Coursers

Back in October I wrote a post challenging women to rewrite the stories of their successes in the workplace: http://yourwindlass.blogspot.com/2012/10/redact.html.  Instead of apologizing for our unconventional work styles born out of the need to address family responsibilities, we should start marketing them.  Instead of treating flexibility as if it were a regrettable accommodation, we need to flaunt it as an indispensable tool.  I really believe that those of us who have leveraged every bit of give the workplace will grant to achieve success on our own terms hold one of the keys needed to break through the glass ceiling.  I’m the first to admit there are more locks, deadbolts, chains and bars on this hatch than on the door of a stereotypical inner city apartment, but it seems there is male support for my theory, as evidenced by this perspective published in Forbes earlier this year by a working dad:  http://www.forbes.com/sites/brianreid/2012/06/25/why-young-single-men-are-the-solution-to-the-having-it-all-problem/

What I like about the Forbes story is that it suggests the need to move toward a gender bilingual workplace.  The irony in all of this is that in order to achieve equality, to make it possible for more women to have executive level positions, men need to begin embracing the way women work.  The techniques that successful women employ need to be not just accepted by men, but actually adopted. This is a radical departure from the old adage that women need to become more like men. 

Women have been surreptitiously flying under the radar, honing the skills required to successfully manage teams virtually, empowering their teammates to represent them in remote locations,  strategically filling the hours in the office with face-time and saving heads-down work for home.  We’ve been wildly successful, but somehow it feels almost shameful, like some kind of covert mission.  Women have been sniffing out their paths on the sly; isn’t it about time we’re enabled with tools in plain sight and accessible to all?

Interestingly enough, technology and social media heavily favor a shift in this direction, and even offer a way for us to quietly retire the decidedly female connotations currently associated with alternative working.  As with anything though, it is far easier to introduce a new concept than it is to drive adoption. But the organizations willing to promote, cultivate and make real a culture of flexibility for all will reap the benefits brought by the powerful, quick and nimble women leaders more than ready to mount to the sky.