In Part One, I discussed the relatively low representation of women at upper management levels in Fortune 500 companies. I ended with this question: what could companies do to help attract successful women entrepreneurs back to the large corporations or, better yet, how can they keep them from leaving in the first place?

The Catalyst/NFWBO research report asked women entrepreneurs who had prior corporate experience what would cause them to return to corporations, and over half said that nothing could get them to go back. This group obviously had been bitten by the entrepreneurial bug; however 48% of the group left in the first place due to negative factors in corporations, such as lack of flexibility, the glass ceiling or feeling unchallenged.

Corporations would be better served if they provided the type of work environment for their high-potential female employees so that they would not have to lose them in the first place, particularly since most of the women who do leave end up doing almost the same type of work they were doing on the “inside”.

So, what can companies do to attract and retain high-achieving women?

• Provide flexibility. Companies should consider offering employees, more control over their schedules so that they can create their own customized balance between work and personal life. Additionally, employees need to feel that they can make the choice to slow down their career progress at certain points in their lives without jeopardizing their futures.
• Increase opportunities within organizations to utilize women’s entrepreneurial skills. The same skills: no fear of risk, translating innovative vision into actionable plans, and the ability to lead are just as essential within large companies as they are in the world of the entrepreneur. Corporations need to foster these skills, empowering entrepreneurially-spirited women to become “intrapreneurs” within the organization.
• Identify high-performing women earlier in their careers. By developing formalized mentoring programs, promising female employees would obtain essential feedback and coaching, exposing these women to executive roles and fostering the development of the necessary attributes that would allow them to be considered for these roles in the future. Mentoring and coaching programs, I believe, are essential components of an effective succession planning strategy.
• Recruit qualified female candidates to corporate boards and senior line positions. This requires a conscious decision on the part of large corporations to recognize and support entrepreneurial women at the highest ranks within the organization. Studies have indicated that companies which demonstrate the commitment to fostering female talent reap the rewards in increased financial performance.

In Part Three, I will look at some of the statistics associated with companies that have a greater percentage of women on the board of directors.

Catalyst, an organization that supports expanding opportunities for women in business, conducted a census in 2007. They created a pyramid depicting the percentage of women in the labor force as the base, building to the percentage of women CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. I have reprinted the pyramid here.

I found it fascinating that despite the fact that women make up half of the management, professional and other related occupations in the labor market, their representation drops significantly in the Fortune 500. Could this be further proof of the existence of the “glass ceiling” in America’s largest corporations? Or could there be other, more compelling reasons for the low representation of women in large companies?

Then I ran across some recent statistics from ProGroup, an organization that supports diversity in the workplace: 

• Women entrepreneurs are the fastest growing economic trend in the United States.

• Women-owned businesses are growing at twice the rate of all U.S. firms.

• In 2006, over 10.6 million businesses were at least 50% owned by women, which means that women own 30% of all businesses

• Women-owned businesses generated over $2 trillion in sales in 2006.

The conclusion I’m coming to is that perhaps women are voluntarily stepping off the corporate ladder to start their own businesses. The glass ceiling could be one of many reasons that women make the decision to leave corporate America.

In another research article conducted by Catalyst in conjunction with the National Foundation for Women Business Owners, the need for flexibility of work hours (44%) far outpaced the glass ceiling (16%) as the reason women left public companies to open their own businesses (both numbers were slightly higher for women leaving private companies, 51% and 29%, respectively.) The interesting point to note is that women entrepreneurs do not define flexibility as working less hours; in fact, women business owners work just as long or even longer hours than women in large corporations. These women define flexibility as having control over the hours that they work; they choose what part of the day to devote their time to their businesses, thus offering them the opportunity to create a work/life balance on their own terms.

So, what could companies do to help attract successful women entrepreneurs back to the large corporations or, better yet, how can they keep them from leaving in the first place? I will discuss this and more in Part Two.

You can never escape the fact that life does not always follow your preconceived notions.  You do not always get to stay at that great company or grow old with that special person. If you are blessed to live long enough, you will undoubtedly experience ups and downs, and you will live through unexpected changes in your path.

I hold the firm belief that you can consciously choose how you manage through a period of life transition. I embrace the philosophy that at any transition point there are two paths: the negative path and the positive path, and that choice is up to you.

When something happens in your life that you deem to be a “setback”, your first impulse is usually to focus on the negative.  You may feel sad, annoyed, angry, or any number of negative emotions. This is normal; you’re only human, after all. Emotions need to be felt, whether they are positive or negative. The key is how you utilize that emotion.

Choosing the negative path, which I believe is a conscious choice that you make, will allow you to dwell on these negative thoughts and emotions. You might say things like, “I can’t help it, it’s just how I feel,” or, “I just can’t seem to get over it.”  You make these statements to indicate to others, and to yourself, that you have no control over how you are feeling; you are a helpless victim of your circumstances and, as a result, of your emotions as well.

I don’t believe that for one minute!! Yes, you may not be able to control the outcome of other people’s decisions, but I don’t for one minute believe that you can’t control your feelings surrounding these circumstances. You have a choice; if you stay angry, sad, hurt, jealous, etc., then you are staying in that spot because you are experiencing some benefit, whether you realize it or not.

The basic concept of the Law of Attraction is this: what you focus on, expands.

If you choose to stay on the negative path, the Law of Attraction teaches that your focus on the negative will expand, and you will begin to see this negativity spill over into all other areas of your life. Staying on the negative path can impact your health, your friendships, your family life; you are in essence digging a deeper and deeper hole by choosing to see yourself in a negative light, and more importantly, by choosing to believe that you have no choice.

However, by consciously choosing a positive path, you can actually benefit from recognizing these feelings and making the choice to see them for what they are: a point of contrast. The Law of Attraction cannot be discussed without understanding the concept of contrast. Contrast exists in your life to better help you define what you do want. If you experience something in your life that you don’t want, then typically the opposite is what you do want.

Let’s use the end of a relationship as an example. Your loved one has just told you that he/she doesn’t love you anymore and has found someone else. In fact, they have been seeing this other person secretly for the past three months, but didn’t tell you because they didn’t know it would “go this far.” You are feeling angry, hurt, betrayed; you even begin to wonder what’s wrong with you – how could you love someone who can be so selfish and cruel? You must not be worthy of anything better, or this would not have happened to you. Choosing the negative path can send you on a journey into self-loathing in the blink of an eye, and you will begin to believe that you deserve what you get. By identifying with your negative emotions, it is easy to see how quickly those emotions expand and lead to a downward spiral that becomes more and more difficult to overcome.

Now let’s look at the same situation from the positive path. After acknowledging those negative emotions, you begin to look at the relationship in a more objective way. You begin to realize that your loved one was cheating on you and didn’t plan to ever let you know but for the fact that things progressed to a point of no return. So what does that contrast tell you? The emotions of anger and betrayal are indicators of contrast. They are telling you that what you really want in a relationship is someone who is honest with you. You want someone who communicates with you so that you that you are not broadsided by infidelity. You want someone who respects your feelings. You deserve to be treated better than this.

Can you feel the difference? The positive path is the path of empowerment; the positive path is the path of validation. You have created a significant shift in your life – by choosing the positive path you have acknowledged your negative feelings but then you have utilized them to help you see the way to move forward in your life. You are no longer stuck, and most importantly, you have begun to sow the seeds for what you really want to enter your life. You are focusing on the best side of yourself and, according to the Law of Attraction, you are creating expansion of all those positive intentions.

This is a conscious choice. You are in control. You are empowered. And it feels good!

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