By Allan Maurer
CHARLOTTE, NC—While a broad survey of women in technology revealed they do not always feel their voices are heard in tech companies, deeper interviews with women CIOs suggest key lessons for those who want top positions. Among those lessons: find mentors and choose what one calls “the big, hairy, all-consuming assignment.”
Patricia Shafer, president of Charlotte-based management consulting and research firm Compel Ltd., and co-author of the report based on the survey conducted by Compel and California-based Women in Technology International (WITI), says in-depth interviews with 16 women CIOs produced a list of seven characteristics they shared. Those common characteristics, Shafer says helped the women rise to a leadership roles.
First among them, Shafer points out, “All most all of them had mentors or role models.” Shafer notes that their mentors or role models were not necessarily other women.
That differed from the full Women in Technology 2007 survey of nearly 2,000 women in which only 27 percent said their companies provided mentoring opportunities.
Need for mentoring opportunities
“That’s one of the big disconnects we see,” Shafer says. “Forty-seven percent said they do not have and never have had a mentoring opportunity in their current companies.”
The CIOs interviewed for the report also had mentoring through strategic networks outside their own organizations, Shafer says.
Other common characteristics of women who rose to CIO positions included that they “worked for stand-outs,” she adds. “They worked for reputable name organizations and got themselves assigned to major projects. They were good at raising their own flags.”
On the other hand, in the full survey, women seemed good at using their power and influence to serve their teams or their customers, but not to further their own careers, Shafer notes.
Choose big projects
One of the chief ways the CIOs interviewed advanced was by “choosing projects with weight,” says Shafer. “The technology environment really is about tangible results and successes. We got the sense from the women CIOs that for a woman to really make her mark, she has to take on the big, hairy, operational assignment where success is not assured.”
Other characteristics the successful women CIOs exhibited included “speaking clearly and with integrity,” Shafer says. When they took on those big, sometimes troubled assignments, they were able to speak openly about what needed to be done to turn a project around.
Shafer says “being the hard charger worked to a certain point” for the CIOs, but “then, one of the things they are most recognized for now is their ability to communicate and build a collaborative environment to create consensus. They’re optimistic bridge builders.”
The CIOs also took time to reflect on themselves and their direction. “They had done a lot of leadership development work, got coaching and style assessments,” says Shafer.
Shafer points out that the Southeast’s technology hubs and cybercities are growing rapidly. Demand for highly qualified people “is growing noticeably,” she says. “If they can’t retain women, they’ll face a crunch in the future.”
Shafer is among the presenters at this month’s North Carolina Technology Association (NCTA) Charlotte WISE (Women in Information Science and Engineering) event – From Geek to Chic: Reversing the Trends by Attracting the Best and the Brightest to Technology on Wednesday May 23, at Byron’s South End in Charlotte. For more information see:
http://nc-tech.org/news/press-5-9–07-Reversingthetrends.asp
This is the second part of Techjournal South’s report on the 2007 Women in Technology Report. For the first part see:
http://techjournalsouth.com/news/article.html?item_id=3135
For a copy of the full report and a Webinar on its findings Tuesday, May 15 at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., see:
http://www.witi.com/center/webinar/
Southeast Venture Conference, February 29 – March 1, 2012 at the Ritz Carlton in Tysons Corner, VA – Where Smart Money Meets Smart People.
www.seventure.org
© 2007, TechJournal South. All rights reserved.
