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No Ceiling, No Walls
Lipstick, Diamonds and Gucci Aren't Enough!
The Missing 33%™ is the hidden secret women aren't being told about career success
Susan L. Colantuono
Lipstick, diamonds and Gucci won't advance women in their careers. Nor will useful, but insufficient, advice on work/life balance, resilience or authenticity. Women are given abundant advice on how to look and how to be, but it only gets them so far. There's a not-so-little hidden secret that women aren't being told about career success.
After years of studying women at all levels in organizations, I've found that there is a rarely discussed element that holds women back...or propels them ahead. It is one element where they are consistently rated as under-performing their male counterparts. It is one element missing from (or under-taught in) most organizations' leadership development programs. This one element is the vital missing piece of the success equation for women. I call it The Missing 33%™. It is business savvy with all its related skills and knowledge.
For years the traditional career success equation has been something like this:
Professional Competence + Interpersonal Skills = Career Success.
This is one reason that many corporate leadership development programs focus so heavily on interpersonal skills. But these are the very skills at which women generally excel. Which raises the question, if women have such strong interpersonal skills, why are there so few women at the top of organizations? In part because these leadership development programs are built on an incomplete success equation. Therefore, they woefully underemphasize the most important career success driver: business savvy. In studies from around the globe, business savvy is one area where women are rated as underperforming men.
That women have less business savvy than men is a strong expectation. In company after company from F10 to mid-sized firms we've found that women are under-prepared to confront this expectation. This creates a significant career derailer - but one that can be easily overcome by filling in The Missing 33%..
What does it take to fill in The Missing 33%? Women need to acquire, develop and demonstrate skills in 3 areas:
- Business acumen and the related ability to speak the Language of Power™
- Strategic acumen - the ability to understand, set, evaluate and execute strategy
- Financial acumen - the ability to read the story of business performance that's told by the numbers
By buying into the belief that interpersonal skills and personal competence will carry them to the top, women will hit a plateau while resting on the laurels of their skills at engaging others. As long as women buy into the fashionistas' sales-driven message that how they look will make or break their career, women will invest more time and money in lipstick, diamonds and Gucci than in professional development of the business savvy kind. When it comes to women's advancement, lipstick, diamonds, Gucci - and even interpersonal skills - aren't enough! For career success, women must grab hold of The Missing 33%.
To create a career with no ceiling and no walls, buy a copy of No Ceiling, No Walls or contact info@LeadingWomen.biz to discuss how we bring this message to women in your organization.
About the Book
No Ceiling, No Walls presents these and other pieces of unconventional wisdom along with ready-to-apply tools, cases, insights from self-assessments and illustrative examples from the F500 women CEOs. From her vantage point as president and CEO of Szostak Partners and former chairman and CEO of Fleet Bank RI Anne Szostak says the book “provides thoughtful coaching to women leaders whether experienced or new to the workforce. Colantuono’s wise and practical advice is a must-read for women who are determined to reach the next level of their careers.”
 About the Author
When Susan Colantuono was 16 months old, her brother was born. So began a lifelong interest in gender dynamics, an abundance of heretical observations and breakthrough thinking about women, leadership and career success.
Today, Susan shares her wisdom as CEO of Leading Women, where she inspires and powers the success of women leaders in FORTUNE 10 to mid-sized organizations.
Susan is also the founder of the Women's Institute for Leadership at Bryant University, past director of the RI State Council of SHRM, PINK Magazine’s expert blogger on networking and has been honored by Providence Business News as Ally and Mentor for Business Women.
About Leading Women
Leading Women offers unique live, online and Self-Managed Solutions™ that support the success of women from career-start to the C-suite and onto corporate boards. Known for its singular and innovative ability to close the gaps between the critical success factors that women need to know and what they are taught, Leading Women helps organizations meet their goals for advancing and retaining women at all levels. To learn how Leading Women can help you overcome the common barriers to women's advancement, email: info@LeadingWomen.biz or call 401-789-0441.
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