Despite what you may have read in the news lately in stories surrounding the election or NFL player protests, the First Amendment does not provide a private employee with the right to free speech or freedom of expression at work. Rather, the Constitution’s right to free speech only applies to the government’s attempts to restrict […]
The biggest reason leaders fail is not intelligence or IQ, but lack of emotional intelligence or EI. Fortunately, EI is developable; IQ isn’t. Research shows that the leadership art of influencing others to achieve common business and organizational goals is based on inner strengths, the ability to build mutual satisfying working relationships, effective decision-making and […]
When members bring challenging issues to our confidential Key Women’s Leadership Forums, they express a desire to be supported with tips and strategies on how to be more resilient through those times when life gets really prickly. During these conversations, as facilitator, I have noticed that some people have a very narrow definition of resiliency. […]
In our peer forums, one of the participants shared that some of the employees reporting to her find her “intimidating.” “How can I get the feedback I need to build trust and rapport?” she asked. The group began to discuss the importance of being self-aware. Once you are aware of how you might be coming […]
I recall a time when a CEO in one of the peer forums I facilitated was presenting a business issue and projected flat growth over the upcoming year. He was about to go on to what he thought was his bigger issue when one of his peers said, “Wait a minute—why are you assuming that […]
Holly’s great grandmother, Bess, was a baker. With the untimely death of her husband, Bess needed to work to support her young daughter. She, her brother and her sister opened their first bakery in 1916. The family-owned bakery developed a reputation for excellence and eventually grew to 13 operations throughout the Pittsburgh area. Holly got […]
One of the keys to building confidence is making mistakes and even failing. You learn from taking risks especially if some don’t work out. Challenging experiences help to bolster your competence and seed confidence. Experiencing failure, especially when you are young, can forge a life-long habit of resilience. People, who learn from failure instead of […]
I was invited to speak at Raymond James’ Women in Capital Markets Conference in January of this year. I was excited to hear that Claire Shipman was the keynote speaker. She with Katty Kay co-authored the Confidence Code. In her talk, Shipman recounted interviews she and Kay conducted with some of the most powerful women […]
Women are less confident than men and have a tendency to second guess themselves more often. In their book, The Confidence Code, Claire Shipman and Katty Kay assert that the main reason women are less confident is because they tend to lack self-belief. They site many studies to support their conclusion. Even successful women who […]
Women are often penalized for asserting themselves verbally. Interestingly, research indicates that women are not penalized for non-verbal assertive behavior. I recommend that women use their bodies more consciously by doing things like taking expansive physical stances, narrowing the physical proximity between you and the other person and making direct eye contact. Notice your “paraverbal” […]
