by Guest Author | Feb 21, 2013 | Emotional Intelligence at Work, InPower Women Blog, The Woman Effect
Want to sustain outstanding results in business? Then leadership must build a culture and environment where both women and men will thrive.
The demand is right around the corner and the Millennials will expect it for young men are used to working with women as equals. Today’s college graduation population is 60% female, and business schools are about 40%. In addition, these women are earning higher grades, so how can you attract and retain this great field of talent? We know that organizations have not been successful at creating such a workplace that provides opportunities for both men and women. This is reflected in the pitiful amount of female CEO’s (5%) and women in congress (18%).
What will help us achieve the results we want?
First, we must have a highly energized, aligned and loyal organizational culture. A culture where women can see themselves in the leadership that is already in place. For example, are there female board members as well as women at the C-suite level? These Millennials will want to be able to see that there is a path and an opportunity for them to move to the top if they deliver results.
Is this reflected in leadership at your workplace?
Second, is the workplace set up to be flexible enough so that they do not lose great talent when they decide to start a family? My sister is a Physician’s Assistant in internal medicine. She recently gave birth to her fourth child and is still at the same practice she joined 14 years ago. Why has she chosen to stay working when she has not “had” to? Her boss was forward thinking and allowed her to create a flexible schedule that would work for her and the office. His practice was recently interviewed for the way they have set up and succeeded in providing excellence in patient care and research, neither of which could have been achieved if the office had high employee turnover or stressed out working moms.
So have you set up a workplace where hours can be flexible or positions can be shared? If not, how come?
Finally, research has shown that teams that are compromised of equal numbers of men and women are most successful. They communicate more since they have different interests and motivations. True teamwork means our team members are open to sharing ideas, helping one another, and offering and being receptive to feedback. Feedback is the lifeblood of productive teamwork. These diverse teams also have significantly higher returns for stakeholders. As Jason Velez, CEO and Founder of NY Advisory Group, shared about his experience with a female manager, “While an analyst at Goldman Sachs, my mentor was a female Managing Director who was the best in the game, managed a household of 4 children, while running the firms Broker Dealer Compliance group which was ranked best in industry. She did it all with an unwavering confidence, admirable integrity, and steadfast principles. That resonated with me throughout the course of my career as a business leader. I remember saying to myself back then, if ever I ran a business I would like to have ten of her on my team. Low and behold, my teams have been comprised predominantly of women who in my estimation have proven to be less egotistical, more capable creative thinkers, and dynamically passionate about the success of the business and the clients they serve.”
Are you assigning projects to diverse teams that leverage and enhance the skill-sets of all your workplace members?
What is really needed in our companies today is to provide the full array of leadership skills and competencies to all our people – not just some! Look at successful companies such as Google, Facebook, Zappos, Chick-fil-A, IBM,Yahoo, and McKinsey & Company, to name a few, as examples of business leadership that “get it”.
Leadership is all about helping people do the right things well, helping others succeed. Women can be leaders, as men can be leaders – together they can offer companies an even more successful and sustainable workplace!
Check out the resources in the InPower Coaching EQ at Work and Soft Skills Research Index.
FREE PDF
Guide to Women in Leadership
Executive Coach Dana Theus shares her tried and true strategies to help women excel in higher levels of leadership and achieve their executive potential.
by Guest Author | Feb 14, 2013 | Commentary
With Valentine’s Day coming up, there’s lots of talk about love. Well, what about love?
If I asked you that question, how would you answer? If you can, write down your answer.
That’s a question I did ask when I was conducting a longitudinal study at the Project on the Development of Girls and Psychology of Women at Harvard University some years ago.
Ken, a 36-year-old insurance agent, answered the question in this way:
I believe in love. I think everybody should have some. I use to have love, but I lost it. I didn’t realize what a precious commodity it was. I guess I took it for granted, and didn’t realize that it’s more difficult than I thought to obtain it from another individual. I think I should have some again. I think I should go out and find some.
In contrast, Sarah, a 40-year old mother of three, answered in this way:
When I think about love, I think about my husband, when things were good between us, and really wanting to be with him. I just really enjoyed being with this person. I just thought he was so funny. We really laughed about things and when we laughed together about something, it was like looking into a mirror. It made us feel real close when that happened, like loving. That stopped a long time ago.
The qualitatively different way Ken and Sarah speaks of love breaks down to the most elemental difference — parts of speech.
Ken speaks of love as a noun, a quantifiable thing that ought to be equitably distributed. For him, love is part of the world of objects: a static and fixed thing that he would acquire if only he could find it. Like a precious jewel, love is something to cherish, find, lose, replace, forget, take for granted.
Sarah, on the other hand, refers to love as a verb, as a dynamic process that happens between her and her husband, joining them to each other and felt within each person. Love is a moving experience — she is moved by him and he by her. Unlike Ken who is concerned with finding and losing an object love, Sarah looks for opportunities to start an experience of love and regrets love stopping. One captures a static quality to love, while the other refers to love as in motion
OK, that’s interesting. Two approaches to love — love as an object, a static commodity-oriented view, and love that moves, a fluid, felt experience-oriented view. Gary Chapman wrote about The Five Love Languages, but my research shows that it can be reduced down to these two.
These two ways of speaking of love shape two different worlds that come with two distinct sets of assumption. These worlds, so tacitly different, for instance, have a different reference point — who are they relating to when they speak of love? Ken, for example, places himself in relationship to an idea he has about love, which objectifies experience. Sarah, on the other hand, refers to love in relationship to another person, which locates her in the stream of fluctuating and changing experience.
If we objectify love as Ken does, then we create a static world of objects. Security is an acquisition of things; the beloved is a love object, predictable with certain characteristics; support is fixing someone as if they are broken; sex is working the right mechanical parts; problems with love circle around issues of performance (producing love) and control.
When we think of love as a connection with another that flows and changes with time, then security is felt as a continued sense of attunement with another; the beloved is an emerging, changing other; support is collaborating, cooperating and being with each other; sex is a changing journey towards a body/mind connection with oneself and another; problems are events that people move through rather than cope with.
These two ways of approaching love can be seen in the marriage vows themselves, in the Book of Common Prayer: “To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.” Having and holding a person presumes that person is static, like an object. And, like a precious object, something to cherish. But love is also defined as an experience in the flow of life, where people gain and lose status and health. Love changes as people change.
The implication of this difference is that when people are having a conflict and feel misunderstood, they might be arguing about one topic but there is often an unconscious and subterranean struggle over the meaning of love itself.
So how do you think of love — as an object, or as a felt experience? In a consumer-oriented culture most people tend to objectify love, like the size of a diamond ring can be seen as an indicator of how much you love and are loved. Love as “in motion,” on the other hand, is not as reinforced in our culture. Some people are bilingual in love, weaving in out of objectified and experiential love.
Listen to how you speak of love and how your loved one speaks of love. Are you living in the same worlds? Maybe this Valentine’s Day you can ask each other, “What about love?”
This post originally appeared on Huffington Post.
by Guest Author | Feb 12, 2013 | Coaching Advice, Leadership
By: Mary Schaefer
Why it’s worth it to take your management skills to the next level, as a manager of people
I’ve been conducting training on manager/employee communication for years. In one class last year I heard the same phrase over and over and it really struck me.
“What I don’t want to happen is ________”
When it comes to thinking about initiating a discussion about a touchy subject, inevitably I hear some version of this. For instance,
“What I don’t want to happen is…”
- For the other person to shut down
- To not have the answers
- For them to get emotional
- For them to get mad
- For me to get mad
We do it to ourselves
I’ve been a manager and I’ve coached many managers. Over time we get to the point where we are wary of particular behavior, like the other person becoming emotional, getting defensive or playing dumb. We get psyched out by what we think will happen. In doing this, we give the other person all the power. Let me rephrase. We buy into the premise that “we are powerless” to their reaction. We disempower ourselves.
I’m going to be writing a lot more about what it means to be an Empowered manager and an Empowered professional. Today I want to leave you with this.
What’s in it for me?
10 Reasons to Be an Empowered Manager
- You respect yourself more.
- You feel more at ease and poised in any situation.
- You know you can be heard and influence others.
- Your strength and foundation of values inspires others.
- You know yourself and are realistic about your strengths and limitations.
- You know when to ask for help.
- You don’t leave a mess behind when you talk to people.
- You begin to truly enjoy your job because you feel more empowered, autonomous.
- Your employees want to do more, for themselves and the organization.
- You are asked to weigh in because you are known for your good judgment.
Are you empowering yourself? If not now, when?
This post originally appeared on Reimagine Work
by Guest Author | Feb 6, 2013 | Coaching Advice, Leadership
Imagine:
- What it would be like to grow up in a family that is always behind on their bills.
- To live in a home that could be featured on the television program HOARDERS.
- To have your home burn to the ground and lose everything when you were in grade-school.
- Then live in a home without an indoor bathroom through high school.
- Being diagnosed with bi-polar, manic depressive disorder before you were 20.
- Getting hit one night by your boyfriend and leaving with your car and your clothes.
- Becoming a single mom and going through a bankruptcy.
For Angie, all of this was a reality. She was living a life of chaos with very few calm, safe, hopeful moments. She describes herself as insecure, someone with a chip on her shoulder, and a bully. She emphasizes never being taught to budget, being embarrassed to bring friends home, and trying to escape her reality by forming relationships that many times became the cause of more pain.
When I first met Angie I did not know any of these stories. I found her because she is a hairstylist with an online presence and great reviews. (When you are new to a city, you look for both!) In our first meeting I complimented her on her online presence and she quickly spoke of her “Marketing Director, Miss Connie. ”
What follows is a quick look into the lives of two extraordinary women that have been transformed because they have chosen to do what they can, with what they have, right where they are.
“Miss Connie” is a client of Angie’s that deeply values Angie on a personal and professional level. During one of Angie’s most difficult seasons, Connie could see and feel the pain Angie was in and wanted to help.
- Her first gift to Angie was a Mrs. Beasley doll simply because it was something that Angie had deeply treasured as a child.
- Then it was a book to encourage Angie and to challenge her to think differently.
- Next it was a vision for growing her business and the letterhead and business cards to get her started.
- One day it was a netbook that opened to her new website.
- Then brainstorming about setting a goal to get a set number of new clients each month.
- Then it was books about budgeting.
- Then advice on moving to a new salon…
Connie identified a huge need in Angie and has mentored her for years. Never once has Connie offered a quick-fix, a handout or a “fish-for-a-day.” Each time she has offered genuine care, support, tools and accountability. And each time Angie has responded like a sponge, soaking in new information, learning all she can, being deeply appreciative, and never once taking that friendship for granted.
Both women inspire me:
Angie ~
- Because she chooses not to be a victim.
- Because she courageously pushes through barriers to pursue a vision of something better in spite of what life hands her.
- Because she is determined to learn and grow.
- Because she is willing to be vulnerable and ask for help.
- Because she is appreciative of what she has been given and does not expect a hand-out. Because she is looking for a way to pay it forward with other women and trying to build a better future for her son.
Connie ~
- .Because she looks deep enough to SEE what others do not see and is willing to get involved.
- Because she has given from the deepest part of her heart without enabling.
- Because she did not give one time and walk away, instead she has stayed engaged for years continually mentoring and encouraging.
No matter who you are, and no matter where you sit, YOU can make a difference. In fact, you may be making a bigger difference right now than you realize. Check this out..
- When Angie’s home burnt down she lived with her aunt for a time. When she moved back home, she did not leave empty handed; she was filled with visions of a life that included budgets, grooming and order instead of just chaos.
- When Angie was in high school she was given the opportunity to attend a Vo-Tech program to learn how to be a stylist. In that environment she received training and hope and a vision of making a difference for other women.
- At another time in her life it was her employer that provided an environment of learning and growth and planted the vision of owning her own business.
What about you?
- If you are in Angie’s shoes: What can you do today to soak up the opportunities around you? Who can you reach to, to learn more?
- If you are in Connie’s shoes: Who can you reach out to that needs encouragement, a vision or tools?
As we begin 2013, imagine what our world would look like if EACH ONE OF US did what we could, with what we have, right where we are… Just IMAGINE!
Chery Gegelman is the President of Giana Consulting. She is an energetic and inspiring speaker, facilitator, consultant and author that is passionate about providing people and organizations with tools to be more successful and challenging them to make a greater difference. Chery is quick to point out that any wisdom and understanding she brings come from her own failures and successes, the people she worked with along the way, wise mentors, years of study and the undeserved grace of her Heavenly Father Connect with Chery on her LeadChange Profile, Website or Twitter.
This post originally appeared on the Lead Change Group
by Guest Author | Jan 22, 2013 | Commentary, InPower Women Blog
Will a Record Number of Women Make a Difference in the 113th Congress? With the Inauguration in the rear view mirror, it’s officially time for the 113th Congress and President Obama to get back to work. Women were big winners in the November elections and the current Congress set a new record for female members when officially sworn in earlier this month. That’s the good news. The bad news is that new records means that female representation in Congress jumped from a high of 17% to a new high of 18%. But it sounds more depressing than it really is, as these infographics from Mother Jones indicate. Some fast facts:
- 1 in 3 newly elected members is a woman
- 184 women ran for Congress in 2012 and nearly half were elected
- The state of New Hampshire will be sending an entirely female delegation to Washington with a female Governor at home
- Four states are sending their first female Senators; Hawaii, Massachusetts, North Dakota and Wisconsin
And let’s not forget that there are now 20 women serving in the Senate, up from 17 in the 112th Congress. Making Our Voices Heard One of the biggest impacts women had on Washington was through the ballot box. There are very few things more powerful than casting a vote and women came out in force to make their voices heard. In the presidential race, women made the difference for Barack Obama. In fact, for the first time in history (or at least, since we started keeping track in 1952), the candidate who won a decisive victory among men lost the election. 52% of men chose Mitt Romney over Obama, according to exit poll data. The problem for Romney was that 53% of voters in 2012 were women. And 55% of those women voted to reelect the president. Digging a bit deeper, tradition held true as married women still preferred the Republican candidate, while unmarried women skewed Democratic. Women also made a significant impact in key Senate races where issues directly affecting women became the deciding factor. In Missouri, Senator Claire McCaskill (D) was facing Congressman Todd Akin (R) in a race she was projected to lose. McCaskill had won her seat during the Democratic wave in 2006, when her party had taken decisive control of the House and Senate. But her support for President Obama’s policies had made her relatively unpopular in her home state. It was a controversial statement from Akin about a woman’s body shutting down to prevent pregnancy in the case of a “legitimate rape” that shifted the momentum and led to McCaskill’s decisive victory. Similar comments about abortion also led to the defeat of favored Republican Richard Mourdock for a Senate seat in Indiana, another red state. More Women, More Progress? In my last blog post, I suggested that perhaps having more women in Congress would lead to more progress. We’ve seen it countless times in business. Adding women to the board of directors consistently correlates with positive financial results. Will the increase of female representation in Washington mean that more will get done? Michael Medved at the Daily Beast doesn’t think so. Medved points to examples like Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, who was unsuccessful at “working across the aisle” during her tenure as Speaker of the House. However, it’s important to note that Pelosi never lost a vote as Speaker despite a diverse Democratic caucus. Pelosi attributed her success to building consensus. By contrast, Republican speaker John Boehner has cancelled votes due to lack of agreement within his own party. And recently, the fiscal cliff deal passed despite the fact that the majority of Republicans voted against the deal. Was Pelosi’s success due entirely to the fact that she was a woman? Probably not, but studies have shown that it probably helped. The article is largely a lament on partisan politics and devolves into political name-calling. And while I could continue to pick apart Medved’s argument, a reader comment criticizing Medved’s thesis included this perfectly succinct summary: “Women in government aren’t much different than men. A politician is a politician, regardless of gender. There’s no need to bring more women into government. We already have enough.” Whether or not the increase of women in Congress creates less gridlock remains to be seen. But I, for one, welcome the increase in representation and diversity in Washington. It’s hard to draw definitive conclusions about the impact of women in Congress, because so much of the machinations of politics happens behind closed doors. But it will be interesting to see the contrast between the House, where men still dominate and chair all but one committee, to the Senate, where women lead five of 16 standing committees, including the incredibly important Appropriations committee, which Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) took over following the death of Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI). And the ongoing tug of war between the House and Senate may also prove instructive. What do you think? Will more women in Congress move things forward?
FREE PDF
Guide to Women in Leadership
Executive Coach Dana Theus shares her tried and true strategies to help women excel in higher levels of leadership and achieve their executive potential.
by Guest Author | Jan 18, 2013 | Career Development, Coaching Advice
“Women Don’t Ask”. Ask for what you want – it’s the topic of a book and it’s often an unfortunate reality that keeps many of us from reaching our goals. In my executive coaching work, some of my clients very clearly realize that this is an issue. They know that whether it’s asking for a raise or resources for their work projects, or asking clients for business or referrals, being able to confidently ask is a key to meeting their goals. We work through a five-step process on how to ask powerfully for what they want. We overcome the excuses we all make that let the glass ceiling inside our heads take away our power. So here are five steps to making a powerful ask.
1) Start with one simple “Ask“.
Pick one specific “ask” that you want to make. Take out a piece of paper right now, not later after you’re done reading the blog post. There is power in taking action. Make sure it’s specific. For example, “I would like to ask my manager to work on Project X which will give me greater visibility to senior management.”
2) Pick decision-makers.
Pick who is the person who will make the decision on your ask. It could be multiple people. Also pick who will be influential in impacting the decision. Write down their names. In many decisions, it’s not just the people in the hierarchy, it is the informal networks that we need to understand who will influence decisions. In the example above, the decision maker could be your manager. It could also be other people who are leading or involved in the project. It could be your manager’s boss.
3) Convince yourself first This is the most important step.
Usually one of the biggest reasons we don’t ask powerfully is that we’re not fully convinced that we want or deserve what we are asking for or we’re afraid of a “No”. These are limiting beliefs we have and we need to identify and reframe these beliefs into more empowering beliefs. Once we are convinced ourselves, it is so much easier to convince others. Go ahead and write all these excuses down. And yes, answer what would happen if they say “No”. Usually, we’re no worse off than where we were before. Putting our excuses out of our head and onto a piece of paper so we can stare at them can help us recognize patterns and how some of these excuses are fairly irrational. They come from stories we have made up about ourselves and others rather than reality.
4) Get Clear on Influencing Style
Next to each name, list all the reasons a) why they would want to help you, b) what would be the best way to influence them. Write down your thoughts about what influencing style would best work with them. Is it appealing to them with facts? Is it leveraging relationships? Is it negotiating what you can do for them? For example, ask yourself, “How have I helped them in the past? How can I help them in the future”? It can be gratifying to an ego to be asked for help. A client may refer you because they have seen how valuable you have been to them and believe you will be valuable to their colleague as well. Just the act of writing down all the reasons why or how you can be valuable to a person can instill the kind of self-confidence and conviction that will energize you to ask more powerfully. Remember the first and most important person you have to convince of your value is you. Next create an action plan of who you will ask for what by when.
5) Practice & Declare Success
Find a friend or colleague and start to practice making the “Ask”. A client of mine recently had an excellent piece of advice. For many of us, we are afraid to ask for fear of rejection. So it’s valuable to reframe the objective. Make the objective about asking rather than getting anything. Set a goal. You will make one powerful ask every day. Then once you’ve asked, you’ve met your goal. Declare success. It helps to journal or write about your successes in asking as part of reframing your mindset.
Success is continuing to ask and not letting someone’s “No” take away your power to make a powerful ask. Assume a “No” is “Not Now”, so always be gracious about it. Being gracious about a “No” leaves the door open for a “Yes” in the future.
Let me know how this worked for you and what strategies you have for yourself for making powerful asks. Do comment and share with the community your successes in making your asks as it helps you contribute and instill confidence in others.
If this resonated with you, please comment, and register for my free webinar with Dana Theus on this very topic!
Take charge of your career development to get the job that supports your work and your life. Check out the tools and resources in the InPower Coaching Career Center.
by Guest Author | Jan 15, 2013 | Career Development, Coaching Advice
Three years ago I began my master’s degree in positive psychology. My classmates and I, new to each other, were waiting for our first class to start. Everyone was a little anxious because one of us was about to be called on to tell their “You at Your Best” story about a time when we overcame a challenge in life. I sat in my chair, a big ball of stress and emotion. I had just burned out from seven years of practicing law, and I was not about to tell a room full of strangers about one of the most vulnerable moments in my life. Luckily, I did not have to recite my story in front of the full group, but I did have to tell it to a smaller group of six of my classmates. As I told the story of breaking up with my fiancé three months before we were to have been married, my voice became shaky, and I was nervous and uncomfortable. But the best thing happened when I finished — everyone in the group reached out to give me a hug. In addition, they each took turns telling me about the strengths they heard me display in my story. I immediately relaxed and began to process the gratitude I felt. As the stress washed away, that moment gave me the courage to put myself out there by telling more stories.
Recently, USA Today reported that many employees who have experienced prolonged stress from job uncertainties, stagnant pay, and having to do more with less at work are actually burning out. A study out recently from ComPsych Corp. on job satisfaction revealed that 63 percent of workers say they have high levels of stress at work, with extreme fatigue and feeling out of control. In addition, 46 percent of the respondents cited stress and personal relationship issues as the most common reason for absences.
If you’re one of the many millions of people who are in need of a break, putting your stress into words can have powerful positive effects. Here’s how:
Encourage storytelling at work and at home. A recent movement called organizational storytelling is springing up in many companies. The goal is to make companies more aware of the stories that exist within their four walls and then leverage those stories to achieve organizational goals. As I discovered above, it feels good to talk about overcoming a challenge or doing something hard, and companies want to capture that too. Daniel Pink states, “There is a hunger for what stories can provide — context enriched by emotion, a deeper understanding of how we fit in and why that matters.” Stories can create positive emotion, goodwill, and strong social connection, and each one of those things not only builds your resilience, but also helps you de-stress.
Journal. The power of the written word in helping people de-stress can be profound. Studies by Drs. Laura King and James Pennebaker have found that whether someone is writing about a stressful life event or their hopes for the future, journaling may help to regulate your mood, possibly by providing a safe emotional outlet, giving you perspective; and creating hope for the future.
Here are three specific journaling activities you can try:
Write about what went well. Each day for several weeks, write down three things that went well for you that day and explain why. Human beings are programmed to focus on negative events and information, and this exercise will help balance that. For folks who made this a regular practice, a study showed that happiness seemed to increase and symptoms of depression decreased for an extended period of time.
Do a brain dump. This exercise may help people whose stress type causes them to be anxious and have a racing mind. I keep a small notebook next to my bed, and if a certain issue is preventing me from falling asleep, I simply write it all down and get it out of my head. The act of taking something from your brain and writing it down often may diffuse the intensity of what’s stressing you.
Know your thinking blueprint. Your thoughts play a large role in your stress response. Drs. Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck developed a model to illustrate that the way people think about events affects how they feel and how they react. During the week, keep track of those events that push your buttons. Write down the heat-of-the-moment thoughts you had and your reaction (both how you felt and what you did). At the end of the week, check whether you found any patterns. For example, did you consistently put on your “angry glasses” at work, and did that undercut your performance? If you don’t like what you see, replace your counterproductive thoughts with more productive thoughts, and you may see a shift in your emotions and reactions.
Storytelling and journaling are powerful tools to help you de-stress in your crazy busy lives. Managing chronic long-term stress will help you not only succeed, but also thrive, allowing you to both live and work at a sustainable pace.
This post originally appeared on Huffington Post.
Take charge of your career development to get the job that supports your work and your life. Check out the tools and resources in the InPower Coaching Career Center.
by Téa Blake | Jan 4, 2013 | Gender Research, InPower Women Blog
Study: The Global Economy Recovery Will Be Driven by Women: Opinion (W2W)
Finding: Empowering women could be the key to economic recovery.
Note about The Woman Effect Research Index: This study was performed by researchers not affiliated with InPower Women. Our Research Index includes all relevant research to the subject of women, business and power. We do not influence how the research was conducted or reported by the researchers. In our abstracts, we focus on pulling out the most actionable advice for individual women. To suggest additional research we should index, or discuss our choice of abstract focus, please contact us
InPower Insight: Women are not only good for business, they’re good for the economy – and the world.
Summary:
Are women the answer to our sagging economy? Research seems to say yes, and business magazines such as the Economist are agreeing, stating “the next giant growth wave won’t come from the internet, China or India, but from empowering women.”
According to W2W and other sources, empowering women is the key to rescuing the currently failing American economy. W2W purports that internationally, women control nearly 21 trillion dollars in consumer spending yearly and that number is expected to increase to 28 trillion by 2014. Further, women currently earn 13 trillion dollars yearly and could increase to 18 trillion in the same timeframe.
Women represent a market-worth that’s greater than that of India and China combined. Representatives of the World Bank also purport that when countries are in economic crisis, they tend to place more women in the workplace such as during the Great Depression in the early 1920s.
Alonzo Fulgham, Acting Administrator of International Women’s Day stated that “not only are women the drivers of economic growth, they can be the drivers of economic recovery.” The recovery will be based on women’s involvement in developing more businesses and products globally, spending more, and enhancing their communities.
Career Coaching Tip: Don’t get caught up in the negative talk about what women don’t have in the workplace – senior positions, pay etc. It may be “true,” but it’s also true that we – you – are part of a huge and important economic engine. Through your economic participation, working and buying, you’re helping grow and restabilize the world economy. Is that enough for you to lean in and make the most out of your career? It doesn’t have to be the main reason you keep going to work every day, striving to get ahead and support yourself and your family, but it’s yet another good reason to feel good about all the hard work you do.
FREE PDF
Guide to Women in Leadership
Executive Coach Dana Theus shares her tried and true strategies to help women excel in higher levels of leadership and achieve their executive potential.
by Dana Theus | Jan 1, 2013 | Gender Research, InPower Women Blog
Even though InPower Women isn’t yet a year old (9 months and counting!), I feel like it’s a birthday of sorts. It was in the midst of last year’s holiday season that April and I began talking in earnest about what we wanted InPower Women to become. I’m happy to say that it has become all that – and more!
What I’m most proud of is the amazing women we’re attracting; who know they are powerful, even when they don’t always understand why; who are committed to exploring their own power in their work and in their world; and who are open and willing to support each other. I’m also proud of the many men who’ve shared their views with us and contributed their writings.
2013 is looking bright and exciting from where we sit and we’re very excited to be helping hundreds of women and men get the new year off to a bright start with a free webinar later this month on how to set life-changing intentions. We have many goals for the year ahead and I’d like to offer up an opportunity for us to help you and you to help us grow and continue to thrive. Research says that many women don’t ask for what they want – and that isn’t us! We’re all about asking and offering to help. Below is a list of some of the things we’re looking for help with this year. If you can help, please reply in comments or contact us.
Also, let us know what we can do for you this year. Are there certain topics you’d like to hear from us on more often? Topics we don’t cover that you’d like to hear from us on? Webinar subjects we can offer? Philanthropies we can work with? Research studies we can list? We love to hear from you with your ideas and viewpoints!
Can You Help InPower Women in 2013?
This year is going to be great as we refine and expand some of our content to help you tap more of your internal power to succeed. Here are a few specific things we’re seeing help with in the new year. If you can help, let us know!
- Do you know a business or association looking for refreshing women’s leadership workshops or online programs? We’d love an introduction!
- Do you – or someone you know – write INpowering blog posts we could feature on our blog? We’re always looking for new voices.
- Do you know a website that should be linking to our Research Index on women in business? We’d love an introduction!
- Do you know women’s study or marketing students looking for internship opportunities?
Please do let us know what we can do for you in the months ahead and have a wonderful 2013!
by Guest Author | Dec 26, 2012 | Career Development, Coaching Advice, InPower Women Blog
Note from the Editor: The staff of InPower women is taking some time off this week, as we hope you are, so we are reposting this popular post you may have missed. Happy Holidays!
As an advocate for the underserved in her community, Gloria is recognized as a true leader. She’s smart, resourceful and has a commanding presence. She is unafraid to challenge injustice wherever she sees it, standing up to any person or process that she feels is harming others. Because of her courage, others have come to rely on her to take the difficult stands that they themselves are afraid to take. Tough and courageous, Gloria is a shining example of the grit-based leadership style at its best.
And yet…
Gloria was starting to experience the limitations of her style. When she was forceful, the world often responded to her with force, which took its toll on her. The more others relied on her courage, the more she enabled them to avoid their own. After years of experiencing the gifts of grit, Gloria started to experience the perils of over investing that style. She came to me for coaching, and we worked to help her integrate more grace into her native grit style. (more…)
