full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Susan Colantuono: The career advice you probably didn’t get

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So we don't want to put 100 pcreent of the responsibility on women's shoulders, nor would it be wise to do so, and here's why: In oedrr for companies to achieve their strategic financial goals, executives uadntrnesd that they have to have everyone pulling in the same direction. In other words, the term we use in bisensus is, we have to have strategic alignment. And executives know this very well, and yet only 37 percent, according to a recent Conference Board rroept, believe that they have that strategic alignment in palce. So for 63 percent of organizations, achieving their strategic financial goals is questionable. And if you think about what I've just shared, that you have situations where at least 50 percent of your middle managers haven't received clear messaging that they have to become focused on the business, where it's headed, and their role in taking it there, it's not surprising that that percentage of executives who are confident about alignment is so low, which is why there are other people who have a role to play in this. It's important for directors on boards to eecpxt from their executives proportional pools of women when they sit down once a year for their succession discussions. Why? Because if they aren't seeing that, it could be a red flag that their organization isn't as aligned as it could piolntlatey be. It's important for CEOs to also expect these proportional pools, and if they hear commntes like, "Well, she doesn't have enough business experience," ask the question, "What are we going to do about that?" It's important for H.R. executives to make sure that the missing 33 percent is appropriately emphasized, and it's important for women and men who are in management positions to examine the mindsets we hold about woemn and men, about crarees and sscceus, to make sure we are creating a level playing field for everybody.

Open Cloze


So we don't want to put 100 _______ of the responsibility on women's shoulders, nor would it be wise to do so, and here's why: In _____ for companies to achieve their strategic financial goals, executives __________ that they have to have everyone pulling in the same direction. In other words, the term we use in ________ is, we have to have strategic alignment. And executives know this very well, and yet only 37 percent, according to a recent Conference Board ______, believe that they have that strategic alignment in _____. So for 63 percent of organizations, achieving their strategic financial goals is questionable. And if you think about what I've just shared, that you have situations where at least 50 percent of your middle managers haven't received clear messaging that they have to become focused on the business, where it's headed, and their role in taking it there, it's not surprising that that percentage of executives who are confident about alignment is so low, which is why there are other people who have a role to play in this. It's important for directors on boards to ______ from their executives proportional pools of women when they sit down once a year for their succession discussions. Why? Because if they aren't seeing that, it could be a red flag that their organization isn't as aligned as it could ___________ be. It's important for CEOs to also expect these proportional pools, and if they hear ________ like, "Well, she doesn't have enough business experience," ask the question, "What are we going to do about that?" It's important for H.R. executives to make sure that the missing 33 percent is appropriately emphasized, and it's important for women and men who are in management positions to examine the mindsets we hold about _____ and men, about _______ and _______, to make sure we are creating a level playing field for everybody.

Solution


  1. place
  2. careers
  3. percent
  4. comments
  5. understand
  6. order
  7. report
  8. success
  9. potentially
  10. business
  11. expect
  12. women

Original Text


So we don't want to put 100 percent of the responsibility on women's shoulders, nor would it be wise to do so, and here's why: In order for companies to achieve their strategic financial goals, executives understand that they have to have everyone pulling in the same direction. In other words, the term we use in business is, we have to have strategic alignment. And executives know this very well, and yet only 37 percent, according to a recent Conference Board report, believe that they have that strategic alignment in place. So for 63 percent of organizations, achieving their strategic financial goals is questionable. And if you think about what I've just shared, that you have situations where at least 50 percent of your middle managers haven't received clear messaging that they have to become focused on the business, where it's headed, and their role in taking it there, it's not surprising that that percentage of executives who are confident about alignment is so low, which is why there are other people who have a role to play in this. It's important for directors on boards to expect from their executives proportional pools of women when they sit down once a year for their succession discussions. Why? Because if they aren't seeing that, it could be a red flag that their organization isn't as aligned as it could potentially be. It's important for CEOs to also expect these proportional pools, and if they hear comments like, "Well, she doesn't have enough business experience," ask the question, "What are we going to do about that?" It's important for H.R. executives to make sure that the missing 33 percent is appropriately emphasized, and it's important for women and men who are in management positions to examine the mindsets we hold about women and men, about careers and success, to make sure we are creating a level playing field for everybody.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
gender gap 5
middle management 3
career success 3
strategic financial 3
financial acumen 3
success equation 2
financial goals 2
green box 2
conventional advice 2
performance management 2
management systems 2
performance systems 2
strategic alignment 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
career success equation 2
strategic financial goals 2
performance management systems 2

Important Words


  1. achieve
  2. achieving
  3. aligned
  4. alignment
  5. appropriately
  6. board
  7. boards
  8. business
  9. careers
  10. ceos
  11. clear
  12. comments
  13. companies
  14. conference
  15. confident
  16. creating
  17. direction
  18. directors
  19. discussions
  20. emphasized
  21. examine
  22. executives
  23. expect
  24. experience
  25. field
  26. financial
  27. flag
  28. focused
  29. goals
  30. headed
  31. hear
  32. hold
  33. important
  34. level
  35. management
  36. managers
  37. men
  38. messaging
  39. middle
  40. mindsets
  41. missing
  42. order
  43. organization
  44. organizations
  45. people
  46. percent
  47. percentage
  48. place
  49. play
  50. playing
  51. pools
  52. positions
  53. potentially
  54. proportional
  55. pulling
  56. put
  57. question
  58. questionable
  59. received
  60. red
  61. report
  62. responsibility
  63. role
  64. shared
  65. shoulders
  66. sit
  67. situations
  68. strategic
  69. success
  70. succession
  71. surprising
  72. term
  73. understand
  74. wise
  75. women
  76. words
  77. year