Twice annually, NAFE convenes the NAFE Roundtable, made up of some of the nation’s most senior women executives. Representing the NAFE Top 50 Companies for Executive Women, these women are boldly leading innovative measures to bring women to senior positions at their own organizations and nationally.

On October 14, 2009, 22 women—with titles including President, General Manager, EVP and others—came together to talk about some of the difficult issues confronting corporate leaders right now.

As NAFE President, I shared two disturbing findings with the group. First, during the recession, women MBAs have fared the same as their male peers, but startlingly, senior women executives with MBAs were more than three times as likely to be laid off as their male counterparts, according to Catalyst. Second, apparently 84 percent of high-powered women—compared with 40 percent of men—are considering leaving their current jobs, as reported in research by Sylvia Ann Hewlett for Top Talent: Keeping Performance Up When Business is Down.

“People are feeling overwhelmed,” said Liz Smith, General Manager of Infrastructure Access Services at IBM, host and corporate sponsor of the NAFE Roundtable. As she travels around the world, she has notice people everywhere—particularly women—are dealing with more than they’ve had to in the past.

So we need to be watching carefully to ensure that women don’t leave. Research shows that American companies with women in their executive suites and board rooms perform markedly better than those without women (Catalyst). And the dearth of women on Wall Street—voices that might have stemmed disaster—has been acknowledged in reports that found no women in senior positions at the top three financial firms last year. There still aren’t any.

Today, women are America’s global competitive advantage: educated, trained, experienced, and sensible. But we need to watch out, because China’s women are catching up, and in a nation with a population of 1.3 billion (compared to U.S. total population of 300M), that’s a redoubtable force.

“We’ve got to go back to our companies and focus on retention,” said Monica Leuchtefeld, EVP, E-commerce and Direct Marketing, Office Depot, who led off the discussion on what initiatives NAFE Roundtable women could undertake to turn the tide. Some are working with the CEO and board on including women in succession plans; some are increasing the visibility of their high-potentials for opportunities across the organization; while others are setting numerical goals for promotion of women in their operations.

The NAFE Roundtable also tackled the critical morale problem with Mary Lynne Heldmann, founder of Future1st and guest speaker. “During these difficult economic times when we’re being squeezed from many directions, leaders need to be resilient and creative,” said Heldmann.

To that end, Heldmann explained how to “create, don’t fix.” Most of us, she said, put time and energy into fixing problems we face as leaders and as teams. “What would happen if we shifted that energy to creating possibility? Merely seeking a solution to a problem limits your thinking,” she explained. “But when you ‘create,’ you open a free flow of thinking that lights up the brain, liberates new ideas, and results in innovation. Fixing is based in our past; creating increases performance exponentially and is about the future outcome.”

Heldmann promised that making this switch can turn a team around, and in fact, increases productivity by 20 percent: “Our brains function 20 percent better when we are feeling positive,” she said. An approach worth trying: women don’t walk out the door when they and their teams are thriving.