Smash the glass ceiling, build a great legacy and live the good life
Women don’t want to be CEO’s
Women want to be CEO’s
Women want role models. Women want to be role models.
Women want ethical decisions. Women execute brilliantly corporate decisions.
Women want unique clothes. Women wear 50 shades of gray suits.
Women want to rock the boat. Women want peaceful harmony.
Women want children. Women don’t want children.
Women want love. Women want solitude.
Women want rest. Women want travel.
Women want the center stage. Women want to be anonymous.
Women want to shatter the glass ceiling. Women want a good family life.
Women want to be a profound change in the world. Women never say NO.
Women not only want to be CEO’s.
Women want it ALL.
Women want it ALL, yes, even completely contradictory things.
The complex nature of women hasn’t been yet understood by the business world at large. No wonder so many women retention and promotion programs fail. No wonder we see more and more women leaving the asphyxiating corporate world, either by voluntary resignation or by burn out.
Five years ago, I was pretending to be a man in women’s clothes. I had the highest position in my company a woman had in Europe at that time. I was responsible for a substantial bundle of money, for a large number of professionals and the services they provided. So the company treated me well: I enjoyed a generous package (good salary, good bonus, gorgeous company car and more). So I had it “all”: decision making power, recognition, international business class travel, money… AND I was not happy. I couldn’t look at myself in the mirror: I disagree with many of the choices of “management”, I was not contributing directly to the improvement of the planet, I was not making people expand, I was not growing myself…
It was of course not easy to realize that I wasn’t happy. First I thought that it was just boredom. I talked to my boss and he happily gave me more responsibilities. In other words, he gave me more cake, when what I needed was a different recipe. My body was the first one to bring the message: dry skin, high blood pressure, pain in my left arm (symptom of potential heart attack)… My private life was shouting it: no-one was waiting for me at home, not even a cat. What was absent of my life? Many of the things a truly love: art, public speaking, love, children… rest, health, inner satisfaction of working towards building my legacy.
I shouted: “I hate this job” and all got organized for me to run every morning along the Vondelpark. I had nothing. I had nothing to lose.
Then, 5 years ago, I started my entrepreneurial adventure. With an MBA in my pocket, I decided to write a business plan and do what was convenient. In other words, I decided to be reasonable, don’t listen to my heart, but to my mind. It was a disaster. The first year I paid an expensive tuition to the university of life. Then I learned that all you want shows up, when you really show up, when you really sit on the driver seat, when you promote yourself to the CEO of your own life. When I stop listening to the experts and started listening to my intuition, to my essence, to my passion, my business started thriving. Very quickly I created services, was found by inspiring customers, raised my prices… Very quickly I had a business. I had the good things that my old job gave me: decision making power, recognition, international business class travel, money
AND
That was not all. At the same time, I put in place all those elements that used to be absent in my life. I worked on my health. I started painting. I fell in love and built a family.
Now I don’t work. Now I concentrate in building my legacy. I just choose projects that will contribute to my soul mission: building the heart centered economy. If the project doesn’t touch my heart, it doesn’t get in my agenda. Now I can look at myself in the mirror with the light on.
My story is by no means unique. In this journey I have met innumerable female executives transformed into mompreneurs, who are transforming the economy everywhere around the globe. With their work and their example they inspire companies and individuals to take different choices, to build a more human and humane business culture.
The complex nature of women matches better with the complex nature of business, with the complex nature of reality. We are more organic. We move according to the moon, to the seasons, to hormones. We understand that there is time to grow, there is time to develop, there is time to wait, there is time protect, there is time to attack. We are ever changing, just like our surroundings and our inner guidance tell us.
When our business decisions will become more feminine, more organic, more real, they will respect the seasons, the needs of the people, the moment. When we´ll see business in an organic way, poverty and fraud will be eradicated and an inclusive and joyous business world will emerge.
How?
Companies, Institutions, Academia
Concentrate in building an amazing organization, one where remarkable talent (forget about gender)want to work for, buy from, sell to, work with. Concentrate in building a company that is inspiring, honest, innovative, human and humane. Concentrate in building a company that is the best representation of your values. When you do that, there will be no need of,
– Women’s retention and promotion programs
– Women’s conferences
– Women’s quotas
Women
1. Promote yourself to CEO of your own life TODAY. Stop blaming your boss, the boss of your boss, the company, the glass ceiling, the government, your husband, your children, your mom… Stop blaming. Take control of your destiny right now.
You don’t need to quit your job( well, not right now). What you need to acknowledge is that you are your very own boss, that you choose, that you can choose, that you should choose.
2. Now that you’re the CEO of your own life, make your first 100 days plan. Make an inventory of your life and decide what needs to go, what needs to grow, what needs to be added. Don’t intend it, don’t try. Do it. You owe it to yourself. No excuses.