Second guess yourself often? Ladies, I’m talking to you, especially my sisters–the high performing ones who are mid-to-late career yet still stuck in the middle of the leadership pipeline. You know, it isn’t that we don’t arrive at a decision as quickly as men do. It is that men tend to trust their first mind and then act on that decision. We tend to question our first notion.…
Consistently agreeable? It’s probably why your leadership aspirations are stagnant. Learn to provide a well-informed insight. Pose a question that interrogates the norms. “Go along to get along” will never take you where well-placed pushback will. It’s what transformational leaders do.
There’s some wisdom in the saying: “Your words have power.” But did you know there is actual research to back that? However, the findings begins with our brains. According to neuroscience, repetitive thoughts or actions cause the hippocampus to grow larger. This is key to learning. So by the time those thoughts manifest into words, you can bet that your brain is already trained to think…
Is it always good intent? Really? We know better. We now have research to back it in the case of women and women of color. Microaggressions and bias in the workplace is real according to multiple credible and reputable sources. So let’s lay the advice, “Always assume good intent” to rest once and for all. RIP
We had a saying in corporate communications when it came to reputation management… sometimes you have to simply aim for fair and balanced because there may not be any winning. It’s especially true for your critics. But what if you could change that? Considering your interpersonal relationships: Have you learned that someone who actually has some meaningful impact on your career had something negative to say about you?…
Proximity can be an aspiration killer. When I was running my agency, I recall putting a policy in place for interns that they could not immediately be hired on to my staff until they joined another agency. Then they could boomerang if they’d like, but only after experiencing another work environment. They didn’t understand it. In fact, one of my intern’s parents called and tried to talk me…no,…
Did you know that forgiveness is a powerful tool in leadership arsenal? You discuss the merits on Sundays and sometimes even Wednesday night, but why haven’t you allowed it into your workplace? I speak with clients everyday who are taking on new roles, but expressing angst about moving forward based on something that happened to them in the past. So we work on what it takes to truly…
Look, I’m guilty of it too. In fact, when my I release my next book, Yes, Please: 7 Ways to Say I’m Entitled to the C-Suite, you’ll learn exactly how I sold myself short. The truth is that if you want to aspire to senior executive leadership, it really isn’t an either-or. It is a both-and when it comes to getting where you want to go in the…
How do you know if someone you are speaking to is listening? I use to media train senior executive and C-Suite leaders to prepare them to go on national news and morning shows. One thing that I noticed my women leaders did that my male leaders did not was nod their heads excessively throughout the interview. For television appearances, it was crucial that we addressed this and broke…
Stop the note taking, Sis. I understand that you want to remember everything when you are in that meeting; but not only does this undermine your position as a leader, it doesn’t allow you to fully tap into your brain’s superpowers. Did you know that science has proven that the mere stress and adrenaline from key moments in time put your mind’s ability to remember in high-gear. In…