NEWSWEEK COVER: How Women Lead

NEWSWEEK COVER: How Women Lead

As Number of Women in Leadership Roles Reaches 'Critical Mass', Newsweek Talks to 20 of America's Most Powerful Women Including Oprah Winfrey, Karen Hughes and Vera Wang

Winfrey on Success: 'There is No Moving Up and Out Into The World Unless You are Fully Acquainted With Who You Are. You Cannot Move Freely, Speak Freely, Act Freely, Be Free Unless You Are Comfortable With Yourself'

NEW YORK, Oct. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Instinct is often a key ingredient of women's leadership styles, says Oprah Winfrey in Newsweek's October 24 issue (on newsstands Monday, October 17). "All the women leaders I have met led with a greater sense of intuition than men. I am almost completely intuitive," she tells Senior Editor Barbara Kantrowitz in this week's cover story "How Women Lead." "The only time I've made a bad business decision is when I didn't follow my instinct." Winfrey also tells Newsweek, "There is no moving up and out into the world unless you are fully acquainted with who you are. You cannot move freely, speak freely, act freely, be free unless you are comfortable with yourself."

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20051016/NYSU010 )

Winfrey is one of 20 women at the top of her respective field who spoke to Newsweek for this second installment in its "Leadership for the 21st Century" series. Others interviewed include Ambassador Karen Hughes, fashion designer Vera Wang, Co-Chairman of Media Networks for The Walt Disney Company Anne Sweeney and Brigadier General Sheila Baxter.

Without question, there has been a huge transformation in the past few decades, writes Kantrowitz. Women's earning power continues to rise along with their educational accomplishments. They are now more than half of all college students and about half of all medical and law students. It is no longer a big deal to see a woman at the helm of the nation's most prestigious universities, even at a technological powerhouse like MIT. Women are an important presence in a number of industries, like film. It has been about 30 years since women first started entering the workplace in large numbers. There is now a critical mass of women in leadership positions. It's a good time to see how they've changed the workplace as they've climbed the ladder, Kantrowitz writes. Included in the "How Women Lead" package:

* It's no accident, says San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, that public safety in his city is managed almost exclusively by women. Except for the district attorney, who was independently elected in 2003, he appointed them all. "I wasn't looking for the 'woman' candidate," Newsom tells San Francisco Bureau Chief Karen Breslau. "I was looking for a competent team." In the post-Katrina world, Newsom reasons, the public demands nothing less than the compassionate, collaborative and practical approach to public safety that he's seen from his women chiefs. "America loves the macho guy with the cigar and the crew cut," he says, "But America also likes results. I've often sat in envy of the ability of women to multitask, put ego aside, not complain and solve the problem."

* Anne Mulcahy began at Xerox as a sales rep in 1976. Her numbers were great, but she figured her Xerox career would be limited by her refusal to relocate with her husband and two children. But her bosses accommodated her by letting her commute to ever-bigger jobs. "[They said], 'We think you've got a career path here and we want you to take it as far as you can'," she says. She took it far indeed: in 2001, with Xerox mired in financial crisis, Mulcahy became CEO. She cut payroll from 79,000 to 58,000, refreshed the product line and strengthened the balance sheet. The result: its stock price is up 65 percent, and Mulcahy recently ranked ahead of Oprah Winfrey on Forbes's 2005 list of powerful women. And the company's gender diversity extends far beyond the corner office. Women account for more than 30 percent of Xerox's corporate officers and middle managers and the company is routinely ranked among the best places for women to work. National Correspondent Daniel McGinn looks at Xerox's "kinder culture" that has enabled women to excel.

* McGinn talks to Rosabeth Moss Kanter, a Harvard Business School professor, about her latest book, "Confidence: How Winning and Losing Streaks Begin and End." Kanter describes how differing confidence levels in men and women play out in the classroom: "There sometimes is a difference between the men and women in the willingness to claim air time in class. The men seem to feel that they can start talking and eventually they'll have a point to make. The women are slightly more likely to feel that they ought to have something valuable before they say it... The women are just as likely to have wonderful things to say, but there's a kind of self-censorship going on."

* Women in leadership roles share lessons learned from their experiences and offer advice to the current generation. "Always leave something on the table," Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia CEO and President Susan Lyne tells Newsweek. "It's important advice in any business. A total win for one side in any negotiation is just wrong because it's almost always a pyrrhic victory. You end up with bad partnerships. And we have long careers, and it is very likely you're going to be meeting the same people at some point down the line, so it's important to make sure that nobody feels like they have been either embarrassed or beaten in a negotiation."

(Read entire cover story at www.Newsweek.com )

Cover: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9712125/site/newsweek / Interviews: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9712069 / San Francisco: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9712126 / Rosabeth Moss Kanter: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9709962 / Xerox: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9709961 / Leadership Lessons: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9712114 /

Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20051016/NYSU010 AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/ AP PhotoExpress Network: PRN1 PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com Source: Newsweek

CONTACT: Andrea Faville of Newsweek, +1-212-445-4859

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