WEIBLICHKEIT HEUTE

Imagine you are walking though the departure area of an international airport. You hear reverberant announcements like: "Last call for passenger Mister So-and-So for Flight Number 123 to town XYZ!"  You move on to get to the VIP-lounge. You seem to enter another world. You find a comfortable seat with enough space to straighten your legs and enjoy the pleasant atmosphere. The buffet leaves no wish unfulfilled, hot and cold drinks, a variety of fruits and delicious snacks are offered free of charge. Jane has appointed me to this place for our interview. I am early in time and do enjoy the exciting atmosphere. All that many briefcases and laptops around, the men almost disappear behind them; they look as uniformed as their equipment. The same business suits with the same fashionable collars and neckties. Only the cell phones ring differently. I realize only a few women, they are wearing pantsuits or tight-fitting suits. Everybody appears decent, stiff and formal. Those colorful wide swinging skirts, scarves and bags of the female tourists in the departure area are not seen here.

Jane rushes in.

She is a young career woman, one of the youngest „President & Chief Operating Officer“ of an international travel agency. She loves her air trips from capital to capital around the globe. She had posted on my website, that she appreciated the definition: “Womanhood = Fine Antennas and Social Sense."

Question: What do you think about chances of women’s leadership today?

Jane: Looking at my mother I recognize that making her career seemed to be much more important for her than it is for me today. Half a life she struggled for it. But for me things flied off the shelves without any struggle and one day leadership was offered to me. Last week our regional TV program showed a report about my initiatives, because I am one of the youngest directors in our company. I was quite amused by what my colleagues said about me. They explained I were acting firmly, had come out on top and concurrently I were warm-hearted, kind and feminine. They called it the “typically female secret of success”. My mother made a big fuss about it: “Obviously our fights for decades have changed the society so it is much easier for women today. We were confronted with lots of prejudices.”

Question: If you try to abstract from yourself, what would you identify as success factors for women?

Jane: Well, of course the "soft skills" or the "emotional intelligence” are important if you want to stay successful for longer, not only get on top for a short period of time. I passed some seminars about leadership development and about the elements of success - but they were always very academic and out of touch with everyday life. Although I passed a university career I never felt comfortable in this purely rational world. There is a lack of vitality and life practice. Neither at school nor at university you get prepared for life. The teachers, lecturers and professors all swim on top of a soup of unworldly theory, teaching precious little of every day’s real life.

For example in Business Administration, there you meet people who know the specific mechanisms of economy. But rarely one of these persons lives in a position of responsibility like an entrepreneur! Those who lead a company also bear responsibility of their employees. How can such an entrepreneur be prepared for his job? And how are we prepared for handling money, for allowing ourselves getting rich without fears and anxiousness? Why does there exist that much jealousy? I love the book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad. What the Rich teach their Kids about Money" by Robert T. Kiyosaki. The author answers many of my questions with competence and humor, fabulous!

Question: Are you concerned about such questions because of being a career person or because of being a woman?

Jane: I have decided to give more importance to my inner sense. I think, this is my female way of being concerned with business questions. I don’t mean any diffuse feelings or emotional behavior which men call “typically female”. There exists an inner voice within everybody – man or woman – which leads us very well, if we listen to it. But we have to get this ability of listening to our inner voice!  It is like a clear, strong compass that we carry within us. I often have to decide between difficult alternatives and lots of impressions, opinions or loudly alleged arguments often baffle me. Therefore a strong connection to my inner voice is very important. If I listen to my inner sense I make results-producing decisions.  When I will raise my own family I will certainly tell my kids how to use the inner compass! That's very important

Question: How do you train listening to your inner voice?

Jane: For that I often go in the outdoors. If I'm staying in a big city, I always take time for a walk in a park or a botanical garden or on the riverbank. Sometimes my business allows me to visit a wonderful destination and there I can souse into the nature. A good friend of mine gives coaching called "learning from the nature", pretty awesome. She sets for example the task to search a nice place in nature and watch patiently what happens. Especially if you want to get answered a certain question you asked to sit down at the place you choose and observe whatever happens around you. Maybe you discover a special plant or some animals appear. Carrying your question in your heart you will find answers clearly visible before your eyes. Yesterday I took a seat at a lake and suddenly some ducks came swimming around. Their constellations showed me exactly how I could pick my new team in our department of Mumbai. I was very much concerned with that problem for weeks, but now, watching the ducks. First there swam only one of them, another followed and after that four ducks came together. After them three little ones swam around and an adult one came at the end. It seemed so easy when I put all the ten persons of our Indian team in the same way like the ducks constellation. Perhaps you can’t believe me? Try it on your own! Last week I was walking in the forest without any certain question but feeling very burdened, as a squirrel suddenly crossed my path. Just the way it jumped made me laugh and in a way let my heart happily jump. I was relieved spontaneously, and I realized that I need to bring more ease in my thinking, if I want to solve a problem. Life is simpler with this method!

Question: Is this method a feminine way of successful leadership?

Jane: Sometimes, yes. I don’t believe in that old saying: "Women got to be better than everyone else, if they want to succeed." I think that's nonsense. I finally want to be myself, that's it! It is easy to make things on one’s own. I know, for example, that I reap sympathy mostly because I'm just friendly to each one and don’t beef. Why should I, life is wonderful! I can visit many countries, learn a lot about cultures and landscapes – that’s what I always wanted. Why should I be dissatisfied? Only because of people beefing around me? In India, there exists a ancient wisdom in seeing  women as "the flowers of life". That impressed me prettily. A flower brings beauty to life. And colours.  And fragrances. Why don’t we develop those qualities in our female working lives as well? Probably most working women are discouraged because everyday work today mostly looks like barren rocks with gnarled trees and some few fruit-bearing bushes with thorns? In job routine there are no visions of wonderful landscapes with lakes and pine forests, palm trees and flowers, no diversity, no intoxicating scents. Everybody goes on holiday once a year. Once a year people live – the rest of the year they work. Isn’t that awful? Unbelievable?  If you want, that's my feminine approach to a vision of business-world. But men experience the benefits of nature the same way – why didn’t they change modern business world yet?

Question: Do women gain another approach to nature than men?

Jane: Yes, definitely. Of cause men have their reference to nature, too; there are male nature-coaches, albeit more concerning survival trainings. There is the "Horse Whisperer" and there are many gardeners and gardening enthusiasts, animal rights, etc. among men. To understand our female way of gaining acess to the nature I think we should create a wider idea for the term "nature". It is more than just plants, animals or landscapes. Women have a different frequency in their relation to nature; we receive and give birth for young souls. We feel when something’s up or if there is something in the wind. Women sometimes recognize creatures of nature, unseen beings. Today there is a common consciousness of things between heaven and earth among women of many cultures.

Question: Do you mean the fine antennas of women?

Jane: Yes, they are an important aspect of womanhood. Women are able to perceive very early what happens within the invisible areas. For example women are able to recognize not only telepathy more easy than men but also thoughts diffusion, darker or lighter atmospheres around them etc. They could be warned earlier or could help others if they intuitively sense early enough what’s going on in the unseen. Some call this ability an “emotional intelligence”. But for me the female sense is one of the important aspects of womanhood. It’s a good term, those “fine antennas of womanhood”.

Question: How do you use your female antennas in business? Do they help to manipulate or help to climb up the greasy pole?

Jane: Perhaps, yes. But if you fiddle you have to earn your seed one day. Modern leaders caution against any dishonesty in business. They know how the laws of nature work, for example: “As you sow, so you shall reap.” – or sometimes even “They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.” Therefore I prefer to say, that our fine antennas could probably help us to climb upwards to clearer climes. I believe that business succeeds much better if you manage it honestly and friendly. But simultaneously you have to stay alert and keep aware of unexpected attacks from jealous or defeated colleagues and business partners. In my opinion there is no contradiction between warmness and defense. Honesty is the best policy.

Question: What is most important to you for being a successful and leading woman in business – except competence?

Jane: Let me consider. Perhaps it is just a warm laugh. Yes, I think that a woman’s warmness moves more than a man’s heartiness. (She smiles).

Thank you for the fair and square interview!