Posts Tagged research
What if Self-promotion is a Gender-Neutral Leadership Skill?
Posted by Dana Theus in InPower Leadership, Women In Leadership on January 11, 2012
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Sometimes true wisdom hides behind sensational headlines. I often think this when I read gender wars articles; you know, the ones that toss the sexes in the ring?
Here’s my latest beef: Women need to self-promote to make more money. (Forbes Woman , Catalyst Inc.)
So apparently women suck at self-promotion. Is that the deepest wisdom here?
I’m not arguing the data, but rather the interpretation.
True Leadership is Gender Neutral Read the rest of this entry »
Sanity Challenge: Powerful Bosses Don’t Listen
Posted by Dana Theus in Corporate Culture, eCoaching on December 7, 2011
And you thought it was just you.
New research confirms that the more power(*) a manager or leader has, the more likely they are to ignore advice.
To some extent this makes sense. I mean, being rewarded with powerful positions means you must be doing something right, right? And if you’re doing something right, why not trust yourself and your decisions? Read the rest of this entry »
Authenticity is Your Ticket To the Top
Posted by Dana Theus in Inspiration, Women In Leadership on October 26, 2011
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I’m proud to share that I just had a major Op Ed piece posted to The Glass Hammer – a preeminent professional woman’s blog. Here’s a short summary and I encourage you to read the full article on The Glass Hammer for the executive coaching advice at the end.
Abstract:
There’s no snappy research study to prove that “just being yourself” is every woman’s ticket to upper management, but I believe it’s true. There’s a lot of research coming out that paints a dismal picture of women’s chances of getting into top leadership posts. This data, plus the ever present equal pay dilemma, makes it hard to find the silver lining in being a woman aspiring to leadership positions these days. However, there is a ton of evidence that women in leadership actually help companies perform better than those with fewer women up top.
Do you know what this means? This means we have it in us. We ARE the right stuff. We’re full of what our companies and economies need to succeed, and we balance the uber-testosterone leadership style that is currently responsible for putting our companies and economy at such risk.
I know this argument can be both terribly inspiring and a tad frightening. It’s easy to read the stats, but what do we DO? How do we “be authentic?” Isn’t that an oxymoron? Aren’t we already authentic? There are many ways to simply tap into your own power – your InPower – that’s already inside you. You don’t have to go anywhere to find it, all you have to do is confront a little fear, but there are techniques for doing that and it’s not nearly as hard as you think. Here are a few suggestions to get started. Read more…
Business Leaders – What Don’t Your Employees Tell You?
Posted by Dana Theus in Corporate Culture on October 6, 2011
Bosses, Do you know what’s really going on in your organizations? According to the Speak Truth to Power Survey I fielded last month, no. You’re often not hearing what your people really think.
According to my unscientific-but-interesting survey, almost half your potential workforce (48%) indicated they are actively withholding their truth in the workplace more than 25% of the time. But guess what? The Corporate Executive Board found scientific corollary data that’s even scarier. Read the rest of this entry »
Men Are Rewarded More Often for Speaking their Truth? Really?
Posted by Dana Theus in Corporate Culture, Women In Leadership on September 29, 2011
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I ran a survey last month asking people about their experiences with Speaking Truth to Power. One hundred and fifty five professionals – mostly women – responded and said loud and clear that:
- Almost half of them withheld their truth from their bosses a good deal of the time;
- 82% had been penalized in the past for speaking their truth; and
- 76% felt regret when they did not feel safe speaking their truth. Read the rest of this entry »
Leadership Tip: Find the Limits of Empathy
Posted by Dana Theus in eCoaching on September 20, 2011
Early in my career, empathy was my ace-in-the-hole management technique. I was all business when it came to helping my team on technical, process and performance issues, but if they had an emotional reaction or issue, I reverted to empathy because it was the easy thing to do. I learned that when I was empathetic, people liked me more, and early in my career, I really wanted to be liked. In retrospect, there might have been a correlation between my empathetic management style and the glass ceiling I smacked my head on the first time around, but then again maybe not. One of the folks who got the job I wanted was a woman… (though now that I think of it, her management style was anything but empathetic.)
Empathy didn’t work on everyone, though. I remember Employee B at a subsequent job. He just pretty much hated me and did everything including lying to my face to try to undermine me – despite the fact that I was the one with the VP title. I was flummoxed and pissed off. I kept trying to empathize in order to connect and failed, time and again. I never did figure out Employee B. I rejoiced when he transferred to another department and to this day I consider him my biggest management failure.
How to Encourage Folks to Stay in Corporate America… 3 Lessons from Solopreneurland
Posted by Dana Theus in Corporate Culture, InPower Leadership, The PRIMES on September 8, 2011
Even when I left Corporate America, I didn’t leave. For at least a few years I think I was still caught in the corporate culture trance as I contracted in semi-permanent positions. It was lucrative and fun, but I didn’t really experience the freedom of the outside until later.
Freedom can be scary, but to me, now, it’s not nearly as scary as the idea of going back. I’m not alone. Most solopreneurs I meet who’ve survived more than a year or two on their own wouldn’t go back for the world, even when we miss the camaraderie and teamwork of a group. Just this weekend I met a young woman who’s experimenting with multi-level marketing programs and dreams of escaping her corporate job – even though she just got a promotion and is 15 years younger than the next oldest colleague on her leadership team. When I was in that position in my 20′s, I thought I’d made it and was determined to stay, and I did for ten years. Is this generation so much less patient? Many signs say yes.
Why is corporate culture such a bummer for so many people? What’s the secret sauce of flying solo and can corporate leaders inject some of it into corporate America? It just might save corporations from the brain drain that’s already happening and is likely to become an avalanche if the self-employment penalties ever loosen (by which I mean primarily the corporate flytrap of “affordable” health care).
Here are three lessons for corporate leaders about why their folks leave and how maybe they could hold onto them if they tried. Read the rest of this entry »
Take Back Your Power – Watch Your Language (Part I)
Posted by Dana Theus in eCoaching on September 6, 2011
This is the third post in the Take Back Your Power series of posts.
Personal power (InPower) is not something we’re born with, it’s something we master – like learning to balance on one foot – as we progress on our journey to lead change in the world. First we master it for ourselves, and then we use it as we work with others, helping them access it personally and in group, together applying it in combination with external power to change the world for the better. Read the rest of this entry »
The Power of Joy
Posted by Dana Theus in eCoaching, Inspiration on August 23, 2011
Is a secret to personal power sitting right under your nose? It was mine. I grew up a negative, cynical kid, and it wasn’t until relative adulthood that I discovered the ability for simple joy to help me find my power in otherwise powerless situations – mostly, but not only, on the job.
Turns out I’m not crazy or stupid (the remnants of that old cynic talking). Research into the power of positive thinking is thrusting happiness into the business and leadership press. It turns out that positive thinking leads to success more than success leads to positive attitudes. The U.K. is even launching a national Happiness Index this year to measure the national well being. Read the rest of this entry »
Why Is Speaking Truth To Power So Hard?
Posted by Dana Theus in InPower Leadership, Reclaimed! on August 4, 2011
UPDATE: The survey is now closed. If you’d like to receive a free copy of the results when I publish them in September, please contact me or subscribe to my newsletter to be notified.
I have read several blogs of late that encourage aspiring leaders to speak their mind with some version of “CEOs say they want people to tell them the truth”.
When I read these statements, my own wounded corporate warrior laughed before I could even catch it. How many organizations have I worked in where truth really didn’t seem to be welcome at all? Plenty. And yet I know for a fact that learning to speak your truth to power is an essential arrow in a leader’s personal power quiver. Read the rest of this entry »
Dana Theus
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