Today marks the 2009 release of the UC Davis Census of Women Leaders where they are reporting that once again, the number of women in the C suite and on Boards of the top 400 public companies in the state of California is a paltry 10.6% which is DOWN from the 10.9% number reported in 2008.

Equally shocking is that 118 (29.5%) of California’s largest 400 public companies have no women board directors or executive officers. Only 15 of the 400 companies have a woman CEO.  The Bay area has the county with the greatet percentage of women directors - San Francisco (15.7%), as well as the county with the least - Santa Clara (8.2%) - the heart of Silicon Valley.

I was really excited to participate in an NPR interview this morning until the first comment from a listener came in with the remark about why are we even talking about this issue since many women want to stay at home to take care of kids while their husbands bring home the paycheck.

When asked to respond to this, I could only comment that it is an example of the gender bias and stereotyping that exists for both women and men that keep things stagnating the way they are.

The reason I don’t understand why we have to talk about this issue is that there is so much data out there supporting that when there is diversity of all kinds in the board room and the C Suite that there is better financial performance, more measured risk taking, and greater creative thinking and problem solving due to the diversity of backgrounds, disciplines, gender, race etc.

Organizations will face a major talent shortage in the near future as qualified, educated women (more women graduating with MBA’s than men for example) will look at those companies who created intention around having diversity of all kinds as a better place to work.  Those who create sponsorships to create opportunities for women, who measure the degree of diversity in hiring and who actually walk the talk will be the ones who win the talent competition.

Women also can influence changing this picture by learning how to network more strategically to break into the power circles where decisions are made; negotiate higher salaries rather than justifying what is offered; and seeking out and accepting roles they might need to stretch into.

Men will take a role if they are 50% qualified and feel they will figure it out when they get there. Women tend to feel they need 100% of the competencies before they can accept the role.

This issue is about choice. Maria Shriver’s recent report on women talks about how roles are changing as many women are the main career bread winner and the husband stays home to take care of things on that front. And, there are many women who are choosing to stay home to relish the valuable time they will have with their children.

The point is, there is not one right answer here. But corporate America seems to be stuck in a model of one way of doing things that does not support the aspirations, life challenges, or goals that many women have.

We’re having a dialogue about this issue tonight with Dean Currall of UC Davis Graduate School of Business, Maureen Connors, Board Member of Decker Outdoor Corporation (in the Top 25 companies in CA on the UC Davis list); Karen Rohde, SVP of Sun Microsystems (being acquired by Oracle), Bethany Mayer, Chief Marketing Officer of BlueCoat, and Deborah Campbell, Director of Membership from Catalyst.  Come join us at 6pm at DLA to continue this discussion or comment here on what you have to say about this very important issue.

In my previous blog, I reported on the highlights of the W.I.N. Global Leadership conference held in Prague, Czech Republic on October 8-10.

In addition to those highlights, during the conference two business school professors from London and Switzerland  delivered presentations that I found quite thought provoking. Both discussed the different characteristics that make women leaders thrive, but also pointed out ways they shoot themselves in the foot.

Do you agree with these competences and assertions from Nigel and George or do you have a different list?  Do any of these competencies strike an idea for a new development area for yourself?

Nigel Nicholson, Professor at the London Business School, began by stating that we have a fundamentally wrong model of leadership being practiced today that is based on meritocracy where decisions are made on a linear hierarchy.  It creates a purely random universe where people “get there” by luck.

What you are supposed to be doing as a leader is getting the best out of those around you.  There is a unique set of characteristics that women have used to help drive the future that are actually more positive than the male dominant hierarchy model.  However, women often don’t jump into the water if it doesn’t look good.Meaning they don’t move between enough different environments - which lessens their opportunities for leadership roles.

Nigel also talked about the strategy of the future being based on vision and outlined some key skills that women have and should develop in order to prepare themselves for future leadership roles.  These key skills include:  asking questions; de-centering (seeing what something looks like from another perspective); managing like a partner and not a boss; storytelling - connecting people with the past, present, and the future in a way that is emotionally compelling.

A leader answers the following questions:

1. Who am I and why am I here?
2. Who are we and what do we stand for? - Our core competence and real purpose
3. Where are we going?
4. Why are we going there? - Stated with conviction!
5. Why must we change? - A crisis is a terribly opportunity to waste

On the last day of the conference, George Kohlrieser, Professor at IMD in Switzerland listed out his view of the critical competencies for women leaders.  His background is very interesting as he began his career in law enforcement and grew to become a hostage negotiator.  Much of his work is about resolving conflict and many of the ideas presented below are covered in his new book “Hostage at the Table: How Leaders Can Resolve Conflict, Influence Others, and Raise Performance.”

The core competencies for women leaders he highlighted in his presentation were:

1. Being assertive
2. Being decisive
3. Social bonding to raise performance (otherwise known as connectedness or networking)
4. Managing conflict for a win-win outcome
5. Being a secure base and having secure bases
6. Mastering the mind’s eye to focus on positive goals (versus being sucked into the negative outlook on life)
7. Developing resilience
8. Understanding business

One of the most compelling statements he made was how we get to the highest level of performance through failure and how we live in a world where there is a high expectation for entitlement.

What a compelling title!  Claire Shipman, Senior National Correspondent ABC News and Katty Kay, Anchor BBC World News have been thrilled by the reception this new book has been receiving. Read the authors’ blog

to learn more about the book and the buzz.

Published just last week on June 2nd, the publisher has already moved into it’s 2nd printing due to the unprecedented demand.  And FWE&E is very proud to be the only venue in the Bay Area hosting Claire and Katty to share their perspectives in person.  Register today for our event at Oracle on June 16th.

So, what’s all the buzz about?  Claire and Katty feel that we are in a unique period in history where women have a chance to take a stand and create a life, both work and personal, that works better for them.  The last time in history where there was such a confluence of events occurred when Rosie the Riveter entered the workforce in droves during World War II.  In Chapter 1 of their book, they list compelling statistics such as the fact that women account for more than half of the educated workforce; more women than men are graduating with advanced degrees; many studies exist showing that companies with the best records for promoting women outperform their competition by every measure of profitability - equity, revenue, and assets.

When I first started reading the book, I wondered how it might apply to me as I don’t have a partner, children, or elderly parents to worry about.  Am I qualified to “Write My Own Rules for Success?”   Then I realized that, even though my story was different, it still fit the need to do some rewriting.

Several years ago, when I was Managing Director of legal publishing company, and then later as SVP of another large division - I lead a life of constant travel, meetings, stress and pressure with the motto of “no pets, no plants, no partner”.  I stopped using that moniker when I realized I was scaring my team but I also stopped using it when I realized that this lifestyle was not exactly fulfilling.

When my health and general well being were at their lowest, I made a drastic decision to quit my job, change careers, and move across the country.  If I had read Womenomics, I might have instead negotiated my current situation to give myself the time and space I needed to lead a healthier, more fulfilling life.

Things worked out in that I live somewhere I love, doing work I find fulfilling, with an enriching community of friends, a cat named Pebbles (yes, same name as Susan Boyle’s cat!) and even some plants that I try not to kill on a regular basis.  Having read Womenomics

the final conflict download

, I see that there are many ways to write your own rules and some of the keys are to be really clear about what you want; be fact based and employer-oriented in the “ask” (meaning consider what’s important to them and your team as well as you), and then over-communicate about how you’re adding value in your new way of working.

Let’s go out there and be role models for women and men about how to lead more fullfilling lives!   Continue this discussion here or in the Event Gallery in our members-only Online Community.

I’m sure many of us read with interest the announcement of Carol Bartz as the new CEO of Yahoo! Carol lead a very successful growth and change effort at Autodesk and has now been brought into Yahoo! at a time when there is much needed strategic and leadership re-direction.  Her track record certainly points to Carol being the right person for the job on both counts.

On the same day this news came out, there was a great article forwarded to me by Board of Advisor member Karen Appleton, VP of Bus Dev at box.net.  The article, The Glass Cliff: Are Women Leaders Often Set Up to Fail? by Sylvia Ann Hewlett of Off-Ramps and On-Ramps

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fame discusses the very interesting premise that women are over-represented in precarious leadership positions such as the one Carol Bartz has just accepted.

Related to women on boards, she references a recent work that disputes that when women are added to boards the financial performance of the company declines.  Rather it appears that women are added to the boards when the share price is tumbling as a means of showing that something is being done.  The women being last in are first to be blamed.

In the article, she references several studies including The Athena Factor

-  research that shows that a significant proportion of women in science, engineering and technology (SET) believe that when they fail they don’t get second chances.

I’ve spoken with several women members of FWE&E who have specifically said they have seen this phenomenon of women not taking senior roles in organizations where they have seen the women before them fail.  The general consensus was that for some reason the bar was higher for the women put in these positions and there was little mentorship and no room for error.

This is not to say, especially in these precarious economic times, that men don’t face the same hurdles.  It just seems that when women are placed in these positions and fail, the cultural stereotypes come out about how women aren’t as effective leaders as men.

Have you had or seen similar situations?  How do you feel about Carol’s chances of success at Yahoo?