The first two weeks of June have been a blizzard of events and activities, featuring men and their toys and interests with women really tired of sports and posturing. Naturally, June 15th is Father's Day, an appropriate book-end.
Remember some thirty or so years ago when there were almost no General Managers in major hotels who were women.
Actually, there were few who were Front Office Managers or Finance types. Women were relegated to roles in Housekeeping, Sales and HR. Thankfully, the glass ceiling has splintered but yet to shatter.
One poignant story I lived first-hand was at a flagship hotel on the West Coast where a very accomplished woman wanted the Front Office post and in that age of very active litigation for EEO and Affirmative Action her career choice was granted. She was qualified, smart, poised and attractive - all traits made for success. The Corporation watched her carefully with a hands-off attitude. Sadly, she was doomed for failure, due to that lack of support – too much of an odd duck. But, at least they could say they tried!
Almost every night and heavily on the weekends, we have enjoyed the NHL Stanley Cup, the NBA finals, The French Open, your favorite baseball team on any channel, the Triple Crown Event at the Belmont, the start of the World Cup soccer tourney and the US Open Golf, and Dale Earnhardt at NASCAR Pocono.
Politically, we have had some Primaries, the meeting of the G-7 (minus the eighth), the prisoner exchange, the friendly-fire deaths in Afghanistan and loss of Mosul in Iraq. Let's not forget the almost weekly shootings in and around our schools.
And, who are the women in the news? Well, Maria Sharapova won the French Open and she now has a fragrant gig with Avon. Hilary Clinton has a book tour underway. Mary Barra, the CEO of General Motors, takes her company very public to answer for corporate malice. I have no idea what the Kardashians are doing (or care).
With all these activities afoot, many of our female counterparts have no doubt been with us, sharing that joy of victory and despair of defeat. I just wish they were more prominent. You get a room together with mothers, and wars would end. They would be sensible. We need more women in high places!
John Hendrie is the author of the LRA blog 'A Guy Walks In'. LRA is a leading research and consulting company in the emerging discipline of Customer Experience Management (CEM). We work with our clients to help them design and deliver consistently exceptional customer experiences in order to drive customer satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy, and company growth and profitability. We have built a range of quality assurance, mystery shopping, research, training and consulting solutions to help them do so.
Today, we are a growing company operating in more than 120 countries throughout the world, servicing our clients from offices and resources in the Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific regions and helping clients such as Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, the National Football League, Avis Budget Group, Madison Square Garden, the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group deliver exceptional customer experiences. Every touch. Every time. For more information, visit www.LRAworldwide.com.
