Monthly Archives: September 2007

At the Emmy Awards the other night, Katherine Heigl, an actress on “Grey’s Anatomy” who won an award for supporting actress, managed to say “s _ _ t” when her name was announced—she said it to her mother, of all people, sitting next to her—and informed the audience that she had “worked her ass off.”

Isn’t it fortunate that she has writers to create an award-winning, articulate character on the show? And aren’t we all fortunate to have these wonderful exemplars for our children to emulate?

Is that really the best you can manage in front of millions of people with an education that, presumably, included improv, acting lessons, Shakespeare, and Dickens? It’s one thing to be coarse, but it’s another to believe you needn’t try to hide the coarseness, no matter what the environment. I expect certain language at a hockey game, but not from a woman who, minutes before, was interviewed outside about her haute couture gown and jewelry.

Earlier, Ms. Heigl took verbal umbrage at the fact her name was mispronounced. I guess we’re lucky she didn’t tell us how she really felt….

© Alan Weiss. 2007. All rights reserved.

We ought to stop kidding ourselves about “glass ceilings.” The real problem is “glass walls,” and women (and minorities) don’t seem to get it.

Organizations have promoted women and minorities into the donjon, the inner sanctum, but only in areas of limited access. The promotions take place in human resources, finance, legal, and a few other outliers, interstitial areas of relatively little consequence. When you show me a woman or minority heading up sales, manufacturing, marketing, R&D, and/or operations, I’ll be more impressed.

If there is a minority woman in a meeting of “the senior team” in a client, I’ll bet dollars to donuts that she heads human resources and will usually collect my share of donuts. This is the dead rat under the table that no one wants to talk about. These “glass walls” prevent talented and diverse people from leading major areas in organizational America.

Occasionally, you can find a general counsel who went on to become the COO or CEO of the company, and sometimes the CFO will similarly ascend. But it’s rare. And finding a human resources executive vice president who became COO or CEO is like trying to find a Tyrannosaurus Rex in the Amazon rain forest—theoretically possible, but not worth searching for.

The same holds true for boards of directors, which will feature minorities and women to meet public demands or accreditation requirements, or community standards. But the likelihood is that these individuals will not be the chair, will not head the audit committee, will not serve as chief of the compensation committee, and will usually have to be content with, well, being present.

Don’t point out the exceptions, they only prove the rule. We ought to stop kidding ourselves that we’re making progress with diversity by changing the name of a “manhole cover” to “service cover,” or referring to hurricanes by both male and female names. This is superficial nonsense. (There is a speaker or two actually spouting this inanity. I’m “child-free” not “child-less” she admonishes. I guess that makes me “child-burdened.”)

We’ll only benefit from true diversity when we stop limiting advancement and allow all people, based on abilities, to serve in all capacities. A good start would be to start rotating all those heads of human resources into key line leadership positions effective immediately.

Any takers?

© Alan Weiss 2007. All rights reserved.

For the past several years we’ve had less fish in the large pond than ever before, and those remaining are quite small fish. There is evidence that one of our two very big snapping turtles has died.

We also have more gorgeous monarch butterflies than I’ve ever seen at one time, often twenty or more visiting the butterfly bush. We have a dozen hummingbirds, despite not even installing their feeder this year. (One visits daily at my den window, hovering like a maniacal helicopter, watching me work at my desk and apparently thinking, “Thank goodness I’m free!”) We’ve had a red fox, two-thirds the size of Koufax, lounging on our front step, dozens of wild turkeys, two eagles, river otters, and a handful of deer come over the bridge.

Seasons change. That turtle was at least 30 years old and could have been 100 for all I know. Flooding might have taken out the larger fish over the past couple of years. There is no sense panicking. The only sense is in rejoicing in new developments and sensations.

As I write this, a strong wind is taking thousands of leaves from our hundreds of trees. It’s not the end of the world. It’s simply autumn approaching.

© Alan Weiss 2007. All rights reserved.

This is a non-partisan article, spawned by campaign rhetoric that should be making most of us queasy, including people who build McMansions and claim they are the champions of ending “two Americas.” This is from Investors Business Daily of a week ago, and cited in The Providence Journal this week. Of people classified as “poor” by the census bureau definition:

1. 43% own their own homes, typically with 3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths, and a garage.
2. 80% have air conditioning in the home.
3. 73% own a vehicle (car or truck).
4. 64% own a washing machine.
5. 57% own a dryer.
6. 97% have a color TV, and more than half the households own more than one color TV.
7. 78% own a DVD player or a VHR.
8. Over 33% own a computer.
9. They have more living space per person, on average, than ALL citizens of Europe of ALL economic strata.
10. If split off as a class, the poor households of the US would be in the top 5% of world income distribution (according to World Bank statistics).

By all means, we need to focus on lifting everyone out of poverty, providing jobs, education, and crime-free neighborhoods. But we also have to peel away the political persiflage that distorts the reality of a rising economy helping everyone.

A different, important emphasis, if anyone has the guts, ought to be on the current, obscene levels of executive pay. But that’s a difficult topic when all the candidates are rather wealthy.

© Alan Weiss 2007. All rights reserved.