Don’t Play the Weather Girl if You Want to Be the VP
A woman gets into an elevator. She’s a hard-working executive who comes to the office early every day. One day, the CEO gets into the elevator with her. She freezes, afraid to talk and afraid not to talk. So, she chats about the weather.
Another day, she’s riding the elevator when the CEO steps in again. But this time, a male colleague also gets in, shakes the CEO’s hand, introduces himself and says: “We just had a great meeting with a new client we were pitching the other day. And, I think we’re going to get the business.” The CEO looks at him and says, “You just made my day.”
The woman, realizing her mistake, reflects: Her colleague was branding himself as the next VP while she was branding herself as the weather girl. Read More
Think Only Extroverts Can Lead? Here Are 5 Reasons to Think Again
If anyone has ever hinted that you need to be an extrovert to be a successful leader, here’s your one-word response: Oprah.
As Susan Cain wrote in her 2012 bestseller, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, there are many misunderstandings about the nature—and skills—of introverts. But over the past decade, that has been changing.
Here are five things people are now recognizing about introversion in the workplace and beyond, according to Jennifer Kahnweiler, a Conferences for Women speaker and author of The Introverted Leader, Quiet Influence, and The Genius of Opposites:
How to Master the Tiny Habits That Will Help You Reach Your Potential
When he was a teenager, James Clear got hit in the face with a bat during a baseball game. It took surgery and nearly nine months for him to be able to work on regaining basic functions, like walking in a straight line. And even then, he could only focus on developing one tiny new habit a time. But together, these tiny habits turned out to make a difference—big enough that, in college, he was named an Academic all-American.
Luckily for us, Clear also went on to be an expert in how tiny habits can help us reach our potential—insights he compiled in 2018 New York Times best-selling book, Atomic Habits and is sharing with the Conferences for Women.*
“Excellence is not really about making radical changes,” he says. “It’s about accruing small improvements over time and committing to this philosophy of continuous improvement.” Read More
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.
The Q&A
Tech leader Carolyn Herzog: “Anyone who makes us want to be a better person is the very definition of inspiration.”
Tech leader Carolyn Herzog: “Anyone who makes us want to be a better person is the very definition of inspiration.”Carolyn Herzog, EVP and General Counsel at Arm (the world’s leading semiconductor IP company) shares five surprising insights about leadership, women’s progress in the workplace—and what she’d want a mentor to tell her if she were just starting out.
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9 Mantras to Help You Turn Your Idea into a Business
Nathalie Molina Niño, CEO of BRAVA Investments
While starting a business, you’ll find yourself talking yourself into, and out of, a lot of choices. From idea to full-fledged enterprise, these mantras from real founders and executives will help you stay strong along the way. Pick and repeat the ones that speak to you the most.
#1. Corner yourself with courage—and go. Read More
How Every Woman Can Be “Self-Made”—with Nely Galán
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After emigrating from Cuba at the age of 4, Nely Galán became the first Latina president of entertainment for a major TV network, an Emmy award-winning producer, and New York Times best-selling author. In her words, she became “Self-Made,” and now she wants to teach every woman how to do it. Tune in to hear her story, the strategies that drove her success, and why she thinks the time has never been better for women to claim their power.
+ Ask Nely YOUR questions during a live Q&A on Tuesday, May 21st @ 12:00pm CDT!
+ Check out the free “Self Made Mastery” webinar series Nely mentions in the podcast
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‘The 4 Pledges That Have Helped Me Find Balance’
By Dipti Vachani, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Automotive and Embedded Line of Business, Arm
Several years ago, at bedtime one night, I was cuddling with one of my daughters when she said something that broke my heart. “Mom,” she said, “I think I am ugly.” She was just seven at the time.
I was working then as a general manager at Texas Instruments, running a multi-national business, and it was a rare night that I was home. I had been traveling internationally, quite extensively, leaving my kids with my very loving and committed husband. I was running myself into the ground traveling multiple weeks in a row, stressed out and sleep deprived from the multiple time zones.
And now I was failing at my most important job: teaching my children self-confidence, self-respect and self-reliance. 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
Meet Shawn Achor, Happiness Researcher
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How does the science of happiness work? What’s the connection between happiness and success? And how do you test hypotheses about happiness in the real world, outside of the lab? CFW friend Shawn Achor sat down with us to explain the whys and hows of happiness research—and why his findings are important for your life. Read More
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