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A Boss Speaks: It's Time For A Paid Family Leave Law

Margaret Heffernan — 2012-05-08T12:10:00+00:00

So what is the real reason more women aren't running big businesses? In their unguarded moments, some male execs and business owners may tell you: It's because they have babies.

Sure, women are talented and driven, but these men will say: When women have babies, they take time out of the workforce which is expensive and disruptive. And what the same men probably won't say but do imply is that having these inconvenient babies also indicates that women just aren't that serious about their careers.

Female Execs Horrified By Former GE CEO's Comments

Margaret Heffernan — 2012-05-07T16:40:00+00:00

Is Jack Welch, the former General Electric CEO, a timeless seer or an out-of-date warhorse? The Wall Street Journal recently posed that question, but the the answer is simple: He's an out-of-date warhorse.

The occasion for the question was a Journal-sponsored conference on Women in the Economy. Welch doesn't think much of women's networks ("victims' units") or mentoring programs ("you should see everyone as your mentor"); instead, women should just work hard, over-perform and
that will take them straight to the board. When asked if there were any questions, a woman executive in the crowd reportedly shouted out, "We're regaining our consciousness."

The No. 1 Cause of Bad Decisions At Work

Margaret Heffernan — 2012-04-26T08:46:00+00:00

To understand all the consequences of an important choice takes time and attention -- even if both are hard to come by.

I've written before about the importance of sleep.

Tired brains lose their capacity to think critically, to evaluate data, and to understand the meaning of evidence. But chronic fatigue in the workplace isn't the only invisible risk we run daily. So too is speed.

The Best Way To Boost Your Productivity

Margaret Heffernan — 2012-04-24T08:01:00+00:00

Working overtime doesn't increase your output. It makes you stupid.

Many of us still imagine that the more we work, the more productive we are. For over a hundred years or more, this has been deemed nonsense.

What To Do When You're In Over Your Head At Work

Margaret Heffernan — 2012-04-19T09:49:00+00:00

I'm a big fan of mistakes.

In business, as in life, mistakes are how we learn. As infants, we learned to walk by falling over. We acquired speech by speaking gobbledygook that eventually evolved into language. And yet, when we grow up, we often become strangely awkward about our missteps. It's no accident that almost all business books are about successes -- that's what we like to talk about. But it's the mistakes we learn from.

A Boss Speaks: Why I Give All Employees Flextime

Margaret Heffernan — 2012-04-17T09:03:00+00:00

"What time do you want me to start work?" That's the question a new hire recently asked me. She looked a little startled by my reply.

"I don't care."

But it was the truth. I didn't care-and I never have-what hours are kept by the people who work for me. You could say I'm the opposite of a control freak, in the sense that I have always resisted rules, for myself and for others. Why? Because once you have rules, you have to enforce them-and there's no more tedious task in life.