Women and Men, Work and Power

It was a daring letter - which I never sent. I'm sorry I didn't.

Under Harriet Rubin's leadership, Doubleday/Currency published more than 60 business books, 40 of which sold over 100,000 copies and 5 of which sold more than 500,000 copies. She is the author of The Princessa: Machiavelli for Women (Doubleday, 1997).

Kathryn Gould
General Partner
Foundation Capital
Menlo Park, California
kgould@foundationcapital.com

It's not becoming for a woman to think about power. And it's not part of my personal repertoire. To enjoy "power" is to enjoy control - especially over other people. I suppose I could wield that kind of power, but I choose not to. I'd rather persuade people with my powers of reasoning than dictate to them from a higher position.

Let's be honest: The culture of any management team, even if there are women on it, is still a male culture. Certainly that's true in a male-dominated field like high technology. It all comes down to football. Most women haven't played team sports. They don't understand how men feel when they're part of a team - the sense of camaraderie, the joy of victory. The companies I back all embody that team spirit - a commitment to winning, being the absolute best, dominating markets.

I know women who are great at the mechanics of running a business. I know women who are great nurturers. But I haven't met many women who are conditioned to touch people's hearts as leaders - which is quite different from touching their hearts as nurturers. Most people in most companies still want - and need - someone who says, "There's the hill. It's big and steep, but we're going right up to the top!" That's not nurturing; that's demanding.

I have coached lots of women on this point. Most women get where they are by working incredibly hard, by being outstanding performers at their jobs. But at some point, their very success propels them into a whole new sphere - this male-dominated realm of power and leadership. And they are unprepared for it. My simple advice: Work for someone who is an extraordinary leader and watch how he does it. Then decide if you're cut out to lead in that way too.

Kathryn Gould has served on the boards of 11 startups. She has positioned five of them to be acquired and has taken two of them public, in deals totaling $2.5 billion.

Sara Levinson
President
NFL Properties Inc.
New York, New York

Is my leadership style different from a man's? That's a tough question for me to answer - so I asked my management team for their thoughts. That simple act, they told me, pretty much answered the question. They agree that my emphasis on group communication, on soliciting their ideas and opinions, is a major characteristic of my management style. They also say it's why they think I'm a good leader.

Is this a distinctly "female" trait? The members of my team - all of them male - seem to think so. Does it work? I suppose it does. Indeed, I will be brash enough to suggest that the culture of NFL Properties has changed under my leadership - and changed for the better. Now the emphasis is on sharing ideas, communicating them throughout the company, and reaching common goals. At NFL Properties, when we win, we win as a team.

Before joining NFL Properties, Sara Levinson was president-business director of MTV. NFL Properties is the licensing, marketing, and sponsorship division of the National Football League.

Kathy Kane-Zweber
Director, Work/Life and Wellness Initiatives, Motorola Inc.
Schaumburg, Illinois
cfnn50@mot.com

For almost 20 years, I've been on the front lines of the struggle for power in the workplace - both by women and between women and men. And it's evolved quite a bit. At first, women defined and pursued power according to the precedents set by men. Most of us can probably identify at least one woman who can attribute her success to an ability to be "just like the men." But gradually women redefined power to be about more than achieving a certain job or reaching a certain income level.

Women became more comfortable with using their own style as a way to move forward; they didn't have to act "just like the men" anymore. As they began to define power as the ability to influence their environment to suit their needs, they began to rely upon their innate abilities to achieve this power.

Women, much more naturally than men, enjoy collaborating - defying the boundaries of age, status, rank, and race. Such collaboration has persuaded companies across the country and around the world to institute workplace improvements such as on-site child care, family leave, and flexible work schedules.