McCauley Bush Transforming Your STEM Career Through Leadership and Innovation

Inspiration and Strategies for Women
1. Auflage 2012
ISBN: 978-0-12-397261-3
Verlag: Elsevier Science & Techn.
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 200 Seiten

Transforming Your STEM Career Through Leadership and Innovation offers valuable information on what it means to be a leader and innovator and encourages you to discover and develop these skills for yourself. This book integrates leadership and innovation principles with personal examples and profiles of inspirational women. By providing a clear process on how to build upon your personal strengths to realize leadership and innovation goals, this book will inspire you to pick up the mantle and meet the critical need for leadership and innovation in the STEM fields. This is a must-have guide that is relevant and valuable for women in all stages of their careers. - Examines research-based leadership and innovation principles to make these critically important characteristics both real and attainable - Empowers you to build upon your own strengths and successes to discover and develop leadership and innovation skills - Features a companion website that highlights women's leadership success stories, innovation resources and best practices - Provides a practical guide that educates, encourages and equips you to pursue leadership and innovation opportunities

Pamela McCauley Bush, PhD, CPE is a leader, innovator and motivator. She is currently an Associate Professor and Director of the Ergonomics Laboratory, Industrial Engineering and Management Systems Department at the University of Central Florida. She is also the Chief Technology Officer of Bush Enterprises/Tech-Solutions, Inc. Dr. Bush is a successful researcher and innovator as demonstrated by the numerous federal research grants, technical publications, and national and international committee appointments to her credit. She is a nationally recognized motivational speaker in the Women's Leaders and STEM Education communities.

Autoren/Hrsg.

McCauley Bush, Pamela

Leseproben

Chapter 1
A Call to Leadership
Chapter Outline
You Made It! You Matter Where We are Today Perspectives from Other Women Women in Industry Women in Politics Technology: Grace Hopper Environment: Wangari Maathai What Can You Do Today? The Challenges We Face Lead Today Summary Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? Marianne Williamson You Made It!
You have succeeded in fostering a vision and achieving a STEM career, something that far differentiates you from most men and women. Many of the women I talk to and interact with around the world are leaders in their STEM fields, and yet so many of them don’t realize what an important contribution they are making to their communities and the world. Given the challenges you’ve overcome to secure a career in a STEM field, it is imperative that you realize the significance of your achievements to date, and use this as fuel to propel you to the next level, and carry others with you. The world needs innovators to address global challenges like environmental destruction, economic crisis, and health issues, and those of us with knowledge and experience in STEM careers must do our part to help develop solutions to these challenges. Your days are probably already incredibly full with various responsibilities from career, family, and the community. For most of us, we manage to do this well but it is difficult in the scarce remaining time to find time for your many other interests. Somehow, we find a way to juggle the various roles we are required to play. So how do we begin to think about adding something else to our lives in the midst of all we have going on today? It’s actually a management action. In many ways, you are a manager each day – managing tasks at hand, at home, or at the workplace and managing people and relationships around you. But there is a difference between managing and leading. A manager is one who functions within defined parameters and works toward a definite goal. A person’s intelligence, inherent skills, knowledge, creativity, and personality contribute toward this end result. However, it is passion that makes a leader out of a manager. A manager with a passion to make a difference, sculpt change, or create something new, goes beyond managing to leading. In a company, the CEO who achieves targets is likely a good manager, but the shift supervisor, who instills in people the desire to be the best in the company, may actually be the true leader. So for our careers, we must be managers as well as leaders. In other words, we must engage in the activities on a day to day basis (manager role) that will result in achieving the long-term vision we have for our career and life impact (leadership role). Yes, it takes effort to do this but it can be accomplished and the results are well worth the effort. So, recognize the fact that you are a success as a professional, student, or aspiring STEM educator, innovator, or leader. Truly take time to celebrate yourself and where you are today. In my experience, this celebration and appreciation of our achievements can be powerful in restoring and maintaining the confidence we need to move forward. You made it! And let this moment be a celebration of your success, vision, and ambition today as well as the launch-party for your plan to go to the next level! It’s time to transform your STEM career as a leader and an innovator. You Matter
You matter when it comes to making a difference in your community, country, and the world. There is a broad consensus that the long-term key to continued U.S. competitiveness in an increasingly global economic environment lies in the quality of our STEM workforce. According to a survey taken in 2004, by that time scientific innovation had already produced roughly half of all U.S. economic growth in the previous 50 years [1]. The STEM fields and those who work in them are critical engines of innovation and growth. According to one recent estimate, about 6% of the U.S. workforce is employed in STEM fields [2], while the STEM workforce accounts for more than 50% of the nation’s sustained economic growth. While you were growing up there were undoubtedly people who mattered to you. Perhaps you looked up to a grandparent who took care of you and your siblings while your parents worked, or the professor who spent extra time helping you with your thesis. As we get older we tend to forget just how much each of us matters and the effect we have on individuals in our community. You matter. You matter to someone and to a “cause” today. Someone is looking up to you – whether it’s a co-worker, a student, or the kid next door – it’s important to recognize that because you’ve made it, people admire and respect you, and as a socially conscious individual you should take this as a leadership challenge. As we considered women in STEM this becomes even more important. It is critical that we, as women, inspire and encourage other women to maintain and develop their STEM careers as this has a ripple effect when we don’t; not only do we waste talent that has taken years to grow and develop but we deter other women from pursuing and staying in the profession. Your example impacts society and young women’s perceptions of their opportunities in STEM careers. In order to serve the world to the best of our ability, we as STEM leaders must encourage other women from all walks of life to join us in our mission. We are not monolithic – and that is great! STEM careers demand diversity in problem solving among their team members, and diversity among women not only allows us to work in various environments but also encourages diversity in thoughts and ideas. The result is a solution resource that represents perspectives, experience and ultimately produces better outcomes. Remember, the value you bring today and in the future – you matter. Where We are Today
There seems to be a universal sigh of reluctance among women when it comes to taking on leadership roles in our careers. The National Science Foundation estimates that between 4.8 and 6.4 million people work directly in science, engineering, and technology – just over 4% of the U.S. workforce. However, while women comprise about half of the global population, we made up about 27% of the STEM professionals in the latest 2008 survey. While sex disparities vary among STEM occupations, the most extreme disparities are in engineering, where women make up a meager 13% of the workforce according to the most recent estimates [3]. Unfortunately, our presence hasn’t always translated into leadership or innovation opportunities. And, in cases where it has, there is often a feeling of dissatisfaction, isolation, and lack of acceptance. So why are so many of us unhappy, leading and innovating in our careers? An American Association of University Women (AAUW) study designated eight factors that depress the numbers of women in STEM professions: • mistaken beliefs about our intelligence • gender stereotypes • self-assessment • spatial skills • the college student experience • university and college faculty • implicit bias • workplace bias The truth of the matter is one or two of these factors would be enough to discourage women from pursuing, maintaining, and excelling in a STEM related career, much less the synergistic impact of multiple factors. However, despite these known factors that inhibit our growth – we are succeeding. Certainly, not on the level we’d desire but it’s important to note that there are many who’ve managed to navigate this environment and have satisfying and rewarding careers. The objective now is to learn from them, do what we can to change the environment, and move forward as individuals and leaders ourselves as this will move us all forward as women. In an article published in the Harvard Business Review, Dr Anna Fels examines why (and if) women lack ambition [4]. In her study, Dr Fels identifies two main causes for this perceived lack of drive – social conditioning and sexual stereotyping. In the past, society has expected women to be self-sacrificing and not to demand or expect recognition. Traditionally they have been the lynchpins around which the family revolves and today they often play the same role in the workplace. They are team players, not leaders. A woman who seeks recognition for herself is deemed selfish and outside the norms historically imposed on her. Men, on the other hand, who stand alone and demand recognition, are accepted as playing one of the roles that history has not only given them but, in fact, expects of them. Men who are both part of a team, and simultaneously break away from group thinking so as to don the leadership mantle, are admired and given the recognition they seek. Women who attempt to emulate this type of behavior are often considered masculine or viewed as having stepped away from femininity. Social conditioning seems to state that femininity, which is a...