Kelly Watson of The Career Partners offers a service for corporations in California to make job sharing a viable option for senior positions. I would love to hear your comments on job sharing and whether you know companies or other websites that support this innovative approach to retention and recruiting.

thanks, Sarah

We were very pleased to interview Mary Charleson, President Charleson Communications, a consulting company providing marketing research, marketing and business strategy and advertising development to corporate, retail, small business and non-profit groups. Mary’s career spans over 15 years in media sales, advertising creative development, production, marketing management and research. She established Charleson Communications in 1991.

1. I would like to touch on your consultancy business.  Can you offer an overview of your services and discuss how marketing can impact and assist women in the workplace?

Charleson Communications specializes in marketing research, strategy and advertising development. I founded it as a consulting company in 1991. I love working with clients on the strategy side of their business - how to position themselves in the marketplace, how effectively market their products or services, and ultimately how to increase sales. In addition to consulting services, I also write a column for Business in Vancouver on strategic marketing. The last 5 years of articles are on my website, which is a great resource for anyone interested in marketing and sales. I also teach marketing in City University’s MBA program and guest lecture at Capilano College. And over the last year I have developed a number of presentations for speaking to business groups. My speaking topics are Marketing to Women, Effective Advertising, E-marketing, and Marketing with a Social Strategy. I’ve been fortunate to be asked to speak at conferences across Canada and to local groups in Vancouver. I see my role as a marketing consultant evolving into speaking because I love it and I love to see people get excited about ideas and putting them into action at their business.

Effective marketing can have a tremendous impact. And it’s not just marketing businesses. Women need to think about their own personal marketing. Their own branding and positioning. How they sell the best product they have to offer - themselves. Don’t take that the wrong way! But I often consider the advice I give clients and reflect how to use it personally to gain more business and position myself to reach more potential customers.
 

2. As a professional woman and a mother can you share with us your strategy for balancing your career and personal life.

Now there’s a complex question! I have a son who just turned 9 and a daughter who is 5. Life is at times busy, complex, frustrating, exciting, empowering and scary. And that can all be in one day! It is a struggle, but I was fortunate to work at establishing my business before my kids were born. That has made it easier to maintain balance. It really is all about the balance. I love that I can walk them to school and be there some days to meet them after school. I am also fortunate to be married to a terrific guy who doesn’t have a lot of late nights or out of town travel associated with work. We are able to share a lot of the parenting. I am also incredibly organized and efficient with my time when I get it. If I know I have 5 hours child free I can be very focused and get more done than most people would in an 8 hour day.
 

 3. Could you please provide an overview of your article “The power of baby boomer women”.

The power of baby boomer women is incredible. Baby boomers are those between 43 - 61 years old. Those over 50 make up 27% of the population but control 70% of the wealth. We are looking at the healthiest, wealthiest, most active and independent generation of older women in history. They are likely to outlive their male partners. And there will be a huge inheritance to this generation over the next 10 -15 years. Now consider amidst all this power that women influence 85% of all purchases and that marketers seem to be blind to the potential of baby boomer women while they focus on younger traditional targets of 18 -35 or 24-45yrs. Even those that are reaching out to boomer women are often doing a really poor job. Efforts that miss the mark actually hurt companies, because if it offends these women in any way they are incredibly well networked, and believe me they will spread the word! Simple things like type size should be considered. Make it big enough! Also make sure colour contrast can be read in low light conditions. Are restaurant owner with menus listening? Authenticity is at the top of their list. Marketing should show older women as real, not ideal. A few flaws are ok. It makes the message easier to connect to. Social strategy is incredibly important. Considering your impact on society or the environment matters. Giving back and doing good will do you good. Relationships and storytelling are a great way to connect with her. They are women of experience. A story matters. It’s a way to connect. Consider service options that will appeal to her. The list goes on…
For the complete article, please click here.

4. As this is for a social networking site can you discuss how you see professional women benefitting from the use of social networking websites and are these sites valuable marketing tools?

Social networking is incredibly important. Women travel in concentric circles of influence. You just never know where the next connection is going to lead you. But it’s important to know that building that circle matters. Social networking online has emerged as a very woman friendly venue for this. Women search out relationships. They use online to gather information and do research. In our research on marketing to women, most women remarked that they consult friends, experts and online in their information gathering phase. Women are quite different that way. Guys eliminated data to make an informed decision. Women collect it until they have enough to tip the decision. This process often leads them to networking and word of mouth.

Since women are online linking sites and searching for relevant content this type of site is beneficial to them. 
 

5. Can you offer 3 points to assist women in the pursuit of marketing their careers or their businesses. 

I would say (1) Network and expand your circle of influence and impact. The power of connection can open a lot of doors.
(2) Don’t be afraid of sales. Sales is a good word. Work at getting good at it. Sales is all about qualifying customers, finding out their issues and positioning your product or service to best meet their needs. Identify the features and sell the benefits. Don’t just sell the steak, sell the sizzle. People usually buy because they want something, seldom is they need it. Unless your selling fridges!
(3) Write, speak and get known. In marketing we call that positioning. If you are seen as an expert, it’s a whole lot easier to sell your services as an expert.

Corporate Women Spotlight Interview

You are a mother, a professional and an entrepreneur. What has your strategy been for balancing your career and personal life?

Barbara: Whenever I have been given an opportunity I think what will I get out of this and will my values be satisified. When my son was 3 years old I was given an opportunity to go to New Zealand to speak but I said no. I knew that New Zealand would always be there but my son would never be 3 again. I also use something I call strategic laziness. I find it difficult to motivate myself to do something that does not hold my attention. You need to have checks and balances to ensure that you are staying on track.

I would like to touch on social networking, as this is for a social networking website. How do you see professional women benefiting from the use of social networking sites.

Barbara: It is very important as women want to relate to each other. Women learn through social comparison. Do you remember in school asking your friends how did they do on a test. We learn by basically understanding our own experiences by comparing them to others. It is so good to realize that I am not alone. What you are really doing in social networking is allowing women to check out their own experiences against that of others. One question I would have is do they have the time for it?

I would like to touch on your consultancy business. Is there one single most consistent workplace issue that your clients are requesting you to consult on?

Barbara: Our product is the Career Advisor which is an online career environment. It is basically like having your own career coach on your computer. The main motiviaton for companies to offer this is attracting and retaining employees. People are looking for work/life balance, family friendly organizations and companies that are meeting the needs of people as they have a desire for support with their careers. Companies are responding to the career concerns that people present today. I have been doing this for 20 years and I am very well known. I am known as Canada’s career guru and a lot of the concepts that people talk about today I put on the map. In the 80s companies were contacting me regarding employment equity, the 90s downsizing and now in 2000 it is about attracting and retaining employees.

You have been quoted as saying “The myth of having it all has done more harm than good.” And in reaction to the buzz word ‘re-invention’ have said, “People re-configure their skills rather than re-invent themselves.” Could you comment on this?

Barbara: The term re-invention makes people think they are going to be pulling a Madonna, they will become a make-up artist or go back to school and become a lawyer. People can re-configure, say you are a bored journalist, they tell stories, so they could become a film producer or a lobbyist.

The problem with the myth of having it all is then they feel there is something wrong with them as they are constantly hungry as they can’t have it all. You can have it all if you spread it over the course of your life. If you look at your life in chapters and each life chapter is devoted to satisfying one or two needs. For example this chapter is about taking care of your kids. You need to know what is really important to you. What is this life chapter about - I need to work as I need to pay the bills and pay the mortgage but this life chapter is really about my 3 year old son. The life chapter I am in right now is about giving back and being engaged.

The other thing that worried me while doing the research for Dish was that women in their late 30s early 40s in the course of keeping their show on the road, the one thing they have let go is their relationship. They are drifting away fron their partners. It is the first generation of women to initiate the divorce and they are not leaving for another relationship, they are leaving for themselves. They don’t need to be dependant on a guy and they feel they are better off on their own.

I would like to discuss your best-selling book Dish.

Barbara: What stimulated this book was that I had read a book that women should adopt male behaviours to get ahead. This made me so angry. I don’t want to be a mini man and I don’t want to suppress part of who I am. So many women are fleeing oganizations to set up their own businesses. They want to create an organization where their voice can be heard. Of course not everyone can be an entrepreneur. It takes a very particular type of personality, along with great luck and a good idea. Where do other women go - female friendly organizations, smaller organizations, companies who are predominantly female. Women need senior role models and they are looking around and saying I don’t want to be here and they are seeking female friendly organizations.

Excerpt from Dish. For full excerpt, click here.

The next chapter: what midlife women want

Manager, professional, mentor, mother, wife, volunteer, artist, friend, athlete.Never before have there been so many demands on women to excel in so many domains of life, so many opportunities for self-expression and success, for disappointment and frustration. Our sense of self is nuanced, intricate, and rich. We derive our feelings of satisfaction from multi-ple roles.Freud famously said: “Love and work are the cornerstone of our humanness.” If we augment “love” to include our friends and our passions and “work” to include paid and unpaid activity, this is all that matters. These are the issues we are particularly likely to reflect on at midlife, a time of significant opportunities and challenges when we take stock and ask, “What next?” and “How can I feel better about my life?” and re-evaluate our priorities.

It is surprising that there is so little research about expectant employees given the fact that there has been a sharp rise in women’s labour force participation rates in North America. One U.S. researcher was able to locate just 20 empirical articles on pregnancy and work published in psychology and management journals between 1985 and 2005.

Women are not only participating in the labour force in greater numbers, the demographic of this group is also shifting. The participation rate of Alberta of women in the labour force with young children (under the age of six) in 2005 was over 64% and the National average was 71.8% in the same year. Most of these women were in their prime working ages of between 25 and 44 according to the Canadian Economic Observer, June 2006.

The landscape of organizations is changing. Much of this change is coming on the heels of the introduction of nearly year long employment insurance benefits for working families in Canada. A common belief among workplace culture is that younger generations in the workforce not only differ from the ones before them but are also seeking a much different work environment. With this and the rise in the number of working women between the ages of 25 and 44, organizations need to reflect on corporate maternity and maternal employment more openly.

Canadian organizations continue to grapple with meeting the needs of new and expectant parents without making the strategic link between maternity, new parenthood and the resulting impact on retention, absenteeism, productivity, stress related illness and culture. Additionally, even today there are quiet stereotypes facing pregnant women at work which have been cited in some of the limited research over the years done on this subject. Some of these include:

• The pregnant employee is no longer committed to her job
• That a pregnant employee may not return after childbirth
• That after a woman has had a child, that she is automatically perceived to be less committed to her career (Lyness, 1999).

In a 1991 study of MBA students it was reported that a substantial number had negative views of pregnant employees. The findings suggested that pregnant employees limit group productivity and that organizations make too many concessions for them (Major, 2005, p.2). Of these MBA students, 46% said that they would not hire a pregnant woman and 64% said that they would not promote one. Lastly, in a study done in 1999 it was found that some supervisors give lower evaluations to women who take leaves for child birth (Lyness, 1999).

These studies give us a limited snapshot of pregnant employees and their possible experiences at work before, during and after pregnancy and the return to work. Of course, these views are detrimental only to the extent that managers and supervisors act on them. However, the perception can seem like reality for some pregnant employees and the impact on corporate culture, even with these subtle stereotypes can be damaging to any organization. So damaging in fact that in the United States, corporate maternity related turnover costs are an average of $480,000 annually in an organization of 500 employees. This is based on an estimated occurrence of maternity in a corporate setting at 3.15% of the employee population, with 50% of the employee population being female and having a birth rate of 4.8% (Crecy, 2005).

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