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News About The Leader's EdgeThe Leader's Edge™ is on the move and in the news. Check back here often for reprints of articles that have recently appeared in magazines, newspapers, and other printed publications. Choose an item from the list or scroll through this page to see what others are saying about us.
Leadership Style Leadership Style One of the newest members of Penn GSE's Board of Overseers, Molly Shepard GEd'79 knows what it takes to be a better leader. Forty years ago, "men's work" and "women's work" were clearly differentiated: by and large, women worked as schoolteachers, nurses, and secretaries, while men did everything else. After the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964-which included last-minute language barring discrimination on the basis of sex-things changed. The face of the American workplace today would be virtually unrecognizable to the men-and handful of women-who passed that legislation. In 1950, about 33 percent of women were working, virtually all of them in the jobs deemed their proper domain. By 1998, nearly 60 percent of American women were in the workforce, many of them in fields their mothers and grandmothers could only have dreamed of pursuing. The number of women doctors has increased threefold since 1970, of engineers by nearly five times since 1978, of lawyers by a factor of 10 since 1970. Dig a little deeper-or look a little higher-and the picture isn't quite so rosy: of those lawyers, only 13 percent have made partner, and in the university, only some 18 percent are full professors. As for business, the number of Fortune 500 companies headed by women has grown fourfold in the last 20 years. But that impressive-sounding statistic loses some of its luster when the actual numbers are trotted out. In 1985, there were two female CEOs among the Fortune 500: today there are only eight. What's a woman to do? Enter Molly Shepard GEd'79. A career consultant and veteran of the corporate world, Shepard has made it her mission to help more and more women crack "the glass ceiling." In 2000, she founded The Leader's Edge, a consulting firm dedicated to enhancing the leadership skills of corporate women and helping them thrive as they advance into the highest ranks of business. But Shepard wasn't always a woman with a mission. As an undergraduate at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, she majored in Russian-without a thought to entering the business world. In 1970, she found herself in Philadelphia, where her husband was attending Penn's law school. Shepard landed a job as the admissions director for the Institute for Paralegal Training. It was her first experience with leadership. "I was 23 and had this wonderful opportunity," she explains. "At a very young age, I was leading a small team and having to think about how to motivate and lead by example and energize my staff to do what was a very difficult job." The Institute was a job training and placement firm for college graduates interested in paralegal work, and much of Shepard's days were spent providing guidance to recent grads. A self-described "counselor by nature," she began taking Psychological Services classes at Penn GSE in order to hone her skills. At the time, Penn GSE policy required all master's students to attend full-time, so Shepard had to juggle full-time employment, full-time studies, and motherhood of two children under the age of three. She recalls interrupting recruiting trips to fly back to Philadelphia for class-and then flying back to complete her business. She also recalls, gratefully, a call from Penn GSE Professor Peter Kuriloff offering to make an exception for her: she and a handful of other working people would be allowed to complete the master's degree as part-timers, provided they did so within a year. In 1978, Shepard began an accelerated course of study, signing up for the required internship at Horizon House-a provider of community-based treatment and rehabilitation and the only agency she found that offered evening work for counselors. After graduating, she was recruited by the Hay Group, a management consulting firm, to start their Career Continuation divisions in Philadelphia and Washington, DC. "'Career Continuation' was a euphemism for helping executives transition from jobs they'd lost into new careers," Shepard explains, adding, "All of a sudden, I found the work I really loved." She credits her experience at Penn GSE with giving her important tools for the kind of counseling and evaluation she had to do at Hay: "At Penn," she says, "I took every counseling course there was-individual counseling, group counseling, I can't remember them all. I took educational measurements, and that's been invaluable because I do a lot of testing and assessment now. It wasn't the conventional path for an ed school graduate, but the training I got as a Penn GSE student was exactly the preparation I needed for my career." In 1983, she struck out on her own to form Manchester, Inc., which specialized in leadership development, coaching, and change management as well as providing counseling and other services to down-sized executives. From her vantage point as president of one of the country's leading human resources consulting firms, she had the chance to observe how rarely talented women managed to reach the highest ranks in corporate America. So, when she and her partner sold Manchester, Shepard decided she wanted to do something about the situation. Honing the leader's edge What she did was to found The Leader's Edge, a leadership development and consulting company that focuses specifically on the growth and advancement of executive and high-potential women. "When I truly understood how poorly women were prepared for leadership roles," explains Shepard, "I wanted to design an intervention that would answer their multiple needs. At the beginning, I did extensive research, looking at how corporate culture affects women. My study surveyed 1,000 executives nationwide to identify the issues and challenges that were affecting men and women in the workplace. Based on what I learned, I created our leadership development protocol." Today, The Leader's Edge-with offices in Philadelphia, New York, and Washington-offers an array of services that grew out of that basic approach. Company clients can send senior-level women for personalized leadership coaching, and individuals can opt for career counseling as they move into new jobs or careers. Last year was a banner year for the firm as it opened a branch office in Washington and worked with more than 300 women and 53 client companies. Shepard is particularly proud of a new program tailored especially for women of color in executive roles. "We partnered with an African-American woman to design this program," she says, "and as we were doing research, we discovered that African-American women at the senior corporate level are only rarely offered the opportunity to participate in leadership development programs-let alone ones designed for their needs." Next year, she hopes to introduce a similar program for Asia-American women and also to start up a graduate program for Leader's Edge alumnae. More immediate plans include the launch of Women on Board, a program designed to prepare corporate women for board candidacy. Making its debut in May, the program will help women make their way onto corporate and non-profit boards-a skill Shepard is eminently qualified to teach. In addition to a number of corporate boards, she serves on a wide range of non-profit boards and recently agreed to sit on Penn GSE's Board of Overseers. "I was flattered when Susan Fuhrman invited me," she says, "and I hope to be able to advance the School's initiatives and increase its visibility." Shepard's to-do list is long-and ambitious. But, as she's quit to point out, women still face real challenges in the corporate world. Playing the game Her approach to those challenges is characteristically pragmatic. Faced with a work world where corporate women are still underrepresented in the higher ranks, Shepard began conducting an annual research study of the state of executive women in business. Leader's Edge research has looked into what corporate America can do to retain executive women, why women are voluntarily walking away from size-figure salaries, and why some people make it to the top while others-equally talented-don't. The research is designed to help identify strategies for survival in the corporate world. For instance, to ferret out why some executives advance while others lag behind, Leader's Edge asked senior executives about their day-to-day behavior on the job. What Shepard found were striking differences between men and women in areas like networking, self-promotion, and communication. As they advance up the ladder, women become less likely to use the kind of time-tested tactics that executives on the rise use to advance their careers. For instance, among men in the upper echelons of the corporate world, 75 percent place a high value on their networks, compared to only 66 percent of women. At the lower rungs, 73 percent of women rate self-promotion as an important skill; among higher-ups, that number decreases to 50 percent. And, again, women in the executive office are less assertive in meetings than their male counterparts. Behind all these statistics lie human behaviors that can, after all, be changed. "In terms of improving their career potential, women should not behave more like men to effectively climb the corporate ladder," Shepard says. Writing in Smart Business Now , Shepard offered some straightforward tips that don't require a complete overhaul of one's personality. She urges women to watch their language, avoiding qualifiers that might undermine their point-words and phrases like "maybe" and "I think." She wants women in leadership roles to take the kind of strategic risks they took on their way up. She suggests that women executives schedule a meeting before the meeting to marshal support for their ideas. She wants them to join associations and boards-and let their colleagues know that they have. In short, she says, "Women need to learn to play their own game better."
Source: PennGSE Magazine, Spring 2005
Women, Get Ready.
Helping Executive Black Women Succeed Strategic Networking: How to Build Social Capital for Business Success Strategic networking is defined as "a method for passing along information and ideas from one person to another in order to expand influence and build social capital." It is a dynamic process that links people in a mutually beneficial relationship. For those seeking to continue to grow and support their business organizations or enterprises, it is an essential skill. However, finding a smooth balance between strategic networking to promote one's business and the actual delivery of the business is not always an easy task. Many companies fail because this balance is not achieved and individuals get bogged down in the design and/or delivery of their product or service and forget to get out and promote themselves and their businesses. Unfortunately, that can lead to missed business opportunities and lost revenue. The Rewards of Networking Is Your Network Working? How do you rate your current network on breadth, activity and diversity?
In evaluating your network, consider that a strong, strategic, "open" network provides fresh information and ideas. In an ideal open network, for example, contacts extend both inside of your organization or business as well as outside to thought leaders, competitors, gurus and peers in your industry. An open network has many contacts that bring in more diverse information and knowledge to help you and your business thrive. A "closed" network, on the other hand, has less diversity and fewer, more intense contacts. Information in a closed network can often just be recirculated. To move to a more open network, make a list of people outside your current network whom you should or would like to know. Consider as well people you haven't paid attention to recently and those you have met at seminars, conferences and other venues. Once you have evaluated your network and moved to a more open system, the next step is to "work" your base. Staying in communication with your network is essential and requires good time management. For example, carve out five to ten minutes two or three times a week to make contact by phone or email, or set up similar interest email groupings, forward articles, send updates and leave voice mails. You may want to set a goal of having one meeting with a new contact per month. Remember, networking is part of your job! Interestingly, a recent study by The Leader's Edge(tm) indicated that women don't invest in their networks as frequently as men do. Results showed that 66% of senior executive women believe networking skills to be important vs. 75% of senior executive men. These results suggest that men place a higher value on networking and perhaps have a clearer understanding of the benefits. Strategic networking requires a time commitment, but the benefits in terms of one's business and career are well worth it. Molly D. Shepard, Founder of The Leader's Edge, has more than twenty years' experience in career development consulting, leadership development and executive coaching. She founded The Leader's Edge to help enhance executive women's effectiveness as senior leaders and to help them take on greater roles in their organizations. Shepard is also a past GPCC Paradigm Award Winner. 
Getting Together Networking groups for entrepreneurial women have been around for decades now, but each year, new groups form to fill unmet needs. Take Wild Women of Wonder (WiWoWo), for example. What started as an informal weekend brunch in Silicon Valley, co-founded in April 2001 by author and entrepreneur Sally Richards, 36, quickly exploded into one of the hottest gatherings for women in tech and multimedia (plus a few honorary male participants). There's a waiting list to attend Richards' invitation-only group, where vibrant, offbeat roundtable discussions are launched by passing a "talking stick" around the room (whoever has the stick has the floor). Or RG2, a more intimate group of women entrepreneurs who share leads, opportunities and advice. "We all are in noncompetitive businesses," explains founding member Molly D. Shepard, 55, also founder of a leadership development consulting firm, The Leader's Edge, in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. Shepard's reason for helping start RG2 (the name stands for Radnor Girls Group, after the Radnor Hotel, where the first meeting was held in November 2001)? "Men have been sharing leads and opportunities for years. [Women] need to be more supportive of one another." Although other women's business groups were operating in the Philadelphia area, Shepard says none of them focused on entrepreneurs or shared leads and advice. "Networking is more than handing your business card to someone and hoping they call you." RG2 meets in the mornings at one of the member's offices. They exchange leads, then one member makes a presentation about her business, explaining how the group can help it grow. They share clients, brainstorm strategies, and turn off their competitive sides, giving generously to one another. Sandra G. Yancey, 42, founded eWomenNetwork Inc. in Dallas in late 2000. "I believe women need a networking environment that allows them to ask for what they need to take their business to the next level." Yancey's solution, the eWomenNetwork.com Web site, "is all about promoting its members and helping them get connected to the resources they need," she says. "We have events where each woman who attends meets at least 20 women who learn who she is, what she has to offer and what they can do to help her in the next 30 days." These groups are all examples of what you should look for in a networking organization, says Lucy Rosen, 42, president of The Business Development Group in Garden City, New York, and founder of 15-year-old power-networking group Women on the Fast Track. "Networking is more than handing your business card to someone and hoping they call you," she says. Rosen suggests women business owners look for groups with "stability and a great leader. A true networking group has a set day they meet each month, a set time and a set meeting place. The leader is organized and accountable. Members understand the value of networking." A good group is worth its membership fee, Rosen adds. When you find one, get the most from it. "Don't wait until the meeting to say hello," Rosen says. "Get together; explore opportunities." Minority WIPP Entrepreneurs Terry Neese and Barbara Kasoff have spent years advocating for small businesses. Now, they've formalized their passion by launching Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP). The San Francisco-based nonpartisan, nonprofit organization works to advance legislation to help women business owners. WIPP informs members and congressional leaders about issues such as government and private-sector contracts, access to capital, and reducing regulations and paperwork. To find out more, visit www.wipp.org.
Aliza Pilar Sherman is an Internet pioneer, netpreneur, speaker and author of the book Contact Sources The Leader's Edge Wild Women of Wonder Women on the Fast Track/The Business Development Group  July/August 2002 Shifting Gears: While the Grind Continues, Women Shift Behaviors on Way to the Top Senior executive women are becoming increasingly less assertive, more formal and more risk-averse as they climb the corporate ladder. These surprising findings are the results of a new, nationwide research study of male and female Fortune 500 and other senior executives with salaries of $150,000 and above. The study found that as women rise in the corporation, there is a dramatic and unexpected shift in their behavior as compared to their male counterparts and more junior women. The findings also lead to the significant realization that companies are losing a great deal, both financially and intellectually, in terms of talent, recruitment and retention, when it comes to women in the workplace. According to the study, while networking skills continually increase in importance for males, these skills become less important to women. Sixty-six percent of women believe networking skills to be important, while 75 percent of men believe this is a critical factor. Although 73 percent of the more junior executive females believed self promotion is a critical factor, this figure decreases to 50 percent for women in higher positions. On the flip side, self-promotion increases in importance for males as they advance. Communication style is also a key area of differentiation. The study shows that women, in general, are less assertive in meetings than men are. Women tend to temper assertiveness as they rise in the organization, believing it puts them at risk. Only 69 percent of women like to challenge thinking, compared with 82 percent of men. There is also a broad division of thinking between women and men in the area of mentors. Eighty percent of the women surveyed view the role of mentors as protectors, rather than as agents of advancement. Women tend to use their mentors passively and defensively, for protection and information, rather than for assignments and visibility, as do men. The majority of successful men - 77 percent - state that they make increasing use of their mentors to obtain plum assignments and further their careers. Additionally, women tend to become increasingly reliant on formal meetings to influence senior management, compared with their male counterparts and junior executive women, who better utilize informal interactions both on and off the job. In fact, only 15 percent of junior executive women cite formal meetings as the most effective vehicle to influence senior management, compared with 28 percent of senior executive women. Women claim that they are excluded from informal off-the-job activities, suggesting that the "old boys network" continues to be a factor. Why are female executives making such dramatic adjustments in their behavior? The findings point to a continuing double standard between men and women in the workplace, where the very behaviors that are rewarded and encouraged in men are considered as negative attributes in women. As a result, women who stay in the corporate environment are becoming conditioned through their experiences to shift their behaviors in order to sustain themselves in high level positions. Many other highly entrepreneurial, risk taking and assertive women become frustrated and leave the corporate world to start their own businesses thus creating a talent pool exodus at the highest corporate levels. This issue is critical, not just for women but for their employers as well, and needs to be on the radar screen of every enlightened CEO. Developing and retaining top executive talent is costly, and will continue to escalate as we face a talent shortage over the next few years. Firms must consider whether they want to risk losing highly talented executive women and face the added recruiting, retention and replacement costs associated with those losses. Another point for CEOs to bear in mind is a recent study indicating there is a major economic advantage to companies that have women in the upper level executive ranks. According to an article published in the Harvard Business Review in November 2001, the study, conducted at Pepperdine University in California between 1990 and 1998, found a strong correlation between a company's profits and the number of female executives in its ranks. The research, conducted at 215 Fortune 500 companies, found that organizations with the highest percentage of female executives delivered earnings far in excess of the median compared with other large firms in their industries. In terms of improving their career potential, women should not behave more like men to effectively climb the corporate ladder. On the contrary, women need to learn how to play their own game better. There are some very basic remedies female executives can employ to begin to affect change. These include:
But stemming the tide of the talent pool exodus by encouraging and supporting women executives and creating a balanced corporate environment will take effort. Corporate health is clearly dependent upon a number of diverse factors not the least of which is having in place a highly talented, effective executive team which includes women and other minorities. The value women bring to the corporate setting cannot be denied. On a broader scale, the economic power of women as corporate stakeholders cannot be ignored. Women are over 50 percent of the population and they control 80 percent of household spending, a $3.28 trillion market. Women buy 50 percent of all passenger cars and purchase 64 percent of the $184 billion in apparel each year. It is important that women be represented in corporations at the highest levels so that firms do not lose the support from the various stakeholder groups that care about these issues. Corporations and executive women working together to close the obvious gap that continues to exist in the workplace is clearly in the best interest of both parties. Only with a conscious commitment will female executives finally be in a position to contribute their true value to the companies they serve. Molly D. Shepard is Founder and Principal of The Leader's Edge, a Philadelphia-based organization promoting the leadership development and advancement of high level executive women. Reach her at 610.660.6648 or via e-mail at info@the-leaders-edge.com. New leader's job is to help other women to advance
If her new employer wanted someone with a leader's edge, it certainly got one in Nila G. Betof, whose career has been a steady climb through the leadership ranks. Betof, 54, joined the Leader's Edge as chief operating officer in June. The Leader's Edge, which is based in Bala Cynwyd, is a leadership development company for high-potential and emerging female leaders. She came from Strategic Management Group Inc., where she was vice president for the client solutions group. During an interview last week, Betof said the Leader's Edge works with women in a coaching environment and also by bringing groups of senior-level women together at skill-building retreats. At the retreats, they identify areas in which participants need development, she said. Coaches then work with the women to help them sharpen their leadership skills. Betof said the women were sent to the program by their employers. There are two programs. The Leader's Edge is a three-day retreat for six women who are senior managers. Leading Up is a two-day retreat for women on the management level. Both programs are followed by months of coaching. Betof said that, in the year or so that the Leader's Edge has conducted its programs, about 35 women have participated in the Leader's Edge and six in Leading Up. The Leader's Edge company was founded two years ago by Molly D. Shepard, a pioneer in women's leadership coaching. Betof said companies that send women to the program were not taking part "just because it's a nice thing to do. Women control about 60 percent of the wealth in the United States, and make about 80 percent of the family health-care decisions," she said. "That's a $90.8 billion market. In addition, women make a majority of consumer purchases, which is over a $3 trillion market," she added. Betof, who was born and reared in Northeast Philadelphia, went to Northeast High School before graduating from Temple University with a bachelor's degree. She then went to the University of Pennsylvania for a masters in social work before earning her doctorate in organizational development at Temple. Her early career was in counseling. She later branched out into operations, and began her steady climb up the ranks of the corporate world. She and her husband, Ed Betof, who is the chief learning officer at Becton, Dickinson & Co., a medical technology company in Franklin Lakes, N.J., live in Richboro, Bucks County. They have a son, Ari, 22, a teacher in Massachusetts, and a daughter, Allison, a sophomore at Cornell University. In her spare time, Betof enjoys walking and gardening. She and her husband are also learning to play golf together, she said, adding: "I'm really just a rank beginner."
Molly's Edge: Leadership
While The
Leader’s Edge is an organization dedicated to enhancing women’s
effectiveness as senior leaders and helping them take on greater
roles in their companies, Molly D. Shepard is their true edge in
attaining greatness. “I have an air of authority around my
persona that gives me some credibility,” she says. “I
think listen – I’m very inclusive and I like to listen
to people. I think that’s the reason I’m in the work
I’m in –I’m a curious person. Everyone’s story
interests me. There’s nothing depressing about somebody’s
life. I’m looking for the goals that lie inside people.”
With more than 20 years’ experience in career development
consulting, leadership development, executive coaching and executive
search...
President's Day: Where are the Women?
It's Presidents' Day, two years before the 2004 presidential election, at least four potential Democratic candidates are on the scene in New Hampshire and Iowa shaking hands and smiling for photo ops. The only problem is that something is missing from this picture: There are no women. Seasoned male politicians and even newcomers, such as a freshman senator who joined Congress in 1999, are making forays into these key states. If an accomplished or freshman female senator took the same steps, she would be perceived as too ambitious or too inexperienced. The obstacles in climbing the political ladder begin early on for women. The real powerbrokers behind who runs for office and who doesn't are the officials of the Democratic and Republican parties. They determine which candidates get the support, visibility and - most importantly - the money. In one promising sign, Nita Lowey, New York's seven-term congresswoman, became the first woman and the first New Yorker to be named to head the powerful Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which raises money for House Democratic candidates. And in another sign of progress, Nancy Pelosi was just voted House Democratic whip by her colleagues, making her the highest-ranking woman ever to serve in Congress. It looks like the old boys' network is starting to include girls. But the numbers are still too low. Women make up only 13.8% of Congress. As a matter of fact, the U.S. ranks 49th - tied with Slovakia - in the world in women's representation in national legislatures or parliaments. Clearly, we need to do better if we are going to be the representative democracy we so proudly hold up as an international model. However, though the numbers are small, the talent isn't. Three Republican women and two Democratic women are governors. Three principal Senate subcommittees on terrorism are headed by women.< But even with a strong talent bank of women, are they seen and heard? Just look at TV. Rarely are women among the talking heads advising the country on the war on terrorism or the economic outlook. The White House Project's "Who's Talking: An Analysis of the Sunday Morning Talk Shows" found that male guests outnumber women 9 to 1. Post-Sept. 11, they outnumber women 11 to 1. Newspaper coverage of women on the campaign trail often centers on hair, hemline and husband rather than on what she stands for. This focus on gender rather than agenda fuels voters' fears that women aren't tough enough to handle war, foreign dictators or a lagging economy. It also fuels our daughters' beliefs that they may get to be the President's wife, but not the President. With President Bush clearing an approval rating of more than 80% and no word from Vice President Cheney about leaving the White House, the Republicans are set for 2004. However, both parties have an opportunity to support women for all levels of elected office, ensuring that the political pipeline is filled with female candidates.
Clearly, the parties recognize the power of women's votes to win.
Now it's time they recognize the power of women's voices to lead.
With more women at the table, sharing in and making the decisions,
we will become a stronger and more representative democracy. That
will be a Presidents' Day to celebrate.
Philadelphia Business, September 17, 2001 Women Executives’ Style Senior executive women tend to be less assertive, more formal, and more risk adverse than their male counterparts and more-junior executives, a recent survey says. The Leader’s Edge Research™ questioned 341 executives with salaries of more than $100,000 to find out how the styles and strategies of successful women in business contrast with those of senior executive men. Molly D. Shepard, founder of Philadelphia-based Leader’s Edge™, said senior executive women tend to network less and are more dependent on promotion from within their company. While networking skills seem to increase in importance for male executives, they decrease for women as they move up the corporate ladder, she said. Seventy-five percent of men rate networking shills as important, compared with 66 percent of women. Self-promotion skills are named as important by 73 percent of more-junior female executives, compared with 50 percent for senior female executives. Shepard said this suggests greater women are not taking advantage of self-promotion as they rise in an organization. The survey also suggests that career success for women is gauged less by money and promotion than by how they are perceived, by the recognition they receive, Shepard said.
Wednesday, October 17, 2001 - Workplace Section At the Top of the Executive Ladder, Many Women
Experience Vertigo A few women have pierced the glass ceiling in recent years, but many who rise near the top of the corporate ladder find they are uneasy about their roles and responsibilities. A survey of 340 executives at big companies by the Leader's Edge™, a management training company, found that a smaller percentage of women than men in top positions were comfortable challenging other people's ideas. One possible explanation for the difference was that almost all senior executive women were concerned about people's perceptions of them, while only 68 percent of senior executive men shared that worry. By contrast, the survey found that women still on their way up fretted less about their image. Seventy-three percent of junior women executives said self-promotion was important to getting ahead, but only 50 percent of women in senior positions agreed.
Given the apparent trepidation of some senior women executives,
it may not be surprising that those who leave big corporations
to start or work for smaller companies do so because they want
greater job satisfaction. A survey by Korn/Ferry International,
the Columbia Business School and the Duran Group of 425 such women
found that their main reason for leaving their old jobs was that
they wanted to have a bigger role in running the company.
She’s
the Paradigm of Success Twenty years ago, there were just two female chief executive officers in the Fortune 500. Today, there are still just two women CEOs in the Fortune 500, different women, but still only two, says Molly D. Shepard, a veteran career-development counselor. Shepard is helping women shatter the glass ceiling and climb into upper echelons of the corporate world. For that and for a lifetime of career-counseling successes, managed while raising three children and devoting time to community issues, Shepard, 54, today receives the 2001 Paradigm Award. The award is presented by the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce to a businesswoman whose personal and professional achievements serve as a model for success. Shepard didn’t set her sights on the business world while growing up in Connecticut. She was a Russian major at Wheaton College in Massachusetts. “I studied Russian because I was intrigued by the language and the literature and the culture of the country. Back in the ‘60’s, it was a very mysterious place,” she said. In 1970, she accompanied her former husband to Philadelphia so he could study law at the University of Pennsylvania. She got a job as admissions director for the Institute for Paralegal Training, which placed college graduates in paralegal jobs. The work inspired her and made her realize she was meant to be a “career person.” Shepard had two children under 3 and worked full time at the institute while earning a master’s degree in psychological services and counseling from Penn. She had to do an internship to get her degree. She later worked for a major executive search firm and for a division of the Hay Group, an international management consulting firm. In 1983, Shepard took a risk and started her own business, Manchester, Inc. with French-Canadian Gilles Richards, whom she later married. They have a 14-year old son. Manchester, a top human-resources consulting firm, provided laid-off executives with counseling and services to find new jobs. It was sold four years ago. Shepard kept Manchester’s style loose, so employees could handle family matters, as well as get their work done. Despite her demanding schedule she says she was “always there” for her own children when they needed her. Shepard credits her success to hard work and a support system of family, friends and housekeeper. Many women in the upper levels of business “also handle all the household duties, cleaning, housekeeping, baby-sitting, driving, meal preparation,” she says. “We go home to full-time jobs.”
Shepard started her new firm, Leader’s Edge, last year, disturbed
at how little progress women have made in the executive ranks of
corporate America. “There are many more women in middle management
than when I started out, she said, but not at the top.”
October 2000 Women make progress, but much still to do Enjoli perfume scored in the late 1970s with its famous ad of a sultry woman cooing that she "could bring home the bacon, fry it up in the pan and never ever let you forget you're a man." The actress told women they could do it all, even in a male-dominated world. It may have sold perfume, but it wasn’t necessarily true then. Fast forward 20 years or so. More and more women are bringing home the bacon these days, but — and when was the last time you heard of Enjoli? — it’s still a man’s world out there. “It’s pretty obvious a lot of work still needs to be done,” said Molly D. Shepard, founder of a new Philadelphia-based consulting service for executive women called The Leader’s Edge™. Consider two statistics:
At the same time, the number of women-owned businesses in the United States has more than doubled since 1988, according to the National Foundation for Women Business Owners. The expansion in employment in women-owned firms is up 400 percent since 1987, while sales are up 500 percent. The rise of women entrepreneurs and business leaders hasn’t gone unnoticed. Locally, financial advisers, CPA firms and banks are just some of the organizations looking to tap the power and potential money source.
Knocking
on the Boardroom Door “You’re not going to like everything I show you,” Molly D. Shepard began, referring to the recent nationwide research study conducted by The Leader’s Edge™. The purpose of the research was to determine the styles and strategies of the most successful women in business and see how they contrast with senior executive men, as well as more junior executives. While women have been represented in the workforce in large numbers for more than 50 years, statistics say they still have not come a long way in America’s executive ranks. Some of the disheartening news:
Offering
Advice and Support to Top-level Women Managers
Molly Shepard knows that even the most successful women have a hard time in the business world. "They say it's lonely at the top, and that's particularly true if you're a woman," said Shepard, who founded the Leader's Edge, a consulting service in Bala Cynwyd, in February. In 1983, Shepard cofounded Manchester Inc., now one of the world's largest outplacement and career-management companies. She and cofounder Gilles Richard sold the business three years ago to AccuStaff Inc., of Jacksonville, Fla. Before starting Manchester, Shepard was an executive at two other firms. Throughout her career, Shepard, 53, has been bothered by the obstacles that senior-level businesswomen face in their career advancement. Because women are very much in the minority among senior managers, their support systems and business networks are not as strong as men's are, she said. About 12.5 percent of all corporate officers are women, according to a study by Catalyst for Women Inc., a nonprofit research and advisory organization for women in business. Women's communication and leadership styles also tend to be different from men's. "Women tend to get very passionate about things," Shepard said. "And when they're excited, they're not treated as seriously." The Leader's Edge offers a program to help women evaluate and adjust their communication and leadership styles so they will be more effective in the mostly male setting of upper management and corporate board rooms. So far, about 10 women in their early to mid-40s have taken part in the program. Among them have been the chief financial officer of a hospital and the chief operating officer of a major consulting firm. The program, which includes individual counseling as well as group work, is also designed for younger managers being groomed for high-level positions, Shepard said. She added: "It's an investment in a future leader." For example, CPAs Goldberg Rosenthal of Jenkintown just established a Services to Women Entrepreneurs division led by new partner Lori Reiner. A core group of 12 employees (all women) comprises the division. Reiner’s learned in the past decade that businesswomen don’t necessarily require different services than men, but different treatment a must. “I’ve heard over and over again they feel like they’re discounted by our (the industry’s) male counterparts,” she said. While women have a burning desire to succeed, they’re less likely than men to be “go it alone” types, Reiner said. Meantime, Shepard launched The Leader’s Edge™ after Labor Day. The service offers insights to help women identify and integrate the tools and behaviors they need to succeed. “Women are isolated in the executive ranks,” Shepard said. “A lot of what gets in the way is communications.” In other words, men are from Mars, women are from Venus. Men and women really do think and communicate differently — research Shepard conducted showed that 94 percent of women and all men surveyed agreed. Since men retain the lion’s share of executive power, women need to realize that and act accordingly, Shepard said. That means presenting ideas and controlling emotions. But that doesn’t mean kowtowing. “We don’t want to be like the men… but we are interested in being heard.” She said. PNC Bank joined the fray last week, kicking off its first Business Banking Blitz aimed at women-owned businesses. Some 2,000 PNC employees — from tellers to execs — visited 5,000 businesses to hawk their wares. The bank set a goal of lending more than $1 billion to women-owned businesses over the next five years. “There are going to be additional efforts to support that goal,” said Pam Davis, vice president in charge of PNC’s government-sponsored lending team. Davis noted that three of five new businesses today are owned by women, while women are making 60-70 percent of the financial decisions around the home. It only makes sense to target women.
PNC’s wealth management arm, PNC Advisor’s, already
offers a Women’s Financial Services Network tailored to investment
and retirement planning.
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