sphinxx news alert  
14 April 2010 | www.sphinxx.com.au   

This week we talk about the C-suiteprogram, Catalyst Awards and recognizing pro-diversity work, women to watch, staying connected with sphinxx women through social media, a courageous poet, some very impressive women and a give away that everyone can win. We also offer the last week of the Ascend Early Bird rate special.

Also I will be in Adelaide around May 12th, Brisbane around May 18th and Melbourne around May 28th, so if anyone would like to meet up to discuss how you can best support women in leadership, contact me now so I can fit you in!

1. YOUR CAREER: Looking for a seat in the C-suite?
2. WORK: Catalyst Awards - get recognised for your pro-diversity work
3. WORK: Women to Watch
4. LIFE: Get connected through social media
5. LIFE: Pushing the boundaries with the talents you have
6. OFFERS: Ascend early bird rate ending soon
7. OFFERS: Complimentary passes to Sydney Community Foundation Event
8. OFFERS: NFP scholarship update
9. Ascend Day Feedback Winner Announced
10. Everyone can win this prize

If you have an idea for a topic we should include in a future news alert, please let us know - we’d love to hear from you!

All the best,

Jen Dalitz
Founder & The SheEO, sphinxx.com.au

sphinxx is the network for women leaders and provides support and services to working women to assist in managing their work and life priorities, and leadership advice to help them scale the heights in their careers.

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YOUR CAREER: Looking for a seat in the C-suite?

Then you might be interested in the C-Suite Program launched by the Business Council of Australia last week. The BCA is a collection of CEOs of Australia’s top 100 or so companies and the C-Suite Program will match CEOs involved in the pilot with one senior woman from another BCA member company identified as having the potential to become a CEO or CFO themselves within the next five years.

So far 11 mentors have signed up, “nearly all men” according to BCA Chair Graham Bradley in an interview on Sky Channel’s Business Sunday program last week.

Given only 2% of Australia’s top 200 public companies are led by women, the BCAs members are mainly men. That this initiative has come about as a result of men CEOs talking to other men about the issue is a good thing. Bradley also went to lengths to explain this “one of many initiatives by member companies” and that it is intended to complement the programs already in place in these individual organisations.

Anyone serious about changing the gender mix in top levels understands the need to engage men to achieve sustainable change; in this context it’s a good thing that the men are getting on board. However given that BCA member companies currently employ hundreds of thousands of individuals, it’s a shame that they’ve decided to involve only 11 women in the initial pilot program.

Bradley’s own advice to women at the CEW lunch in Sydney a couple of weeks ago was to take more risks and be more aggressive in realising their leadership aspirations - so its a pity that the BCA members weren’t prepared to do the same thing by involving more women in the process.

While this initiative is certainly a good thing, our position at sphinxx is “Please Sir, may I have some more?” We think there are more than 11 women worthy of a place in the C-suite and we’re going to ask the BCA to make more spaces available for sphinxx members.

What do you reckon, would you like a spot in the C-Suite? Drop us a line if you’d like to go on the waiting list for a place; and if you’ve missed out on a spot, here’s some practical tips you might apply in finding a mentor of your own:

1. Set yourself goals: what are you looking to gain from a mentoring relationship and what will success look like?
2. Use initiative: organised mentoring programs can be great but you don’t need to wait for your employer to find you a mentor for you; finding your own mentor shows initiative and will be well received by a potential mentor. And you will know best what will work for you.
3. Look around you: when I met Jack Welch in London a couple of years back I asked who his mentors had been; his response is that he reads widely, even taking advice from newspapers and current affairs about what to do and what not to do in business.
4. Get specific: Identify a specific skill or competency you would like to develop; then identify someone who demonstrates has strengths in this area. Ask them if they can spare 30 minutes to share some of their secrets.
5. Find a champion: Did you know that 80% of jobs are never advertised? By confiding in a person of influence, and informing them of your goals and aspirations, they can be on the lookout for you and put you forward for opportunities as they arise.

The Catalyst Awards are coming up again, and if your organisation has implemented a women’s program and are getting results, don’t miss the chance to get recognised for the work you’ve done for equality. Not only does facilitating more gender diversity create better business results, it also leads the trend to more appropriately employ, promote and retain female talent. Catalyst uses the tagline “changing workplaces, changing lives”. If your business is already onto this, you should get recognised for it.

If you’re not sure that you qualify, or want a clearer understanding of how you can apply, this webinar is designed to help your prepare you application.

Women to Watch

With the issue of gender diversity in leadership gaining momentum, a common question we hear is “where are the women to take up the reins?”

In the last Friday’s edition of Australian Financial Review BOSS magazine there is a list of woman whose careers, skills and capabilities are a resounding answer to the constant (and somewhat misleading) questions “where are the women?” when it comes to finding talent for boards and executives. Amongst the women profiled are our own sphinxx leader Cassandra Kelly and rising stars Melinda Cilento, Tracey Wagner, Kirsty Sutherland and Becky Alivio. And then there is the list of another 20 worth watching.

It’s also packed full of interesting studies, facts and stats. Did you know that 37% of the senior executives in the public sector are women, compared to only 10% executive management in the private sector? And it’s not what you might think, that there are just less women to go round in the private sector; the actual percentage of women hired in both the private and public sector are almost identical (59% and 58% respectively).

AFR BOSS admits it’s a small start, but great news is that they are committed, as we are to maintaining and updating this list as an online resource, and an annual feature. We plan to support BOSS in this undertaking and are preparing our own list of sphinxx women to watch. So if you know anyone, or personally deserve to be on that list, post a comment or email us here. If you can’t get your hands on a copy of the article, a slightly edited version is available here.

Get connected through social media

We’ve just launched our Facebook Fan page!

This gives you an opportunity to get involved in discussions, share links, easily connect your friends to information they may be interested and win prizes in competitions, many of which will be exclusive to our Facebook Fan page.

As we move towards Ascend, we wanted an opportunity to grow our community and keep the conversations going after the inspiring days.

On a similar note, if you haven’t joined our LinkedIn group yet you can do so here. Joining the LinkedIn “sphinxx successful women group” will enable you to see who else is engaged by sphinxx, and we will be ramping up our article sharing, discussions and news as we head towards Ascend.

Pushing the boundaries with the talents you have

I don’t often write about poetry for sphinxx. But this one poet, Hissa Hilal is a wonderful inspiration of what a courageous woman can do. She’s received death threats from extremist Muslims, but continues to chant her words of freedom each week on an Abu Dhabi television competition show called “The Million’s Poet”. Think Australian Idol, but poetry rather then music.

Every week she performs wearing the full traditional abaya, which covers her from head to toe, but her poetry is motivated by a message that is far from traditional. Her poems share her vision for women’s rights and freedom, and critics are recognizing that her continued success is because she speaks for so many people in Abu Dhabi, longing for greater freedoms.

Read the full article about her here. It includes one of her poems (translated). It is well worth reading, and considering how radical a stand she is taking for women’s rights in her home.

Ascend early bird rate ending soon

The early bird special for May Ascend ends on the 16th of April. So if you’d rather pay $345 then $445 for an inspiring day of discussions, speeches, professional development and networking make sure you register this week! Click here to register.

Complimentary passes to Sydney Community Foundation Event

The Sydney Community Foundation is a not for profit, public philanthropic foundation that identifies critical community issues and support the organisations who are responding with solutions. This Friday (the 16th of April, 12-2pm) they are running one of their "Inspiring Women Seminars: "Peacock one day, feather duster the next! Surviving the Road to Success". We have one complimentary pass to the city event and 2 for the Parramatta event (worth $55 each) to hand out for this event, so if you're interested post your comments on the blog, or contact us here. First in best dressed!

NFP scholarship update

We've already received several applications for the sphinxx not-for-profit scholarship, and if you know someone who would benefit from a years-worth of free professional development as a complimentary sphinxx leadership package, make sure you get them to apply now.

We can only give out 3 scholarships per state, so make sure you or your friends apply to take advantage of the increased competence, confidence and connections that sphinxx membership gives you.