Leadership: A Female Perspective

Part 3 of a 5 part series

Successful leaders know that being a leader is a continual process; it’s not a destination that someone eventually reaches after years of hard work. The real work of becoming a leader starts after reaching a position that might be recognized as a ‘leadership’ position. This is where skills are tested in the real world and leaders become seasoned and mature and continue to grow, or they demonstrate that they have been promoted to a level beyond their competence.

I asked our panel of women leaders to give us an honest assessment of that journey to becoming a seasoned, mature leader. Were their journeys well planned? Did chance or luck play a role? Did they experience setbacks or failures along the way? Their answers are truly insightful.

There was consensus that the journey for our women leaders was planned, but not in the way that you might think. Renata Mrazova summed it up best. “I guess you could say that it was planned in the sense that I had a dream. I was never satisfied with the status quo. My dream was that one day I would be able to have an influence—an influence on people and what kinds of things were done and how they were done. My plan was not to have a specific position, or job title, it was to learn as much as I could, not just about one silo or function, but how all the different elements of business—sales, finance, marketing, and strategy—interacted with each other.” Her words are full of wisdom and give us a real insight into how a leader thinks. The desire to learn, the desire to know how and why the pieces fit together in a certain way shows a desire to understand the context, to grasp content and become competent, versus grasping for a title.

I have always had an interest in the role that chance, or luck, plays in our lives, especially the lives of leaders.

Klara Starkova has an interesting perspective on this topic. She told me that skills, talent and ability are very important, to be sure, in one’s success. However, not every success can be attributed to one’s competence. Luck plays a role in all our careers. Be open to that, accept it, and let it work for you. Mrazova told of a specific situation that she ‘converted’ into a lucky break. Years ago she was introduced to someone who was interested in coming to the Czech Republic to start a business. She was asked for her advice and help in pulling together some information that would be instrumental in making the decision.

As it turned out the person she was helping decided not to start a business here, but was thankful for her help. In fact, he liked the quality of her work so much that he introduced her to his neighbor, a CEO, who by chance, was looking for someone like her for his company. You guessed it—he hired her. There are a couple of lessons here: you can ‘create’ luck, or chance happenings, in your life in many different ways, one of them is to help others (there really is a bottom line pay-off to being nice to people) and always have your ‘radar’ switched on. In other words, keep your eyes and ears open for when an opportunity presents itself.

When it comes to setbacks, Zuzana Reznickova takes the prize in my view. To put it simply, she was fired from her job. Years ago, in her words, “I thought I was indispensable, that I didn’t need any advice from anyone and that I was the only one who could do my job.” Then reality hit. She was fired. Why? “My attitude! Even my mother told me that I wasn’t acting ‘normal’.” It’s obvious she had a big ego at the time, so how did she take the rejection of being fired? “After the shock wore off I knew there was a lesson there for me. Step by step, I pieced things together and realized my mistakes and then I became determined to learn from this experience in a way that would make me a better person.” To say she learned her lesson may be somewhat of an understatement. Today she is one of the most respected executives in the Czech Republic. The lesson? Failing is not falling down, it’s staying down, to quote a movie star of many years past. Reflect on your mistakes, be honest with yourself, then move forward with your new knowledge and get back in the game.

Good luck on your way up!