Out of Order

Alright, so here goes nothing. I feel like I am doing this whole blog thing backward as I have not even written my “About Me” yet and I am instead posting my first entry. Oh well, I feel better about doing the steps “out of order,” so to speak, after reading Amy’s blog from last week (It Takes a Village to Raise an Amy Sue). As she said, the purpose of the blog is to find support for when you feel like a square peg for society’s round hole. Here I am, a freaking contributor and founder of the blog, already having to talk myself out of feeling crazy for not approaching the blog in the “normal” order (“normal” meaning writing your About Me before submitting your first entry)! Ha! Anyway, I’ll finish my About Me later- don’t you worry. Thank God my younger sister Anne has been kind enough to do a pretty decent job describing me in the meantime, but I digress…

In the absence of my completed About Me, I will just tell you that I am a Captain in the Army. As such, and for numerous other reasons that I am sure will be visited throughout the life of this blog, I have become extremely interested in organizational leadership, bureaucracy, and management as well as in noticing women’s role, or lack thereof, in organizations. Because I am still getting a handle on this whole blog thing, I am not going to go on some huge rant for my first post. I simply want to point out two articles that have had an impact on me this week. They have encouraged a conversation within me and I am hoping they may do the same for someone else.

The first one is from the Harvard Business Review Blog Network and can be found here: http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/08/why-do-so-many-incompetent-men/. You really don’t even need to open up the article, just read the title: “Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders?” The author argues that more men become leaders simply because they are more CONFIDENT not because they are more COMPETENT. The author also submits that men’s extreme pride and confidence, often disguised as charisma, is commonly mistaken for their potential as leaders. Alright, so I stumbled across that article earlier in the week. Take from it what you will. Then this weekend, I stumbled upon the second article from Boston.com: “50 Highest-Rated CEOs of 2014.” http://www.boston.com/jobs/news/2014/03/21/highest-rated-ceos/XCQD2NDl7jG25OaQZwFyAK/story.html?pg=51. I briefly scrolled through all 50 CEOs and while I could have made a mistake in my haste, I believe only two women were included in the list of 50. Now, the reasons for this could be debated for weeks. Are women just not highly-rated as CEOs? Or were there only a handful of female CEOs to even rate? Were the highly-rated male CEOs actually competent at their job? Or did they just have the right charisma, perceived as confidence and leadership, to be in the position in the first place and “highly rated” in the second?

Part of me, of course, feels badly that I do not have a more profound discussion about the potential link between the articles or what influence/meaning the articles may have. However, I guess I’m still pondering the articles myself and what they mean for me, personally. I DO want to lead an organization someday- not because I want to be on the top but because I want to lead and inspire change. I’ve been heavily considering getting my MBA or MPA in the near future thinking it would make me more competent. But hell, maybe I should be working on something else. Should I simply be working on my charisma, pride, and confidence in order to get there?!