The Real Road to the C-Suite
Shoma Chatterjee
There’s an image many of us have of who makes it to the C-Suite: Think square-jawed, 6’4″ tall, Ivy League educated, followed a linear road to success. No mistakes. Right?
Well, not exactly. According to a study of 18,000 executives who were finalists for C-Suite positions, conducted by GhSMART, a New York-based executive advisory firm:
- 45 percent got there after surviving at least one big career blow-up.
- 33 percent took a giant leap that they didn’t feel ready for. “They went through all the imposter syndrome gremlins that said, ‘You shouldn’t do it.’ But somehow, they did; and that was the pivotal moment for them,” said GhSMART’s Shoma Chatterjee.
- 66 percent started small—beginning their own business, or taking on a project in another country or region where they could see a business through end-to-end.
How to Reach Your Full Potential—with Sally Helgesen
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Do you ever feel that something is holding you back from achieving what you’re truly capable of? Chances are that it’s one of the 12 habits identified in a popular new book co-authored by renowned women’s leadership expert Sally Helgesen. Tune in to learn what they are and her 4-step process for overcoming them.
Scroll down for an infographic about breaking the 12 habits that can hold you back in your career!
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Tired of Feeling Invisible? Here’s How to Be Seen and Rewarded
“Do you feel sometimes like there’s a person inside that’s screaming to jump out?” asks leadership expert and executive coach Charmaine McClarie. “I want you to let that person out because that person is really the truth of who you are.”
But to be recognized and rewarded for who you truly are, it’s essential to use the language of leadership that makes people turn their heads and listen, says McClarie, who says her strategies have helped 98 percent of her clients be promoted within 18 months.
Here are her top five: Read More
The Mindset That Wins: Strategies of an Elite Champion Runner
If anyone knows persistence and how to stay motivated, it’s Desiree Linden, last year’s winner of the Boston Marathon in the women’s category and the first American to win in 33 years.
Here’s a peek into Linden’s winning mindset.
It starts with a no-regrets attitude.
Linden had success as a college athlete, but she wasn’t one of those stars that everyone was watching. Still, she decided to pursue her dream of going pro.
“For me, it was worth the risk of answering that ‘what if’ question,” Linden explains. “I felt like I had the ability, and if I just put in a little bit more time, maybe I could do something special. There were no guarantees that I could even make a living, but I didn’t want to look back in 10 years and go, ‘What if?’” Read More
What Women of All Races Need to Know about Success
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While only 1 in 5 C-suite leaders are women, only 1 in 25 are women of color. What can women of all races do to change that? In this episode, Michelle Gadsen-Williams, award-winning author and Accenture North America’s managing director and inclusion and diversity lead, shares her ideas and experiences about finding your voice, being seen, and “the bold-faced lie of having it all.”
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New Talk: Shawn Achor on YOUR Big Potential
Every month in 2019, we’re highlighting one top-rated 2018 Conference speaker.
Meet our March Speaker of the Month: Happiness researcher and attendee favorite Shawn Achor. He’s recorded a brand-new talk just for you, available here after the premiere on March 20 at 11 am CDT. Check it out:
Get Achor’s latest book on the power of connection at independent Austin bookseller Bookpeople.
And please send your questions for Shawn in to our new Facebook page—he may answer you during his Facebook Live Q&A on March 26 @ 1:30 pm Eastern / 12:30 pm Central / 10:30 am Pacific.
Cut the Complexity—and Do More Valuable Work
Meetings, overflowing email inboxes, procedures and policies are all adding complexity to our jobs, hurting our productivity and, most importantly, blocking us from doing the work that has meaning to us.
“Typically, we’re not [even] doing our best thinking at work because we’re so busy doing stuff,” says Lisa Bodell, founder and CEO of futurethink and author of Why Simple Wins.
Here are five ways Bodell suggests simplifying work: Read More
3 Facts About Ambition That Will Help You Succeed
Hana Schank
When careers don’t go as planned, what went wrong—and how do people adjust? Seeking to find answers that would help them navigate their own paths, Hana Schank and Elizabeth Wallace interviewed all of their sorority sisters who graduated with them from Northwestern University in 1993. What they learned was “life-changing,” Schank says, because it gave validity to their choices, and she saw “I wasn’t just flailing here and there.”
But you don’t have to be going through a midlife crisis to be helped by their findings, which they published in The Ambition Decisions: What Women Know About Work, Family and the Path to Building a Life. Here are three key facts about ambition that every woman should know: Read More
Handling Setbacks and Building ‘Resilient Muscle’
By Patricia F. Brown, VP Underwriting Global Retail Markets, Liberty Mutual Insurance
I am often asked two questions: “What has led to your success in the commercial insurance industry?” and “How have you overcome setbacks/challenges?
My personal experience of growing up in the South, having parents and siblings who experienced Jim Crow and being the daughter of a Tuskegee Airmen set the foundation of who I am today. The richness of my childhood experiences and my belief systems have had an undeniable impact on me both personally and professionally. Moreover, my professional journey as an African-American woman has included both lows and highs. Read More
Holiday Survival Tips from Simple Habit’s Founder
A Stanford B school dropout, Yunha Kim is on her second startup—and like most things that meet a real need, it’s genius. Called Simple Habit, the app is a “Spotify” for meditation, meaning it’s a platform for different experts to share their bite-size meditations and audio therapy sessions.
Kim had her Eureka moment after turning to meditation apps to cope with the stress of running her first company. “I got pretty tired of hearing the same voice over and over again,” she recalls. “It occurred to me that to listen to a new singer, I don’t go to another app. I go to a platform like Spotify, where I can find new artists as well as my favorites.”
Flash forward less than three years, and Kim has a huge hit on her hands. “Simple Habit has helped more than 2.8 million people relieve stress and anxiety, with an average of 30,000 new users joining the platform every week,” she says. What’s more, she just closed $10 million in her series A, after raising $2.8 million from seed investors.
Her advice for newbie entrepreneurs? “Taking care of yourself is critical,” Kim says. “When you’re building a business from scratch, you are the number one resource you have. You will work long days, and stress is inevitable, so it’s important to take a little time each day to step away, breathe and reset.”
Here, Kim’s four tips—and her Simple Habit audio recommendations—for surviving the holidays: Read More