Drinking with the boss

I heard something ‘revelationary’ yesterday, which was also so damn obvious I can't believe it's taken me almost 40 years to figure it out. Share this with other women.

Getting promoted in your 20s - in the lower ranks - is almost always about hard work and talent. Getting promoted in your early 30s - mid level - is mainly about hard work and talent. Getting promoted in your late 30s and beyond - upper ranks - is mostly about your boss feeling you are trustworthy, loyal and decent enough for them to go out on a limb for. By then, performance takes second place to 'social bonds with colleagues' in determining success.

So we need to stop working late on our own, assuming it will be noticed while our male colleagues go to the pub with the senior men in the company. And when you do start pub-going, don't just drink with mentors. Caring people are overrated. You need sponsors who'll put you forward for promotion. And those sponsors need to feel there's something in it for them. You'll jump when they need a jumper, for example.

Two other quick points on this; if you're looking for sponsors don't just look at people who encapsulate everything you want to be. Be practical. Target people who you respect enough to be loyal and - most importantly - whose position in the company makes them able to advance your career. Women can be too idealistic about this process.

Once you're in those upper ranks, motivate your staff to sponsor others by reminding them they'll execute better, especially in tough times, if there are people right across the company who owe them one. I've heard (second hand) that one of today's top CEOs refers to it as having 'deep pockets’ filled with people who'd work hard for you.

I got all this from a wonderful author and researcher called Sylvia Ann Hewlett, who I spent time with at the Women's Forum in Deauville this week. I was there with CNBC. We'd developed a partnership with the forum and PwC to survey delegates and the public on what women's empowerment will mean for men. It was fascinating. See WomenInBusiness.CNBC.com or PwC.com/women and read more about it in my next blog.

Arianna Huffington in CNBC Davos Debate

Arianna Huffington agreed tentatively this week to be in our CNBC Davos Debate. She'll participate in one of two teams challenged with devising game changing ideas for popularising gender equality. I'm delighted. She'll be a fantastic addition. (Images from ABCNewstore & LibertyHill.org)

The Davos Plan

I devised a plan for our Davos debate this week, although you can guarantee the title and format will change as I work with the forum and the gender equality project to tweak and re-tweak. Here are some excerpts from the summary document. Ideas welcomed! (This picture is from last year's CNBC Davos debate with Maria Bartiromo, of whom I'm a huge fan.)

NEW LEADERSHIP DNA: Could women be the next decade’s profit playbook?

• I'm told a UN report concludes that if we progress towards gender equality at the current rate we will reach it just beyond the year 4000. I'm not that patient.


• Asking organisations to address the problem because it’s the right thing to do hasn’t worked. We need a new strategy.


• Women often distance themselves from gender discussions in the workplace because they’re considered distractions from the company’s critical mission. It’s time to change the conversation.
  

CNBC, the World Economic Forum’s Gender Parity Programme and the Gender Equality Project co-founded by Nicole Schwab and Aniela Unguresan are joining forces in Davos 2010 to prove parity equals profits. We’re challenging two talented debating teams to pitch their best ideas for convincing CEOs that gender equality pays dividends and we’re encouraging them to inspire and entertain delegates in the process. CNBC will televise the debate as a half-hour Davos special, air it globally, stream it on CNBC.com and rotate highlights in primetime for a fortnight after the event. The debate will be energetic, enjoyable and inclusive: We’ll approach the subject from a profit-seeking perspective and dispel the myth that gender equality is simply a woman’s issue.

The Format

CNBC is compiling two teams of business and political leaders – one all female and the other all male - and challenging them to try to convince CEO delegates that gender parity delivers profits. We’ll also ask them to devise game changing ideas for popularising gender equality within the workplace. We want strategies for making gender equality an exciting top priority and making ‘more women in the boardroom’ the enlightened new innovation of high-performing corporations.

While the male team presents its ideas, the female team will sit in a sound-proofed room then the female team will have its turn.

Throughout the challenge, our high-powered jury and opinionated audience will question, critique and applaud the ideas and eventually vote on which of them should be adopted by global corporations.

Rebrand the F Word - Feminism needs a make-over

It’s probably time I revealed my plan. It’ll need to expand exponentially from these humble beginnings but at least I have a start. Last month, after a week at TED, I managed to tear an idea from my head. I am going to compile a dream team of PR and agency gurus of both genders and invite them to devise a global advertising campaign - fictitious, but who knows where it might lead - to rebrand the F word (that's feminism for short).

The endgame of the campaign will be to convince companies that parity equals profits - having fairer representation by women will help a company's bottom line. This dream team of extraordinary spin-doctors will get twenty minutes to pitch their ideas to a roomful of business and political leaders at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland this coming January. Once they’re done, a panel of powerful, ruthless and witty women will interrogate their ideas before the audience too has a go. This unconventional little mission will be filmed and, all going well, if the end result is good enough, a half-hour special about it will air next year on CNBC in EMEA and APAC and stream on CNBC.com. Nobody will actually be paying for a global campaign to rebrand the f word next year, it's just an exercise to get some great ideas, but maybe if the ideas are interesting enough, someone might pick them up.

This is all thanks to the World Economic Forum and a delegate who may not wish to be named since her own gender parity project is yet to be launched. I met her in Davos last year where I was televising a debate for CNBC. She described her commitment to gender equality and I was inspired but couldn't immediately think of a sensible way to be a rebel for the cause. It was 3am, in the Davos piano bar, a drink-spilling oasis of zero inhibitions and I’d had two hours sleep for too many nights so was all emotion and good intentions with no clues. (It happens the fourth or fifth night of every WEF event. I grow desperate to unlock the hero within.)

I wanted to challenge myself to do something about the fact that on the one hand, I resented gender inequality and on the other, I cringed at feminist stereotypes overly worthy women. I figured if I could create an opportunity to inspire change, even teeny tiny change, through skilfully packaged content and a clever idea, this would be one small thing I could do and personally get satisfaction from. And I started mulling... eventually coming up with this little project.

I asked WEF’s gender parity team and the woman who inspired me if they would support a debate at Davos that used a playful concept to deliver a critical message on gender inequality and this week they officially agreed so that has given me a base. But it's just a starting place. I want to grow it from there and you'll be able to read about whether I achieve that right here. This is the official diary of the rebranding campaign. Watch this space.