Positive Leadership: The Fiercest Women in Tech (and Why We Need More Like Them)

Positive Leadership: The Fiercest Women in Tech (and Why We Need More Like Them)

Positive Leadership: Women Should be as Ambitious as Men

Tory Burch says women entrepreneurs should find their passion and be just as ambitious as men. She founded the Tory Burch fashion label in 2004. Her clothing line is now carried in more than 800 stores worldwide. She also heads the Tory Burch Foundation, which offers mentorship opportunities to women entrepreneurs and provides micro-loans to women-owned businesses.

Positive Leadership: Women Should be as Ambitious as Men

Positive Leadership: Women Leaders

A new study is further proof that the double bind female leaders face is more pervasive than we thought - 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-leadership/wp/2013/07/09/women-leaders-and-the-goldilocks-syndrome-not-too-harsh-not-too-soft/

Positive Leadership: Women Leaders

Positive Leadership: The Role of Sport in Facilitating Social Change

"Sport is one of the best tools for social change because it is a large part of cultures around the world and reaches into every socioeconomic class of society. If laws are put in place, the benefits will be beyond measure. Sport helps develop self-esteem and confidence; improve physical and mental well-being, serve as a medium of communication and empower women to improve themselves and their communities."

Nawal El Moutawakel, 1984 Olympic gold medallist, Morocco 

http://www.sport360.com/other-sports/nawal-el-moutawakel-golden-girl-who-sparked-revolution

Positive Leadership: The Role of Sport in Facilitating Social Change

Positive Leadership: The Athena Doctrine

At the BRITE '13 conference, John Gerzema, author of the new book "The Athena Doctrine: How Women (and the Men Who Think Like Them)Will Rule the Future" talked about his two-year research effort which found that feminine values are ascending all around the world. 

His data shows that countries that think in a more feminine way have a higher per capital GDP and people who think in a more feminine way are nearly twice as optimistic about their future.

For more info on "The Athena Doctrine" visit: http://www.johngerzema.com/

The BRITE conference on brands, innovation and technology is hosted by the Centre on Global Brand Leadership at Columbia Business School. http://briteconference.com and http://globalbrands.org

Positive Leadership: The Athena Doctrine

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Better Business Leaders

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Better Business Leaders

Positive Leadership: Women Should be as Ambitious as Men

Tory Burch says women entrepreneurs should find their passion and be just as ambitious as men. She founded the Tory Burch fashion label in 2004. Her clothing line is now carried in more than 800 stores worldwide. She also heads the Tory Burch Foundation, which offers mentorship opportunities to women entrepreneurs and provides micro-loans to women-owned businesses. 

Positive Leadership: Women Should be as Ambitious as Men

Positive Leadership: Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg looks at why a smaller percentage of women than men reach the top of their professions -- and offers 3 powerful pieces of advice to women aiming for the C-suite.

Positive Leadership: Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders

Positive Leadership: Challenge and Opportunity for Women

"The future of business belongs to the feminine archetype. Those that adopt the feminine archetype , male or female, are going to be the ones to create that wealth and enjoy the success of this new world."

John Hagel

Positive Leadership: Challenge and Opportunity for Women

Positive Leadership: Women in Business

Positive Leadership: Women in Business

Positive Leadership: Authenticity, Generosity, and Passion in Leadership

Shelly Lazarus is Chairman of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide. She has been working, as she would say it, "In the business I love," for more than three decades. Recognised as one of the most powerful women in business, Shelly has transformed Ogilvy & Mather into one of the world’s largest and most successful ad agencies.

In her keynote at Womensphere’s Global Summit 2010, Shelly reflects upon what defines a great leader, and shares her insights from countless encounters with leaders of different styles and personalities.

 
Authenticity, Generosity, and Passion in Leadership - Shelly Lazarus from Womensphere on Vimeo.

Positive Leadership: Authenticity, Generosity, and Passion in Leadership

Positive Leadership: The Power of Pause

Maria Shriver, is a mother of four, a Peabody and Emmy Award-winning journalist and producer, a six-time New York Times best-selling author, and an influential voice on the shifting roles, emerging power and evolving needs of women in modern life.

Shriver was California's trailblazing First Lady from 2003 to 2010. Her work is driven by her belief that all of us have the ability to be what she calls Architects of Change -- people who see a problem in their own life or the community around them, then step out of their comfort zone and do what it takes to create the solution.

Excerpts from the USC Annenberg School of Communication 2012 Commencement Address by Maria Shriver:

"But today, I have one wish for you. Before you go out and press that fast forward button, I'm hoping - I'm praying - that you'll have the courage to first press the pause button."

"That's right: the pause button. I hope if you learn anything from me today, you learn and remember -- The Power of the Pause."

"Pausing allows you to take a beat -- to take a breath in your life. As everybody else is rushing around like a lunatic out there, I dare you to do the opposite."

Positive Leadership: The Power of Pause

Positive Leadership: Why You Need Women Leading In Your Organisation – A Summary of the Data

More women in leadership measurably helps companies succeed.

Here’s a summary of some of the data out there on women in leadership and the benefits they bring to the organisations they serve, starting with the hard line performance and profitability numbers.

 •“…. Companies with three or more women in senior management functions score more highly on average (on nine dimensions of company excellence). It is notable that performance increases significantly once a certain critical mass is attained, namely, at least three women on management committees for an average membership of 10 people. “   (Women Matter, McKinsey 2007)

 •“Fortune 500 companies with the highest representation of women board directors attained significantly higher financial performance, on average, than those with the lowest representation of women board directors.” (Catalyst, October 2007)

 •“A selected group of companies with a high representation of diverse board seats (especially gender diversity) exceeded the average returns of the Dow Jones and NASDAQ Indices over a 5 year period.” (Virtcom Consulting)

 •“An extensive 19-year study of 215 Fortune 500 firms shows a strong correlation between a strong record of promoting women into the executive suite and high profitability. Three measures of profitability were used to demonstrate that the 25 Fortune 500 firms with the best record of promoting women to high positions are between 18 and 69 per cent more profitable than the median Fortune 500 firms in their industries.” (European Project on Equal Pay)

There are many other studies about the softer benefits of female leadership.

 •“The standard argument is that diversity is good and you should have both men and women in a group. But so far, the data show, the more women, the better.” (Harvard Business Review on of group intelligence, June 2011)

 •“The status and role of women is a very good clue to a company’s growth potential. When women are at the table, the discussion is richer, the decision‐making process is better and the organisation is stronger. Integrating a gender lens into investment strategies can, in my view, improve long‐term investment performance. Investors need to start taking notice.” (Joe Keefe, President,  Pax World Investments, February 2011)

 •“Female managers – as rated by their bosses, themselves and the people who work for them – were rated significantly better than their male counterparts. This difference extends beyond the ‘softer’ skills such as communication, feedback and empowerment to such areas as decisiveness, planning and setting standards.” (Pfaff & Associates, September 2009)

 •“Of particular interest is the fact that overall trust in female CEOs remains higher than trust in male CEOs, as was the case last year. And most of this increasing level of trust was experienced by non-managers, who registered an increase of a massive 11 index points in their trust for their female CEO between 2009 and 2010.” (Management Today September 2010).

 •“Women leaders are more persuasive, assertive and more willing to take risks than male leaders. Women leaders were found to be more empathetic and flexible, as well as stronger in interpersonal skills than their male counterparts. These qualities combine to create a leadership style that is inclusive, open, consensus building, collaborative and collegial.” (Caliper Corp. 2005)

Despite the fact that these studies have been published across the last decade, little has changed in our business culture.  The “30% solution” – identified by McKinsey (above) and coined by Linda Tarr-Whelan in her book, Women Lead the Way: Your Guide to Stepping Up to Leadership and Changing the World  - now commonly references the point at which individual businesses and the business sector in general will benefit from women’s special talents and skills in their leadership ranks. 

However, “(i)n (the last) 10 years the proportion of women board members on Fortune 500 companies has barely crept up from 12 to 15 per cent and 60 have no women.” (Linda Tarr-Whelan, Financial Times April, 2011). 

So we’re barely half way to the tipping point and as Calvert Investments reports recently, there are still many all-white, all male boards who do not believe they have a diversity issue.

Women in the USA constitute:

 •40% of the management workforce

 •46.8% of the total workforce

 •42% of MBAs

 •59% of bachelor degrees

 •61% of master degrees

 •about 50% of of law and medical degrees.

So what do we do to get more women into leadership without overthinking? Some advice seems self-evident and very cheap.

 •Men – put your irrational fears aside. Open yourselves up to a new way of doing business and invite this plentiful resource in to help you thrive.

 •Women – you’re powerful no matter where you are or what you’re doing. The research says that your very presence in a group helps the group become more intelligent. Don’t hide your natural talents even though they look different than what the male-dominated culture around you says they should look like. It’s what they need from you even though they don’t know it. Step out and stop waiting for someone to give you permission and just shine. What are you waiting for?

Try it. See what happens.

Positive Leadership: Why You Need Women Leading In Your Organisation – A Summary of the Data

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Strong Leaders (10)

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Strong Leaders (10)

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Strong Leaders (9)

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Strong Leaders (9)

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Strong Leaders (8)

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Strong Leaders (8)

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Strong Leaders (7)

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Strong Leaders (7)

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Strong Leaders (6)

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Strong Leaders (6)

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Strong Leaders (5)

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Strong Leaders (5)

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Strong Leaders (4)

Positive Leadership: Why Women Make Strong Leaders (4)