Farnaz served as a moderator for Atlanta Business Chronicle – Women’s Leadership Forum
Farnaz Wallace served as a moderator in Women’s Leadership Forum in Atlanta, April 5th, 2013, on the topic of “Developing the next generation of leaders in a new world.” She was interviewed by Atlanta Business Chronicle on this topic for their April 15th edition, Strategies for growing business.
In this article, Farnaz said, “women, youth and multiculturalism are shaping the future and businesses need to adapt because these are currently missing components that are needed to develop the next generations of leaders. Wallace serves as the moderator for the forum’s “Developing the next generation of leaders” panel.
These rapid cultural shifts are not being addressed by businesses and leaders, and they are the macro trends shaping the future,” she said. “While women are 50 percent of the work force, 51 percent of the population and control 85 percent of consumer buying decisions, they need to tap into makes them unique in order to become great leaders.”
“The feminine values of caring, and nurturing are polarizing. There has been a trend to harden women and soften men. Women are encouraged to be aggressive and embrace the masculine values of power and success,” she said. “But it is not all about hard and soft powers. It’s about smart powers.”
Winning in the marketplace, regardless of gender, is ultimately about performance and Wallace doesn’t want to minimize the importance of competence. “People don’t leave companies, they leave people,” she said. “If a company is spending more time on products and IT instead of relationships and people, they are not investing in the long-term financial success. We need to redefine new world leadership and understand it is more about caring and nurturing and the ability to influence and persuade. Numbers are manifested through people’s actions and you can’t succeed unless you take care of your people. The new world leader gets that.”