{"id":208,"date":"2017-12-20T09:30:44","date_gmt":"2017-12-20T14:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/school-of-management-leadership\/?p=208"},"modified":"2024-07-18T14:03:07","modified_gmt":"2024-07-18T18:03:07","slug":"leaders-on-leadership-lt-gov-kathy-hochul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/school-of-management-leadership\/2017\/12\/20\/leaders-on-leadership-lt-gov-kathy-hochul\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaders on Leadership: Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul"},"content":{"rendered":"

The government leader discusses the importance of gender equity in leadership \u2014 in all sectors<\/em><\/p>\n

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\"Link<\/p>\n

New York State Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul has served at every level of government and uses her current platform \u2014 as the highest female elected official in state government \u2014 to advocate for women leaders in all types of organizations.<\/p>\n

On Nov. 27, Hochul came to the University at Buffalo School of Management<\/a> as part of the Leaders on Leadership Speaker Series hosted by the Center for Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness<\/a>. In a Q&A led by Paul Tesluk, dean of the School of Management, she discussed why we need more women in leadership roles, and how organizations, government, and men and women alike can encourage and develop women leaders.<\/p>\n

The following is an excerpt of Hochul\u2019s presentation.<\/p>\n

PT: Why do you believe it\u2019s so important to advocate for women leaders?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KH: We are harmed in all of our institutions \u2014 the private sector, public sector, nonprofits, education, the tech space and certainly my world \u2014 by not having equal representation of women at the table. This is a turning point in our history. I believe we have to do more to get women into the corridors of power because we just bring a different approach to leadership \u2014 a collaborative spirit, a listening disposition.<\/p>\n

I saw the difference firsthand in Congress with something as simple as softball. (Hochul participated in the Congressional Women\u2019s Softball Game<\/a>, when female members of Congress play the Washington Press Corps for charity.) We practiced together \u2014 Democrats and Republicans, House and Senate, on the same team. We were out there with no makeup on, in our sweats, and we developed relationships and friendships across the aisle. Contrast that to the men \u2014 Republicans and Democrats practice across town from one another [on opposing teams.] By choice, they never have the opportunity to build relationships, and when they have their big charity game, it\u2019s Democrats versus Republications playing where the Washington Nationals play. It\u2019s like watching gladiators. That\u2019s just an extreme example of how we approach the same opportunity differently \u2014 raising money for charity through sport.<\/p>\n

How can we promote more women into leadership positions in politics, business and other areas?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think there\u2019s been an awakening, which is a start. With a lot of the sexual harassment and assault cases coming out, it shows there\u2019s an imbalance of power. Just having women in those [leadership] positions creates a different workplace. But until they\u2019re there, men in those positions have a tremendous opportunity to open doors for women. One reason: It\u2019s the right thing to do; it\u2019s about fairness. There are so many ways to say, \u2018Yes, I\u2019ll mentor you,\u2019 \u2018I can help you,\u2019 and women need to do that as well.<\/p>\n

In the private sector, one area you can take care of is wage disparity. Stop asking what women made [in past positions] because women will invariably be held back for making less than a man, whether fairly or unfairly. A woman may take time off to raise children, so her salary doesn\u2019t catch up. That\u2019s why women over their lifetime will have $500,000 less in their pensions than men for doing the same work. Don\u2019t ask what she made; put a value on that job and say she\u2019s entitled to that amount because she\u2019s had other experiences.<\/p>\n

Another area where women need more encouragement is in tech startups: The number of women in tech is so low. Women have always had to be better than men to do any job, so there\u2019s this fear of failure \u2014 she won\u2019t reach for a job where she\u2019s not the best on her r\u00e9sum\u00e9, or 10 times better. In the startup space, failure is expected. There are huge investors in Silicon Valley who will not invest in someone until they\u2019ve failed three or four times. Are they going to cut slack for women who\u2019ve failed four times? And are women willing to stick with it because the fifth time\u2019s the charm? That\u2019s something you need to talk about in classrooms, to let women know the culture requires risk-taking and that failure is OK.<\/p>\n

I also believe leaders demonstrate confidence in themselves \u2014 it\u2019s not arrogance, but a quiet sense of confidence. Women don\u2019t always inherently have that, and I see that in politics a lot. But that\u2019s easy to change. You may not be able to change culture or society, but you can change what\u2019s in your own head if a lack of confidence is holding you back. Practice walking into a room like you own the place. I said that to my 15-year-old niece, who was my intern for a couple weeks: \u201cDress up, carry a briefcase, walk into that room like you own it and start acting like you\u2019re in charge.\u201d By the time I was done with her, people thought she worked for the governor. You can change. You have to lean into it.<\/p>\n

With the softball example, you talked about the importance of gaining new perspective. Are there other things leaders can do to reduce contentiousness and bring people together?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m a firm believer in bringing opposing parties into a room and saying, \u201cWe need to work this out. Don\u2019t you think we can meet in the middle?\u201d It\u2019s just about human relations, and doing that one-on-one is a skill.<\/p>\n

Often, women don\u2019t appreciate skills they\u2019ve acquired through life. If you have teenagers, don\u2019t you think you can handle any conflict? The organizational skill of managing a household is transferable to managing an organization. Women have a fortitude and toughness that may not show up on a r\u00e9sum\u00e9, but boy, don\u2019t test us.<\/p>\n

But women also need to adapt. In a male-dominated world, you have to get along, to a certain point, to get elevated up. You can\u2019t break down barriers without understanding the culture you\u2019re stepping into. When I got into the elevator on Capitol Hill, the guys would all be talking sports, and I can talk sports. I\u2019d say, \u2018The Bills are going to win the Super Bowl,\u2019 and that always got a laugh. You need guys on your team. The reality is men hold the keys to a lot of power. They need to be willing to unlock that door and then treat women fairly and equally once they\u2019re in there.<\/p>\n

You come from a family of entrepreneurs. From a leadership standpoint, how do you see the skillset overlap between politics and business?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think businesswomen would be brilliant in politics \u2014 absolutely brilliant. They understand the needs of a workforce, child care needs and what health care does.<\/p>\n

Business is all about risk. You need to embrace risk if you want to start your own company and be willing to fail. That really helps me in politics, never fearing failure. I\u2019m not afraid to fail at anything because I know I\u2019ll always get up. Imagine the worst that can happen in anything you do, and then you can do anything because you\u2019ve already figured it out. What\u2019s the worst that can happen? You run for Congress and lose \u2014 will you still be alive the next day? Yes, so what\u2019s the problem? That\u2019s how I frame my life and that allows me the freedom to take on new challenges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New York State Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul has served at every level of government and uses her current platform \u2014 as the highest female elected official in state government \u2014 to advocate for women leaders in all types of organizations. Continue reading Leaders on Leadership: Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul<\/span>→<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[46,4,103,114],"class_list":["post-208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leadership","tag-gender-equity","tag-leadership","tag-politics","tag-women-leaders"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/school-of-management-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/school-of-management-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/school-of-management-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/school-of-management-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/school-of-management-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/school-of-management-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1064,"href":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/school-of-management-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions\/1064"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/school-of-management-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/school-of-management-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/school-of-management-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/school-of-management-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}