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Hong Kong
Speeches:
(The following is excerpted from the session: "The
Nature of Women’s Leadership: A Roundtable", which took place at the Global
Summit of Women 2001 in Hong Kong on September 15, 2001.)
Moderator: Diana Lin, Senior Executive
Producer,
TVB News and InformationServices (Hong Kong SAR)
Panelists: Sung-Joo Kim, President & CEO, Sung-Joo International Ltd.;
Iwillb.com; HRKorea.co.kr (South Korea)
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Minister of Minerals and Energy (South Africa)
Angelina Muganza, Minister of Gender and Women in Development (Rwanda)
Lori Ryerkerk, General Manager and Director,
Exxon Mobil Energy Limited (Hong Kong SAR)
Marjorie Yang, Chairman, Esquel Group of Companies (Hong Kong SAR)
Loula Abou-Seif Zaklama, Managing Director, RadaResearch (Egypt)
Diana Lin
What is your personal definition of leadership?
Sung-Joo Kim
Leadership is earning the hearts of the team to go in the direction the whole
community is supposed to go through consensus.
Earning the hearts of others requires a certain quality of leadership to start
with, willingness to sacrifice for the community, and also clarity of thought on
what would be the best for the interest of the community. Also, sometimes you
have to be willing to fight against the unjust and corruption. Leadership
requires a lot of courage.
Marjory Yang
I differentiate leadership from management.
A manager is mostly concerned about getting a task done. A leader tends to worry
more about the people. You can learn about management skills by going to a MBA
school.
Learning to become a leader requires one to learn to be a better person.
That is the foundation on which you build leadership.
Angelina Muganza
In Rwanda, which has had extremely poor leadership, we
have a different understanding of what leadership means. Leadership is
inclusive. It is a leadership that allows people to participate and doesn’t pull
people away. Leadership also has to do with being visionary, seeing
beyond the day-to-day. It is important to share that vision with the people
that you are leading. As a women leader, leadership has to do with being a role
model for young girls and even for men. Leadership also has to do with
empowerment and liberating your self and others and those whose leadership style
has not been effective.
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka
One important thing about leadership is that you must have a vision, but
you must be able to make other people believe in the vision you have.
You are in a team and going in the same direction. There has to be a capacity to
come together. In a leadership where people never disagree with you, you have to
ask yourself what is wrong. Leadership is not about taking yourself so seriously
that you can’t stand a different opinion. It is necessary to constantly evaluate
yourself and to be open about your own mistakes.
Lori Ryerkerk
One of the advantages that women have as leaders is that
we are more able to take the ego out of it. We don’t have as much need to always
make our name or our mark. Another aspect that women have an advantage in is
a willingness to take risks and not always accept the status quo, and to not
only make changes but to really embrace changes and to allow others to see the
advantages of embracing that change. In a lot of male-dominated areas, like
the petroleum field, we are fighting the status quo all the time. It is easy to
reject the status quo and to try to lead the organization toward something new
or something different.
Loula Zaklama
My personal definition of leadership is that leadership
is both vision and courage. Vision without action is a daydream and action
without vision is a nightmare. A leader must have
the courage to act even against expert opinions. Great leaders have to know
three main things. First is knowing where you want to go. Second is how to get
there. Third is why you want to get there.
Lin
There was survey done by the International Women in
Media Foundation which found that a lot of women see clear vision as the most
important aspect of leadership, but a lot of women also admit that they want to
be collaborative. When you are collaborative, your vision is seen as not as
clear, so is this a contradiction?
Ryerkerk
I tend to ask the people I work with more
what their opinions are, but I don’t necessarily agree with the outcome. There
is an opinion-gathering method you go into to get everyone’s opinion prior to
developing a vision for a company, but someone does have to decide what the
final clear vision will be. It is again a collaborative process to actually
begin the implementation to move the group toward that vision. Women can be
collaborative and still be seen as visionary.
Yang
I don’t see much difference between men and
women. Good leadership is individual. I find it difficult to classify male
leadership versus female leadership. I focus on leadership. If I am going to
train leaders, I train them to be leaders.
Lin
Is there a difference between leadership skills
between men and women?
Mlambo-Ngcuka
There are things that men have never been.
Therefore, in some cases, they can’t imagine some circumstances.
One of the things women bring to the table is knowing what it means to be
excluded so you try harder to include other people because you know that
experience.
When women go into the work situation, we can empathize
about the people who have to attend to a sick child. Therefore, you can adjust
your accommodation of the work much better because you understand the importance
of parenting. A man who doesn’t have to look after a child because they have a
wife doesn’t understand a wife who is absent-minded because the child is sick.
That is different and important for humanity.
Muganza
Women make better leaders than men. The
idea of inclusion is very important. This helps women be good leaders because
they take other people’s opinions. Secondly, I think men have come to associate
leadership with power. Women don’t. This makes them better leaders as well.
Zaklama
Women have an inherent sense of leadership because they
have a better sense of perseverance, are more tolerant, have the capability of
listening to others, and they have more courage to take risks and defy.
Lin
Is there any advice you would like to give on how
to be a leader?
Zaklama
Never give up. Seek knowledge. Seek to be a
master of your profession. Do not pray for an easy life. Pray to be a strong
leader.
Ryerkerk
Lead in your own style. Don’t try to adopt
a style that has worked for someone else. Do the one that works for you.
Mlambo-Ngcuka
If you are fortunate enough to have others
tolerate your mistakes so that you become a leader, have the decency to do that
to others. Lift as you climb because it is lonely at the top if you are alone.
Muganza
Be good leaders and role models for our daughters and
sons.
Yang
Leadership is built on each individual.
If you
intend to be a leader, look deep inside.
Build a
depth of character that is going to allow you to look inside, get rid of the
fear, then you can go the long road to reach your ultimate vision.
Kim
The 21st Century opens up a great horizon for
all of us. For women, it is not only right to stand up for our own rights, but
it is a duty. Play like a woman and win like a woman.
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