NEWSWEEK COVER: How Women Lead

17 October 2005

Instinct is often a key ingredient of
women's leadership styles, says Oprah Winfrey in Newsweek's October 24 issue
(on newsstands Monday, October 17). "All the women leaders I have met led with
a greater sense of intuition than men. I am almost completely intuitive," she
tells Senior Editor Barbara Kantrowitz in this week's cover story "How Women
Lead." "The only time I've made a bad business decision is when I didn't
follow my instinct." Winfrey also tells Newsweek, "There is no moving up and
out into the world unless you are fully acquainted with who you are. You
cannot move freely, speak freely, act freely, be free unless you are
comfortable with yourself."
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20051016/NYSU010 )
Winfrey is one of 20 women at the top of her respective field who spoke to
Newsweek for this second installment in its "Leadership for the 21st Century"
series. Others interviewed include Ambassador Karen Hughes, fashion designer
Vera Wang, Co-Chairman of Media Networks for The Walt Disney Company Anne
Sweeney and Brigadier General Sheila Baxter.
Without question, there has been a huge transformation in the past few
decades, writes Kantrowitz. Women's earning power continues to rise along with
their educational accomplishments. They are now more than half of all college
students and about half of all medical and law students. It is no longer a big
deal to see a woman at the helm of the nation's most prestigious universities,
even at a technological powerhouse like MIT. Women are an important presence
in a number of industries, like film. It has been about 30 years since women
first started entering the workplace in large numbers. There is now a critical
mass of women in leadership positions. It's a good time to see how they've
changed the workplace as they've climbed the ladder, Kantrowitz writes.
Included in the "How Women Lead" package:

* It's no accident, says San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, that public
safety in his city is managed almost exclusively by women. Except for
the district attorney, who was independently elected in 2003, he
appointed them all. "I wasn't looking for the 'woman' candidate," Newsom
tells San Francisco Bureau Chief Karen Breslau. "I was looking for a
competent team." In the post-Katrina world, Newsom reasons, the public
demands nothing less than the compassionate, collaborative and practical
approach to public safety that he's seen from his women chiefs. "America
loves the macho guy with the cigar and the crew cut," he says, "But
America also likes results. I've often sat in envy of the ability of
women to multitask, put ego aside, not complain and solve the problem."

* Anne Mulcahy began at Xerox as a sales rep in 1976. Her numbers were
great, but she figured her Xerox career would be limited by her refusal
to relocate with her husband and two children. But her bosses
accommodated her by letting her commute to ever-bigger jobs. "[They
said], 'We think you've got a career path here and we want you to take
it as far as you can'," she says. She took it far indeed: in 2001, with
Xerox mired in financial crisis, Mulcahy became CEO. She cut payroll
from 79,000 to 58,000, refreshed the product line and strengthened the
balance sheet. The result: its stock price is up 65 percent, and Mulcahy
recently ranked ahead of Oprah Winfrey on Forbes's 2005 list of powerful
women. And the company's gender diversity extends far beyond the corner
office. Women account for more than 30 percent of Xerox's corporate
officers and middle managers and the company is routinely ranked among
the best places for women to work. National Correspondent Daniel McGinn
looks at Xerox's "kinder culture" that has enabled women to excel.

* McGinn talks to Rosabeth Moss Kanter, a Harvard Business School
professor, about her latest book, "Confidence: How Winning and Losing
Streaks Begin and End." Kanter describes how differing confidence levels
in men and women play out in the classroom: "There sometimes is a
difference between the men and women in the willingness to claim air
time in class. The men seem to feel that they can start talking and
eventually they'll have a point to make. The women are slightly more
likely to feel that they ought to have something valuable before they
say it... The women are just as likely to have wonderful things to say,
but there's a kind of self-censorship going on."

* Women in leadership roles share lessons learned from their experiences
and offer advice to the current generation. "Always leave something on
the table," Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia CEO and President Susan Lyne
tells Newsweek. "It's important advice in any business. A total win for
one side in any negotiation is just wrong because it's almost always a
pyrrhic victory. You end up with bad partnerships. And we have long
careers, and it is very likely you're going to be meeting the same
people at some point down the line, so it's important to make sure that
nobody feels like they have been either embarrassed or beaten in a
negotiation."

(Read entire cover story at http://www.Newsweek.com )

Cover: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9712125/site/newsweek /
Interviews: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9712069 /
San Francisco: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9712126 /
Rosabeth Moss Kanter: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9709962 /
Xerox: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9709961 /
Leadership Lessons: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9712114 /