Recognizing Women

Last week was a nice one for women in business.  Xerox named Ursula Burns the successor to Anne Mulcahy, effective keeping the magic number of women CEOs of Fortune 500 companies on an even keel.  This is no small thing for my generation, the ones who gathered in ‘consciousness raising’ groups and thought about how our sons and daughters lives should give them the same freedoms and responsibilities.  We were not as happy when eBay’s Meg Whitman was replaced by a man.  Back then in the early seventies we’d hoped by the new millennium  it wouldn’t matter.  We thought things would even out more than they have.

But enough of this whining, Dr. Janice.  You got recognized this week too.  Jayson Saba, a top analyst in the human capital industry, cited your company’s product in a LinkedIn discussion of assessments and integrity.

When I read this, my first thought was, score one for women CEOs!  Then I came to my senses.  No one does any of this themselves.  It’s the team that was recognized and the team has no gender.

Ursula, I hope your team, too, has no gender, no race, no age, no singular culture.  And I hope you get to feel like it’s great to be a CEO when you have a great team that celebrates with you every moment of recognition.