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BOLD GROWTH: FOR PROFESSIONAL SERVICES LEADERS
Getting on the Executive Radar Screen
If you are looking to challenge and stimulate your career, you’re going to want to be discovered as one who has the vision and passion to catapult to new levels. In my experience working with emerging women leaders, the question women so often ask is: what is the right path to get recognized? Whether you want to make the next step in your career, or leap to that high level position, it is important to learn the necessary steps to be a recognized leader within your company, as well as within your industry. Your company is most likely looking for “can-do” candidates, rather than “could-be” ones. In many cases, it is a matter of effective marketing, and that is where you have the power to become noticed. Think of marketing yourself like your favorite...
Your Path to Leadership: Step Out of the Box and Into Possibility
If I were to ask you, “Do you live in a box?” I’m sure your first thought would be “No, of course not.” But if I were to ask you, “When is the last time you took a chance, challenged yourself, or reflected on your choices and decisions from a different angle?” How would you answer? If you can’t remember the last time you did any of those things, that’s living in a box – an imaginary box that represents your circumstances, choices, and decisions. It’s easy to get stuck inside a box...we’re creatures of habit! It’s easier and more comfortable to surround ourselves with the ways we’ve always done things. And the way we’ve always done things has gotten us this far right? But on the path to leadership, you have to step out of the box and into possibility. Accepting possibility as your norm is the only way you will reach beyond this point today to even more success and significance. In Nice Girls Don’t...
Leadership Essentials – The Extra Mile
“It’s never crowded along the extra mile.”
That quote on leadership comes from best-selling author and speaker Wayne Dyer. And if you stop to think about it, it’s probably pretty darn quiet along that extra mile. It’s often the distance where the qualities and actions of leaders are set apart from the rest of the pack.
The importance of true leadership is never more apparent than today – you don’t have to look very far for good examples (Southwest Airlines, Apple, and Zappos come to mind) or bad ones (too many to list, I’ll leave that to your imagination).
Leadership development continues to be a hot topic across industries. In my experience the focus is typically on how to become an effective leader of others, which is extremely important. But when considering all the aspects of leadership, there’s more to it.
Leadership is a way of being and a set of skills that you can develop regardless of title. Have you thought about what it means to lead yourself? Even if you don’t have a leadership title within your organization, you are still a leader – a self-leader.
Your Path to the Inner Circles of Influence
If you spend enough time with me, you’ll hear a couple of my mantras when it comes to women emerging into higher levels of leadership. First, each of us owns our leadership identity, and second, it’s our responsibility to take action to develop the skills and behaviors necessary to grow on our leadership journey. Building strategic relationships is one of the best skills you can develop in creating your leadership identity. And if part of your leadership journey is a C-level or board-level position within an organization, I would take that a step further into developing the skills required to access the inner circles of influence. How is the Inner Circle defined? The inner circle is where key decisions are made. It’s being in the room and at the table when they are made, plus being able to influence outcomes. Those in the inner circle identify which decisions actually get made and set the agenda; they...
Emerging Women Leaders Need P&L Experience
By Amy Franko In the landscape of women in leadership, the usual statistics look at the number of women in the overall workforce (over 50%), and compare that figure to the number of women in mid-level and senior leadership, corporate board service, and the CEO suite. A recent article and statistic grabbed my attention: In Fortune 500 companies, only about 1 in 10 women hold P&L jobs. That puts a lot of things in perspective when compared to the small percentage of women who serve on the boards or as CEOs of Fortune 500 companies (about 14% and 4% respectively). Line-of-business roles with P&L responsibility tend to be the primary paths to board service and the CEO suite. Most women leaders are in staff-related, non-line roles. To increase the number of women serving on boards of publicly traded companies or as Fortune 500 CEOs, it makes perfect sense to build a pipeline of emerging women leaders...
Are You On Track to Join a Corporate Board?
One of the reasons I’ve always wanted to work with women in leadership is that I believe the bigger we think about ourselves and our leadership path, the more good we can do for our companies and communities. Corporate board service is one of those ways we can direct our leadership path. In the US, we have 16% of women serving on global corporate boards, and 2.6% chairing those boards. Considering that women represent nearly 50% of the workforce in this country, we have some work to do in putting a dent into those numbers. (The numbers in not-for-profit board leadership are much higher, with women making up 43% of those positions.) It’s a complex topic for sure. Improving our numbers on corporate boards is a blend of culture, access and visibility, skill building, work/life choices, and self-leadership. The self-leadership and skill-building pieces of that complex puzzle are where we have a lot of...
Raise Your Profile in Membership Organizations
Membership organizations were a well-kept secret for me until about 4 years ago. And what I mean by that is I never belonged to one until I launched my company four years ago. I'm not sure why. Maybe I was comfortable in my corporate selling role and it didn't occur to me to look outside for support or resources, or those in my network weren't on the membership organization bandwagon either. But my eyes were opened wide to how choosing the right organizations could make a huge difference in expanding my network, reaching my target market, and raising my profile. Whether you're a business owner or a corporate professional, leveraging professional associations will make a difference in your career growth. Read on for 3 simple ways you can raise your profile by joining an organization. Choose the right organizations. This seems a little obvious, but it's important. Find the organizations that serve the...
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