Friday, May 04, 2007

RP Argumentation

Career women are not only more competitive in basic but also in management jobs, because they can strengthen their leading abilities through their experiences of raising children, and it is true both in Taiwan and foreign countries. There is a Family Tree of Leading theory which illustrates the similar skills between bringing up children and leading staffs. The author Stephen R. Covey is one of the most influential person chosen by Times, and he is not only a successful businessman but also a father of night children and a grandfather of 45 grandchildren. He figured out the Family Tree of Leading theory in accordance with his experiences, and the tree from up to down is constructed with four parts—teaching, organizing, mentoring, and modeling. The root of the tree is modeling, which means as a leader of her staffs or a mother of her children, she also has to set up good examples first. Mentoring is kind of watering and giving the tree nutrition so that it can grow up, like mother or leader have to take care, support, and encourage her children and staffs with love. Organizing is the part of trunk, which dose not means she orders her children or staffs must follow her rules step by step, but means she only sets the core spirit and main direction of the family or company, so that they can choose their roads to do things in accordance with their free will but will not leave too far away or even go astray. Finally, the branches and leaves of the tree is teaching, which means she has to teach them right attitudes, give them guidance and instructions appropriately when they are growing up to help them become more and more thrive (Covey).

The following are four examples of the most powerful mother in the world, which shows the result of female managers who have children possessing better leading abilities. Madeleine Albright, the ex-secretary of State. When she was young, in order to attend her three children, she left her career and became a housewife for fifteen years. Not until she was thirty five years old, did she got the doctor degree and came back to her career life. After working for twenty years, she became the first female secretary of State in 23 Jan. 1997(Crawford). Another woman is Brenda Barnes, the Chief Executive Officer of transnational brand firm Sara Lee. She once became the Chief Executive Officer of PEPSL, but she also left for her three children, and concentrated to be a housewife for six years. After she came back to her career life on 2004, she became one of the 100 Most Powerful Women in the World of Forbes, which is the leader of American business magazine. Last year on November 2006, it was her second time in the hit parade; moreover, within the one hundred most powerful women in the world, she won ninth place this time (Schoenberger). Besides, there were another two successful women own their excellent leading ability to their raising children experiences. The first one is Deb Henretta, the President of Global Baby Care Procter & Gamble, which is the biggest baby appliance company in the world. She said” People should not say that even though I am a parent, I can still be a good manager, but since I am a parent, I can be a good manager” (Fang). She thought the experiences of raising children and a manager’s ability of leading, their relationship was “positive”. The other woman is Ann Moore, the president of Times, she once said that” When you have to lead others and manage a team well, maybe the skills you need most are similar with how a mother treat her children” (Fang). In the past, bring up children made female managers were busy and struggling between their family and career. However, some new version stories for successful women keep occurring in all over the world, such as Albright, Brenda, Deb and Ann Moore will not be special case anymore.

What is more, the new phenomena are supported by the four newest reports from Taiwan and foreign countries. In Taiwan, an investigation done by Business Weekly, the most authoritative business magazine in Taiwan shows that within 14 high-class managers, more than half them feel that through the experience of raising children, they obtain more working inspirations and management abilities. (Fang) Besides, in foreign countries, during 2000 and 2002, two field investigations done by Wellesley College Center for Research on Women and The Center for Creative Leadership. Through their investigations for 120 high educational background and class female managers, they found out the new role of becoming a mother would not decrease their competitive, but make them have better performance and got higher achievement in career life (Milkie). Subsequently, in 2005 the WordWit, which is the leading global online and offline network for women in business and technology, points out 80 percent of 40000 interviewees prefer those female managers who have children, because their better patience, listening skill, and time management abilities. (Leading) Finally, the most concrete report done by the journalist of The New Work Times, Ann Crittenden. She interviewed with the chief executive officer of CNBC (Consumer News and Business Channel), which is well-known as “First in Business Worldwide”, and more than one hundred parents who were professional and excellent in their fields. She concluded three common skills between raising children and leadership. First are the communication skills such as patience and empathy. Second is the ability to motivate other’s learning and progressing potentials. The third one is paying attention to set a good example with their conducts, and reveal the characteristic like integrity (Crittenden). The three skills are all play important role to become a good parent and leader.

1 Comments:

At 5:32 AM, Blogger Eve said...

Here are my suggestions:

1. The theory you mention at the beginning seems helpful. I notice that the person who makes it is a man, but you are focusing on female managers. So, is the theory particularly indicating female? It's a little confused to me.

2. It's good to have examples for support, but you are kind of just describing those women's lives. I think you can try to apply the theory to your examples. e.g. write more about how they succeed

 

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