Study: Profile of a Centered Leader (Joanna Barsh, Johanne Lavoie, McKinsey 2014)
Finding: Successful and happy women leaders who love their work at the top have some common “centered leadership” characteristics that resonate with men, too.
InPower Insight:
Summary:
Based on interviews with successful women leaders who love their executive work and love their lives too, Barsh and Lavoie have begun to identify the ways in which women are changing leadership cultures, to focus on more measures of success than just quarterly returns. They found that some of the most telling skills these women leaders exhibit include:
- leading from a core of meaning by tapping into strengths and building shared purpose, with a long-term vision for positive impact
- reframing challenges as learning opportunities by shifting underlying mind-sets to replace reactive behavioral patterns
- leveraging trust to create relationships, community, and a strong sense of belonging
- mobilizing others through hope, countering fears to take risks and to act boldly on opportunities
- infusing positive energy and renewal through deliberate practice to sustain high performance
And guess what? Many men succeed this way too!
Career Coaching Tip: It’s tempting to convince ourselves that the culture around us can’t change and either succumb or run screaming. While running is an option, so is staying and becoming the new kind of centered leader that will lead the organization of the future. Your call. Success lies on both paths.
Guide to Women in Leadership
Organizations with women in their executive suites regularly out-perform others. Yet rising female executives (and their mentors) are frustrated at how hard it is to break through the glass ceiling. In this extensive guide, Executive Coach Dana Theus shares her tried and true strategies to help women excel into higher levels of leadership and achieve their executive potential.
