A summary of things you should know about Recognizing Women’s Leadership according to Tiffani Lennon:

Introduction

In this episode Tiffani Lennon shares her book, Recognizing Women’s Leadership where she reveals the best practices and strategies for employing excellent people.

In her book, Lennon analyzes research from organizations with the smallest pay gap and the largest percentage of female leaders to help increase your company’s performance. The goal of the book is to help you ensure excellence, present findings on thousands of positions in hundreds of companies, and unveil the best employment practices from the most successful companies.

This book is perfect for entrepreneurs that own a business where female leadership exists and want to ensure their employment practices are producing optimal results.

The Book’s Unique Quality (2:32)

Other books try to give explanation as to why women are not doing as well and what women could do differently. We looked at the major industries in the United States, the top companies within those major industries, and we looked at where women actually sat in leadership roles. We also looked at what they were earning compared to men and how they are doing in comparison to their male counterparts.

The Best Way To Engage (3:43)

They can cherry-pick information or they can read all the way through. I welcome the skeptical reader as well.

The Reader’s Takeaway (15:09)

It would be to ensure that people focus on performance, higher and promoting the best and brightest, and as a result women and men of color rise naturally.

A Deep Dive Into The Book (4:37)

The best part about this book is at the end we looked at the top performing companies in the United States to find out what made them as good as they are. They also happen to have a sufficient and in some cases the highest percentage of women leaders in their companies. We found a set of best practices to ensure the best and brightest rise and perform to their optimal levels.

There is a whole chapter dedicated to entrepreneurship and when we looked at that chapter what we found is that women entrepreneurs are not receiving the same level of investment as male entrepreneurs. We looked at who were investing in entrepreneurs and we created a list of the top investors in startup companies in the US. We looked at who they were investing in and why they were investing in them. What we found is that often times investors were more likely to invest in companies that looked like them and chase after the same kinds of companies.

In another chapter we looked at higher education and K to 12 grade. And what we found is that in much institutionalized sectors like education and banking, women were less likely to receive an inequitable pay. The pay gap was more predominant in those industries than in brand new industries. One of the things that we can understand from this and why female entrepreneurs may want to know is that there are opportunities for advancement for women particularly in new sectors like technology. Another way to understand the data is that really what we are looking at are long term systems and structures that are in place that create impediments in the industry. And we see some of that gate keeping as well in entrepreneurship in terms of external investors.

What we see in the technology field is that women are able to not only close the gap but also close in on performance. I did not expect to find that women are comparably performing to their male counterparts and in some cases they are excelling.

From there we jump to the medical field and look at hospitals for examples. In 2011 female CEO’s earned 57% what their male CEO’s earned at top grossing nonprofit hospitals. In looking at female CEO’s in leadership positions at medical schools we found that about 25.5% of the top leadership roles are occupied by women. One of the myths I think surrounding a lot of this is that there are not enough women in the pipeline. In business we know that women make up over 50% of the workforce and women are over represented in middle management roles. So we know that women are rising in leadership positions but we also know that they get capped. I believe the motivation for people to want to do things differently in the workforce is that when you insure that the best and brightest rise women naturally rise.

I believe that things are moving in the right direction if we can began to look at companies and know that their hiring and promotional practices are solid and based on objective criteria. We know we are there when the company is both performance driven and inclusive. Meaning not that everyone gets a trophy but rather everyone gets a seat at the table.

The Credibility/Inspiration Of The Author (0:37)

I am an attorney and researcher for Colorado Women’s College of the University of Denver. And I am in the chair of Law and Society program at the University of Denver as well.

In April of 2012 Marie C. Wilson who was the founder of the White House Project approached us with the need for another study where women are sitting in positional leadership roles. She asked if I was willing to do that and I said yes.

Other Books Recommended By The Author (22:14)

A History of American Law by Lawrence Friedman

More Information About This Book and The Author

Buy Recognizing Women’s Leadership by Tiffani Lennon on Amazon today

Follow Tiffani Lennon on Twitterand Facebook

More Information About This Episode

Download the full transcript here (coming soon)

Listen on iTunes, Stitcher , and SoundCloud

Related books: Leaders Open Doors by Bill Treasurer | The Front-Line Leader Chris Van Gorder | MOXIE: The Secret To Bold and Gutsy Leadership by John Baldoni

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Wade Danielson

Wade is a 4-time serial entrepreneur and is the Founder/Host of The Entrepreneurs Library. With a long time passion for reading books, Wade created an online resource and podcast for entrepreneurs who love to read personal and business development books. His long-term goal in life is to start an entrepreneurial home schooling program for children of business-minded families.