The cohort of leaders who will reclaim leadership to achieve great things in the world won't succeed out of idealism, an extreme sense of perfection or personal heroism. We will succeed because we see ourselves and the world for what is and because we master the ability to motivate groups we lead...
Women in Leadership
We Need Women in Business Leadership NOW
Anne-Marie Slaughter’s article in the Atlantic, Why Women Can’t Have it All, has reignited crucial issues of advancement and balance that women continue to face in the workplace. As a male executive in business for over forty years, I have worked with many women who have consistently performed at...
Gendership: A Guy’s View
When I interviewed Mike Howard, Chief Security Officer at Microsoft, on the subject of leadership, we also had a great conversation about the role he sees gender and diversity playing in modern organizations. I listened to understand Gendership – the partnership of women and men working and...
Why women on boards isn’t enough: An argument for gender-balanced leadership style
Women are good for business. Studies have made it clear that women are excellent leaders, creating “The Woman Effect” to produce meaningful, measurable and often dramatically improved results for companies that sustain a relative gender balance in their leadership team. But it’s important to...
Women: We Need You As Leaders
By: John Keyser As many of my clients and other readers know, I believe we need a societal change in order to gain a great many more women in leadership roles. I read two articles in the past few days that prompt me to want to write about this today. The cover story in this week’s Time Magazine,...
2012: The Gate To The Garden Is Open
I was asked to sit on a panel at The Economist 2012 conference, which focuses on predictions for the coming year. My assignment was to make a prediction about the workplace and jobs. Given that I look at organizations as complex systems, which are non-linear and highly unpredictable, I'm not a...
Why We Need Women in Leadership (the post that started it all)
I first posted this on my Reclaiming Leadership blog in June 2012. It still gets positive responses today. I’m a woman and I like to hear about women making it big in business, but I keep running across data that says that we still aren’t up there with the guys – despite “overwhelming evidence”...
How A Female Exec Found Success in a Stinking Pile of Goo
Meg and I were lunching, as we often do, and I was being a good ear - only putting my executive coaching hat on occasionally for an old friend. The young company she’d joined a few years ago – that had allowed her to break the glass ceiling into the inner executive ranks – had just been acquired....
Women’s Networking Tip: Put Away the Pictures of Little Billy
I’ve recently chatted with some women that left a “women’s business networking group” frustrated that no one wanted to talk about business issues. Are we getting good at networking, but not using it to build our business and mentoring skills? What I’m wondering is whether many women are missing an opportunity to really mentor each other on the business of business. Are we giving each other a leg up or are we just empathizing and listening sympathetically?
What Are You Worth?
Let’s start with the notion that you are priceless. Next we’ll accept the fact that there are limited resources in any particular situation. One thing my remunatory negotiating experience has taught me was that when it was the right job or project, money has never been the issue. The data tells us that women still make less than men and so I believe that’s true on a statistical and social scale. However, research also tells us that ambiguity is often the culprit, and ambiguity is something we as individuals can deal with. This is a perfect opportunity to turn an unempowering situation – negotiating salary or project fees – into an InPower situation. As an employer you need to make sure you’re InPower also…