“Women in Leadership:  Overcoming Challenges, Finding Success” is the title of the next written assignment for my students in Management 3300:  “A Management Approach to Organizational Behavior.”  Since I had been an editor and contributing writer for two magazines focusing on breaking the glass ceilings, I directed my students to the section on my website where I posted PDFs of interviews I had conducted with top women in global business and newsletters on trends in the workplace.

Below is an edited version of a newsletter on, “Global Celebration of US Title IX.”  On June 23, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon signed into law Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, known as the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act in honor of its principal author, Representative Patsy Mink (D-Hawaii). Title IX states that, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program of activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

The impact of Title IX on the availability of sports programs for females in the US was dramatic. According to research by the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education, in 1971 young women accounted for 7% of all high school athletes. In 2001, young women made up 42% of high school athletes. As time passed, this American law created global waves of awareness leading to US college campuses becoming magnets for top female athletes wanting to go on to amateur and professional careers.

How does this relate to the workplace?

In Prof. Michael Messner’s book, Taking the Field: Women, Men and Sports, the University of Southern California professor of sociology states that laws like Title IX are still essential and that equality helps girls and boys. “Boys are growing up in a world where they will have women co-workers and bosses,” he says. “They need, as boys, to experience girls and women as physically capable, strong and assertive. When they see women play sports, and especially when they play alongside girls on their athletic teams, boys experience girls in a way that will foster a wider and deeper respect for women.”

Based on informal interviews and formal research, there is a strong connection between playing sports–especially team sports–as a girl and young woman and later business success.  In 2002, OppenheimerFunds, a leading mutual fund company and its parent, the MassMutual Financial Group, a global, diversified commercial services organization, commissioned a report entitled, “From the Locker Room to the Boardroom: A Survey on Sports in the Lives of Women Business Executives.” The findings on females in the US were clear: four out of five executive businesswomen played sports growing up–and the vast majority say lessons learned on the playing field contributed to their success in business.

Specifics of the survey include that of the 401 women surveyed, 327–or 82%–reported playing organized sports after grammar school, including school teams, intramurals or recreational leagues. Basketball was the most popular sport, cited by 23% of the women who played sports. It was followed by volleyball (22%), softball (17%), tennis (15%), track and field (10%) and soccer (10%).

Of women who played organized sports after grade school, 86% responded that sports helped them to be more disciplined, 81% said sports helped them to function better as part of a team, 69% replied sports helped them to develop leadership skills that contributed to their professional success, 68% stated sports helped them deal with failure, and 59% indicated that sports gave them a competitive edge over others.

To take a pulse on the role of sports in women’s lives around the world, I asked women executives to describe how playing sports is a positive influence on a business career.  The thoughts below of women from Nepal, Singapore, and Australia are part of a global chorus encouraging girls and young women to engage in athletics for future success.

Ambica Shrestra, BPWI Dinner, NYC

Ambica Shrestha shared her thoughts on Kathmandu, Nepal, a landlocked country located off the usual travel paths in the Himalayas in South Asia that is bordered by Tibet and China in the north and India in the south. Shrestha is a government and business leader whose volunteer activities include serving as the Regional Coordinator Asia-Pacific for the International Federation of Business and Professional Women (BPWI).

“Sports gives you discipline and a goal. These two things are the main issues which make you successful in your career and work,” states the active leader. “To run your business or institute, you need to have discipline. Disciplined time management, work management and approach to setting an example for your staff. Thus you need sports to succeed. The other issue is one of setting a goal. If you do not set your focus on what you wish to achieve, you will drift.  You play a game with the aim of winning.”

Shrestha, who travels the world for her job, shares that, “I found that sports will give you that basic training of perseverance, fellowship/sportsmanship, and goal setting. I feel that every youth in schools and colleges should be made to be involved in some sports.”

Nepal, she makes clear, is a male dominated society and that it is only during the past decade that women athletes and sports have developed noticeably. “Girls until quite late were not allowed schooling and any other activities. Now the girls are coming up in various sports such as martial arts, Taekwondo, table tennis, marathons, etc. The girls are now very good in martial arts and have been winning medals in international games.”

According to Ann Phua, President/Founder of Hemispheres Foundation and an Outdoor Consultant in Singapore, “Sports has been an important curriculum in our school system and all students are encouraged to participate unless there is a health or religious reason.” She participated in inter-school competition and played net ball (volleyball) and ran short running relays.

Phua, who also holds the position of Chair-United Nations Status of Women for BPWI, notes that women have an equal opportunity to play sports. “We have a Women Sports Division within our National Sports Council to encourage women to participate in sporting activities as a form of exercise for healthy living and not necessarily as a competitive sport.”

When asked, “Has playing sports contributed to your success in business?” Phua answered: “Sporting activities take many forms–competitive, extreme, and recreation sports. As a result of my participation in extreme and recreation sports it has helped in my outdoor adventure business, to be able to provide these sporting activities to children and young adults.”

Barbara Warren is passionate about what she calls “a really interesting and important topic–good for you for giving it exposure”. A swimmer, surfer, and marathon runner, she is also Head of Corporate Performance at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), Australia’s national training center for theater, film, and television.

In response to one question, “How has playing sports contributed to your success in business,” her thoughts filled a four-page document. She starts off, “Much has been written about sport and business and its analogous relationship but most of the writing has been from a male perspective. Everything I have read usually recounts the ‘team’ metaphor in aggressive or exclusive terms. ‘Mateship’ is historically explored as a masculine concept. Often the writing hypes up the ‘Rah, Rah’ factor rather than investigating the positive and authentic influence sport can have on building genuine relationships, engendering pride in being part of something or extolling the virtues of analysis and reflection.”

Further along in her document, Warren states that there is another component of how playing sports can motivate an individual. She declares, “If you have tasted success and you know how fabulous that feels, then you are definitely going to go back for more. Conversely you also see that losing isn’t much fun so you tend to avoid that at all costs! So has sport contributed to my business success? Absolutely!”

P.S.  The beautiful jacket from Thailand I’m wearing in the picture with Shrestha was the prize in a raffle that I won during the BPWI dinner!

“Understanding Work Teams” is the topic for my class “A Management Approach to Organizational Behavior” on Tuesday at the Zicklin School of Business.  During class, I’ll introduce the topic by reviewing the process the Chilean Miners used to survive, show the video on groups and teams at the idea-generating company Kluster (www.kluster.com), and, since I listened to an entire baseball game on Friday evening, insights on the Texas Rangers.

The Yankees were the favorite to win the American League Championship Series then repeat being World Series Champions.  However, the Texas Rangers surprised them and earned the right to advance, a first in the franchise’s 39 year history.  My purpose in writing this post is not to compare the merits of each team.  Instead, it is to profile a team other than the Yankees, a team that many may not know about, a team that demonstrates key elements similar to those of an effective workplace team.

Compensation

How important is salary or other financial rewards to team members?  The college students that I teach are interested in making money but they aren’t obsessed by it.  Instead, they seek satisfaction through workplace recognition, career advancement, flexibility, etc.

Football, basketball, baseball, and other sports stars get obscenely high salaries—one reason I usually would not use sports teams to illustrate “team work.”  However, in the world of baseball, the Rangers are in the bottom salary range.  According to Around the Horn Baseball’s website www.athbaseball.com, “The Rangers at just over $55,000,000 have the 5th lowest payroll in all of baseball this year.  The Yankees on the other hand have the games highest payroll at nearly $207,000,000!”  That seems low since according to a New York Times article by Ben Shpigel, “The Yankees lavished $243.5 million on starting pitching two winters ago…”

Managers at work—or in sports—can buy the talent they need.  Yet, they can also invest in the potential of an up and coming performer.  A person who with personal discipline and training, mentoring, and supporting from management and team members, can develop into the person the team needs.

Motivation

Ron Washington is the Rangers Coach.  The 57-year-old tested positive for cocaine in March 2009 and, unlike what other teams may have decided, management let him keep his job.  Why?  Washington didn’t hide what he did; he was pro-active in telling the Rangers’ management team that he knew he wouldn’t pass the drug test.  He also told his team about the incident and asked for forgiveness.

Management and the players believed in Washington and gave him another chance.  They trusted him not to repeat his drug use and continued their investment in the process he had started with his team.  Washington re-energized his commitment by the faith his team put in him.  While listening to the sixth game of the playoffs on the radio, I heard the announcers go on and on that Washington was the biggest cheerleader on the team, walking on the sidelines, slapping players on the back, and hugging those like pitcher Colby Lewis.

Perseverance and Poise

Last year, left-handed Lewis was pitching in Japan and uncertain whether he could make a successful comeback in the major leagues after shoulder surgery six years earlier.  During the Yankees game, he pitched eight innings, struck out seven batters, allowed only three hits, and gave up only one run in a stellar performance in the sixth game that clinched the pennant.

Over 12 million TV viewers watched the game, a few million listened to the radio like I did, plus there were over 51,000 fans in attendance in Rangers Ballpark.  The crowd in the park sounded exuberant and slightly out of control from the fourth inning on; yet Lewis maintained his pose and managed the pressure to perform.  Every article I’ve read about Lewis includes the fact that he wasn’t nervous.  Instead, he was ready to win.

Having watched and listened to many Yankees games throughout the summer season, I knew that they were quite capable of generating the runs they needed in the top of the ninth to beat the Rangers and force a seventh championship game.  Yet, that didn’t happen.  Nothing happened for the Yankees after getting their one run.  Reliever Neftali Feliz came on to face the Yankees in the ninth and got three outs in succession.  The last batter was Alex Rodgriquez, a former Ranger who asked to be traded for a more mature team than the youthful Rangers.

Get ‘em on, get ‘em moving, get ‘em in!

Joe Morgan, one of the ESPN radio announcers during the game, broke down the essence of a winning baseball team:  get ‘em on, get ‘em moving, get ‘em in!  In other words, batters need to get on base any way they can, wisely move around the bases by stealing or advancing on a base hit, and make a concentrated effort to find a way to cross home plate.

Simple, huh?  But that’s how the Rangers played the game.  They were confident about what they needed to do and how they were going to get it done.  And they outplayed the Yankees.

Team Spirit

Of course, after Feliz struck out Rodriquez to end the game, there was a huge celebration by the Rangers on the infield.  The traditional beverage of celebrations is champagne.  In this case, however, the Rangers came on the field with green plastic bottles of ginger ale and other sodas.  Why?  Their shower beverage was chosen out of respect for their teammate and Most Valuable Player of the Series Josh Hamilton, a recovering alcoholic.  Once the celebration on the field was over, the Rangers went to the locker room where there was champagne and Hamilton went on to another room to celebrate his success with more soda.

Team Rangers played their way into the World Series and the chance to face the San Francisco Giants in the first game on Wednesday evening.  When I listen to the game, I’ll be thinking about the Rangers and how they illustrate the essence of a team:  doing a job they love and playing for modest compensation; having a trusted leader who motivates and inspires his team to do their best; developing poise and perseverance to achieve goals beyond their expectations; engaging in respect for each other; and coming together as one team.

The Rangers were ready to win.  I wish them well in their next round of competition.

What’s your recipe to be an effective manager?  Don’t know what I mean?  If not, you might find this post of interest in helping you create a new receipe or learning how to enhance the one you currently use.

Last August, my niece and I went to see “Julie & Julia”—a delightful movie about the life of Julia Child who, in 1948 and in her mid-thirties, discovered her career as a French chef and educator then evolved into a major cookbook author and television personality and making public appearances until her death in 1992.  The character “Julie Powell” was portrayed in the movie as a young writer whose job was to answer phones for those needing help after 9/11.  She felt frustrated at work and started a blog about Julia Child.  She also decided that she was going to cook 524 recipes from Mastering the Art of French Cooking co-authored by Julia Child in 365 days.

This spring, this same  niece lent me her copy of My Life in France, an autobiography of Julia Child written with Alex Prud’homme.  I started reading it at a pace of about 10 pages a day.  However, when I was about 100 pages into the book last weekend, I thought, “Why am I reading this?  I don’t really like French food!  I grew up on the basics, I cook the basics and I eat out to savor complicated dishes.”  Not one to give up on a book, however, I began to think about why I should continue reading and that brought me to remembering the first time I heard about Julia Child.

When I was a junior at the University of California at Berkeley, I had a part-time job as a work-study student in the Art & Music (A&M) Department at the Main Branch of the Berkeley Public Library.  As a Librarian’s Assistant, I helped patrons locate books, albums (!), and prints of major artists.  And I was also to report the behavior of a regular visitor—one of the many “characters” who at times put mirrors on the top of their shoes and stood very close to a female patron who was wearing a skirt.

Bruce Munly was the Librarian for A&M and manager of one full-time and many part-time employees.  Other part-time people included four middle-aged (and slightly older) women married to college professors and another Berkeley undergraduate student (he later became my husband).

“What did you think of Julia?” was Mr. Munly’s ritual greeting when one of the women arrived in the department.  They then would proceed to talk about the delicacy that Julia had prepared on the latest episode of “The French Chef” on our local public broadcasting station.  It was “all about Julia” for the first ten to fifteen minutes of a woman’s shift—and would often be revisited, many times when another gourmand arrived to talk about what Julia had prepared.

An effective manager who made the most of this diverse group, Mr. Munly organized a staff dinner once or twice a year.  This potluck supper was held at his or one of the women’s homes, often one in the Berkeley Hills with a spectacular view looking out beyond the Golden Gate Bridge.  When it came time to volunteer to bring food to the dinner, Mr. Munly and the women would decide which dish they would bring—usually a “Julia” dish.  The college students and the full-time employee would bring wine, bread, and possibly dessert—first asking the “elders” for specific instructions on what to buy.

Memories of one—if not the best—workplace experience of early career came flooding back to me last weekend as I turned each page of My Life in France.  Ignoring the world outside, I gave myself the afternoon to follow Julia’s journey through her writing career which she embraced enthusiastically and spent the evening learning how she had found her way to television.  Reading her book was like eating a good meal; I finished it feeling satisfied and satiated with good memories.

Looking back at his management style, I see how Mr. Munly maximized the talent he had in his small department.  He created a congenial atmosphere—based in part on Julia’s recipes—where he engaged and motivated his team to be productive through food, a love of the arts, and a great spirit.

At the close of each episode of “The French Chef”—and at the very end of her book—Julia wishes everyone a bon appétite!

As I asked at the beginning of this post, what is your recipe to be an effective manager?  No matter your “cuisine,” or your particular management style, I wish you time to think about how you manage.  Specifically, what is the thread of the conversations you have with your staff members and how do you connect with them on a regular basis?

While you are creating and enhancing your own recipe of effective management, I wish you bon appétite!

‘Tis the season to remember what was once the heart of the baseball world here in New York City. No, not the Yankees. The Brooklyn Dodgers. It was 50 years ago that the Bums left the area and moved to warmer climes. Specifically, my hometown of Los Angeles.

Listening to people who call in to WFAN, the sports talk radio show in NYC, I feel as if the move happened yesterday the caller’s pain sounds so raw. Reading stories like, “Exorcising the Dodgers: 50 years ago, the Dodgers left Ebbets Field for Los Angeles. Isn’t it time their ghosts left, too?” in New York Magazine is representative of the hold the team still has on the hearts and minds of the faithful.

I was close to making my first call to WFAN to say that, “Your loss was my gain.” I was a Dodgers fan at a young age. A Los Angeles Dodgers fan. My father made me and my sisters into loyal followers of the team. I’m glad for it. The team built relationships and started conversations within my family and also with neighbors in my changing neighborhood near Watts – conversations that happened before and continued after the riots of 1965.

Pop and Mom had five boys then produced four girls – of which I’m the youngest. The boys all played sports of one kind or another. The girls a little – but we made up for that by watching not just baseball in person plus football and basketball games on TV with Pop. It wasn’t just that Pop wanted to go to the games and needed company. That was part of it. It was also, though, part of our training in life to go with him. There was something about his observations of the players and the strategy of walking someone intentionally that has stuck with me. Watching my sister Lou fill-in the scorecard then doing it myself to record the statistics of achievement. Cheering when the bugle sounded whether the Dodgers were winning or losing; we did it because they were the home team.

There were times when it wasn’t fun. Like watching a one or no-hit game. Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale were great pitchers who could finesse a baseball to get it right where they wanted it. Watching got fun when Maury Wills tested the pitcher with a long lead from first base and then proceeded to slide into second, looking up to see if he could keep on going. Don, Maury, and Duke Snider were some of the players whose pictures hung on our bedroom wall. A closer look at our favorite players since our usual spot in Chavez Ravine was high up – the cheap seats – right behind home base. It hadn’t been any closer in the Coliseum where we first saw the Dodgers play.

As a leader, I’ve grown to appreciate the lessons I got from attending games with Pop, grateful that he didn’t write us off as just girls who wouldn’t be interested. There was another thing about sports that was important. It gave us a reason to go out and do something with Pop, to relate to him in new ways. Also, the girls used baseball as an excuse to travel. The four girls packed our Dodger blue sweaters and grey skirts then drove up to San Francisco to cheer our home team on in front of the other New York deserters – the Giants.

One of my nieces lives in Northern California and is a serious San Francisco 49ers football fan. In 2004, she said she wanted to come to New York to see her team play the New York Jets. Okay. The Jets won. That was fun. The next year, I went out to her stadium to watch the New York Giants beat the 49ers. Last December I volunteered my leadership services in New Orleans and that weekend the Saints were playing the 49ers. Yup! She was there with me – staying until the very last second of the game, risking missing her flight home even though her team couldn’t catch up. Next week, the 49ers are playing the Giants. My niece flies in on Saturday and leaves on Monday.

I’m looking forward to watching a game with her. It’s like watching a game with Pop. New Yorkers, thank you for parting with the Dodgers. Your loss was my gain. The gain of a gift that keeps on giving in new and delightful ways.