Tag: Coaching

We’ve […] seen it happen again and again. When a woman speaks in a professional setting, she walks a tightrope. Either she’s barely heard or she’s judged as too aggressive. When a man says virtually the same thing, heads nod in appreciation for his fine idea. As a result, women often decide that saying less is more. NYT: Speaking While Female, 01.11.2015

Disappointing that this is still true.  I remember back in one of my first group projects in business school (in…errrr…1992), I was shocked when during a meeting a guy cut in, talked over me and repeated exactly the point I had made.  And no one seemed to notice.

Women emerging leaders I work with often want to work on their presence and on reacting to and counteracting this behavior in their male colleagues.  They also talk to me about how to appear and sound more powerful and how they need to ‘take up more room’ in group meetings. They read Amy Cuddy and view her TED talks.

I agree with Grant and Sandberg that we need more women leaders.  We also need to constantly support and push our existing women leaders to stand up for themselves while also looking for more opportunities for them to shine.

 

 

“One of the most underrated parts of the creative process is remaining vulnerable,” says New York Times bestselling author Brenè Brown.

I’m a big fan of Brené Brown. I loved both of her TED talks on vulnerability and shame. This keynote from the May 2013 99U conference (focused on making great ideas happen–derived from Edison’s 99% perspiration quote) is about dealing with critics.The talk is centered around Roosevelt’s 1910 “Man in the Arena” speech:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

As always, Ms. Brown delivers her message with humor and conviction.  She talks about the three critics we all meet: shame, scarcity and comparison and advises us to believe like she does, “If you’re not in the arena, also getting your ass kicked, I’m not interested in your feedback.

“Living up to a social contract is inordinately valuable, and there’s no pressure to exceed it.” 

The Atlantic, James Hablin, August 27, 2014.

Key thought: Only give away half the cookie.

“What does it take to expand year after year, even through the Great Recession? Very few companies have ever done so. You can learn a lot from those that have.” Hire. Grow. Repeat. Scott Leibs, Inc. Magazin

Looking for the case for leadership development and coaching?  Inc.’s economist-in-residence researched 1,000 mid-size U.S. companies and identified the “Build 100” top companies that added headcount for five consecutive years. Inc. found the following five points to be commonalities among the Build 100 and notable differences from others:

1. More than 50 percent of respondents said “people/talent” and “customer service” were the only drivers of competitive advantage and identified those attributes as core to their company’s identity, ahead of nine other factors.
2. A “big change in senior management or leadership” was among the top three factors credited for triggering company growth “breakouts” ahead of six other factors.
3. Two of the top three challenges or obstacles to growth were “attracting top managerial talent” and “training future supervisors and managers,” ahead of 11 other challenges.
4. More than 82 percent of respondents said “sharing financial success with your employees” helps a company grow — tying that practice for the highest response among six management practices.
5. Some 81 percent of respondents named “sudden loss of a key employee” as a concern — the highest such percentage among 11 “unplanned events” that were rated.