Successful women are those who are likely to stretch themselves in their work capacities, according to Accenture’s International Women’s Day 2009 report — Untapped Potential:  Stretching toward the Future — which concluded in December last year.

Launched recently in conjunction with International Women’s Day, the survey findings showed that 46% of female respondents and 49% of men claimed they were insignificantly challenged in their current roles while more than three quarters (76%) of all respondents were confident of their skills and abilities.

Out of the 59% of women who believed they were successful in their careers, nearly half of them reported their jobs as very challenging, and were more willing to take on additional responsibilities (81%), learn new skills (78%), regularly ask for new challenges (65%) and stretch themselves beyond their comfort zone regularly (75%).

This group was also more confident in dealing with challenging situations, taking on riskier assignments, asking for help where needed, negotiating on workload and deadlines, as well as delegating.

“I think if you are naturally a person who wishes to be successful, you will be willing to take on more challenges regardless of the economic environment.

“Obviously, the current economic environment will also drive a bigger group of people to strive for more challenges and add value to themselves,” said Janet Yap, senior executive of Accenture Technology Solutions Asean, in a phone interview recently.

Respondents that were successful were also more technologically inclined, with 83% of men and 75% of women saying they relied on technology.

“Women tend to have a lot of areas to juggle especially when you talk about work life balance and family. Having technology in our hands allows us to multi-task — being able to communicate with colleagues and clients, and yet be on the road at different places,” said Yap.

Besides technology, female respondents also believed that mentoring programmes can contribute to their success by helping them think differently about situations (43%), helping with current roles (41%) and letting them see more opportunities and possibilities (37%).  Mentors also helped identify skills and capabilities, raised their confidence and encouraged them to stretch themselves further.

However, only 14% of the women surveyed reported having a formal mentor at work while more than 50% turned to family, friends and former colleagues.

Asked about the disparity, Yap said that women tend to go for relationship in mentorship and therefore choose friends and family over formal mentors, adding that companies should look into implementing more mentoring programmes, especially in a downturn.

“You would have high performers who are unsure about the current economic situation and their jobs. Mentors can keep employees engaged, encourage them at their work and help them build their skills,” said Yap.

Accenture Malaysia systems integration & technology senior executive Christina Low said the current economic downturn has prompted a majority of companies to look at not just business growth but managing people.

“A lot of companies have good people but how do they manage retention and at the same time, find chances to ‘up-skill’ these employees and make sure they have good opportunities via innovative approaches?” Low said.

The study showed that a majority of the respondents, led by emerging markets Brazil (86%), China (79%) and India (70%), have expanded their skills and stretched their roles to remain competitive in the challenging economy. Among the skills are developing contacts by networking more, increasing work hours, taking less annual leave and decreasing work life balance.

“If you’re are willing to put in more effort and are happy doing that, then it’s good but if forced, then it may not necessarily result in commitment and engagement. It depends on employees’ motivation. People interpret work life balance differently,” said Low.

Untapped Potential:  Stretching toward the Future was compiled from a two-month online survey of 3,600 business executives from medium to large organisations across 18 countries — Australia, Austria, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.  

The full report is available at www.accenture.com.

 This article appeared on the Management page, The Edge Financial Daily, March 16,2009.