Leadership
She's Doing It: And in combat boots!!
Did you know women are the fastest growing group of armed forces veterans with estimates of growing from 1.8 million in 2010 to 2.1 million by 2036? I didn’t until I read some recent reports.
Women have made great strides throughout the U.S. Military, serving in almost every position now. This is a big change in an organizational culture designed by men for men. Change as we know, can create chaos, or at least the feeling of chaos. This week’s “She’s Doing It” celebrates those brave women in uniform, and looks at how they are using No Excuses Power Tool #5, “carpe the chaos” when Janie comes marching home.
Read MoreFriday Round Up: Know Your History & You Can Create the Future of Your Choice
July 19th was the 163rd anniversary of the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention that is generally regarded as the start of the women’s movement in the U. S. So this week’s roundup has to be about power tool #1: Know your history and you can create the future of your choice.
Sandy Magnus and three other (male) NASA astronauts returned to earth early Thursday morning aboard the final flight of Atlantis. Magnus, 46, is an engineer and a veteran in space exploration since joining NASA in 1996. She now has the distinction of being the last woman ever to fly on a NASA space shuttle which is being retired after three decades of service. And she has a sense of history, and the historic nature of her own work.
Read MoreShe and He Are Doing It: Earl and Suzanne de Berge Lead Their Dreams in Guatemala, Part II
Read MoreIn Part Two of this “She & He are Doing It” series, I spoke further with both Earl and Suzanne de Berge to learn more about the incredible work Seeds for the Future (Semillas para el Futuro) is doing in rural Guatemala and the challenges they face there.
She and He Are Doing It: Earl and Suzanne de Berge Lead Their Dreams in Guatemala, Part I
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Read MoreThis week’s “She’s Doing It” column features both a he and a she: a couple who have worked together throughout their adult lives in their Arizona-based business and now are devoting their skills to amazing community development work in rural Guatemala. First of a two-part series.
Suzanne and Earl de Berge founded the public opinion research firm Behavior Research Center in 1965, with Suzanne running the business end and Earl the research end. Politically independent, I met them when BRC began doing opinion research for Planned Parenthood in Arizona in the early 1980’s. They were usually correct in their recommendations, helping us win ballot initiatives and score some big wins in a tough political climate. Here’s Earl’s description of what they are doing now, why this is their dream, and how they are leading–not following–it.
Friday Round Up: You Work Hard for Your Money But Do You Manage It Well?
Just two weeks ago, I was greeting the morning as I walked along the sparkling oceanfront in Santa Barbara. I’d spent the day before at the most remarkable Leadership Workshop put on by She Negotiates. Oh it was so beautiful, so restorative. I needed that hour of free flowing bliss before I strapping myself back into the plane for the seven hour trip back to New York. I spent most of the trip back thinking about the workshop.
Though I’d given the keynote and led part of the workshop, I was also there as a learner, wishing I’d had the negotiating skills She Negotiates partners Vickie Pynchon and Lisa Gates taught the group when I was starting out in my career. Do you know that failure to negotiate first salaries aggressively costs women on average $500,000 over our lifetime earnings? And that the more education you have and the higher on the career ladder you are, the more it costs you–as much as $1,000,000!
Well, here’s the good news: there’s a new surge of women determined to help us not just negotiate about money better but also to be a lot smarter about managing what we have. This week’s roundup is a collection of some of the best. Check them out, and learn.
Read MoreSeriously? Must a Woman Be Like a Man to Get Ahead?
That question comes up every time I speak with women about their career aspirations.
A second question just as surely follows: if we can’t be authentically who we are, why would we want to “succeed” in male-dominated organizations or professions? Many women who leave the corporate world to stay home with children or enter entrepreneurial or nonprofit fields—or alternately, remain quietly in their jobs put only to find themselves doing the work but not getting the promotions—say they do so because they don’t want to become like men.
Yet all signs point to a potential breakthrough moment for women even as we debate the pros and cons of taking on male camouflage.
Read MoreShe’s Doing It: Mallika Dutt Defines Her Terms for Global Human Rights
Read More“You have to meet Mallika—she’s amazing!” my friend Lynn Harris enthused. She was so right. There are few people with visions big enough to encompass human rights on a global scale and then create breakthrough ways to advance them. Mallika Dutt did just that, and she tells her story in this week’s “She’s Doing It.” President and CEO of Breakthrough, the global human rights organization she started is based in New York and India and uses the power of arts, media, and pop culture to advance dignity, equality, and justice. Read on and be sure to watch the powerful video’s they’ve produced to deliver the message.
Friday Round Up: Women in Sports Gain Power and Prominence
It’s not your mom’s Title IX any more.
Even I, who used every excuse to avoid the miserable girls’ gym classes in my pre-Title IX high school days, and rarely read the sports page now, couldn’t avoid noticing this past week how in the world of sports & gender equity, women athletes are visibly ramping up the action and reaping the results of almost four decades of access to competitive sports and many thanks go to crusader Bernice Sandler.
Read MoreShe’s Doing It: Lisa Gates Coaches Women to Define Their Own Terms
A few years into my first CEO job, I was given a great piece of advice by a man I met at a leadership workshop. “Ask for it by name,” he said. It’s a lesson I’m still trying to learn and why I’m psyched to be part of She Negotiates’ first ever Leadership Retreat in…
Read MoreFriday Round Up: Does Gender Matter Anywhere Anymore?
After my keynote at the AAUW national convention last Sunday, I overheard an attendee tell her friend about the graphic I’d used of a hot dog with “No More” written in mustard on it. I didn’t have to say a word when I put the graphic on the screen for the entire audience to start laughing at the shared awareness that I was referencing now-former NY Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-Stupid). And that by implication I was referencing the fatigue and disgust so many people feel about the seemingly unending waves of philandering politicians who thus far have been almost entirely male.
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