In the Company of Greatness

This week, I was surrounded by amazing women who have made history in their own right.

I was fortunate to be in the company of greatness — Sally Ride, the first American woman to travel into space; Shelly Lazarus, CEO and Chairman of Ogilvy Worldwide; Jane Swift, former Massachusetts governor; and Myra Hart, co-founder of Staples and famous author.

Being in a room with these women, I was both awestruck and inspired. Thinking about their many contributions to women’s progress and their personal journeys, I was wondering what and who inspired them to take their leaps into greatness. The common thread among them is their passion, combined with confidence and courage. I can’t think of four more accomplished women and what a special way to celebrate Women’s History Month — they have touched my life personally and made the world more open for everyone.

While the majority of us won’t become astronauts, politicians, CEO’s and entrepreneurs, I believe we can make history in our own way. History is often made when a combination of small actions results in a change over time and becomes memorable — it’s not always a big event. Since I have been so fortunate in my life and career, I would like to help others be successful, particularly other women. I ask you to find a woman in your life for whom you can make a difference — a colleague, a friend, a daughter, a mother. I believe that history is made each and every day by all of us in how we touch and influence what happens to others who are part of our lives.

So, are you ready to make history?

Barbara

By blogger Barbara Adachi, Deloitte LLP

Precious Moments

Last week during my trip to New York, I was able to mix some pleasure with business by having dinner with my daughter, Allison, who just moved to NY last November. It was heartwarming to see our relationship today and the person she has become. Even though she is 25, in many ways it’s hard to let go and I finally understand what my own mother said to me many years ago – you never stop being a mom.

When Allison was younger, I spent a lot of time worrying about what moments I was missing, not to mention the guilt that I felt not being able to be there all of the time. When she was three years old, she asked Ted if I lived at the airport. That was a wake-up call for me — at that moment, I realized that I didn’t want to miss her childhood and look back someday with regret. I ended up changing jobs, but things didn’t really change until I made a decision to slow things down.

Today, I see a young confident woman and not the shy little girl who often cried at the thought of going to ballet class. With both of us working full-time, I struggled with trying to be a good mother and having a career. Long before we had mass career customization, I slowed down my pace and my role. It was more important to me not to miss those precious moments than getting the next promotion. Looking back today, I am happy that I made the choices that I did.

We’re empty-nesters now, but thanks to BlackBerries, email and cell phones, Allison and I communicate more today than when she lived at home. It’s the everyday things that bring us all together — like calling Ted (not me) for a favorite recipe or sending me a quick instant message when we’re both online. What I have learned is that every moment is precious — it doesn’t always have to be the big things. She lives 3,000 miles away now, but she is following her dream and building her own life in New York, and we couldn’t be prouder of her.

At dinner last week, Allison told me what I had always hoped to hear — that I have been a good mom and now, a friend...which is something I truly cherish.

Barbara

“In my daughter’s eyes, I see who I want to be.” Martina McBride

By blogger Barbara Adachi, Deloitte LLP

Where the Heart Is

It’s been a hectic few months, but I must say that I love my new role! I am still on a steep learning curve, but what is most rewarding is having passion about my work — both WIN and serving clients. Last Friday, I had the opportunity to interview summer intern candidates and I was reminded of how much I enjoy what I do. While the workload is full and there are never enough hours in the day, I can’t imagine being any place else. I do enjoy the challenge and most importantly, the people. While in Los Angeles, I had a chance to visit with a manager who is expecting her first child — what an exciting time. We discussed how to balance it all and my advice to her was simple…know your priorities and look at them everyday. It doesn’t mean we always get to do what is No. 1, but it will keep you focused on what is important.

Fitting a career into everything else in life is a constant challenge — and there are days when I feel overwhelmed and out of tilt. In my heart, I believe that you can have it all but there will always be trade-offs. Today is Valentine’s Day and it’s also my 32nd wedding anniversary. I could not enjoy my work without the complete support of my better half, Ted. After 32 years of marriage, we have certainly had our shares of ups and downs, but we have always tried to put our family first. Having that priority and a sense of humor (thanks to Ted!) has helped us stay the course.

Reflecting on Valentine’s Day, it’s a time to celebrate our loved ones and be thankful for the support we receive from them, in fact, we should be celebrating them everyday. It’s certainly where my heart is.

Barbara

By blogger Barbara Adachi, Deloitte LLP

Big Shoes

First and foremost, I would like to thank Cathy for the leadership, innovation and standard of excellence she has brought to our Women’s Initiative (WIN) and for inspiring all of us who she touched. I am so honored to succeed Cathy and am filled with many emotions — excitement, anticipation, gratitude and a bit of apprehension. After all, how do you follow such greatness?

To me, Cathy is like “Dorothy” traveling down the yellow brick road to success. Cathy has it all — heart, wisdom and courage. And she has used her talents to take WIN to new heights. When I think about following in Cathy’s footsteps, I realize what BIG shoes I must fill.

While Dorothy’s journey to Oz turned out to be a dream, what is different here is that this role is a dream come true for me. Sometimes, I have to pinch myself to take it all in and to grasp this great opportunity before me today. I have been so fortunate in my career and to have this role is truly the icing on the cake. I also feel that if this can happen to me, it can happen to anyone! I aspire to be a good leader and I hope I can help others achieve their dreams. My husband and I have always told our daughter to “follow your dreams and believe in yourself.” I am the eternal optimist, believing that everything is possible, and I think that the possibilities for WIN and our people are unlimited.

We are on the eve of our 15th year of WIN — it’s a time to reflect on our accomplishments and contemplate what’s next for us. Even though it’s a bit scary to take on the leadership of such a well-established and successful initiative, the good news is that I am not alone — I have strong support from leadership as well as a great team of WIN leaders across the country … and we are all excited and committed to shaping the future together. The path ahead is not about starting from scratch, but building on the solid foundation and successes that others before me have created. Aligning with diversity and our talent agenda, there is no better time for WIN.

And so, I am ready and excited to fill the BIG shoes, click my heels and take off — its time to seize this amazing opportunity!

"I've got big shoes to fill. This is my chance to do something. I have to seize the moment."  Andrew Jackson

And now I ask, what is your dream?

Barbara

By blogger Barbara Adachi, Deloitte LLP

Passages

“The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time.” James Taylor

What’s that old expression, “there comes a time when all good things must come to an end?” Perhaps I should have titled this final entry “Procrastination” since, well, I’ve dawdled quite a bit around writing it. Sometimes passages come easy, I guess, and sometimes they don’t.

I was reminded of how much progress we’ve made in the workplace on a flight earlier this week. Having been upgraded, I noticed that the first class cabin had all but one seat taken by women traveling alone seemingly on business. I can think back, in contrast, to a time when I would more times than not be singled out by flight attendants simply because I was a woman international business traveler sitting in first class. The words of one attendant still ring in my ear: “Honey, I don’t know what you do, but you must be doing something right because you’re sitting up here not attached to a working spouse.”

And even on a flight yesterday, I couldn’t help but hear the two 40-something-year-old men sitting behind me get into a lengthy discussion on the topic of day care for their young children. Yep, these are little vignettes of what progress looks like.

I’m sometimes asked who I admire, often with an unspoken expectation that my response will be a great name like Gandhi, or Churchill, or Mother Teresa, or Oprah. Although they each made (and in the case of Oprah, continues to make) significant contributions to the world we live in, I admire most more common people like Mrs. Bitkowski.

Mrs. Bitkowski worked in a Detroit beauty parlor (no, not an upscale salon, an old-fashion beauty parlor) and had six children under the age of 7 when her husband died suddenly. She did what she needed to do to keep it all together as a single mom with a meager income and extraordinary burdens. She toiled through, one day at a time. How do I know? I met Mrs. Bitkowski at Harvard Business School. Her oldest daughter was my b-school roommate who herself is a brilliant, driven, well-rounded and well-grounded individual. Yep. I admire Mrs. Bitkowski — and all the Mrs. Bitkowskis out there. Everyday people who make the most of their circumstances, whatever those circumstances might be.

Another woman I admire is Barbara Adachi, and I also have the honor and privilege of naming Barbara our new Women’s Initiative Leader and my successor to this blog covering work, life and everything in between. 

She, too, makes the most of her circumstances—every day. She takes the time to reach out, to give back, to counsel and to coach. To encourage and support and recognize the successes — small and large — of others. She is a mother of one, a role model for many, and an inspiration to all who know her. I’m in awe of all she does, from leading our regional human capital practice (until recently) to heading our Northern Pacific WIN efforts, to representing her colleagues on Deloitte Consulting’s board of directors, to directing a vast array of community efforts. I could go on, but I think you get the drift.

Barbara is the right leader at the right time to take WIN to the next level and this blog to a place that only she can. I’m looking forward to reading about her exploits and insights and am confident that you will as well.

And now, Barbara, it’s over to you…

Cathy

By blogger Cathy Benko, Deloitte LLP

Through the Eyes of the Beholder

My life is downright manic which is reflected in the irregularity of postings lately. (Sorry about that.) Manic as in frenzied times on the career front. The book, Mass Career Customization, launched during the past few weeks. You may recall the advice this blog community offered when we were trying to name this baby. I’ll tackle the topic of the travails of changing the way we think about how careers are built in a separate entry. For now, though, I’ll stick with manic.

These manic times have instigated an extended visit from an old nemesis, the guilt gods (for more on the guilt gods, check out Sick Day and A Teary September Morning). You see, I missed the first day of school; a trip to the orthodontist with my son (yep, it’s braces time); a field trip; days and days of homework (have you ever tried to help your kid with their algebra over the phone?); sleepy eyes in the morning; and lots of hugs. Minor misses? In the grand scheme of things, yes. Major angst? Yep.

But, alas, there is hope. Flipping through Business Week on (another) long flight recently, the title of a small piece caught my eye and calmed my concerns: “The Kids Are All Right.” It was so soothing that I thought about sending a thank you note to the writer, Michelle Conlin. Although I don’t know Michelle, she must be a working parent.

Michelle reports on a survey that finds, in essence, that working parents are harder on themselves when it comes to work and the quality of home life than their kids. The long and the short of it: it’s all relative to your point of reference. My interpretation is that we each bring our past experiences with us. For working parents, we take how we grew up — and for many of us that was with a stay-at-home mom. But our kids, who don’t have that experience, start with a fresher look at things. And I guess they don’t think things are so bad. It’s just the way that it is.

Not complete dispensation, but it does take the edge off a bit. Don’t ya think?

Cathy

By blogger Cathy Benko, Deloitte LLP

In a Perfect World

When you think about it, reality television reveals that life isn’t perfect, and many find high entertainment value in the imperfect lives and escapades of those who don’t mind letting others — millions of others — in on their travails.

If life was perfect, ice cream would clear arteries.
If life was perfect, there’d be no bad hair days.
If life was perfect, I would have known then what I know now.
If life was perfect, they’d bring Sex & The City back.

But as we all know, life isn’t perfect. Neither are any of the humans who live in it.  But that’s not to say we have license to look the other way when we see that imperfection displayed. No, instead we can move toward perfection by standing up and righting the wrong or the inequity when we see it demonstrated.

Case in point: The other day an announcement came out about an organization-wide soccer tournament. U.S. company teams can enter and ultimately be selected to participate in what is termed the Prague Cup (it’s held in Prague, hence the title), and dozens of member countries send teams to Prague to compete. So far, so good.

Except the rules which were originally scribed in, you guessed it, Prague, excluded women. The thinking was simple; soccer is a male-dominated sport and that’s just the way it’s done in Europe. In trying to adopt the rules for our U.S. norms, the team of volunteers who were working to organize the U.S. contingent, reached a compromise with the international organizers — 60 percent of the team needs to be male.  They thought that was a reasonable compromise and promotion for the tournament was marketed this way.

Now, in a perfect world, no one would have had to feel outrage that the tournament wasn’t gender-neutral. There’s no question about that. But given the imperfect world we live in, making the most of the imperfection by speaking up and standing up for what is equitable — yes, the tournament is now gender-neutral — is, at the end of the day, a move toward perfection. A move toward the day when happenings like this don’t provide fodder for a blog like this.

If life was perfect, what would it look like to you?

Cathy
By blogger Cathy Benko, Deloitte LLP

Strong Roots, Strong Values

Note from blogger Cathy Benko: Back by popular demand--Sharon Allen, Chairman of the Board, Deloitte LLP, returns to share a few more words of wisdom. I, on the other hand, would like to wish you all a very relaxing long holiday weekend filled with family, friends, and plenty of sunshine!

Writing recently in the WIN Blog illustrated just how worthwhile it is to venture outside our comfort zone. The responses told me something that WIN Chair Dr. Sally Ride would be pleased to hear. From what was shared, it’s clear that all of you have the right stuff — namely, the courage to tackle new challenges (if not shoot for the moon). Thanks for taking the time to write!

Today, I’d like to share with you the profound influence my early years have had on my life.

I grew up on a farm in Idaho, the youngest of four girls in a tight-knit family. My grandparents lived next door. We raised potatoes, of course, and other crops including beans and barley. There was plenty of time for chores and plenty of opportunities to learn important life lessons. 

I often speak about my grandmother. She took great pride in the beauty of her prized flower garden. Each fall, she insisted that we dig up the gladiola bulbs and carefully clean and store them before replanting them in the spring. It wasn’t easy. There were literally hundreds of bulbs and tending to them took a long time. I didn't understand why we couldn't just leave the bulbs in the ground and let them come up on their own like everyone else did. 

But to my grandmother, that was not good enough. For the gladiolas to bloom to their fullest size and most radiant color, we had to do our part. It was not about doing something extraordinary. It was about taking something ordinary and doing it extraordinarily well. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, that was a clear example of striving for excellence.

I also learned the importance of balancing work with life. On the farm, there is always work to be done. But church and family, schools and community also deserved our time. Achieving balance means taking care of business — while recognizing that the needs of family, friends, neighbors, and the community also were our business.

Some time ago, I concluded that such work/life balance is important to forging strong ethical character. In a recent external survey conducted for Deloitte, 91 percent of the more than 1,000 adults polled agreed. Think about it. If people invest everything in their jobs, they can become dependent on their jobs for everything — including their self-identity. This can make it even harder to make the right decision if they face an ethical dilemma whose outcome may affect their professional success.   

When I went to the University of Idaho, the school’s motto was “From here, you can go anywhere.” And I have been fortunate to go much further beyond my comfort zone than I could have ever imagined. But I shouldn’t be surprised. Looking back, so many people created a strong support system for me by teaching me strong values. 

While my responsibilities as Chairman take me across the country and around the world, my roots are firmly planted in small town Idaho. They ground me to this day and support the values that will always define my life.

So, how about you? What grounds you in your values?

By Guest Blogger Sharon Allen,
Chairman of the Board, Deloitte LLP

Honors English

There are lots of everyday work processes and methods that prove very helpful on the home front, particularly operational improvement tools (i.e. workplans). Other examples range from using team management techniques on family members to time management to mail merge for holiday cards.

This week, though, the ‘helpful’ went the other way—a learning on the home front that informed the work front. Setting: Late summer air, a forlorn sense of loss, anxiety and just a touch of excitement from my kids about going back to school. (As you likely know, getting everyone ready to go back to school is a work task worthy of an implementation plan in and of itself!)

However, this year, my son and I also had a discussion on a new back-to-school topic—Honors English. Going into the eighth grade, this is the first year that there is an honors track at his school. The question on the table: Should he shoot for the higher hurdle of the honors class or more comfortably continue on the non-honors track. The swiftness of his analysis took me back a bit. (Remember, there’s no such thing as a long conversation with this newly thirteen-year-old boy.) The upside: An A in honors English would look better on his high school application; the downside is that it’s harder to get an A.

Seems pretty straightforward, right? Yep. It worked for me. But then I realized how his simple thinking could make a profound difference on the work front. One of the things we were grappling with was what it really means to “dial up careers.” Greater responsibilities and ‘stretch’ assignments are criteria for dialed up careers—a hallmark of mass career customization. 

However, what if someone dialed up but then didn’t deliver at that level? Would his or her performance rating be impacted or would she still get a rating of someone at the same level who had not stepped forward requesting to accelerate her growth? Was it equitable to have a different hurdle level for folks who were really ‘hungry’ for taking on more? On the other hand, was it justified not to have a higher hurdle? We had been going back and forth on this—until the Honors English discussion. And then it became clearer; it’s just another example of the risk-reward profile. 

In this instance, bringing life into work helped solidify a work decision. Hmmmm. My guess is that this is a much more common occurrence than I’ve ever thought about before. What do you think? Do you have any examples where life informed your work?

Cathy

By blogger Cathy Benko, Deloitte LLP

Moving Outside of Our Comfort Zone

Note from blogger Cathy Benko:  While on our annual vacation pilgrimage, I was able to snag Sharon Allen, Chairman of the Board, Deloitte & Touche USA LLP, to write this week’s entry. Just like all of us, she’s learned more than a few lessons over the years and has one to share with us today. 

While I’ve held many titles during my Deloitte career, “Guest Blogger ” isn’t one of them! In fact, this is my first time blogging anywhere. Obviously, it’s a fresh and interesting experience whose outcome is unknown. But that’s what happens whenever we attempt something new.

In the spirit of attempting something new, today I’d like to share my thoughts on moving outside of our comfort zone. Doing so is vitally important. We can talk about it all we want. Yet the ability to stretch and grow can only begin when we actually move in a new direction. Once we do, however, a funny thing happens. Before you know it, wherever we’ve landed begins to feel comfortable. When that happens, you know it’s time to raise the bar again and look for the next challenge.

That’s why I believe in knowing our boundaries—and stepping beyond them. Sure, it’s safe and familiar within the lines, sometimes too much so. Yet through the Women’s Initiative and our own efforts to build personal networks, we can always reach out to someone for guidance or a helping hand when we choose to move outside of our comfort zone.

And choose we must. If we don’t, we may unintentionally commit ourselves to running in place before grinding to a halt. The road to atrophy isn’t the title of a summer paperback. It’s a real drop off point in our lives and careers where excelling tomorrow at the same thing we did today can lull us into a false sense of well-being.

I know that from personal experience. Back in 1994, I was chosen as the first woman to serve on the Deloitte board of directors. I was happy as can be as the managing partner in the Boise office, lead partner on one of the firm’s largest audit clients, and chairman of the local Chamber of Commerce. I was doing it all . . . and I could have chosen to stay there and stay comfortable.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that standing pat could limit my growth, at least in a professional sense! And so in 1997, as difficult as it was, I decided to move to Portland and later to Los Angeles, each time taking on greater responsibilities. Looking back now, the worst outcome wouldn’t have been to accept a challenging assignment and fail. It would have been to stay on in a comfortable assignment, master it, and eventually stop growing.

Please understand that we don’t have to change our physical location to expand our horizons. Whether it’s adding new responsibilities, teaming with new people, or just doing something fun and different with our free time (what free time some of you may be asking), I’m convinced that venturing beyond our boundaries is a crucial step toward developing the confidence to lead—our growth as individuals depends on it.

What steps are you taking into the unfamiliar?

By Guest Blogger Sharon Allen, Chairman of the Board, Deloitte LLP