Posts Tagged women
Why Leaders Should Mentor
Posted by Dana Theus in InPower Leadership, Inspiration on March 14, 2012
Someone once gave me the greatest complement. She said, “Since you’re my mentor I think you can help me with this.” Until that moment I had no idea I was her mentor! From that day forward, I started paying more attention to my interactions with her, being more clear explaining my thinking, being more conscious of giving her explicit feedback. And something else happened in the process – I became more conscious of my own leadership style and began to improve it. Read the rest of this entry »
Activating The Woman Effect
Posted by Dana Theus in InPower Leadership, Reclaimed!, Women In Leadership on February 1, 2012
Follow The Woman Effect online - www.TheWomanEffect.com.
This last year blogging here on Reclaiming Leadership has been fun and fascinating. Along the way I found myself speaking to and with wonderful, powerful women. And I’ve also been having fun blogging on women’s web sites, like Blogher, The Glass Hammer, Success in the City and Owning Pink. But I wanted to have a place of my own to speak to women about the trends I see from reading the leadership research that many women – heads down in their career – don’t get a chance to see. So I’m starting a new leadership and professional development blog and website for powerful, high-achieving women.
Here’s my opening play: The Woman Effect (1:48 min video).
Thanks for all of you who have friended, followed, commented, discussed and debated with me over the last year. I’ve never had so much professional fun in my life and it’s only getting better!
What if Self-promotion is a Gender-Neutral Leadership Skill?
Posted by Dana Theus in InPower Leadership, Women In Leadership on January 11, 2012
Follow The Woman Effect online - www.TheWomanEffect.com.
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 »
Work-Life Baloney
Posted by Dana Theus in InPower Leadership, Women In Leadership on November 10, 2011
Follow The Woman Effect online - www.TheWomanEffect.com.
A constant discussion topic among every professional woman I know – and no small number of men – used to be work-life balance. We judged ourselves and each other harshly when it came to our skill in balancing. In our 20’s it was secondary; in our 30’s it was a conundrum; and in our 40’s we made whatever adjustments were necessary and lived with the consequences as our careers developed and families expanded.
Most of us took on the leadership, entrepreneurial and volunteer challenges our choices left us with and succeeded. Somehow, most of us are still married and no one’s kids have gone to the dark side (though I suppose there is still time left;)
We survived and so did our families. This discussion is now old news. Read the rest of this entry »
3 Skills To Vault You Into Leadership (And Help You Stay There)
Posted by Dana Theus in eCoaching on November 3, 2011
Meg* and I were lunch-brainstorming how to help one of her direct reports who is struggling to “fit” into her recent Director-level promotion. Meg noted that this woman – we’ll call her Kathy* – found it hard to see the forest for the trees. Meg thought Kathy had tons of potential but was frustrated and wanted to grab her by the collar and elevate her perspective every time she gave Kathy a new project, and she wanted my business coaching suggestions on what skills she could help Kathy acquire to help her be more successful.
We listed out the challenges Kathy was having and tried to decide if these were issues more challenging to women than men. We concluded that they really weren’t women’s issues but were more related to the “Leadership Stretch” that requires us to take on a broader perspective when we are ready to – or just have – jumped up a major level in management responsibility. We also agreed that it was possible men received help with these issues more regularly through mentoring than women did.
Here is what we identified Kathy was struggling with, and how Meg could help her. 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
Follow The Woman Effect online - www.TheWomanEffect.com.
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…
How A Female Exec Found Success in a Stinking Pile of Goo
Posted by Dana Theus in InPower Leadership on October 18, 2011
Meg and I were lunching, as we often do, and I was being a good ear – only putting my executive coaching hat on occasionally for an old friend. The young company she’d joined a few years ago – that had allowed her to break the glass ceiling into the inner executive ranks – had just been acquired. I was expecting to hear about the long awaited cash out. But unfortunately, the CEO who had seemed so promising turned out to be a cad and was in the process of slowly, painfully, evilly, screwing the entire executive team – especially Meg and the CFO who was also a woman – out of their upside. The acquisition looked like it was going to be a financial zero for Meg and the CFO.
Meg really didn’t deserve this. She’s way too nice. Read the rest of this entry »
The Girl Effect Is Everywhere
Posted by Dana Theus in Inspiration, Reclaimed!, Today's News, Women In Leadership on October 4, 2011
Follow The Woman Effect online - www.TheWomanEffect.com.
If you haven’t seen this video, watch it. Go ahead. I’ll wait. It’s amazing and inspiring.
The Girl Effect is a philanthropic movement to value girls and women in developing countries. Why girls? Because the stats show that when girls are valued by their culture poverty, illness and low education levels begin to recede – naturally – to be replaced by relative prosperity, health and education. (Watch the original Girl Effect video that makes this point and is equally inspiring.) Why? Because women invest their time, energy and resources differently than men – putting more energy into their families and their community, and this kind of energy investment pays off tangibly. Everyone benefits when women are supported – communities are transformed. NOT because men are evil, but because the value of men and women is out of whack in the developing world and when the balance is more equal, a strong women’s influence creates a healthier culture and economy. You can read some fascinating stats about this here on the Girl Effect site.
And guess what? This isn’t just a philanthropic effort anymore. The Girl Effect and others began to raise awareness on the impact of women a few years ago, and it got people’s attention. Just this month, the World Bank validated this way of looking at the economic benefits of valuing women in developing economies. All I can say is, it’s about damn time and GO GIRL EFFECT! 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
Follow The Woman Effect online - www.TheWomanEffect.com.
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 »
What Does It Mean to “Speak Your Truth to Power”?
Posted by Dana Theus in eCoaching on September 22, 2011
And it IS a subtle art!
Dana Theus
Activate The Woman Effect
