Remember: Getting the most from your people is "Weakness."

NYT via EFCA

To Reach the Heights, First Be Male

THE glass ceiling has been shattered so often in the last decade that you might think that metaphor for the limits many women in business confront would have lost its power. But as some women in the media business found out last week, once you get through the ceiling, you find a secret glass treehouse suspended far above your head. That's where the men sit.

Last week, Martha Nelson was promoted by John Huey, Time Inc.'s editor-in-chief, from editor of People magazine, that large, reliable A.T.M. for Time Inc., to corporate editor in charge of People and its offspring. When Mr. Huey ascended from editorial director earlier this year, some thought Ms. Nelson would get his old job as No. 2 and act as his adviser and confidante, as Mr. Huey had for Norman Pearlstine.

But People and magazines like InStyle - another cash machine that Ms. Nelson had helped create - are responsible for almost half of Time Inc.'s profit, and Mr. Huey was reluctant to kick her upstairs, far from the action. It makes business sense: Mr. Huey just got the job and he does not need to train his successor.

But you have to wonder if Ms. Nelson were a man whether she would have been brought up into the executive clubhouse on the 34th floor. (It's worth mentioning that Ann S. Moore, the chief executive of Time Inc., already resides there.) For the time being, the glass ceiling is a skating rink, an arena in which she can show off her substantial skills, but it could contain unseen trapdoors.

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....That's one way to do business, but not exactly the Condé Nast way. Most executives, men and women, end up losing out for the top slot just by virtue of the numbers. But in the instance of Ms. Berner, the assets she brought to the job - a willingness to share ideas and credit, an ability to build a civil and productive work culture - are viewed as weaknesses. She might be good, but she wasn't in the club.