In executive coaching (both women and men) I’ve often observed that two parallel stories about women and men in the workplace often coexist. First, “women and men communicate differently” is a truth that few bother to deny. Second, “men and women are treated equally in the workplace.” To me, it’s...
I've got a client (we'll call her Jenny) who's got some real people problems. She believes her boss is threatened by her and most of her direct reports want her job. Based on what she's told me, she has reason to believe that these people would all love to see her fail. But Jenny had another...
In entrepreneurial circles, there is a well-known trap waiting for any successful startup visionary, the Founder’s Syndrome, which has gotten many an organization’s founder fired by the board and/or their funders. No matter how smart they are, even experienced entrepreneurs rarely know all that they need to know to lead a long-term successful effort. Here are three things you can do to make sure you don’t fall prey to Founder’s Syndrome, and better yet, transform yourself in the process.
Welcome to “Dear Dana”, our regular column to give you career and workplace advice/coaching. In today's post we're going to focus on how to talk about your biggest accomplishments when applying and interviewing for jobs. Whether searching for a new opportunity or just positioning yourself for...
A PRIME is a pattern or principle that reliably comes into play when people gather in a group. This observable pattern – once named and shared with the group – goes from being an unconscious pattern to a manageable dynamic. Use the PRIMES to increase your team’s power. A powerful group makes a more powerful leader.
If you’re a woman in leadership, chances are you’ve experienced workplace discrimination due to your gender, even if you’re not aware of it. More likely, you were aware of it (especially if you’ve experienced sexual harassment) and were trying to ignore it so it doesn’t get in the way of your...
If you pay attention to your language it will provide you insight and power over your subconscious – “natural” – InPower stance. As you practice obtaining and maintaining InPower balance, your language – internal and external – will begin to shift and change, becoming a source of your power. But first you must learn to “hear” yourself from an InPower perspective and listen for your InPower and out-of-power voice. In another post we’ll talk about what you are saying, but for now, just learn to listen to how you are saying it. When you speak – to yourself or to others – your choice of words can quickly tap you into your current power stance. Here are some examples.
Language is important indicator of everyone’s InPower stance, but it may be especially important for women, based on a new study by Judith Baxter.
If you were in charge of your corporate culture and knew it needed fixing, would you fix it? Certainly anyone in charge of change management would want to say yes to this question, but as anyone who is actually in charge of corporate culture knows, it’s harder than it looks. I like to think of...
How much energy do you spend trying to push back reality? Many of us deplete ourselves unconsciously by fighting reality with vision, and then we wonder why the heck we’re so tired. What insight can we draw from this cycle? I know I can fall into this pit, even with the most noble of goals: to...
What is power? It turns out that power means different things to different people, and really is only tangentially related to actual leadership, but in almost all cases power is related to the use of resources and the ability to change the world. The typical definitions of power that I have picked up in having this discussion online over the last few months are all related to “external” power and the manipulation of resources and circumstances outside ourselves. Yet two kinds of “internal” power are at least as important. Not all those in power are leaders, but all true leaders have power.
