Elat & Senior Women in Organisations

Elat was pounding the table. Again. His wife sternly admonished him and gently suggested he retire to his study and write. He did as she bid him, it was, he knew, wisest. His pounding had been after following a long program on ‘glass ceilings’, the lack of women in senior positions in government, business corporations, politics, in fact anywhere in organisations. He was heartily sick of what he considered the stupidity of much of the discussions.
Now Elat was not a sexist man, usually. He believed that there were two very different models of the world. He believed that organisations were for the most part created using a masculine model of the world, which was in itself, somewhat warlike, aggressive competitive, combative, rational, often somewhat bullying, hard edged and hierarchical. Now of course this was also a description of rational thinking types who preferred their decisions to be made quickly on the minimal possible set of data and some women, it has to be said, were like this.
He thought that women could also offer a feminine model of the world that was more co-operative, less aggressive and more supportive, more sensitive and considerate, more harmonious and emotionally aware, softer edged and more communal, but not any the less, effective, competent or complex. And, he was sure, it would be bitchy and have unpleasantness.
What frustrated him was that most of the women he saw on TV or heard on the radio, seemed to be women who had learned how to operate in a male model of the world, though not being of male gender. This made him unhappy.
He sat at his keyboard and meditated peacefully to the sound of rain and thunderstorms playing quietly on his computer. His sister had just become the COO of Telopticon and had offered her boss the CEO a special deal. She knew he wanted an aggressive go getting man in her position and had someone in mind, but the Board had instructed him to get a suitable woman and she was that person, a quiet, very smart, well qualified and a gentle caring person. They were a national but small Telco, if she could not expand their customer base and improve the share price within a year she would leave the job and give him the opportunity to put his preferred candidate in her position. But, he had to give her a totally free hand to re-organise the business without ANY overt or covert interference of any kind. Was he agreeable, yes, of course he was, he was quite sure she was about to sink herself, and that would be that.
She closed down 90% of the call centres. She offered all the staff the opportunity to be made redundant or join her customer service training and delivery program. Most accepted and for 6 months they were trained and developed to within an inch of their lives. They learned professional courtesy, working together support skills, they learned every aspect of the customer experience and how to take care of customers, more surprising to them, they learned to feel cared for! They learned to take total responsibility for ensuring that every customer concern was taken up, dealt with positively, and followed through to completion. They were rewarded for every evidence of customer satisfaction and were always supported to ensure that no customer ever left Telopticon. Whenever they acquired a new customer they were always to contact them and ensure that they got outstanding service, for which they were always praised by relationally courteously trained managers. They were given extra phone lines to ensure that no customer who wanted help ever failed to get it on their first call.
Within 8 months, the organisation was losing only 2% of their usual monthly customer loss rate and within 11 months were picking up new customers from other Telcos at a rate 5 times greater than when they had been using call centres. The final irony occurred when the CEO went to the Board behind her back to get her replaced by a more suitable male, and was told that his services were no longer required and that his COO had just been offered his job. Elat blinked and sat up at his computer smiling happily hearing his wife calling out to ask if he wanted a cup of tea.