What is the glass ceiling these days? The traditional view is that the glass ceiling is the white male’s comfy, old boy culture at the top that is threatened by the entrance of women into their private enclaves. In these secret nooks and crannies of corporate culture, it’s thought, leadership...
I just read a great article by Richard Boyatzis detailing the brain science behind “emotional contagion.” I find this particularly interesting in the context of corporate culture, having observed some pretty toxic bosses “infect” their staffs and encourage cultures where competition, backstabbing, emotional abuse and just plain incompetence were so rampant that you could feel the powerlessness and despair when you walked in the door.
The good news is that the ability to emotionally infect your staff and teams can be used for good by leaders who understand their responsibility to foster a positive environment and culture where others are in their power and able to perform at their best. To be a good leader, then, you need to…
Leadership advice runs rampant on the internet, which is fine because most of it comes from a place of wisdom and reflection. If you’re a woman aspiring to lead, however, there is one tiny problem with this spew of “how to” and “Top 10” lists. Since our dominant leadership culture is male,...
A few months ago, I was having a heated feminist discussion with a lesbian lawyer who specializes in LGBT legal issues. (As of last week's Supreme Court decision, her business must be booming! Hooray!) We were both on fire with the issues and loving the debate. The question was whether women are...
My second son just graduated High School and heads off to VA Tech next Fall. He’s the last one out of the nest and it’s got me thinking about the first half of my parenting life – the half where they are children. I’m grateful for so many things about being a parent, not the least of which is...
If you write a leadership blog you know the challenge of dredging the stock photo sites for perfectly politically correct photos of happy business women and men sporting every hue of skin color from creamy white to chocolate brown. If you actually run a business, you know the photo-dredgers have...
Jory des Jardins is an InPowerhouse. As one of the co-founders of BlogHer, she and her partners dedicated their business to helping empower women – personally and economically – and as a result, Blogher has become a hotbed of women on the web (full discloser, InPower Women shows up there from time...
Jory des Jardins is an InPowerhouse. As one of the co-founders of BlogHer, she and her partners dedicated their business to helping empower women – personally and economically – and as a result, Blogher has become a hotbed of women on the web (full discloser, InPower Women shows up there from time...
Sheryl Sandberg’s new book, Lean In, has generated a ton of dialog about women and work – not all of it positive, and not all the criticism from men. Actually, the only criticism I’ve read or heard has been from women, and it seems to literally illustrate her point that sexism is very cultural and...
Ladies, I write a lot for women, but I talk to many men who want to help us too. I recently wrote this for Smartblogs on Leadership (where lots of men hang out) and thought you might like to pass it on to the men you know that have women (especially younger women) reporting to them. Enjoy! If...
