Who are your role models as women leaders?

[Pauline Crawford]

Women leaders need to show themselves to be true to their natural emotions, natural talents, and wisdom as well as their learned intelligent acumen. Too often a women leader is so tough that they make men feel scared! Women can be masculine minded, strong and fearless while also gentle and caring as is their biological and emotional DNA.
As a very masculine minded women, I think logically, I am straight lined and 'tom boyish' in style, I can drive like man (have been told this) and yet I love to build harmony, trust and collaborative circles, bringing everyone's gifts naturally to the table...never harsh or conflict driven, I hope to portray the best of masculine within my feminine whole. Other women can be far more soft, intuitiive and feelings orientated than me. All types of women can be part of our leadership profile...and allow for the complexity we have to shine.
Where are our great role models? Who are yours - politically, business wise and social caring figures? One I have met recently is Baroness Scotland, fabulous woman, tough in a politcal world, yet gentle when she needs.
Share your examples and let's invite them on board?

[Tanya Warnakulasuriya]

Hey Pauline,
Interesting question. I too have the "male tag" placed on me often. In fact I was once told by an astrologer that under my "star alignment" (?), I should have been born a man !! I'd personally like to see us get away from labelling our attributes as either male or female, because in the corporate world the guys get all the good bits ! Structured, assertive, logical etc, and the "feminine" attributes are not always given a place - kindness, intuition, diplomacy. If you look at the same attributes in a different environment - the animal kingdom say, a lioness can be brutal, strategic, and a killer and its deemed her normal attributes to function in her world. I'd like to see our qualities show cased as strengths and weaknesses as human beings. The other day a friend of mine who had passed her motorbike test proudly announced that her instructor said she was the fastest girl he'd ever taught, and she drives like a guy. Is that a compliment? Maybe she's just a brilliant driver ? I was fascinated at how she considered that to be a compliment, and by doing so wasn't really doing her sex a service. Maybe I'm being too harsh.

Anyway, as women, I think we have a gift that most men don't. That is the ability to adapt and deal with change. This is because we're used to change from a very early age - our bodies change at puberty, through pregnancy, and in menopuase. Men don't. So, as women we have developed a whole range of qualities and skills, for work, for home, for anything, and they are our skills and qualities. They may resemble men's on occasion but they are ours. When women realise this and stop trying to be one of the boys (whcih I beleive still happens) then we start to change cultures in the work place.

As for heroines I have loads ! Being the MD of a TV production company I've been priveleged to meet so many inspirational women, and each time you come away walking on air. A few personal favs -the late Anita Roddick for paving the way for women in business, Madonna for her incredible drive and business acumen, Mother Theresa for her lack of ego and of course the great Mrs T (though didn't always agree with her politics), Pinky Lalani MBE for setting up the inspirational women's network and tirelessly trying to inspire younger generations of women, Polly Higgins international lawyer and environmental activist who is using her knowledge and skills as a lawyer to look at the rights of our planet. The list is endless. Brillaint idea to get them on board - there are so many !

[Pauline Crawford]

Hi Tanya

So pleased to meet you and hear your story - as I said I have been quoted as 'driving like a man' and you are quite right, I am just a good driver who drives with confidence and prob a wee bit fast but never dangerously - now my perception is that men can be more reckless drivers!

I am so fascinated with the whole gender agenda and the mis-concpetions whirling around us. I was running a workshop yesterday ..and it happened to be all women (I work with mixed groups and all male groups too) and there was so much apprehension and protectionism to begin and pre-conceptions that I was coming from a 'feminist' point of view! Quite the reverse, I honour all men and women and our fabulous differentials both across and within genders. As the group melted and warmed up and gained a new perspective on who and how they act and feel as women, we moved towards the final goal...what do we ADD to the world of business...and of course we add LIFE and all it's very valuable nurturing energiess, womnen bring flexibility, humility, compassion, empathy, mediation, new perspectives, emotional depth and collaboration...as well as the many mutual characteristics we share with men...that make us a valuable partner in todays' re-design of the economy. We're good at business and we're go at life...however we need to stand up and authentically announce our worthyness to men so that they can see it and honour us.

Agressive women - especially in politics - do us no justice at all. Given the disintegration we see around us in business and in politics, women need to come together and really value each other and our range of natural talents and skills - and do so quickly.

I was given this quote;'There is a special Place in hell for a women who does not help another woman' Madeline Albright, who was Secretary of Space in Clinton's Adminstration.

So true ..when women stop being bitchy or victims and learn our natural value, then we can be together as sisters and work with our brothers in energetic harmony using ALL our skills together!

I am writing a business fiction on this tale ..the tale of men and women and six characters who represent the range of men and women within the gender dynamics we observe today. I invite you all to get involved with this story as it is a story of our time..and we need men to be involved.

My passion is to enlighten MEN and WOMEN to gether and separately that this is our journey TOGETHER... I look forward to sharing the first chapters as they will be up on the web very soon..and to evolve the story together with you..

More on this after 30th May when the first chapters go live!!!

Let me know more stories about your lives as 'masculineminded' women and 'feminineminded' women ...and your view on our collective unique qualities and so, like the great business women we are, let's go and embed the new blueprint....



.

Tanya Warnakulasuriya said:

Hey Pauline,
Interesting question. I too have the "male tag" placed on me often. In fact I was once told by an astrologer that under my "star alignment" (?), I should have been born a man !! I'd personally like to see us get away from labelling our attributes as either male or female, because in the corporate world the guys get all the good bits ! Structured, assertive, logical etc, and the "feminine" attributes are not always given a place - kindness, intuition, diplomacy. If you look at the same attributes in a different environment - the animal kingdom say, a lioness can be brutal, strategic, and a killer and its deemed her normal attributes to function in her world. I'd like to see our qualities show cased as strengths and weaknesses as human beings. The other day a friend of mine who had passed her motorbike test proudly announced that her instructor said she was the fastest girl he'd ever taught, and she drives like a guy. Is that a compliment? Maybe she's just a brilliant driver ? I was fascinated at how she considered that to be a compliment, and by doing so wasn't really doing her sex a service. Maybe I'm being too harsh.

Anyway, as women, I think we have a gift that most men don't. That is the ability to adapt and deal with change. This is because we're used to change from a very early age - our bodies change at puberty, through pregnancy, and in menopuase. Men don't. So, as women we have developed a whole range of qualities and skills, for work, for home, for anything, and they are our skills and qualities. They may resemble men's on occasion but they are ours. When women realise this and stop trying to be one of the boys (whcih I beleive still happens) then we start to change cultures in the work place.

As for heroines I have loads ! Being the MD of a TV production company I've been priveleged to meet so many inspirational women, and each time you come away walking on air. A few personal favs -the late Anita Roddick for paving the way for women in business, Madonna for her incredible drive and business acumen, Mother Theresa for her lack of ego and of course the great Mrs T (though didn't always agree with her politics), Pinky Lalani MBE for setting up the inspirational women's network and tirelessly trying to inspire younger generations of women, Polly Higgins international lawyer and environmental activist who is using her knowledge and skills as a lawyer to look at the rights of our planet. The list is endless. Brillaint idea to get them on board - there are so many !

[Tanya Warnakulasuriya]

Hi there Pauline,

Looking forward to chatting to you on Monday. I just wanted to add that I had a meeting this week wtih two ladies in the record industry, and after business was conducted we talked about women's prgress in the music industry and glass ceilings. They both agreed that not much had changed and that they still find most young women going into PR as they think this is their only option.

The interesting thing was that both ladies said they noticed that in the UK, there was no sisterhood. One woman was australian and the other was from New York, and both agreed that in their countries there was a strong alliance between women climbing the career ladders. Yet they had noticed that women in the UK "make sure they wear their stillettos" when climbing the ladder so that they can stomp on girls coming up behind her.

I don't know about Australia, but thought the US was similar to us ?

Pauline Crawford said:

Hi Tanya

So pleased to meet you and hear your story - as I said I have been quoted as 'driving like a man' and you are quite right, I am just a good driver who drives with confidence and prob a wee bit fast but never dangerously - now my perception is that men can be more reckless drivers!

I am so fascinated with the whole gender agenda and the mis-concpetions whirling around us. I was running a workshop yesterday ..and it happened to be all women (I work with mixed groups and all male groups too) and there was so much apprehension and protectionism to begin and pre-conceptions that I was coming from a 'feminist' point of view! Quite the reverse, I honour all men and women and our fabulous differentials both across and within genders. As the group melted and warmed up and gained a new perspective on who and how they act and feel as women, we moved towards the final goal...what do we ADD to the world of business...and of course we add LIFE and all it's very valuable nurturing energiess, womnen bring flexibility, humility, compassion, empathy, mediation, new perspectives, emotional depth and collaboration...as well as the many mutual characteristics we share with men...that make us a valuable partner in todays' re-design of the economy. We're good at business and we're go at life...however we need to stand up and authentically announce our worthyness to men so that they can see it and honour us.

Agressive women - especially in politics - do us no justice at all. Given the disintegration we see around us in business and in politics, women need to come together and really value each other and our range of natural talents and skills - and do so quickly.

I was given this quote;'There is a special Place in hell for a women who does not help another woman' Madeline Albright, who was Secretary of Space in Clinton's Adminstration.

So true ..when women stop being bitchy or victims and learn our natural value, then we can be together as sisters and work with our brothers in energetic harmony using ALL our skills together!

I am writing a business fiction on this tale ..the tale of men and women and six characters who represent the range of men and women within the gender dynamics we observe today. I invite you all to get involved with this story as it is a story of our time..and we need men to be involved.

My passion is to enlighten MEN and WOMEN to gether and separately that this is our journey TOGETHER... I look forward to sharing the first chapters as they will be up on the web very soon..and to evolve the story together with you..

More on this after 30th May when the first chapters go live!!!

Let me know more stories about your lives as 'masculineminded' women and 'feminineminded' women ...and your view on our collective unique qualities and so, like the great business women we are, let's go and embed the new blueprint....



.

Tanya Warnakulasuriya said:

Hey Pauline,
Interesting question. I too have the "male tag" placed on me often. In fact I was once told by an astrologer that under my "star alignment" (?), I should have been born a man !! I'd personally like to see us get away from labelling our attributes as either male or female, because in the corporate world the guys get all the good bits ! Structured, assertive, logical etc, and the "feminine" attributes are not always given a place - kindness, intuition, diplomacy. If you look at the same attributes in a different environment - the animal kingdom say, a lioness can be brutal, strategic, and a killer and its deemed her normal attributes to function in her world. I'd like to see our qualities show cased as strengths and weaknesses as human beings. The other day a friend of mine who had passed her motorbike test proudly announced that her instructor said she was the fastest girl he'd ever taught, and she drives like a guy. Is that a compliment? Maybe she's just a brilliant driver ? I was fascinated at how she considered that to be a compliment, and by doing so wasn't really doing her sex a service. Maybe I'm being too harsh.

Anyway, as women, I think we have a gift that most men don't. That is the ability to adapt and deal with change. This is because we're used to change from a very early age - our bodies change at puberty, through pregnancy, and in menopuase. Men don't. So, as women we have developed a whole range of qualities and skills, for work, for home, for anything, and they are our skills and qualities. They may resemble men's on occasion but they are ours. When women realise this and stop trying to be one of the boys (whcih I beleive still happens) then we start to change cultures in the work place.

As for heroines I have loads ! Being the MD of a TV production company I've been priveleged to meet so many inspirational women, and each time you come away walking on air. A few personal favs -the late Anita Roddick for paving the way for women in business, Madonna for her incredible drive and business acumen, Mother Theresa for her lack of ego and of course the great Mrs T (though didn't always agree with her politics), Pinky Lalani MBE for setting up the inspirational women's network and tirelessly trying to inspire younger generations of women, Polly Higgins international lawyer and environmental activist who is using her knowledge and skills as a lawyer to look at the rights of our planet. The list is endless. Brillaint idea to get them on board - there are so many !