When we were writing Her Place at the Table: A Woman’s Guide to Negotiating Five Key Challenges to Leadership Success, we talked about the “special tests” that the workplace reserves just for women.  We described one of them as “The Token Test” ─ the question that often follows a woman when she takes on a leadership role: “Did she get the job because she is a woman?”

I must confess that I was a bit skeptical that the Token Test was still operative in 2004. I thought we had come far enough and that there were so many clearly qualified women that there would be no reason to offer an unqualified woman a leadership position. What I have learned from this election is that I was wrong —John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin was, in my opinion, a setback for qualified women in politics and in business.

If the polls and the pundits are right, the American public wasn’t fooled by a charismatic politician who claims she didn’t have a second of doubt about her readiness for the VP role. And, unless McCain wins the election, I think Palin will shoulder a great deal of the blame. Even last week, she was being described as a “diva” and a “whack job” by unnamed McCain campaign officials. Hmmmm…

So what can we learn from this?

• Ask lots of questions when you are offered your dream job. Why me? Why now? What are the expectations that I will have to meet? What kind of support will I get? What kind of resources can I expect? (Make it clear you are not asking for a clothing allowance!)
• While women should take appropriate risk to enhance their careers, taking on a role when you do not have the requisite knowledge and skill is harmful to your professional reputation. Be realistic about what you have and what you lack. Then build your knowledge and skills incrementally in a strategic way to set yourself up for success.
• There’s nothing wrong with being reflective; moments of doubt make us stronger and better prepared.

Apologies to all thethinpinkline readers who have election fatigue, especially those who read from outside the US.  It’s almost over.

TAGS: gender, gender and leadership, John McCain, Leadership, Sarah Palin, The Token Test

We’ve all interviewed for jobs.  There are certain guidelines, some of which we’ve blogged about on The Thin Pink Line, that you observe to increase the likelihood of being considered a viable hire for the job.  Well, last night you may have tuned into a unique type of interview called a debate, where one candidate broke all the rules we commonly coach people to follow.

1.  State up front you’re not going to answer the questions.  This will let the interviewer know not to expect responses to what’s important to him, her, the company — or in this case — the country.  It will also emphasize that you’re a real maverick. 

2.  Wink and smile.  If you can’t dazzle them with your experience, wow ‘em with your personality.  They may not notice you’re about as deep as a cookie sheet. 

3.  Change the subject.  This variation on #1 lets you focus exclusively on what you know and avoid gaps in your knowledge. 

4.  Stick to your notes.  Ah, yes. Interview preparation is very important.  Why waste a word you’ve practiced — even if it doesn’t apply to what you’ve just been asked.

5.  Use jargon and a style common to your family or community.  As Martha Stewart commented, “The home spun homilies have to go and words do have consonant endings.”  Oy vey, I’m feeling so fermished by this meshugas. 

Did changing the interview rules work?  It’s up to you to decide.

TAGS: Interview skills, Joe Biden, Sarah Palin, Vice presidential debates

I had an interesting conversation with Anne Fisher, Ask Annie columnist from Fortune magazine.  We were talking about the presidential election and the differences between Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin.  I came to appreciate the fact that even though I don’t agree with either woman on everything, I do respect them for walking The Thin Pink Line in their own ways.  What I particularly appreciate is having two disparate styles to observe and learn from.  It’s about time we had a choice of role models in the upper echelon of politics. 

If you tend to be serious, cerebral, cautious, and strategic then you most likely see Hillary as a woman who can teach you something.  On the other hand, if you tend to be down to earth, practical, gutsy, and prefer to shoot from the hip, then Sarah models the behaviors you might most want to emulate.  Both women are intelligent, persistent, passionate, and committed to the causes in which they believe — traits we all can admire.  As women, we can appreciate the gifts each brings to the table without necessarily embracing her position on the issues. 

In some ways, this is the time we’ve all been waiting for –having female candidates with distinct personalities and positions in the spotlight.  For too long we’ve all been lumped into the “female” category, regardless of our unique views, communication styles, or personal preferences.  I wish more women would think about this when judging their co-workers.  The myth that women don’t like working for other women still runs rampant.  Sure there are women I wouldn’t want to work for, but there are just as many men I’d avoid as well.  When we finally come to the realization that there are more differences within any one group than there are differences between two groups, we will have taken a giant leap toward equality.

TAGS: Female role models, Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin

I keep thinking about Sarah Palin, her five kids, and her choice to run for Vice President of the United States.  There’s a dirty little secret among some feminists that they’re loathe to utter aloud for fear of losing their membership in NOW.  At the risk of being ostracized but my sisters, I’ve got to say it.  I don’t understand how a woman who espouses family families can reconcile putting her family on the back burner for four years while she helps run the most powerful country on the globe.  I can hear it now, “Why can men do it but women can’t?”  As I’ve said before, when you opt to juggle a challenging career and family there’s no such thing as work/life balance.  Not for women.  Not for men. 

If average working women struggle and feel the guilt of not being home when the kids need her because she’s at work, and not being at work when that’s required before the kids need her, how can a woman devote her full attention to helping to run the country?  If Palin wasn’t so adamant about being pro-family and pro-life I wouldn’t think twice.  Plenty of women do have challenging jobs (often out of need not choice, particularly in this economy) and meet the demands of a family.  But it seems hypocritical to say you can do both well because the fact is you can’t.  Men don’t.  It’s why more and more men are opting for less challenging jobs so that they can spend more time with their families.  And those who do opt for high-powered careers are usually successful at the expense of their family lives.  They admit it, even rationalize it by saying this is how they can best provide for their families.  There can be, and there is, work/life balance when you admit you can’t do it all equally well and you know you may not get that promotion to a senior position that requires travel or long working days because you value your family too much. 

When it comes right down to it, it’s about values.  I recall when Katie Couric took the job as evening anchor at CBS and said outright that she would not go to Iraq to cover the war.  She didn’t think it was fair to her two daughters to put their only surviving parent in harm’s way.  That’s living your values.  When Rosie O’Donnell began her own family she said needed a job where she could live a routine life so that she could be with her family and so she chose to be the host of television talk show based in New York.  That’s living your values.  Or the men I know who decline lucrative consulting jobs that require being away from home several weeks each month because they don’t want to miss their children growing up.  That’s living your values. It’s a tough choice — for both men and women.  But that’s what living your values is all about.  You can’t just talk the talk, you’ve got to walk the walk.  It seems to me that Palin does the former well, and the latter… well, not so much.

TAGS: career choices, family values, living your values, Sarah Palin

My cousin Donna and I grew up in worlds about as far apart as you can imagine.  I grew up in New York, Donna in Texas.  As you can imagine, my liberal leanings don’t always sit well with her but she’s a good counterpoint for me.  When she asked in an e-mail what I thought about Sarah Palin I told her I just couldn’t bring myself to blog about her because my mother always taught me, “If you can’t say anything nice…”.  This was her response:

Now, now, now.  You can’t ignore a fellow female who is just trying to walk that thin pink line…whether she is a Democrat OR, dare I say, a Republican! Let me see, governor of the largest state in the union for 2 years versus senator from Illinois for 2 years, but that senator is running for president not v.p. You know, this is going to be the first time in decades that we are going to have a president from the senate. Having 5 kids is a lot of work, but she has a husband. It may keep her more in-tuned to the plight of the average woman, and family for that matter. In other words I think you need to recognize her on your blog, good and bad, because that’s what it’s all about.

Donna’s right.  And the fact is I am glad to see a woman on at least one of the tickets.  But voting for a woman was never as important to me as having the right people in office.  As I walked around my office saying during the democratic campaign, “Obama, Hillary, both are OK to me.  Just no more old white men.”  Then Jessica made a bumper sticker for me with this same phrase.  Now I get lots of honks and thumbs up. The guys at the car wash and the valets tell me they particularly like it.  I also got two flat tires and am still not sure if it’s related.

TAGS: Barack Obama, democrats, republicans, Sarah Palin