Are women hindered in advancing up the career ladder because they don’t articulate their desire and expectations for promotion? “There are guys here who have been saying ‘I’m awesome’ ever since they got here, so people start believing it’s true.”
Women’s Leadership
Role Model Behavior
Role models are particularly important to women. For those who aspire to leadership positions, role models demonstrate that such aspirations are possible. Yet when women are routinely criticized for poor work-life balance decisions, this can compound the guilt they are already likely to feel.
Frances Hesselbein’s Merit Badge in Leadership
As CEO of The Girl Scouts, Frances Hesselbein transformed the organization from a venerable but relatively staid institution promoting civic and homemaking skills into a vibrant, diverse one that emphasizes leadership, science, technology, and math. Who does she credit with her inspiration? Peter Drucker.
How Women Leaders Have Transformed Management
Those in hiring positions like to see candidates with leadership experience. But there’s an important distinction between “emergent” and “traditional” leadership. Emergent leadership experience is more desirable to companies with a collaborative culture.
Claiming Visibility
I wrote last fall about how essential it is for women to claim their visibility at work. I had a lot of response from readers who thought I’d done a good job of identifying a problem, but wanted suggestions on how to overcome it. I do, and in the next few weeks I will be … Read more
Female leadership: changing business for the better
Jan 17, 2008 The Christian Science Monitor, January 17, 2008 By Sally Helgesen Chatham, N.Y. – Until a few months ago, Zoe Cruz and Sallie Krawcheck were the most powerful women on Wall Street. It was speculated that both would become CEOs of their Wall St. powerhouses – Morgan Stanley and Citigroup. Instead, in recent … Read more
Will Client Pressure be the Tipping Point for Women?
I’ve been working with companies on developing women leaders for the past 20 years. In that time, I’ve seen women’s programs and leadership initiatives go through 3 stages. Each has used a different strategy and each has been driven by different concerns. As you’ll see, I believe we’re at a point where women’s leadership initiatives … Read more
Women and the Art of Self-Marketing
For many women, self-marketing can be a challenge. This is because women often underplay the value of what they bring to the table—their skills, their insights, their achievements, their capacity to lead. This kind of modesty has often held women back in organizations, but the need to use social media professionally makes it overcoming a … Read more
Cassandra Was a Woman
Adam Cohen writes in today’s New York Times that ours is becoming an age of Cassandras—voices raised to warn of impending disasters that are doomed to be ignored. Clearly there’s a strong element of this in the unfolding financial crisis, but Cohen neglects to note s key fact: that the Cassandra role has traditionally been … Read more
Women and the Claim of Visibility
This fall I spent time in San Francisco with one of my favorite clients, Leadership California.Every year, LCA brings together 50 high potential women in business, government, the non-profit sector and academia for four sessions intensive three-day sessions. The goal is to help them build and strengthen their networks, expand their understanding of the opportunities … Read more