John Gerzema and Michael D’Antonio have found that most people, worldwide, are not happy with the state of world. But why? Government, the economy and, the aggression, ambition, and analytical orientation of men. In their book “The Athena Doctrine: How Women (and the Men Who Think Like Them) Will Rule the Future” Gerzema and D’Antonio sampled 64,000 people in 13 major countries and their findings are compelling.
Best Business Books 2012: Organizational Culture
Culture has an important role as the essential driver of effective change. Too many authors urge such change using mere exhortation: Be more open! Behave less hierarchically! By contrast, this year’s best books offer more specific ways to engage culture. I believe that these are more likely to result in more effective, productive, and innovative organizations.
Out of Date Wisdom from Chairman Jack
“Performance is it!” Of course it is, anyone who seeks a leadership position has to perform. But Jack Welch got caught in a buzz saw at the Wall Street Journal’s Women in the Economy summit not because he spoke an obvious truth but because he stated the obvious while overlooking the real issue. Women don’t … Read more
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
Beyond Power Point Part II
Preparing to give a big speech is different when you decide not to use PowerPoint, an option that’s becoming a lot more popular as I discussed in my last post. On the plus side, you don’t have to spend huge amounts of time prepping the slides, trying to get the images and words just right. … Read more
Beyond PowerPoint
I’m in the gorgeous Paradise Valley- Scottsdale AZ- keynoting one of the world’s premier women’s leadership conferences for Navigant. As always when keynoting, I went without PowerPoint- something that gets initial pushback from clients but wins me points when I’m done. Afterwards, one of the senior executives from Navigant came up and told me that … 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
The Importance of Shoes
I am thrilled to celebrate International Women’s Month by sharing this slide show of Chanel’s Paris show this week: http://tiny.cc/mts4r. Yes, the clothes, while gorgeous, are sometimes a bit gloomy– all that black just when we were getting used to colors. But the big news is that, contrary to the other shows, the models on … Read more