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WITI WOMEN
Reflections on Carly Fiorina's departure from HP
This was and is a BIG story since there continue to be so few women heading major corporations; everyone had a different view of what happened and of Carly herself. Since I have been asked so many times to express my view of Carly and what occurred, I realized there was no better place than WITI to state my view for the record. As many of you know, from the moment Carly first took on the role of CEO of HP and became one of the few women CEO's of a major company - and one of even fewer female CEOs of a major technology company - Carly regularly announced that her leadership, skills, style and success had nothing to do with her being a woman. I completely agree with her. In my view, she stood for the opposite of those qualities that represent the best of women's leadership: collaborative, not ego-driven, inclusive, engaging, enrolling and so on. Carly was known as an autocrat, regularly turning her back on women individually and collectively. How ironic that the major discussion around Carly's departure continues to center around her being a woman when she repressed, denied, rejected any association with womanhood! In fact, we heard repeatedly that Carly refused to speak anywhere a woman's organization - any woman's organization - or women's issues were part of the agenda. I find this position ironic on two fronts. 1. Her predecessor and the man who selected Carly, Lew Platt, was legendary for his support of women. He did more to advance women at HP than any previous leader there. 2. Carly's personal demons about being a woman interfered with some strategically smart positioning she should and could have leveraged as a highly visible CEO in the interest of HP's bottom line. From a purely business point of view, Carly rejected an incredible opportunity to position Hewlett Packard as the company of choice for women. Not only could she have supported the many years and millions of dollars HP had spent to attract quality female candidates, but Carly had a unique opportunity to significantly increase HP's market share as the product of choice for the fastest growing segment of the small business market - women! When Carly was first named CEO of Hewlett Packard, she had the opportunity to win the hearts and minds of the women's market. The professional women's community stood ready to welcome her with open arms; we all celebrated another woman being acknowledged and finally advancing to a highly recognized leadership position. We were ready to be led, buy products, applaud HP, do whatever it took to support Carly. Instead, Carly quickly alienated so many by stating over and over again that she did not want anything to do with a conversation around being a woman. In a short period of time, Carly successfully alienated most of the women who could have been her staunchest allies and advocates. For the record, I am certainly not an advocate for women being selected or retained for any reasons outside of our competence and and skill set. However, my many years of experience as a female entrepreneur and leader and a growing body of research supports the fact that female leadership competence and contributions are very much connected to our differences as women. Professional challenges, as the one Carly has experienced, offer tremendous opportunities for her and all of us to step back and take a hard look at how so many of us sabotoge our huge potential because of unresolved psychological issues. I am always optimistic that age and wisdom will bring women like Carly the wisdom of their uniqueness as women and the appreciation that that we all stand on the shoulders of women who made great sacrifices to help women like Carly succeed.
What is your point of view? Please post your thoughts on the discussion board.
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On the day the news broke about Carly Fiorina leaving HP, WITI was inundated with calls from the media.