Last Friday I attended the AIM Great Debate in Sydney, which sphinxx was proud to sponsor.  The topic of the debate was “Nice Girls Finish Second” and involved a swag of celeb speakers including Mia Freedman, Peter FitzSimons and Wendy Machin arguing in the affirmative and Catherine Fox, Lisa Wilkinson and Dr Cathy Foley arguing against.  I laughed so hard at the tit for tats from side to side, and really it was refreshing to see everyone having some fun with what is usually a pretty hard slog: trying to decipher why so few women make it to the top in business. Read More

Last Friday I attended a great luncheon debate organised by the Australian Institute of Management “Nice Girls Finish Second”.  Over 1000 people attended with around a 98% female gender bias.  I was the only male sitting at a table of 12.  The debate quickly turned to the question of whether you can be both nice and a leader.  Both the affirmative and negative teams used the same methodology, listing examples either non-nice females becoming leaders or vice versa.  Of course, arguing this way suffers from the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy.  So what makes a leader?  Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer, has argued in his excellent (and I think best) book Managing With Power: Politics and Influence in Organization that leaders have six core characteristics: Energy, Team player, Focus, Conflict, Empathy, Flexibility. Read More

“…the reason top-tier female MBAs make less then the men is because of the choice they make, not because of any gender bias”. This is not the only reason why male and female workers do not achieve equal pay and even if it was, women should not be penalized for having children, and should not be forced to have to make a choice between having children and a career.  Read More

There has been so much traffic to our blog about the $37 million lawsuit against DJs, and such a media furore around the case that it’s clear that harassment and bullying are hot issues in the workplace right now. If you run a team or company in NSW, this refresher seminar is a must see. Set to start at 5.30 to 7.15pm on Tuesday the 21^st of September, you can book now online. Read More

HBR has published their daily stat that 85% of fathers in Sweden take extensive paid parental leave. Just imagine if 85% of men in Australia took any parental leave! Read More

I’m a member of Executives Women’s Business group on LinkedIn, and wanted to share with you all an article one of the other members shared about how to beat shyness, and become more confident. Read More

Another batch of Ascends has drawn to a close, and we’re a bit tired but thrilled about how they all went. I wanted to take this opportunity to promote some brands who support advancing women in business by donating gifts to the Ascend development days. A massive thanks to Innoxa for their goody bags (even better then the May Ascend ones!) and Christine at Organic trader for the Cocolo chocolate and the team at Fruit at Work for the flawless apples donated for every city. Also a big thank you to our raffle prize donators for every city – Corban & Blair and their gorgeous stationary, Lindy McLeod from Market Basket, Helene Blanchard for the lovely lingerie from eLilianne and of course the team at www.bestgiftcertificates.com.au for the $100 gift voucher for every city. Read More

The Times published an article a while back that proves the Prince of Wales was right all along. Plants really do like it if you talk to them.  What he did not know is that they prefer to hear a woman’s voice. These are the conclusions of a month long study by the Royal Horticultural Society into the effect of the human voice on tomato plants. More than two decades after the Prince exposed himself to ridicule for saying it was “very important” to talk to plants and that “they respond”, horticulturalists believe his hunch was correct.  The guys at Mythbusters also agree. When they looked into this urban myth in 2004 the verdict was “plausible”. So how does this research help us in the workplace? Well, you can draw some parallels with female leadership styles. We have been talking for a while now about the feminisation of leadership and not just from the point of view of having more women as leaders but also of male leaders adopting a more humanistic approach. We are starting to see more of that but we still have a long way to go. I know in my business I am often called upon to facilitate potentially volatile meetings because my clients realise that putting a woman in charge can neutralise some of the animosity in a group, especially when large numbers of men are involved.
 Read More

The woeful state of Australia’s female representation at executive and board level and lack of real action to improve this issue creates a lot of conversation and study about what programs are working overseas. Read More

Elizabeth Broderick, the Sex Discrimination Commissioner has released a report that outlines the inquiries, investments and initiatives to rectify a wide range gendered imbalances Australian face. The issues fall into five priority areas: balancing paid work and family/caring responsibilities, ensuring women’s lifetime economic security, promoting women in leadership, preventing violence against women and sexual harassment and strengthening national gender equality laws, agencies and monitoring.  I had a closer look at the Blue Print report and it has big things in store for working women. Read More