TAKE THE LEAD, LADY! Practical Leadership Skills

If I’m lucky, there is at least one magic moment during a speech when I see people nodding in unison. Sometimes they smile knowingly; sometimes they look pensive, even pained, as though a raw nerve has been exposed. It’s not necessarily that they are agreeing with my brilliantly persuasive arguments, but rather that something resonates at a deep emotional level.

For example, I recently spoke to the women’s leadership council of a major corporation that was going through major upheavals in their business, and therefore in their personnel. Because women even today tend to be among the later hired, they are still more vulnerable to the layoffs and changes swirling about them. The energy in the room was high nevertheless, and people were clearly looking for ways they could create a positive atmosphere for their staffs to accomplish their goals despite diminished resources.

So we talked about how they could take the lead to be like sisters to mentor and support one another, have the courage to make needed changes, and strategize together like a movement to leverage their individual resources and capacities. And everybody was coming along with me pretty well.

Then it got very quiet.

I could see those heads nodding practically in unison, like a waving grainfield, when I observed that women tend to isolate themselves and feel like they have to solve their problems alone. This is what I said:

INTENTIONING

Sex, Power, Pandemics, and How Women
Will Take The Lead for (Everyone’s) Good

The new book from Gloria Feldt about the future, taking the leadership lessons learned from this disruption and creating a better world for all through the power of intention.

Do you notice that women are more likely than men to feel isolated in their workplaces? First of all, they try to struggle with their problems of work-life balance individually. And they’re more likely to burrow in, work hard, and hope that hard work will inherently be recognized. I have news for them—it probably won’t.

Speaking up and being one’s own best pr person is essential. No one ever assumes you have more power than you assume yourself. Have you read Debra Condren’s book, AmBITCHous? I commend it to you. She tells you how to get over that internal resistance to seeking after money and power that so many of us women are socialized to have even today.

Whew, it was powerful, that head-nodding moment, almost like a release of some kind of unspoken barrier they could now talk about and get past.

1 Comment

  1. Manisha Thakor on March 20, 2013 at 8:12 pm

    Oh my…. does this ever resonate with me! “Speaking up and being one’s own best pr person is essential. No one ever assumes you have more power than you assume yourself.” It’s for the language of “money and power” to become truly gender neural. Brava & “Take The Lead”

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