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Centered Leadership: How Talented Women Thrive n Career -Taking the Interviewees from the Column of “the World Women” as Examples

Hao DAI

School of economic and management, Tongji Un iversity

Shanghai, China tjudanial@gmail.com

Zhen ZHOU PHD mentor, School of economic

and management, Tongji University Shanghai, China

zzxuns@gmail.com

Jinlian LUO PHD mentor, School of economic

and management, Tongji University Shanghai, China luojl@tjhrd.co m

Abstract—It is a very hot topic that how women thrive in career. By sorting out the interviewee data of the interview show named "the world women" through the theory of centered leadership, the paper holds that suitable job expectations, discovering the work meaning and high work enthusiasm help talented women succeed in the career development. The conclusion is beneficial to improve talented women’s career competitiveness, especially for the talented women trying to break the glass ceiling.

Keywords: centered leadership; talented women; job expectations; meaning; enthusiasm

I. INTRODUCTION Women are still scarce in top leadership positions in society

in spite of substantial gender equity in education and the entrance of an increasing number of women into high prestige professions and managerial jobs long dominated by men. A research from McKinsey shows that those with three or more women on their senior-management teams scored higher on organizational criteria than did companies with no senior-level women [1]. Some scholars suggested that women’s divergent thinking could meet the societies’ demand better than men’s logical thinking (Fisher, 2002). Women seem to move up organizational ladder, but only a very few actually make it to the most powerful positions. Taking Shanghai enterprises for example, talented women account for 48.7% of the general managers, while only 15% of the senior managers. Therefore, it is important to study on how talented women thrive in career. By the collection and arrangement of the data of the interviewees from the column of “the world women”, I try to research on the influencing factors in talented women’s success.

II. RESEARCH OBJECTS AND RESEARCH METHOD

A. Theories and Research Dimensions Defining “Centered leadership” is a leadership model refined by

McKinsey after interviewing 85 successful talented women from different areas all around the world. It includes five major elements: discovering meanings, managing energy, positive framing, connecting and active participation [2].

A report based on centered leadership by McKinsey 2010 indicates: discovering work meanings, positive framing

(changing the negative emotions into opportunities ) and active participation (taking positive action when facing the risks) help promote the leadership performance and the overall quality of life [3]. A scholar named Hui Lu finds out that successful talented women usually have high job expectations and strong self-confidence after investigating 126 successful women [4]. Overall, women's success has a positive correlation with the following dimensions: job expectations, discovering work meanings and work enthusiasm.

The sorting out the interviewee data of the interview show starts from the theory of centered leadership, taking job expectations, finding work meanings and work enthusiasm into consideration. By going through the words and deeds of research subjects, I judge their performance in the corresponding dimensions, which are defined by the theory of big five and the theory of centered leadership.

� Job expectations: According to the theory of big five of Goldberg (1992), job expectations are reflected in the level of ambition to work. If you have high job expectations, then you will have a relatively high level of aspiration at work, never satisfied of your current achievements, constantly set higher goals in your career in order to achieve self improvements and breakthrough. If you have low job expectations, then you will have a relatively low level of aspiration at work, expressed in the work as lazy, no goals and no motivation to succeed.

� Discovering work meanings: According to the centered leadership model, it means discovering your own strength and applying it into work to encourage others [2]. It requires you to be honest to yourself, figure out what you are good at and which work you would like to do. And those who discover work meanings will be full of passion and content with the pleasure of work rather than depressed and slacking.

� Work enthusiasm: Work enthusiasm concludes positive attitude towards work and active participation. A positive attitude is reflected in the performance when facing setbacks or adversity. When challenged by an adversity, a positive person will change the negative emotions into opportunities and take actions

Project supported: Ministry of Education, philosophy and social science major scientific and technological project (NO.: 10JZD0045-2); National Natural Science Foundation of China (NO.: 71072025)

___________________________________ 978-1-4244-9698-3/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE

to reverse the downturn rather than escape. And active participation is to take the initiative in your own career development during the growth and take positive actions when facing the risks.

B. Research Objects The research objects came from the interviewee of the

interview show named "the world women" through 2007 to 2011. Taking the topics about marriage, family, social status as contents, the interview show discusses the career development and emotional life of talented women. The interviewees include women entrepreneurs, acting stars, women writer, and women scientists and so on. Depended on the research need, the paper sorts out 14 interviewees ’ data of all. It includes 5 women entrepreneurs, 2 emcees, 5 acting stars, 1 women scientist and 1 environmental cause activist. Their basic information is shown in the table .

TABLE . THE BASIC INFORMATION OF THE RESEARCH OBJECTS

Name Profession Work Unit Honors and Awards

Yin Zhang

Entrepreneur Chairman of Dongguan Nine Dragons Paper Co., Ltd.

2009 China Energy Saving Meritorious Man

Mingzhu Dong

Entrepreneur CEO of Zhuhai Gree Electric Appliance Inc.

the top 50 of the Global Women Entrepreneurs

Mianmian Yang

Entrepreneur CEO of Haier Group

National Model Worker

Ying Ye Entrepreneur Vice President of NALCO

the Soul of 98 Agreement of Eastman Kodak Company

Xing Shen

Emcee Phoenix TV one of the most popular emcees of China

Ziyi Zhang

Actress National Theatre of China

the best actress of the 24th Hong Kong Film Awards

Jialing Liu

Actress the best actress of the 26th China Golden Rooster Awards

Weiqi Fan Singer one of the best singers of China

Yuanyuan Gao

Actress Beijing YHXG Culture & Agent Co., Ltd

one of the best actresses of China

Zuying Song

Soprano PLA Political Department of the Navy

the 49th Grammy Nomination

Xiaoyi Liao

Environmental cause activist

Director of Global Village of Beijing

man of the year in China environmental protection

Yu Yu Entrepreneur CEO of Dangdang

Dangdang listed on the NYSE in 2010

Xiadan Ouyang

Emcee the outstanding emcee of Golden Eagle Festival Award

Yamei Hou

Scientist Chinese Academy of Sciences

young women scientist in China

Data sources http://baike.baidu.com/view

III. RESULT AND ANALYSIS

A. Research Result Firstly, the study summarizes the three dimensions

including job expectations, discovering work meanings and word enthusiasm of the 14 interviewees. The contents, shown

in table are coded by the three dimensions. In the table the Abbreviation JE represents job expectations, ME represents discovering work meanings, and WE represents work enthusiasm.

TABLE . RESEARCH OBJECTS’S PERFORMANCE OF THE THREE DIMENSIONS

Name Dimensions Major Words and Deeds Judgment Yin Zhang JE Ten year before, she wanted to be the top1 of

waste paper recycling all over the world.

With her dream realized, she hopes to be the

top I of linerboard manufacturing in China.

yes

ME She would like to contribute to China

through her company. yes

WE With only 30,000, She went to Hong Kong to

seek career breakthrough, giving up a well-

paid work in a joint venture in Shenzhen.

yes

Mingzhu

Dong

JE Her success lies in her insistence on faith, the

pursuit of dreams. yes

ME As a salesman, she successfully completed

42 million debt repayment left by the former

with 40 days continuous efforts.

yes

WE When her husband passed away in 1984, she

overcame those diffi culties strongly. yes

Mianmian

Yang

JE It is hard for me to stop making progress. yes ME Benefit from the love of work, she has much

more passion than others.

yes

WE She is learning all the time, including

learning how to drive, surf the internet. yes

Ying Ye JE She likes challenges in work. yes ME She always knows what she should do with a

heart never died.

yes

WE Do not leave your dream or passion alone.

Just do it.

yes

Xing Shen JE I do not care what will happen in my career,

and I do not like to guess what will happen in

the future.

no

ME uncertainty WE To discover your advantage and make full

use of it is a good way to overcome

inferiority.

yes

Ziyi

Zhang

JE In fact, I have never thought about or planned

for the perform ance.

no

ME I love film that no word can express this

feeling exactly.

yes

WE Take it easy when there are many rumors

about you.

yes

Jialing Liu JE I like the film named legend of Fly, and I

would do better with another chance.

yes

ME It is important to know who you are and

which things will make you happy.

yes

WE I will never give up. yes

Weiqi

Fan

JE uncertainty ME If I missed that chance, I would never be a

singer. I knew the importance of singing to

me.

yes

WE Calm down and persistence leads to

success.

yes

Yuanyuan

Gao

JE It is nothing serious whether I will succeed

in my career or not.

no

ME Maybe interest is the key to success. yes WE In fact, it is a big challenge to me when

performing the drama Hamlet 1990.

yes

Zuying

Song

JE She did not stop working in 3 months

pregnancy.

yes

ME The love for singing helps me live up to

expectations.

yes

WE When holding a concert at Vienna, she got

a high-grade fever for two days. But she

conquered the world with an unimaginable

will.

yes

Xiaoyi

Liao

JE uncertainty ME The world is not short of a PHD, but does

lack of people doing environmental protection in China, so she returned.

yes

WE Though very diffi cult, I took every chance

to make it.

yes

Yu Yu JE There will be big difference between doing

it every day and never doing it.

yes

ME We know our advantage, and will focus on

online retail.

yes

WE She had to go to 3 cities in American every

day, so she could only slept 5 hours.

yes

Xiadan

Ouyang

JE She wanted to challenge hersel f in Beijing

in spite of her success in Shanghai.

yes

ME uncertainty WE Smiling at the difficulties is a good thing. yes

Yamei

Hou

JE uncertainty ME I have enough passion for my love. yes WE No matter career or love, they are the result

of her active pursuit.

yes

Data sources http://baike.baidu.com/view, "the world women" As is shown in table , among the 14 interviewees, 8

persons has high job expectations , 3 persons does not have clear plan about the future, 3 persons were not sure about it . 12 persons can discover work meanings, two persons are not sure about it. 14 persons have high work enthusiasm. The statistical analysis is described in table .

TABLE . STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF PERFORMANCE IN THREE DIMENSIONS

B. Discussion of Results

Job expectations: According to table , we can find that not all the successful women have high job expectations. Those who have high job expectations only account for 57.14 percent. As is well known, most of the time v ision is depended on height, and those who have ambitions can have better career development. In the increasingly competitive environment, high job expectations may not be realized, which sometimes will be passive and even destructive to growth. Under the condition of frequent achievements of appropriate job expectations, talented women will be gradually confident, which formed a positive cycle. Ziyi Zhang, a famous actress, expressed that she had never planned about her success she had achieved now. Although she did not have high expectations towards work, she achieved career breakthrough by her continuous efforts. In 2004, she was awarded as the best actress in the 24th China Golden Rooster for the film named Jasmine.

In addition, it can be find out through table that three out of seven acting stars emcee included do not have high job expectations, but all the women entrepreneurs interviewed have high job expectations. That is highly related to their professional characteristics. Job expectations of entrepreneurs reflect the expectations of their organizations. Just as Ying Zhang, the chairman of the Dongguan Nine Dragons Paper Co., Ltd., has a dream to devote herself to her country through her company. Such a job expectation is not limited to herself, also represents corporate vision. Studies have shown that there is a certain correlation between corporate vision and business growth. Compared to those companies which have no vision or world-class vision, those companies that have a world-class vision have a better growth [5]. Therefore, it is be better to have a high job expectation under the view of corporate vision.

Discovering work meanings: According to table , we can find that most successful talented women, 85.7 percent of the total samples, can discover work meanings. Studies have shown that discovering work meanings can be translated into a stronger job satisfaction, a higher productivity, a lower job-hopping rate and a higher loyalty [6]. Mianmian Yang, the CEO of Haier Group, once said it was the enjoyment of work that made her work harder than others. If you can not find the significance of work, then it’s difficult to get a sustained development in the process of growing up, nor get success.

Moreover, table shows that successful talented women can discover work meanings in spite of the professional differences. For examples, Xiadan Ouyang, one of the top ten

1) Yes 2) No 3) Uncertainty 4) Headcount 1) / 4) High job

expectation 8 3 3 14 57.1%

Discovering work

meanings 12 2

14 85.7%

High work enthusiasm 14 14 100%

hosts of CCTV, once worked for the News Channel of Shanghai TV from1999 to 2003. Although being the most popular emcee at that time, she resolutely gave up the advantageous condition in Shanghai and went to Beijing with a strong determination to achieve her career breakthrough. Yamei Hou, "The first science award for young female scientists" winner, indicates that she always has high work enthusiasm in her interests. She majors in the research of early stone artifacts in the Paleolithic Period and this kind of research is full of hardships. Once during a trip to the Mu Us Desert in Inner Mongolia, even the uppers were distorted because of the hot weather. It is the passion on work that helps her overcome a variety of d ifficulties on the way of scientific research.

Work enthusiasm: According to table , we can find that all successful talented women have high work enthusiasm, reflecting the fact that they are more inclined to optimis m. Compared to men, women are more easily encountered to the bottlenecks and difficulties in professional development due to physiological features and social views. In addition, according to a study, the probability of sucking into a depressed mood of women is twice that of men [7]. Optimis m can help women find hopes in the despair and move forward successfully. When Zuying Song, a famous soprano, was going to hold a concert at Vienna, she got a high-grade fever for two days. Finally, she conquered the world with an unimaginable will, Yin Zhang, the chairman of Dongguan Nine Dragons Paper Co., Ltd., once was intimidated by industry colleagues for breaking the long-term tradition of paper industry in Hong Kong. However, she had a positive attitude and took it lightly, which is the key factor contributing to her career breakthroughs in the future.

IV. RESEARCH CONCLUSION AND DEFICIENCY By sorting out the interviewee data of the interview show

named "the world woman", the study finds that the theory of centered leadership has the same effect on talented women in different professions including entrepreneur, emcee, acting stars, scientist and so on.

The appropriate job expectations are the cornerstone of career development of talented women, and laying a good

foundation for their improvement. Discovering work meanings is conducive to career development of talented women, and provides a steady stream of energy and power to their success. High work enthusiasm can help talented women exert their potential talent, and help them overcome d ifficulties in the tough professional road. These factors contribute to the formation of the core competitiveness of talented women, and also coordinating their contradiction between ideal and reality, the imbalance between work and family, and promoting the sustainable development of their career. The study is helpful in creating career aspirations of the female, providing the guidance of career planning for women, and especially of great significant to solve the Dilemma of the "glass ceiling" effect for talented women.

Despite the study concluded some influencing factors to women success, because of limited secondary data, we cannot make a deep relationship research between women career success and the variables such as education, family support, work support and other factors . In the future study, it can be proved in depth by interviews and some other channels to obtain first-hand data.

REFERENCES

[1] Georges Desvaux, Sandrine Devillard-Hoellinger, and Mary C. Meaney. A business case for women. The Mckinsey Quarterly. 2008.

[2] Joanna Barsh, Josephine Mogelof and Caroline Webb. how centered leaders achieve extraordinary results. The Mckinsey Quarterly. 2010.

[3] Hui Lu. analysis of the infulencing factors to wemen success and construction of successful mode. Professional space.2009.

[4] Joanna Barsh, Susie Cranston, and Rebecca A. craske. centered leadership:how talented women thrive. The Mckinsey Quarterly. 2008.

[5] Zhilong T ian, Qian Jiang. The corporate vision of China top 500 companies:connotation, validity and infulencing factors. Management world. 2009.

[6] Martin E. P. Seligman. Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillmen(M). New York: FREE PRESS. 2004.

[7] Louann Brizendine. The Female Brain. New York: Morgan Road Books.