As a business owner I have noticed that entrepreneurs talk about a range of topics and we share some pretty personal details; what doesn’t happen is the talk about violence. We speak about managing teams and dealing with problem performers, but we very rarely speak about what happens when those situations go horribly wrong. To get to the bottom of this I got some advice from … [Read more...]
That Grand Lady at the Harbor
Ladies, let’s continue to celebrate our freedom by underlining the importance of The Statue of Liberty and the role of women in our society. In her poem about the statue, Emma Lazarus called it “The New Colossus”. The beginning of the poem refers to the Colossus of Rhodes which was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It was a statue of the Greek God Helios, who, in … [Read more...]
Is the Male-Female Wage Gap a Myth? You Decide….
Stirred. That’s the best word I can use to describe how I feel after seeing the very recent findings from the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) about the gender wage gap. I’m even more . . . stirred . . . by IWF’s Carrie Lukas’ Op-Ed, “There Is No Male-Female Wage Gap" in the Wall Street Journal. Boy, is she going to get some hate mail! Carrie and her group draw some … [Read more...]
Leadership Development: When NOT to be GUTSY
While gathering definitions for the word "GUTSY", to be used in my new book being released soon. I had an epiphany. Maybe there are times to just be still, not show your confident, brash, exuberant, irreverent side. I sat with this for most of a day, letting it roll around in my mind like a chocolate drop that did not melt quickly. What happens if a gutsy woman stays quiet? … [Read more...]
Can a CEO be brutally honest?
Can a CEO be brutally honest? Everyone from sales clerks to CEO’s have been talking about the ‘burning platform memo’ from Nokia’s CEO Stephen Elop. In the memo, Elop points out where the company is failing compared to its competitors and effectively asks what the staff plans to do about it. ( Read the full memo here, here.) In the memo, Elop takes a hard and critical look … [Read more...]
Increasing Market Profile With Women’s Initiatives
Women's Initiatives Focused on Business Growth Due to the challenging economy and increased focus on revenue generation and business growth the timing is right for women’s leadership initiatives to be a catalyst for increasing organizational market visibility. All corporate initiatives are called to directly support business strategy in the best of times and these are not … [Read more...]
Resolution Solution: Shop Your Soul
If you ever watch the staging or interior re-design shows on HGTV, the designers always suggest “shopping your home” for accessories or furniture to move from one room to create a whole new look or feeling in another room of your home. What they seem to be suggesting is that you don’t have to go shopping beyond the confines of your house for what you need—it was always … [Read more...]
What You Dont Know Can Hurt You
Many times when working with organizations on strategies to increase gender diversity in the leadership ranks the leaders will say " lets just get all the women together and ask them what they want". While this is noble and certainly talking with the women in the organization to understand how they experience the culture is critical it is not "the answer" . One of the most … [Read more...]
The Business Case for Building a Flexible Work Culture- Part III
In the Part I and II of this series we talked about the opportunity to support our need for flexible work cultures with a solid business case. We outlined the fact that the majority of our employees require flexibility at some point in their careers. Research increasingly points to flexibility as one of the most important career considerations of staff, emerging leaders and … [Read more...]
The Business Case for Building Flexible Work Cultures- Series Part II
In the Part I of this series we talked about the opportunity to support our need for flexible work cultures with a solid business case. We outlined the fact that the majority of our employees require flexibility at some point in their careers. Research increasingly points to flexibility as one of the most important career considerations of staff, emerging leaders and even our … [Read more...]