Blog Articles about Women Leaders
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February 23, 2010
I nailed it and it was liberating!
A client called me this week. She had just finished a meeting with her boss. In the past several months her boss has been bullying her (she is one of the women I talked about in my last blog).
She said to me:
“I walked in to the meeting and I thought to myself, “I am a peer of this man and I am not going to let him push me around.”
I sat down across from him and we had our meeting. I was brilliant and it was liberating. I challenged him when I didn’t agree. I stood up for myself. I wasn’t defensive. I didn’t argue. I did what we discussed. I was factual, clear and focused and it felt great!”
Enough said.
February 10, 2010
Welcome to the big leagues and don’t take it personally.
I just left a meeting with a talented young woman. She is about a year into her first real leadership role. She is passionate about her team and about what she wants to accomplish. She is bright and energetic. Any organization would be happy to have her. There is one small “hitch”. This woman is getting “hammered” (her words) by one of her colleagues. Her colleague is an older man. This man takes every opportunity to criticize her to anyone who will listen. She is tired and frustrated and is wondering if she is cut out for leadership. The problems with this colleague have gotten worse over the past few weeks. He has taken his criticism to the highest level in the organization. Her question to me, “Why doesn’t he just do his job and leave me alone?”
January 05, 2009
A Return to Values
If you have been reading my blogs, you'll already know that I am an optimist. I have always believed that change is good. As I have said previously, even this current change in the economy is good. See my blogs for my thinking on this, "Change is Good. Even When it is Bad." and A Bad Economy is Good. In these blogs I talked about the reasons I think change is good:
- a greater focus on personal values and less focus on consumption
- a "clearing of the market" where marginal service providers will leave and great service providers will survive
- the economy as a "burning platform" to drive change
There is an additional reason this current economic change is good. It will change how leaders lead. You will see that that this happening already.
May 15, 2008
Women’s Issues: Fact or Fiction?
I met with a potential client yesterday. She was interested in doing some work with a group of women in her organization. During our meeting, she asked a couple of questions that I often think about as well.
"Why do so many women feel that they do not need any extra help getting ahead? If they feel that way, why are we pushing them?"
March 06, 2008
Women Are Different.
Seems obvious. If organizations can work from this assumption, they can help life at work will be more effective for all women.
I met with one of my clients today and we had a discussion about women and how they are different. We talked about her work and her life and we talked about a friend of hers who she thinks is having real difficulties at work. I will share three stories. First there is the story of this woman. Second, I'll tell her friend's story. The last story is another client of mine.
My client has never agonized over work/life balance. She loves her kids. She loves her work. She travels quite a bit and works long hours. On the weekends she doesn't work and she enjoys her husband and family. She has continued to move up but not agressively. She recently made a decision to go for the "big job".
The second woman (her friend) just had a baby. This woman does not apear to be motivated by work right now. She is becoming impatient with her staff. She is not on top of her work. In the past, she has been outstanding with staff and her work has always been exceptional.
The third story is about a woman in her 50s. Not married. No kids. She questioning if she really still enjoys what she does. She has held many "big jobs". She is quite successful but is considering a complete career change.
What ties all of this together? Two things.
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