Clear role of women-leadership is still not formulated

TRANSLATION FROM SLOVENIAN ARTICLE IN "FINANCE" NEWSPAPER

Nancy J. Adler, a professor of management, is convinced that for successful business operations managers need to change their ways of doing business, and art can help them in this respect. For more than a decade Prof. Nancy Adler lectures how managers can become more creative.

Who is Nancy J. Adler?

Prof. Nancy J. Adler, the S. Bronfman Chair in Management at McGill University in Montreal and artist, Canada, is one of the leading authorities in global leadership and cross-cultural management. Dr. Adler's research has focused on the areas that have emerged as critical for a better understanding of the role of business and leadership in society, including global leadership, cross-cultural management, strategic international human resource management, and women as global leaders. Dr. Adler personally and her work have made a significant impact worldwide. She has taught top level executives in a number of countries, in her way of working with managers she also successfully use art. IEDC-Bled School of Management has conferred her academic title of Doctor Honoris Causa for her outstanding contribution to the global leadership development.

The role of women changes; research by the EU Commission shows that women perform 66% of work in the world for less than 5% of payment. Having that in mind, the role of women is changing. Where do you see the role of women in society and in business?

In the past the key question about the professional role of women was how to raise their involvement in leading positions, whereas today, the most important question is, how do we access the top human capital - men or women - who will take over the top positions. However, the most important question remains, what kind of society do we really want. We can notice many changes in political and business leadership. For example, in family-run business in the past there were manly men-successors, whereas today we can notice that many women take over leading positions. If a daughter has developed a good sense for running a business, and a sun prefers to be a sportsman, woman will take over a company.

In theory the equal status between men and women is guaranteed, however in practice we can often see different story. Are we ready for women leaders?

None of the so far studies has shown there would be any differences when comparing women and men on top positions. The difference has to do with methods of leading, and not directly with gender. All of us who strive for more quality leading in politics, business and in society, hope that women will access top positions; we hope that women will bring more novelties. One of the key points of the global leadership is transparency. Maybe the advantage that women have is that they need still need to shape and develop their role in leadership. Actually, we still have to invent our own views about issues, society, and relations. Men have their role-models, whereas woman, with some rare exceptions, actually don't have.

In your carrier you were many times "handicapped" because of gender. Has the system in the 21st century changed?

Yes, but not completely. If you look at academic sphere, there are lots of women-professor, but still not many on the top positions. When I was conducting a research on women on senior positions, I was very surprised to discover that first woman who became top-level managers didn't breach top positions within companies where they built up their career, but they got a chance to get on top when performing for other companies.

You are actively involved in incorporating art in management and leadership; you've been more than a decade incorporating art in your work with managers and leaders all around the world. How do you connect art and business?

One of the reasons why I strive to connect art with management is that I would like to exceed "dehydrated language of management". Let me explain. If I talk about what inspire us, especially in circumstances when the life shows us also its dark side, and I would like to use the language of econometrics (what I studied), then a deep conversation is simply not possible. Why? Because the econometrics does not have a vocabulary that would make this possible. Art means especially broadening the vocabulary; it help us broaden business thinking and I'm referring here from 'decision making' to 'design making'.

Are managers open to that kind of learning? In the time of crisis many companies are focused solely on survival, with some exceptions that recognize their opportunity in crisis.

If I have to provide answer for the majority of companies, then no. But of course there are also some good exceptions. Just before I came to Slovenia, I've been involved in one workshop of well-known multinational where I used to evaluate the current position of the company and its further vision by using art. We incorporate in workshop also theater, film, dance, and at the end also painting, what helped us to come up with the most important discovery within the workshop: a conversation about what is really important for the company and how to set up its further development.

In the time of crisis many are talking about turning back to the core business, because in the time of conjuncture some companies exceeded boarders of its basic activities. Would that be a wise strategy?

I still have doubts about it. It has nothing to do with the fact that basic activities would be bad; I'm just distrustful because we are living in the illusion that if we get back to the approaches that we were happy about it in the time before the crisis also the success will come back. Well, I see a problem here, because since then the world has changed, the global competition is different as it was five years ago. Models from five years ago simple do not work anymore.

Can an artist be a manager and manager an artist?

More and more an expression "business artist" is used, what stands for very creative businessman. In recent times there are quite some companies who experiment with incorporating art in their actions by inviting artist to spend some time in companies. The main goal is to open the spirit of employees and thus help them generating some new ideas. In this concept managers can learn a lot from artist and not vice versa, although this is also not excluded. A fact is that art is becoming global. Just look for examples museums Guggenheim and Louvre who open subsidiaries around the world. 

Article from Slovenia's Finance Newspaper, December 17, 2010

Journalist: Mrs Ksenja Tratnik

Read original article in Slovenian below (PDF attachment).