Archive for the ‘Women in Business’ Category

Women in Business

Arroganz – Karriere Thriller oder –Killer?! / Arrogance – Career thriller or -killer?

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 by Astrid Bosten

Power games at the workplace – for the majority of female leaders a game with secret rules. A common result in meetings: While women already try to find solutions for the business topics, men first have to clarify the ranking (my car, my house, my wife, my football club). And once the ranking for men is clear, women are not just the last position on the list but also confused about the set up at all.

Dr. Peter Modler’s recommendation for women therefore is: become arrogant. That means that in Modler’s opinion women have to learn the rules of  men’s vertical communication style to understand the invisible power game. Balanced arrogant behavior according to the rules of the old-boys-club should be enough to gain respect and acceptance. How to become more arrogant Modler describes in his book “The Arrogance Principle – Thus women are successful in business”. Additionally Modler offers seminars for women. In role games with men they learn how to unmask the hidden rules of the power game.

How do you like Dr. Modler’s idea? Balanced arrogance as a career activator? And if you learn the language of men – is there still enough female leadership style around? What do you think? [DE]

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Women in Business

Victress Awards für starke Frauen/ Victress Awards for powerful women

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 by Astrid Bosten

Each year, the German Victress Initiative awards power- and successful female role models. Last week four outstanding role models were honored in the course of a gala show in Berlin. Tina Müller, Senior Vice President and responsible for our global Hair Cosmetics, Skin Care and Oral Care businesses was part of the top-class jury. Under the patronage of Germans Federal Minister of Economics, Rainer Brüderle, winner Nelly Kostadinova, President of Lingua-World GmbH gain the Victress Role Models Award, Christiane Stenger (Memory World Champion) got the Future Victress Award, the Victress Health Award was given to Prof. Dr. Maria Ryan and the Victress Glassbreaker Award – which Tina Müller gained last year – was dedicated to Dr. Angelika Damman, CEO of the SAP AG.

The Victress Initiative claims diversity in leadership positions for a sustainable German business location. The motto of this initiative is: “Excellence knows no gender”. For Tina Müller it is one of the most important and enjoyable self commitments to be an active role model in improving the conditions and numbers of leading women in business. [DE]

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Women in Business

Most Wanted – Female Leaders / Most Wanted – Top-Managerinnen

Thursday, August 26th, 2010 by Astrid Bosten

Nowadays any economic person should have got the message: we need mixed teams. That makes sense for business reasons and is even more meaningful for the corporate image. But, where are they? The most wanted top female leaders? Headhunters claim: the recruitment market is empty.

The German Handelsblatt published an article in its special edition about “Women on Boards” about the different picture female recruitment takes in the eyes of headhunters. And again the dilemma seems to be a mix of the process of coming to terms with the past and to get sustainable for the future. There seem to be enough women with high education levels, personal engagement and potential but again they hit the glassy ceiling a fixed recruitment corset and their own personal restrictions.

But where’s the way out? HR consultants suggest consistent reports on female role-models and mentoring programs from seniority to newcomer level. And one fast-selling item is coming up automatically: the upcoming workforce of GenY women who represent different values and norms.

At Henkel there are several initiatives to improve the share of women in leadership positions – at least the clear commitment to a professional Diversity Management Henkel expressed in 2007. Since then, the share of women in management position increased from 25.4 % (2007) to 27.4 % (2009). At top level the improvement is even more impressive: here the numbers went from 13.1 % in 2007 to 16.2 % in 2009.

What do you think? What conditions have to be changed to get more women on boards in Germany?

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Women in Business

When women earn the money / Wenn Frauen das Geld verdienen

Monday, August 16th, 2010 by Astrid Bosten

On tuesday evening the ZDF-show „37 Grad“ reported about women who earn more money than their husbands. At Henkel we actively support women to have a successful career, therefore this show was interesting for us. Just a few years ago the gender roles were clearly seperated: the man was the bread-earner. Women mostly worked part-time, if they worked at all. But the times have changed and nowadays it’s not a rarity that women earn more money than their husbands. In every tenth househould, women take the financial responsibility.

The TV-show pursued the questions how couples deal with the situation and how the gender roles are being re-defined. Three different couples were introduced, all of them with a different background. Two of the three men lost their jobs, whereby their wives became the sole earners. The men didn’t feel very comfortable about their situations and suffered from self-doubt. However, it is another situation, if both have a job but the woman earns more money. This was the case for the third couple. The man who stays at home and takes care of the children said: I have never felt better in my life. The TV-show demonstrated that there is a new generation of men, who enjoy staying at home and taking care of the children without feeling unmanly.[DE]

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Women in Business

Today’s Schwarzkopf Customer / Die Schwarzkopf-Kundin von heute

Friday, July 30th, 2010 by Astrid Bosten

A new Schwarzkopf study examined modern women and their attitude towards career and family. The Study took a closer look at the self-conception and requirements of women from Germany, France and Russia. It shows: today’s women are self-confident. 50 percent of women under 30 describe themselves as emancipated and self-confident. At the same time the study revealed that men are sceptical of this development. But despite the changes, one thing in women’s lifes hasn’t changed: the leading fields of interest are fashion, hairstyles and cosmetics.
The results of the study were combined with another study about women and beauty and resulted in a new Schwarzkopf-typology: “Youth on the move” are young women under 35 without children. “Modern Mothers” are between 35 and 50 years old, have kids, but aren’t working. “Kids & Career” are a group of women between 35 and 50 years who have children and a career. “Working women” on the contrary, don’t have kids. “New beauty age” includes 51 to 70-year old women without children, respectively grown up children. [DE]

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Women in Business

Kathrin Menges: one of the 100 most influential women in Germany / Kathrin Menges: eine der 100 einflussreichsten Aufsteigerinnen

Monday, July 26th, 2010 by Astrid Bosten

Recently, the Handelsblatt introduced the 100 most influential women in Germany. Among them are three Henkel-women! We already introduced our head of the shareholder’s committee Simone Bagel-Trah and Tina Müller, the Corporate Senior Vice President. Today we devote our daily post to our third Top 100 woman: Kathrin Menges, Corporate Senior Vice President Global Human Resources.

Since November 2005 she manages more than 50.000 Henkel employees worldwide. Kathrin Menges has the reputation of being a calm and fair manager. Her background is exceptional what makes it particularly interesting. She has a master’s degree in education and worked as a teacher before she stepped in the Human Resources sector. First she worked as Human Resources Manager at the Bankgesellschaft Berlin. Later she was responsible for the Human Resources Region North at KMPG. She joined Henkel in 1999. Before her nomination as Corporate Senior Vice President Global Human Resources she was Corporate Key Account Manager responsible for employees who work for the management board and the IT department.

 All good things come in threes but in this case we would not be sad to make a role-modeled exception. [DE]

 

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Women in Business

The decision maker / Der Entscheidungsträger

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010 by Astrid Bosten

 Women and men have different decision-making techniques. But what are these differences based on? A recent post by Holly Buchanan on her blog Marketing to Women Online gives an insight on this question. In her post, Holly Buchanan quotes an article, she read on MSN. The original topic was „what men love about women“ and one interesting answer was: We love how you solve problems. When a woman is solving a problem, she internalizes everything and puts herself in every possible solution to see how she would feel. Men on the other hand are trying to find the fastest solution. Holly Buchanan explains, that men and women have different brains. The parts responsible for responsible for problem-solving, decision-making and regulating emotions are larger in women’s brains. When selling something to women it’s crucial to understand her buying process. Two simple thing can help to accommodate women’s preferences and thus, „sell more stuff“, as Holly Buchanan says. First: give women enough time to make her decisions. Second: make an emotional connection with them. [DE]

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Women in Business

Hypo Vereinsbank Women’s advisory board launches Mentoring Programm / Frauenbeirat der Hypo Vereinsbank startet Mentoring Programm

Thursday, July 15th, 2010 by Astrid Bosten

 Hypo Vereinsbank was the first bank in Germany to start its own Women’s advisory board in October 2009. The Women’s Council consists of 30 female managers and entrepreneurs. Its aim is to launch own initiatives, addressing female customers, employees and women in general. The first initiative is a mentoring program. Members of the council support selected women and junior managers on their career path. In a personal dialogue, the mentors help their mentees to recognize their own strengths and to develop skills they will need in management positions.

 At Henkel we have a very agile and powerful women’s networking group that also support women in their career. In different working groups topics like mentoring and training programs were initiated and established. Once a year the networking group organizes a huge event for all female leaders within Henkel Germany – the Women’s Networking Day. [DE] 

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Women in Business

Publisher Springer sets a good example / Springer Verlag geht mit gutem Beispiel voran

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 by Astrid Bosten

There’s something going on. One by one, companies commit themselves to a higher share of women in management positions. The German Telekom announced the introduction of a women’s quota in March this year.

A few days ago the publishing house Axel Springer decided to increase the share of women in management positions from 16 percent to 30 percent in the next five to eight years. Currently, the company is dominated by men. Friede Springer is the only women on the supervisory board. To achieve the objective, the company focuses on improving the working conditions for women by offering flexible working hours, parental leave alternatives and childcare support. [DE]

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Diversity & Inclusion, Women in Business

The Super-Mom Trap / Die Super-Mom Falle

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010 by Astrid Bosten

A new study, published in the March 2010 issue of Personality Research, highlights a seeming contradiction about the way mothers view father involvement in infant care.

The study might give an answer to the question if modern women really want to hand over her responsibilities for childcare to their husband. The finding of the study is, that mothers who rate their partner as a competent and caring father, tend to rate their own competence lower than mothers whose partners were less competent in infant care.

What means: If mom’s going to work and leave the children at home with a really competent care giving father, then she feels bad and less competent in her job. But if mom’s going to work and leave the children at home with a less care giving father, then – guess what – she also feels bad!

So, all in all is the solution: Stay at home, moms?

The authors of the study, Takayuki Sasaki und Nancy L. Hazen, describe this fact as the super mom trap and ask the provocative question „ Do involved dads erode moms’ self-competence?“. They think that mothers need to become more comfortable with the idea of sharing the responsibility for childcare in the end to get more self-confidence.

What do you think? Do mothers need to learn to give up the child caring territory? [DE]

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