Most Recent Posts
What If The Glass Ceiling Isn’t What We Think It Is?
Key Takeaways: The traditional view of the glass ceiling as a boys’ club barrier still holds truth, but it’s not the whole story—gender bias exists, yet it’s no longer just about women being excluded. Simply getting more women to the top won’t automatically change...
Why Playing Small Doesn’t Serve You Or Your Company
This guest post from Laurie Erdman reminds us that even though we are often encouraged to play small and create a work environment where I staffs can play small too, this helps nobody. It takes courage to play big. Where can you play bigger than you do today? ~Dana...
The Upside of Office Politics
Key Takeaways: Feeling like a victim of office politics is more common than you think—but staying stuck in that mindset keeps you from recognizing your power and learning the rules of the game. Office politics isn’t evil; it’s just human dynamics in action—who gets to...
Manage your own career – advice from Sharon Miller
Key Takeaways: Sometimes we think we're steering our careers, but in reality, we might just be going along for the ride—letting employers, bosses, or life circumstances nudge us off course without realizing it. Acting out of frustration or urgency—like leaping from...
Fear of Failure and Embracing The Inner Loser
Key Takeaways: Fear of failure is sneaky—it creeps into our dreams, our self-talk, and our leadership style, convincing us we’re impostors just waiting to be exposed (usually right before a big presentation). We all have an “inner loser”—that voice whispering that...
How to be “Realistic” Without Becoming Negative Nelly
Key Takeaways: It’s tough to bring a grounded, realistic voice into leadership conversations—especially in sales-driven cultures where optimism is currency—but doing so doesn’t have to make you the team downer. Speaking hard truths without sounding negative is a...
Popular Posts
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Leadership
The Role of Dialogue in Performance Reviews
Working in low-income communities, I’ve learned that leadership and management are not only skills that increase productivity, they can and should be empowerment skills as well. Dialogue, in particular, has become my go-to strategy for empowering the people who work...
Why Mentorship Isn’t Enough To Help Women Get into Leadership
We hear a lot about how, in addition to mentors and mentorship, women need assistance to get into leadership. They need sponsors to help make it into the executive ranks. But how do you learn what a sponsor wants? Dana turns it around and invites you to start...
Why Women in Leadership Must Change Our Narrative
With a virtual thud for women in leadership everywhere, the Catalyst 2012 Census of Fortune 500 companies hit my e-mailbox: NEW YORK (December 11, 2012)—Despite high-profile news about gender gaps, equal pay, and women on boards, once again the needle barely budged...
Mentoring
Do Hard: The Most Important Mentoring Tips For Women In Leadership
Much is written about how few women make it into the top leadership positions. The reasons are complex and multilayered, so there is much to write. But I consistently find several mentoring tips for women both maximally effective and minimally understood when I talk...
4 Things Women Need To Know About Mentors
Having a well-placed, successful mentor can be the difference between success and failure on the leadership track – but it is definitely more an art than a science for the mentor and the mentee. I recently started hosting a radio show interviewing CEOs of...
Why You Should Cultivate a Leadership Mentoring Style
Someone once gave me the greatest compliment. She said, “Since you’re my mentor I think you can help me with this.” Until that moment I had no idea I was her mentor! From that day forward, I started paying more attention to my interactions with her, being more clear...
Interviews
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Career Advice
Assertive or Aggressive? There IS a Difference (in Leadership Communications)
"The minute I express my opinion clearly, I get labeled as aggressive." This may be the most recurrent refrain I hear from the women leaders I coach when discussing leadership communication styles. They report that if they hold back or are soft-spoken, they get run...
Sponsor vs. Mentor – 3 Tips for Attracting a Sponsor
Is “Executive Sponsor” is the New “Mentor” for Women Leaders? The missing piece in women's advancement strategies into leadership? Mentorship helps us be effective, but it’s not as helpful at helping us get a job as sponsorship is. Dana takes a look at what is means...
Career Audit: How Much Worklife Bliss Did You Achieve?
Where Has “Normal” Career Planning Gotten You? How are you doing in your career? Are you where you want to be? Is everything hunky dory? Do you end every day at work glad to be alive? If every answer isn’t an enthusiastic YES! Then it’s time to do a career audit and...
Women in Leadership
How to be Feminine, Ambitious and Successful: Navigating the Gender Gap in Workplace Ambition
A common theme among the women I coach–at all levels–is a clear awareness of the gender gap in workplace ambition and confusion about how to navigate it. Key Takeaways Understanding Gendered Ambition Norms: Many women feel pressured to choose between achievement and...
Which Double Standard for Women Applies To You? All of Them?
Double standard for women in leadership is an age-old problem, but it turns out that it's not just a problem for leaders; it's a problem for all women in the workplace. Key Takeaways: Numerous Double Standards: The article highlights the plethora of double standards...
Are Women Better Leaders Than Men? Exploring the Leadership Gender Gap
Are women better leaders than men? The answer is a paradox: research says that women display more positive leadership characteristics than men but that most people believe that good leaders act more like men. Exploring these contradictions paints a fascinating picture...
Diversity & Inclusion
Revelation: Diversity Does Not Mean Disharmony
Guest Post on Diversity By: Kate Nasser Most leaders do not want strife and disharmony in their organizations. The emotion of disharmony drains the team’s energy and attention from successful behaviors. Leaders want insightful, competent collaborators who can get the...
Unintended Consequences Matter: Learning to See Bystanderism and Microaggression as Contributors to Employee Turnover in the Workplace
Efforts to increase diversity in our workplaces has been dismally slow over the last few decades, despite business initiatives, research and even expansions of the very definition of diversity. Like many, I find this frustrating. I find it especially frustrating that...
The Game Is Rigged: Strategies for Overcoming Unconscious Bias
When it comes to unconscious bias, the bad news is that the game is rigged–against women, people of color, introverts and others that don’t fit a certain “success” stereotype that is often male, white and extroverted. But the good news is, it’s not really a game so...
