke confidently and firmly about the logistics of her plan, outlining clear action steps. When tested, as she was frequently during the debate, she never wavered—even when challenged about her past performance as CEO at HP and comments about her physical appearance.

What else seemed potentially presidential about Fiorina? Balanced with her firmness and “ready to fight” demeanor, she displayed a clear sense of compassion and emotion that made it easy for potential voters to connect with her, sharing her personal story of having to bury her stepdaughter who died of drug addiction. She also achieved voter empathy by calling out the American Dream, inspiring others with her story of starting her career as a secretary and rising to CEO, proving that anything is possible in our country.

Lastly, Fiorina’s messaging was strong, such as when she highlighted the fact that women are not a “special interest” group: “Women are the majority of this nation,” she said. “We are half the potential of this nation, and this nation will be better off when every woman has the opportunity to live the life she chooses.”

Regardless of your political affiliation, no one can deny that Fiorina is a fighter, and that her stance and style demonstrate the attributes of a strong and capable leader. The American public is looking for a leader with the power to bring not just toughness but also a human side to the table—and for this debate, Fiorina did just that. As the 2016 presidential race heats up, she’s definitely one to watch.

Who do you think won last week’s Republican debate? I welcome your comments to this post.

Rebecca Shambaugh’s Biography

Rebecca Shambaugh is an internationally recognized leadership expert, author, and keynote speaker. She speaks before thousands of leaders around the world every year, challenging conventional wisdom and overturning assumptions about how to lead in today’s business environment. Her compelling and new vision for leadership in the 21st Century has electrified and inspired audiences on six continents.

Rebecca is President of SHAMBAUGH, a global leadership development organization and Founder of Women In Leadership and Learning (WILL), one of the first executive leadership development programs in the country, dedicated to the research, advancement, and retention of women leaders and executives. Rebecca has coached and advised over a hundred leaders and executives and has enhanced their overall level of excellence in such areas as communications, strategic thinking, inclusive leadership, employee engagement, executive presence, and culture transformation.

Prior to starting her own company, Rebecca has worked for such premier organizations as General Motors, Fairchild Industries, and Amax Inc. as a senior executive in the leadership and human capital arena.

Rebecca has been showcased on CNBC, TED Talks, Fox News (New York), NPR, Washington Business, ABC, and numerous syndicated radio talk shows. She has been featured in publications such as: Leader to Leader, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Huffington Post, Time Magazine, USA Today, Fortune Magazine, U.S. News & World Report, Pink Magazine, and Entrepreneur Magazine.

Rebecca is a known thought leader in the industry and is the author of two best seller books titled, “It’s Not A Glass Ceiling, It’s A Sticky Floor” and “Leadership Secrets of Hillary Clinton,” and her new book, “Make Room For Her: Why Companies Need an Integrated Leadership Model To Achieve Extraordinary Results,” all published by McGraw-Hill. Her books illustrate her unconventional and results-focused approach to creating great leaders.

Rebecca partners with a cross-section of clients such as: Booz Allen Hamilton, Dow Chemical, Hilton Worldwide, KPMG, Marriott International, IBM, Cisco, National Grid, Humana, HP, Intelsat, MedImmune, Microsoft, and J&J. She is a member of the National Press Club, the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., on the Board of Visitors for Marymount University, on the Board of the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce, and on the Executive Board for the Virginia Women’s Center. Rebecca is also the Chairman of the Board of Young Women Lead and an Executive Partner for Bentley University’s Center for Women and Business, as well as on the Board of the Red Cross. Other accomplishments include recipient of the Smart CEO Brava! Award, Women Who Mean Business Award, Entrepreneur Organization of the Year Award, and Finalist for the Outstanding Corporate Citizenship Award for Woman-Owned Business of the Year.

Rebecca holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Industrial Relations from Purdue University and a Master of Arts Degree in Organizational Development from Marymount University.

This month’s blog posting is an excerpt from Rayona Sharpnack, the founder and CEO of the Institute for Women’s Leadership which was posted on the Diversity Best Practices blog site on July 27th. Please see her bio after the blog post.

What Do Men Get Out of Advancing Women?
by Rayona Sharpnack, Founder and CEO, Institute for Women’s Leadership

"I'll tell you one thing, it's always better when we're together."
–Jack Johnson, from Better Together on the album "Between Dreams" 

There are many terms bouncing around the internet these days to describe the ideal state for men and women who work together: gender equity, gender equality, gender parity, and gender balance, to name a few.

To me, these terms have a regrettable tinge of separate but equal. What I envision is Gender Partnership, where men and women of all colors and backgrounds bring their widely diverse talents and skills to the table and work together in service of a common goal. (You might recall my May 4 article on the differences between men's and women's brains and how they make it vital to have both perspectives working on the same issue at the same time.)

Now, not everyone is a "team player" who wants to work in partnership. But I urge each of you to open your minds to the experience of trading some innate preferences or understandable pride in individual achievement for the greater results -- and greater pleasure – that come from truly cooperative success.

There's a catch, though. We know from research and past experience that in order for women to be given an opportunity to express their full potential at work, they need men speaking up for them. Men have the power to open more doors, make others listen, and enlist other men in the cause. They can serve as powerful, positive mentors for women wanting to move up the corporate ladder. They've got the clout, they've got the numbers, and when they support the advancement of women in their companies, they cannot be accused of self-interest. Their words carry weight.

I have seen this first-hand in the companies I work with. Gender Partnership goes from being a slightly suspect new concept to men to an exciting (and well-documented) path to increased profits, better problem solving, more innovation, higher customer satisfaction and increased productivity.
 
There has been much documented about the economic benefits corporations have yielded from higher percentages of women in leadership. Here are some of the specific benefits men reap from stepping up and speaking out in behalf advancing women to achieve full Gender Partnership.

       •    They can get better performance reviews   

According to a recent study from the University of Colorado, when white men promoted diversity in hiring and advancement, they got a bump in their  performance reviews. (Women and non-white executives who pushed for other minority candidates to be hired and promoted, however, got dinged when it  came to their performance reviews. Women recommending other women were perceived as colder; non-white executives recommending other non-white executives were seen as less competent.)

       •    They can contribute significantly to talent retention among women at their company

A number of respected studies have shown that women are actively (unconsciously) discouraged from returning to work after having a child. The results of a large survey of Harvard's female MBA grads "suggest that when high-achieving, highly educated professional women leave their jobs after becoming mothers, only a small number do so because they prefer to devote themselves exclusively to motherhood; the vast majority leave reluctantly and as a last resort, because they find themselves in unfulfilling roles with dim prospects for advancement."

The Los Angeles Times reported that qualified women are leaving the tech industry in droves. Women in tech say filling the pipeline of talent won't do much good if women keep quitting — it's like trying to fill a leaking bucket… A Harvard Business Review study from 2008 found that as many as 50% of women  working in science, engineering and technology will, over time, leave because of hostile work environments and male cultures, a sense of isolation, and lack of  a clear career path. An updated study in 2014 found the reasons hadn't significantly changed.

The 200 largest law firms in the country are running into the same problem. Women make up just 17% of the equity partners in these large firms. "The reason for the female exodus from traditional law firm life," an article in the American Bar Association Journal said, "likely touches on… poor culture, inflexibility, and archaic and inefficient business structures."

       •    They can be heroes in saving their companies money

Let's take just one example: It costs $150,000 to $200,000 to replace a high tech worker. This includes the cost of recruiting, the hiring and vetting process and training the newcomer. It doesn't even include the losses incurred in terms of the talent relationships that walk out the door.

And consider this: How much does a company have to make on the top line to pay out a bottom line cost of $200,000?

       •    They can help fill the pipeline and ensure their company’s future

Within five years, more than 60 percent of all of U.S. college grads will be women – while simultaneously 10,000 Baby Boomers are turning 65 every day!   Which companies will they choose to work for?  Firms that practice full Gender Partnership and welcome their ideas, career aspirations, and collaborative approaches to problem solving? Or those with cultures that are unfriendly, dismissive of their talents, and slow to promote them to positions of authority?

       •    They can become better people, fathers, husbands and contributors by uncovering their unconscious gender bias

Few of us believe that we go through life having unconscious bias about women or ethnically diverse people. But one only has to take the Implicit Association Test to see that it's alive in us in every category.  Even women are biased against women, blacks against blacks, and so on. Until we come to consciousness about the frame of reference from which we regard and judge others, this won't change.

I have worked with groups around identifying and shifting their frames of reference – their contexts – for more than 30 years. Here is the process for doing so:  1) Identify your current frame of reference (a belief you have that forms a conclusion) that isn't working for you such as “Women with small children won’t take jobs that require travel”; 2) Consciously choose a new contextual frame of reference (e.g. “Women can be trusted to make job decisions that work for their families”).

Another simple example is this. If your current frame of references sees people unlike you as "them" you can choose a new frame of reference that trades in “It's us versus them" for "It's all us." If you look for evidence to support your new frame of reference, I suspect you will find it as readily as you ever did "proof" of  how valid you old frame of reference was.
 
Man or woman, young or old, Asian, African-American, Latino, Native American – I urge each of you to make the commitment to full Gender Partnership – and check your unconscious bias at the door!

Rayona Sharpnack’s Biography

Rayona Sharpnack is the founder and CEO of the Institute for Women's Leadership, an organization renowned since 1991 for its groundbreaking initiatives in leadership and organizational effectiveness. Drawing from highly successful careers in education, professional sports, and business, Sharpnack is an inspirational teacher, coach and mentor to senior executives across industries. She is also co-founder of GenderAllies, an alliance of inclusion professionals committed to full gender partnership.

Sharpnack's clients include Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, universities and nonprofits, including Pfizer, Gap Inc., Hertz, Cardinal Health, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Microsoft, Proctor & Gamble, Hewlett-Packard and World Pulse. Her masterful approach takes complex theoretical concepts and distills them into memorable and easily grasped learning. More than 20,000 women and men – from mid-level managers to C-suite executives – have relied on her and the Institute for Women's Leadership to coach them to achieve breakthrough results both at work and in their personal lives.

Her pioneering work has earned her numerous awards and appointment as Chairwoman of Leadership Development on the Women's Leadership Board of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

Sharpnack has presented her outstanding achievements in advancing women leaders and building high-performance organizations to prestigious institutions and associations such as:

• Harvard University 
• Stanford Business School
• U.C. Berkeley's Hass School of Business
• State of the World Forum

• Canadian Federal Government
• Australian Federal Government
• Leadership America
• Professional and Business Women of California

National publications, including Fast Company and The New York Times, have showcased her leadership model.

This month’s blog post is a recap of our recent WIT.Connect from June 18th on resiliency and bouncing back from adversities. Our guest writer is an eleventh grader and future Girls in Technology (GIT) member from Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria, VA.

WIT.Connect: Resiliency & Bouncing Back!

Deb Alderson, President & CEO of Herndon-based Sotera Defense Solutions, Inc. shared her very personal story of what happened when her high potential career door at SAIC suddenly slammed shut amidst a major corporate contract scandal...and how she found the confidence to open another window to create a career she’d always dreamed of at Sotera Defense.

Jean Stafford, The Executive Coach for Women, an experienced coach and internationally recognized expert on women’s professional leadership potential, drew out of Deb’s impactful story the whys, whats, and hows of responding to crisis and opportunities.

This month’s WIT.Connect was a panel where Deb Alderson spoke with Jean Stafford about resiliency and leadership. Ms. Alderson had many words of wisdom centering on a few key themes:

• Focus on the road ahead
• Demonstrate value
• Take care of people  

Ms. Alderson shared her story of her professional ups and downs and what that taught her about herself. One take-away from the conversation was success in business comes from focusing on the road ahead. If you dwell on your past you are less likely to get anywhere in the future. Ms. Alderson said "you should not forget the experiences you had and always give back to the community.” While not all your experiences are good, they make you who you are and you should not forget them. Instead you should use your experiences, both good and bad, to help the people around you.

For Ms. Alderson, taking care of people is a core value. She considers this, along with serving the business mission, the most critical component to her success. Ms. Alderson reminded us that when you first start out at a business, you do not know your coworkers and they do not know you. You need to take the time to get to know them. It is not enough to say you want something or can do something, you need to demonstrate your value to others.

Ms. Alderson also stressed building the team dynamic and “taking care of people” in the workplace. Your co-workers need to know that you “have their back” and vice versa. This relationship is not a given, it has to be earned and kept. When hiring staff you should look for people with positive attitudes and enthusiastic personalities. When Ms. Alderson faced tough times, she had built up a large support network that helped her in her time of need.

An audience member raised the question of mentoring versus sponsorship and how these play into Ms. Alderson’s management style. For her, both mentoring and sponsorship are very different. Mentors listen to what you have to say, while sponsors push your limitations. Almost anyone can fill the mentor role but sponsors are those people who have seen you demonstrate your value and want to be an active part of your future success.

The audience left this event feeling inspired and encouraged. The group was reminded to never give up on your dreams, even if they seem impossible. A key life lesson Ms. Alderson’s mom conveyed to her early in life was “there is no such thing as a glass ceiling, just break through, and push yourself to keep going." Use challenges as a means to propel forward your career while never forgetting lessons learned from mistakes made along the way.

This month’s blog posting caught our eye. It’s an excerpt from Rebecca Shambaugh posted on June 9th. Please see her bio after the blog post.

Is Culture of Overwork Behind Women’s Stalled Advancement?
by Becky Shambaugh

The speculated reason why fewer women than men reach the leadership ranks has changed over time. From the early to mid-1990s, most explanations for the discrepancy at the top pointed to sexism and sexual harassment of women, according to research from Harvard Business School (HBS). From the mid-90s to 2000, the media chorus shifted to blame women’s exclusion from the “old boy’s club.” By 2001, the focus turned to responsibilities for children as the reason more women couldn’t get ahead.

But in recent years, the pendulum has swung in a different, though related direction—the challenge of balancing work and family, and women’s continued greater burden in managing household matters. Now, a 2015 study being released as part of HBS’s new gender initiative has questioned whether women’s competing work-life demands are really the primary problem—or if America’s corporate culture of overwork is.

The HBS study, co-authored by Harvard professor Robin Ely with researchers Irene Padavic of Florida State University and Erin Reid of Boston University, was based on results from an unnamed global consulting firm with 90 percent male partners. The researchers set out to determine how to both boost the number of women promoted to the higher echelons of the firm, and decrease the number of women who left the firm.

The surprising results were that it wasn’t a lack of family-friendly policies that were the main reason women were held back. Instead, the culprit identified behind this distressing long-term trend was a round-the-clock work culture that demands both women and men alike be constantly available to their boss and colleagues in order to get ahead.

In a recent article in The New York Times, Claire Cain Miller notes that this workaholic expectation is particularly acute in industries like consulting, finance, law, and accounting. Data from the Current Population Survey shows high earners work the longest hours, and that Americans of both genders spend significantly more time in the office today than they did in past decades.

Some take-home points from the HBS study:

• Men quit at the same rate as women, and were as likely as women (or more so) to blame long hours at work for interfering with their family lives.

• While more women took advantage of formal flexible work policies (like working part-time) than men, deciding to do so often derailed their careers.

• Men used different strategies than women to try to deal with the problem of long hours expectations. Unlike women, men often worked their preferred number of hours without asking for their company’s permission, while others reduced travel by finding more local clients or arranging informally for colleagues to cover for them while they attended their children’s events.

• While men’s attempts like these to maintain work-life balance often led to promotion, women were not similarly rewarded by the company if they left the office at the end of the day or flexed their schedule creatively. In Miller’s article, she reported that the researchers said, “When a man left at 5 p.m., people at the office assumed he was meeting a client. When a woman left, they assumed she was going home to her children.” 

There are no easy answers here, yet the study raises new questions about what types of changes in corporate culture might help the problem of women’s stalled advancement. In Miller’s article, she quotes HBS study co-author Ely as asking, “Is it really necessary for people to be on call 24/7? The answer is increasingly no. These professions are beholden to the whims of the client, and every question has to be answered immediately—but it probably doesn’t.”

To learn more about how SHAMBAUGH can help you build inclusive/integrated leadership within your organization, or about SHAMBAUGH’s targeted women’s leadership development programs, executive coaching, and other core services, visit www.shambaughleadership.com.

Rebecca Shambaugh is author of the best-selling books “It’s Not a Glass Ceiling, It’s a Sticky Floor”, “Make Room for Her: Why Companies Need an Integrated Leadership Model to Achieve Extraordinary Results” and "Leadership Secrets of Hillary Clinton."

Rebecca Shambaugh’s Biography

Rebecca Shambaugh is an internationally recognized leadership expert, author, and keynote speaker. She speaks before thousands of leaders around the world every year, challenging conventional wisdom and overturning assumptions about how to lead in today’s business environment. Her compelling and new vision for leadership in the 21st Century has electrified and inspired audiences on six continents.

Rebecca is President of SHAMBAUGH, a global leadership development organization and Founder of Women In Leadership and Learning (WILL), one of the first executive leadership development programs in the country, dedicated to the research, advancement, and retention of women leaders and executives. Rebecca has coached and advised over a hundred leaders and executives and has enhanced their overall level of excellence in such areas as communications, strategic thinking, inclusive leadership, employee engagement, executive presence, and culture transformation.

Prior to starting her own company, Rebecca has worked for such premier organizations as General Motors, Fairchild Industries, and Amax Inc. as a senior executive in the leadership and human capital arena.

Rebecca has been showcased on CNBC, TED Talks, Fox News (New York), NPR, Washington Business, ABC, and numerous syndicated radio talk shows. She has been featured in publications such as: Leader to Leader, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Huffington Post, Time Magazine, USA Today, Fortune Magazine, U.S. News & World Report, Pink Magazine, and Entrepreneur Magazine.

Rebecca is a known thought leader in the industry and is the author of two best seller books titled, “It’s Not A Glass Ceiling, It’s A Sticky Floor” and “Leadership Secrets of Hillary Clinton,” and her new book, “Make Room For Her: Why Companies Need an Integrated Leadership Model To Achieve Extraordinary Results,” all published by McGraw-Hill. Her books illustrate her unconventional and results-focused approach to creating great leaders.

Rebecca partners with a cross-section of clients such as: Booz Allen Hamilton, Dow Chemical, Hilton Worldwide, KPMG, Marriott International, IBM, Cisco, National Grid, Humana, HP, Intelsat, MedImmune, Microsoft, and J&J. She is a member of the National Press Club, the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., on the Board of Visitors for Marymount University, on the Board of the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce, and on the Executive Board for the Virginia Women’s Center. Rebecca is also the Chairman of the Board of Young Women Lead and an Executive Partner for Bentley University’s Center for Women and Business, as well as on the Board of the Red Cross. Other accomplishments include recipient of the Smart CEO Brava! Award, Women Who Mean Business Award, Entrepreneur Organization of the Year Award, and Finalist for the Outstanding Corporate Citizenship Award for Woman-Owned Business of the Year.

Rebecca holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Industrial Relations from Purdue University and a Master of Arts Degree in Organizational Development from Marymount University.

The Ultimate Mentor to Women: Dave Goldberg

This month’s blog posting is an excerpt from our friend Rebecca Shambaugh, recognized leadership expert and author. This is her timely blog entry from May 6, 2015 on the passing of SurveyMonkey CEO Dave Goldberg. Please see her bio after the blog post.
 
The Ultimate Mentor to Women: Dave Goldberg
by Becky Shambaugh
 
As I heard the news about Dave Goldberg’s death last weekend, I joined many in feeling the sadness of this loss—to his wife Sheryl Sandberg, his family and friends, his colleagues at the company he headed as CEO (SurveyMonkey), and to the technology industry, where Goldberg inspired many.
 
The loss also extends to women in the industry, and to anyone who cares about women’s leadership development, because of the important role that Goldberg played in prioritizing women’s advancement over the decades of his career—long before it became fashionable to do so.
 
I’ve often talked about men being part of the solution to women’s advancement rather than being the problem—and Goldberg’s actions model exactly this. The New York Times reported this week that Goldberg was a “lifelong women’s advocate” and “perhaps the signature male feminist of his era.” The article cited many examples of this, starting back in his teens when he admonished his prom date for not speaking up and sharing her important views in a politics class, and moving into more recent days as a senior executive.
 
“[W]hen Karen Gilford, an early employee at Launch Media, Mr. Goldberg’s digital music company, became a mother, he knew exactly what to do,” reported Jodi Kantor for the New York Times. “He kept giving her challenging assignments, she recalled, but also let her work from home one day a week.”
 
Goldberg also reportedly advised the men in his office on “family and partnership matters,” about which he knew a great deal as a father of two who prioritized work-life balance. It was well-known in Silicon Valley that the power pair would leave their offices at 5:30 as often as possible to eat dinner with their kids, setting a solid example of better balance than is typically shown in the industry. He didn’t hesitate to relocate for his wife’s equally high-powered career, and reportedly “arranged his schedule so that he could be home with their children when she was traveling for work.”
 
Perhaps even more telling than these personal anecdotes is the fact that Goldberg’s management team at SurveyMonkey far exceeds the industry average when it comes to female members. Six of the 16 top executives—including the President and CTO—are women, a much higher number than most companies in the Valley with comparable valuation.
 
When it comes to creating a model for true integrated, gender-balanced leadership, Goldberg set the standard. Through his publicly equal partnership with Sandberg, his encouragement of female leaders in organizations where he worked throughout his career, and his fostering of advancing and retaining more women in senior management roles, Goldberg stands out as the ultimate mentor to women. His words and actions in support of female talent were life-changing to many, and through them, he raised the bar for other men throughout the industry and Corporate America as a whole. He will be sorely missed.
 
To learn more about how SHAMBAUGH can help you build inclusive/integrated leadership within your organization, or about SHAMBAUGH’s targeted women’s leadership development programs, executive coaching, and other core services, visit www.shambaughleadership.com.
 
Rebecca Shambaugh is author of the best-selling books “It’s Not a Glass Ceiling, It’s a Sticky Floor”, “Make Room for Her: Why Companies Need an Integrated Leadership Model to Achieve Extraordinary Results” and "Leadership Secrets of Hillary Clinton."

Rebecca Shambaugh’s Biography
 
Rebecca Shambaugh is an internationally recognized leadership expert, author, and keynote speaker. She speaks before thousands of leaders around the world every year, challenging conventional wisdom and overturning assumptions about how to lead in today’s business environment. Her compelling and new vision for leadership in the 21st Century has electrified and inspired audiences on six continents.
 
Rebecca is President of SHAMBAUGH, a global leadership development organization and Founder of Women In Leadership and Learning (WILL), one of the first executive leadership development programs in the country, dedicated to the research, advancement, and retention of women leaders and executives. Rebecca has coached and advised over a hundred leaders and executives and has enhanced their overall level of excellence in such areas as communications, strategic thinking, inclusive leadership, employee engagement, executive presence, and culture transformation.

Prior to starting her own company, Rebecca has worked for such premier organizations as General Motors, Fairchild Industries, and Amax Inc. as a senior executive in the leadership and human capital arena.
 
Rebecca has been showcased on CNBC, TED Talks, Fox News (New York), NPR, Washington Business, ABC, and numerous syndicated radio talk shows. She has been featured in publications such as: Leader to Leader, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Huffington Post, Time Magazine, USA Today, Fortune Magazine, U.S. News & World Report, Pink Magazine, and Entrepreneur Magazine.
 
Rebecca is a known thought leader in the industry and is the author of two best seller books titled, “It’s Not A Glass Ceiling, It’s A Sticky Floor” and “Leadership Secrets of Hillary Clinton,” and her new book, “Make Room For Her: Why Companies Need an Integrated Leadership Model To Achieve Extraordinary Results,” all published by McGraw-Hill. Her books illustrate her unconventional and results-focused approach to creating great leaders.
 
Rebecca partners with a cross-section of clients such as: Booz Allen Hamilton, Dow Chemical, Hilton Worldwide, KPMG, Marriott International, IBM, Cisco, National Grid, Humana, HP, Intelsat, MedImmune, Microsoft, and J&J. She is a member of the National Press Club, the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., on the Board of Visitors for Marymount University, on the Board of the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce, and on the Executive Board for the Virginia Women’s Center. Rebecca is also the Chairman of the Board of Young Women Lead and an Executive Partner for Bentley University’s Center for Women and Business, as well as on the Board of the Red Cross. Other accomplishments include recipient of the Smart CEO Brava! Award, Women Who Mean Business Award, Entrepreneur Organization of the Year Award, and Finalist for the Outstanding Corporate Citizenship Award for Woman-Owned Business of the Year.
 
Rebecca holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Industrial Relations from Purdue University and a Master of Arts Degree in Organizational Development from Marymount University.

STEM: Engineering the Future for Women in Science

This month’s blog posting is an excerpt from the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation, Corporate Citizenship Center blog.  This piece is by Anna Maria Chavez, the Chief Executive Officer of Girl Scouts USA and is titled STEM: Engineering the Future for Women in Science.

Please see her bio after the blog post. Enjoy!

STEM: Engineering the Future for Women in Science - http://www.uschamberfoundation.org/blog/post/stem-engineering-future-women-science/42803
 
Anna Maria Chávez Biography
Chief Executive Officer, Girl Scouts USA

Anna Maria Chávez began her career journey in the very same Movement she now leads: the Girl Scouts.  A lifetime member of Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) and an award-winning community leader, Anna developed the leadership skills that would propel her to the office of the Chief Executive of GSUSA while growing up as a Girl Scout in Eloy, Arizona.

Her experiences in Girl Scouting lit a passion for public service and social engagement that have defined her career.  Anna’s insight and desire to leave the world a better place led her from her hometown to Yale University, where she earned a bachelor's degree in American history before pursuing a juris doctorate from the James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona.  She is admitted to the Bar for the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, the Arizona Supreme Court, and U.S. Supreme Court.

Anna’s desire to serve others brought her first to Washington D.C., where she held numerous posts in President Clinton’s administration, including serving a senior policy advisor to former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Rodney E. Slater. She later returned to her home state of Arizona to serve the first of two female governors as Deputy Chief of Staff for Urban Relations and Community Development under then-Governor Janet Napolitano.  In this role, she promoted the governor's policies, programs, and initiatives in partnership with city, county, and tribal governments, as well as federal agencies and community organizations. 

During her time in state service, Anna provided oversight for programs targeting food distribution for the hungry, shelter and supportive services for victims of domestic violence, refugee resettlement services, and shelter services for the homeless. Additionally, she oversaw Arizona’s adult services programs, including adult protective services.

Looking for opportunities to work with youth and inspire a new generation of female leaders, Anna returned to the Girl Scout Movement in 2009, serving as Chief Executive Officer of Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas.  Her achievements leading the Southwest Texas council include vastly enhancing the reach and visibility of the Council, growing the Council’s philanthropic efforts, and boosting membership.  Her success earned her the respect and recognition of GSUSA’s National Board, who appointed her CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA in 2011.

Lauded for her leadership, Ms. Chávez received the 2013 Law College Association Award from her law school alma mater, the University of Arizona, and has been recognized as one of the 100 Women Leaders in STEM by STEM connector. She is the recipient of the 2013 Excellence in Community Service award from the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, as well as the 2013 Graciela Olivarez La Raza Award from the National Council of La Raza.  In 2014, she was named number 22 by Fast Company in their annual list of the most creative people in business.  In addition, the Arizona National Guard presented Anna with the Adjutant General's Medal and the Diversity Champion Leadership Award.

FY 2014 Delivers Enterprise Growth in Wireless - Excerpted from Mary Davie’s “Great Government through Technology” GSA Blog

This month’s blog posting is from Mary Davie, you may remember her as one of the speakers on our June 19th panel for Government Leaders at the Helm. Please see her bio after the blog post.

FY 2014 Delivers Enterprise Growth in Wireless - Excerpted from Mary Davie’s “Great Government through Technology” GSA Blog

As we all know, the explosion in demand for wireless and mobile services is continuing at a pace hard to keep up with. And with that popularity comes government’s continuing need to find ways to exploit those technologies while simultaneously saving money and increasing acquisition and operational efficiencies.

In FY 2014, we saw agencies increasingly turn to GSA’s Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative (FSSI) Wireless Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs). Initially launched in the second half of FY 2013, the BPAs experienced substantial growth in FY 2014, with multiple enterprise level buys (greater than 2,500 units) awarded and task order-level competition yielding very competitive rates and cost savings for most federal users.

Since June 2014, month over month program growth exceeded 30%. Additional awards are anticipated in early FY 2015 increasing agency usage and savings (>20%) for the foreseeable future.

Cost Savings, Choice, and Efficiency

The growing demand of the FSSI Wireless solution is largely due to the >22% cost savings they deliver and the flexible features they offer (including no-charge refreshable devices, open market premium devices, agency-level pooling to reduce overage costs, and adherence to federal policies and administrative priorities). The achieved savings by participating agencies is compared to their prior rates or government-wide average and not list prices.

FSSI Wireless BPA task order competitions have driven rates lower from the award value to rates as low as $42, $40, $38, and $36 per user per month for many common smartphone plans.

This competition lowered the average monthly rate across all federal mobile users to approximately $40 per user. The prior average rate across government based on the contracts we reviewed was nearly $55, which was comprised primarily of devices with limited data capabilities. This means the FSSI Wireless BPAs are producing considerable additional savings for agencies as they deploy devices with a much greater data-intensive footprint.

The BPAs have the added advantage they include government-wide discounts that apply as government-wide usage increases, which adds even greater value.

The more agencies use the BPAs, the greater the current and future cost savings for the government and taxpayers.

Initial savings are through the discounted wireless plan pricing and no-cost devices. Two of the four carriers on contract have committed that the BPA prices are the lowest they offer government buyers.  In addition, agencies can see the published prices on all the BPAs in a single place.

In addition, the pooling option for data and minutes are saving agency dollars by allowing high-volume users to leverage the unused minutes and MBs purchased by lower volume users, further reducing overage costs.

Savings came in acquisition efficiencies too. In the past year, some agencies procured services from the BPAs in as little as 3-5 days.  One agency procured 3500-plus devices in less than two months and indicated they could have executed the order in less time.

Wireless Buying Trends

The most popular data add-on and data-only plans are the 500MB Pooled and Unlimited plans. The most popular voice plans under the BPAs are the 400 Minute Pooled and 100 Minute Pooled plans.

We’re finding agencies default to unlimited when they don’t know what they will use to avoid potential overages. The FSSI wireless contracts offer agencies usage data enabling them to structure the right plan and pooling arrangement that will satisfy individual needs reducing risk of overages.

During 2014, government agencies also took advantage of additional assistance offered by GSA to help manage the mobile component of their IT enterprise by using GSA’s Managed Mobility sources of supply list or the FSSI Wireless BPAs to add mobile management resources they can bundle with wireless service plans.

Overall, 2014 was a successful year for GSA’s wireless and mobile programs.  Building on the FSSI Wireless Program and Managed Mobility Program, we consolidated these solutions and category management approaches under the GSA Enterprise Mobility Program.

Going forward in 2015, we expect wireless BPA usage and savings to continue to grow. Several agencies indicate the BPAs will be their contract vehicle of choice for all future acquisition of wireless services.