Blogs by Dermot McKinney

https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-sprachkurse/wangen-im-allgaeu/c271l https://www.linkedin.com/in/biztalks/ https://www.xing.com/profile/Dermot_McKinney/ Biztalks.de Englischsprachenzentrum https://www.yelp.de/biz/biztalks-de-wangen-im-allg%C3%A4u

The business model and women James Damone worked for Google as an engineer from 2013 until a few weeks ago when he was fired for writing a 10 page memo criticising Google on a number of issues. The main one was that, in his opinion, citing principles of evolutionary psychology argued that women are unsuited to be good engineers because they are more interested in people than ideas. Couple that with the Facebook and Apple policy of offering to freeze eggs of female employees in an effort to attract more women into the workforce. The idea being that women could put of parenthood until their late 40s and thus have a longer career. Now think about the fact that women are paid, on average, 20% less than their male counterpart. In some instances the gap is way bigger. None of these lack any business sense but what they do highlight is women have a rough time of it in their career paths. Why? Has it got to do with women and wanting babies. No. It has to do with innovation. In business we all learn that innovation and sales equals success. We must innovate to survive and grow. The business graveyard is full up with good companies that failed to understand this or to act. So, for a business to weather the storm of longevity it must change. Yet the whole business model, the way we do business, the template that we all work to, has not changed in hundreds of years. Some tinkering around the edges has occurred: flexitime, work-sharing, crèches at work etc. but by in large we have failed to innovate the very system that we all work to. Fifty percent of the workforce is female yet the system is still based on the model that men do the work and women work for a few years and then start a family. They get paid less because of the understanding that they will someday leave for parenthood. The system, as we now have it, does not base women in the centre of our work force. Women should not have to choose between parenthood and a career, it should be possible to integrate the two. Our business model is outdated and needs a twenty first century response. Freezing eggs is not innovative, it is a self absorbed , badly thought answer that puts the organisation first and parenthood a poor second. All this from companies that strive on innovation. Pity they did not have their thinking hats on when they came up with that Orwellian idea. It is because women are not centre stage that we get the Damone view as mentioned in my first paragraph. It is not up to women to solely come up with the answers. It is up to businesses to innovate here. Imagine a business model where 100% of the workforce is included in the business system. To companies big and small, to communities and organisations it is time to innovate, sell us the idea and thus succeed.

What is leadership? There are two people in your life that can ruin it.. a bad boss and a bad spouse. OK, that may sound a bit of a frivolous remark keep it in mind. Any fool can try to be a leader. There are many many leaders out there and many styles of leadership. I am not going to talk about leaders or styles or how some become leaders even though they have no talent for it. I want to concentrate on great leadership. This is sadly lacking in our world today. Be it business or in politics: business schools churn them put by the thousands every year. This just goes to prove you can train anyone to be a leader but to be a great leader you either have it or you haven’t. But have what? Again not trying to be frivolous, if I need to explain it to you, you do not process it. But just for the record here is my list as to what makes a great leader. These traits must be present in equal measure but weighed out differently depending on the circumstances…the great leader will know how and when to apply each one and in what measure. Greatness in leadership is: Having Integrity and accountability Having Vision Being passionate, conscientious and obsessed Having empathy Possessing cold logic Being able to analysis data impartially Judging with experience Inspiring, empowering and trusting others Being emotional stability Being a decision maker, courage Being willing to learn Being a great listener Someone who wants to lead but not egocentric Being able to plan, lead, organise, control motivate and achieve ………..And knows when it is time to leave the stage. This is not easy and not everyone has all of these characteristics but that is what sets a leader apart of a great leader… which one are you?