How Women Rise with Sally Helgesen

As you seek to rise to the next level — whether that means a new job, a challenging promotion, an entrepreneurial venture, or a whole new direction — it’s often the case that the skills that got you here won’t necessarily get you where you want to go. In fact, the very behaviors that served you well in the past may be in your way. Sally Helgesen has been cited in Forbes as the world’s premier expert on women’s leadership. She is a best-selling author, speaker and leadership coach and has been ranked among the world’s top 20 leadership thinkers by Global Gurus. She joins Marcel Schwantes to talk about some of the most common habits that undermine women in their quest to become more successful, and what she has found gets in the way of women reaching their fullest potential. Sally has had the same twofold mission for over 30 years: to help present and aspiring women leaders to recognize, articulate, and act on their greatest strengths; and to help organizations develop more inclusive cultures where women can thrive and realize their best talent. [4:15]Marshall Goldsmith’s book, What Got You Here Won't Get You There, identified the behaviors most likely to get in the way of successful people. Sally was very influenced by the book, but noticed that some of the behaviors that Marshall focused on were distinctive to his male CEO coaching base. She suggested that they collaborate on a book with the same theme but adapted to identifying the behaviors and habits most likely to get in the way of successful women. The resulting book, How Women Rise, seems to resonate in a deeply personal way with women leaders around the world. [5:07]Sally describes two behaviors that hold women back in their careers. She states, By proving that you're the best for the job you have, you are proving that you are perfect for the job you have. You need to be competent at your present job, while also keeping your eye on where you want to go. [7:40]There is an inverse correlation between competence and confidence, according to Argentinian sociologist Dr. Tomas Chamorro, guest on Episode 12 of this podcast. People tend to think that men who are extremely confident are competent which is often not true. On the other hand, women tend to lack confidence when they are in fact very competent. [13:00]People change their minds when they change their behavior and get different results. Sally has been advocating for leaders to demonstrate inclusive behaviors because this is how to create a more inclusive culture. [16:48]Leaders become better by focusing on their strengths, and assessing their vulnerabilities and weaknesses. Some of the greatest strengths of successful women leaders are:putting themselves in the center of things;valuing relationships and attending to building the details of relationships;communicating across levels rather than always up and down; bringing information from their personal lives into the work lives;understanding the value of a diverse workforce. [22:53] More women need to position themselves as visionaries. This will help increase the number of women in the C-Suite. [26:06]People in a knowledge economy need to be engaged in order to produce, and fear does not engage. [33:22] The people most successful in making long-term positive change in their lives are those who engage others. Don't try to do it alone. [37:17]Resources SallyHelgesen.comSally on LinkedInContribute your story of love and fear 

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