Women in Leadership

High potential talent comes in all colors, sizes, ages, and in both genders. Some companies intentionally search diverse areas of the talent pool, but few, if any, explore the place where some of the greatest talent swims, because they don’t know where it is. Discover this secret place, here.

Once upon a time, there was a mid-size company run by men. It was called The Company. The entire executive team and all board directors at The Company was comprised of men. That seemed just fine, until… One day, for reasons still unknown, but about which I speculate later, the CEO invited a woman onto the board.

Why is the latest greatest product improvement so often anything but improved? Could it be that reaching for more revenue and higher profits outweighs customer delight? Why hasn’t it occurred to someone, somewhere, that these factors are related?

Your arrival at the C-suite will not happen by accident, coincidence or luck.
Paving your road to the C-suite
Nor will it result from being smart, accomplished and talented…alone. You have to pave your path, then move along down the road, purposefully and with a plan.
Over the years I’ve had many conversations with clients and non-clients who are, or will soon be, C-suite leaders. If you’d like to know how they get there, read on.

Were I the artist of creation,

the chooser of days,

it would be this day,

Marissa Mayer is the first pregnant CEO of a major company, that we know of. With this news, we have the opportunity to re-think the boundary between work and life, Drawing the line with dashes, to achieve greater permeability, will serve us better in a variety of ways. It will even light the spark of innovation more readily.

I was not having it all, when Anne-Marie Slaughter’s article Why Women Still Can’t Have It All, caused an uproar. When I stopped having the travel part of IT ALL, I had time to write that the real question is how to change the gender based determination of which ITs men can have and which ones women can have, and offer two solutions.

Jack Welch has practical advice and hard truths for achievement oriented women, But some important truths are missing in what Jack Welch and Suzy Welch have to offer.

Dear Billy:

With the smell of spring in the air and the Augusta Nationals just around the corner, I am enjoying the prospect of watching this year’s competition in person.

In my role as CEO of IBM, I regret to inform you that we are reducing our sponsorship by 50.8 percent. This is, not coincidentally, the percentage of women in the country’s population according to the 2010 census.

A colleague who requires you to be less so they can be more, is not a colleague worth your investment. Don’t be fooled. Your ego is not too big. Your colleague is too small.