Males have a different take on leadership

Do men manage corporations differently than women? Do they unwittingly prevent women from breaking through the invisible glass ceiling of top level corporate jobs?

These questions were explored by women-and men- at the Inamed Academy's Women's Leadership Conference, held recently in Sherman Oaks. (Inamed Corp., a Santa Barbara biotech firm, sponsored the event.)

While most of the conference's keynote speakers were female, a panel of male executives also offered insights into how they manage corporations.

The men's panel was called "Advancing Women into CLevel Roles: What Are They Thinking?" Four corporate leaders were featured-Myron Jones, president of NMB Technologies Corp., a Chatsworth manufacturer of precision mechanical and electrical components; Michael McGuire, president/CEO of Affinity Bank in Ventura; Blaise Simqu, president/CEO of Sage Publications in Thousand Oaks, and Nicholas Teti, president/CEO of Inamed.

Lois Phillips, a management consultant, conference speaker and the co-author of "Women Seen and Heard: Lessons Learned from Successful Speakers," and Fran Lotery, a consultant, executive coach, speaker and co-author of "Live Inside Out--Not Upside Down," cochaired the event.

Lotery served as moderator for the men's panel and asked each executive to share his story with the predominantly female audience.

"I learned a lot more about managing people from women than men," McGuire said. He told of a female manager whom he promoted to assistant vice president 25 years ago. She eventually asked to be demoted, saying she was uncomfortable judging employees' work performance.

Simqu said two of the three most creative top level employees at Sage Publishing are women, but he doesn't believe their success has anything to do with gender. He simply believes they are capable and easy to work with.

Simqu, however, may be more comfortable working with women than are many men. His grandmother opened the Buckley School, the oldest private school in the San Fernando Valley, his mother was a career woman, and he has three sisters. "I was surrounded," he said.

Jones got a chance to see women operate several divisions of his firm after the 1994 Northridge earthquake destroyed his Chatsworth headquarters. He said 40 percent of the senior management staff at the time were women. Women now represent half of top management.

"Women were much more broad-minded," Jones said. "It was startling to me," he said of the female approach to problem solving. He learned firsthand how women dealt with problems when meetings were conducted at individual homes, he said.

As for differences in skills and styles, Teti also doesn't believe there are gender characteristics so much as management characteristics in general. He values employees who take a "no excuse" approach to business and those who command mutual respect. Creativity also tops Teti's list of qualities to look for in upper management.

"The status quo is the enemy," he said. Teti said he prefers the technique of people who focus on three to four top priorities rather than 15 or more "objectives."

Teti and the event's organizers differed in their appraisals of on-the-job gender differences. Lotery, Phillips and other female panelists believe that women are natural team players, but Teti says the same is true for men, who grow up playing competitive sports.

"Men understand innately what it means to be part of a team," Teti said.

Jones added that he likes to hire people based on what he calls the "three bones."

"Backbone," he said, is needed in top jobs because the company has to trust employees to stand up for what's right. A "funny bone" is equally necessary, he said, but a "wishbone" may be the most important of all. Top level managers must have a dream or a vision for the company.

Simqu said he hires staff based on "getting the job done."

"We're desperate for people who will absolutely deliver," he said. "Do what you say you're going to do when you say you're going to do it." This simple tenet, he said, will distinguish an employee from 90 percent of their colleagues, he said.

When asked what three qualities he looks for when interviewing senior management candidates, McGuire said credentials do matter. Enthusiasm is also important-"you can't train enthusiasm."

Finally, a positive attitude is highly desirable. "A couple of attitude hand grenades can destroy your whole day," he said.

Lotery said she was "astounded" to hear that some of the men didn't think there were many gender differences. Teti agreed, and said the mentality of the "old boys' club" in boardrooms is alive and well.

Jones said that while women still face a glass ceiling in the United States, in his firm's Japanese subsidiary that ceiling is more of a "reinforced concrete barrier."

When a visiting top Japanese executive saw how competent America's women executives were, Jones said the man pledged to remove some of the barriers when he returned to Japan.

The panel also touched on a few hard and fast rules of business etiquette. First, never break the chain of command. Teti said there is nothing worse than an employee who tries to undermine a co-worker.

"The culture of any company is set by the CEO," Jones said.