Saimme kuluneen viikon aikana lukea Keskuskauppakamarin tuoreesta selvityksestä, jonka mukaan hallitusten jäsenistä naisia on keskimäärin 27% ja suurimmissa pörssiyhtiöissä jo 33%. Viimeksi kuluneen vuosikymmenen aikana määrä on kolminkertaistunut. Trendi on odotettu ja tarpeellinen. Määrät ovat silti pieniä ja pörssiyhtiöiden toimitusjohtajia on vain kourallinen.
Kun itse tulin nimitetyksi pörssiyhtiön hallituksen puheenjohtajaksi vuonna 2012, en edes tajunnut, kuinka vähän meitä silloin oli ennenkuin naispuoliset johtajat tulivat kertomaan, kuinka poikkeuksellinen juttu nimitykseni oli. Nimityksessäni oleellista oli kuitenkin vain liiketoimintaosaamiseni, ei sukupuoleni ja niin pitääkin olla. Onhan se hämmentävää, että naisjohtajien osuutta on 100-vuotiaassa Suomessa vielä tarvetta laskea ja uutisoida, mutta niin vain edelleen on. Hallitusjäsenyyksien tasaisempi jakautuminen ei ole itsestäänselvyys. Se on käsittämätöntä kun meillä ja maailmalla on runsaasti koulutettuja, osaavia ja päteviä naisjohtajia. On kysytty, onko niin, että naiset eivät hakeudu näihin tehtäviin yhtä aktiivisesti. En ole itse hakenut tai nähnyt kenenkään hakeutuvan hallitukseen jäseneksi, vaan minut ja heidät on haettu ja pyydetty tehtävään. Siinä on merkinnyt liiketoimintaosaaminen. Haasteeksi saatetaankin nimitysvaliokunnissa ja rekrytointitoimistoissa nähdä, että joillakin perinteisesti miesvaltaisilla aloilla ei ole riittävästi naisjohtajia, joita voisi ehdottaa. Voikin siis kysyä, eivätkö naiset hakeudu riittävästi teollisuuden liikkeenjohdon tehtäviin ja miksi näin on. Keskuskauppakamarin selvityksen mukaan eniten naisia liiketoimintajohdossa on terveydenhuolto- sekä kulutustavarat ja -palvelut -sektoreilla. Sen sijaan suurimmalla toimialalla, teollisuustuotteissa ja -palveluissa, naisten osuus on lähes olematon, 3 prosenttia. Energia-, perus- ja teknologiateollisuuskin yltävät selvästi parempiin lukuihin. Olin viimeksi töissä konsernissa, jossa oli n 10.000 työntekijää. Näistä vain yksi nainen veti liiketoimintayksikköä. Kaikki muut naisjohtajat ja -päälliköt olivat tukitoiminnoissa. Liiketoimintaosaamista hallituksissa tarvitaan, aivan kuten johdon coachaamisessakin. Mutta myös hallituksissa olisi hyvä olla monipuolista osaamista ja näkemystä niin oman liiketoiminta-alueen ulkopuolelta kuin erilaisista liikkeenjohdon tehtävistäkin. Muilta toimialoilta tuotu kokemus voi olla arvokasta. Se oli perusteena nykyiseen nimitykseeni hallituksen puheenjohtajaksi toimialalla, jolta minulla ei ole aiempaa kokemusta, mutta kansainvälisestä liiketoiminnasta runsaasti. Nykypäivänä päätöksiä ohjaavat ja taloudelliseen tulokseen vaikuttavat monet tekijät. On otettava huomioon juridisia, eettisiä, henkilöstöpoliittisia, viestinnällisiä ja monia muita kysymyksiä. Olen nähnyt myös työntekijöiden edustuksen hallituksissa toimivan hyvin ja edistävän päätöksentekoa ja päätösten toimeenpanoa. Kokeneet liiketoiminnan asiantuntijaosaajat kannattaa ottaa mukaan päätöksentekoon jo varhaisessa vaiheessa ja nostaa heitä johtoryhmiin. Coachatessani osaavia ja päteviä naisia olen useamman kerran saanut palautetta, miten poikkeuksellista ja vaikuttavaa, jopa ainutkertaista, on ollut saada positiivista palautetta ja rohkaisua. Se veti hiljaiseksi. Vaiennammeko osaajia taka-alalle? Johtajat, miehet ja naiset, kannustakaa ja rohkaiskaa positiivisella ja rakentavalla palautteella kollegoitanne, miehiä ja naisia, ottamaan kantaa ja jakamaan osaamistaan. Tuodaan ne taka-alallekin mieluummin jäävät esiin tuntemaan, että he ovat osaavia ja arvostettuja ja että asioihin vaikuttaminen on palkitsevaa eikä sitä ole syytä pelätä. Niitä eturiviin pyrkijöitä ilman osaamista on riittävästi. Kannattaa mieluummin etsiä pintaa syvemmältä ja ottaa käyttöön se kaikki huikea osaaminen, joka odottaa löytämistä. Miten? No, vaikka coachaamalla.
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I went through my files last weekend and found some Executive assessments that were made of me some years back at the time the whole team was assessed as part of a team development process. I read from there that “it is important to her to believe in what she is doing” and “to agree with and understand the strategy”. A bit strangely put, I think. Of course every company should make sure that it has a sound strategy that is communicated so that it is understood and accepted by the employees. Also any company should ensure that the work is seen meaningful and motivating. Luckily, my self-confident attitude was seen more of an asset than a burden. I'm smiling here.
There was also an earlier assessment there from another company. With only couple of years in between, some assessments were quite contradictory. Could it be that you sometimes give the answers that you know are expected from you or that you think support a certain profile you want to show, even if you want to answer honestly? And most of us have different profiles at work and at home which confuses even more. I recently heard from one company that their experts hate the profile tests and do not believe in them while the HR team loves them. Perhaps there is some Expert profile left in me from the legal counsel years. Otherwise, during my journey from Executive Director to Business Coach and Entrepreneur, I can see that my profile has changed quite a lot. Or to be more precice, I think my profile has changed and that has made me choose another path. Catherine Fitzgerald wrote in her book Executive Coaching about the change of personality in midlife. She refers to the work of Carl Jung who asserted that the goal of the first half of life is to win for yourself a place in society, focusing on being a specialist whether as a parent, profession, business or way of life. In the second life, in contrast, the focus is being a generalist, on revisiting and incorporating all of the parts of yourself that you had put aside in order to make your way in the world in the first half of life. The goal here is individual integration and wholeness. The first signs of this change can be disturbing because we don’t understand them. A tough leader suddenly gets passionate about gardening? According to Jung, this period is one of preparation for a significant, although not necessarily conscious or obvious change that is about to take place. If we accept these developments and expand our sense of who we are, we initiate a rich, although not usually easy, process of integration within ourselves, Fitzgerald writes. Many are familiar with the Jung’s profile test of three dimensions of individual difference: Extraversion - Introversion Sensing - Intuition Thinking - Feeling I did the test when reading the book this year and, indeed, the result was quite different from the one I got some 10-15 years ago. There is an interesting article on Action Logics Leadership Profiles on HBR. They also are steps in leadership development path. You can read the article at https//hbr.org/2005/04/seven-transformations-of-leadership. If you are interested, I can help you do the test with analysis by psychologists. Fitzgerald writes that a coach can help in understanding where you are now and can support in clarifying your present values and goals. Coach can help you in understanding and benefiting from the reactions that indicate new directions for work. This could mean expanding the present work role, developing the organization one step further, getting a new approach to work e.g. more as a team or with the customers or in a cross border project. Coach can help stabilise the change. This journey can be a huge learning experience and boost to anyone. I have had the privilege to be part in such journeys with my coaching clients and indeed -it has not always been an easy journey but an important one and a start to something better. Many have asked how I came into leaving my General Counsel career behind and became a Business Coach. I have been a bit amazed about it myself as well. I lived so long in that role and it played a major part of my life.
I have been in a General Counsel position (Head of Legal) in several companies and industries since year 2000 and a legal counsel for six years prior to that. Aside of heading the Group legal services and the international legal teams, I have been a member of the Group executive teams and the secretary of the board. I have been heading also compliance, risk management and insider information management. The work has been exciting, independent, with lots of challenges and therefore satisfying. I have had the power and freedom to act in my responsibility areas, I have been respected for my work and I have been well compensated. I grew with all the experiences with different work cultures and growing responsibilities. From the start, it has been important for me to work for companies whose operations I found ethical and meaningful such as clean energy manufacturing and supply and IT security. With the 24/7 work role that I had, I’ve always valued time over money. The last two-three years as the General Counsel were exceptionally hectic with a large IPO and a big court case on top launching a global compliance program and all the other projects and daily work. At the same time I was also a Chairman and board member of a listed company. Last year I looked at the picture from outside, not just me in it but the bigger picture: my reasons and motivators for doing what I do and what I wanted from my life going forward and most importantly, what is happening around me. I had 25 years behind in my career and many more years to come. I decided that it was the time for change. At first, it was surprisingly difficult to define myself outside of the work role, I had been living and breathing it for so long. I left my position promising to myself not to make any hasty decisions about the next steps but instead let the time tell. Very soon I realized that I cannot just be without doing something meaningful. I knew I was not motivated about office work and endless meetings. I love outdoors and it gives me the best ideas and balance. I started thinking about what I've experienced. The ups and downs of companies, the good and not so good leadership styles, strategies and business cultures and what effect it had on managers and the business. I was looking deeper into the business trends and leadership styles and profiles, I listened to the experiences and interests of others in business. And then I came across business coaching, of which I did not really know much about. It sounded like something that could improve my role as a board member and mentor but also in finding my next goal. So I decided to give it a chance. I trained to be a certified business coach. Quite soon during my studies I noticed that it was the perfect addition and continuation to my board and mentor roles and the executive and manager roles that I have had. It became the exciting next phase for me, a way of supporting companies that are motivated in improving the work of their leaders and managers and thereby improving their business. My dream during the studies was to be able to give coaching to teams also in great outdoor settings. Coming from such a different role, I was nervous to start the coaching but I felt strongly that it was what I should do. I was so happy to get all the positive feedback from the customers. My ex-team member from 2005 commented my first coaching blog that she realized from it that I was practising coaching leadership style already then. I knew I had found what I was looking for. I set up my company. Phase 3 of my life had started. And today my coaching retreat in 2018 in a beautiful landscape in Southern France was published. |
Päivi HautamäkiExecutive Business Coach, Mentor, Consultant Archives
November 2020
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