Sheryl Sandberg's 3 Tips for Being a Woman Leader

Sheryl Sandberg would know how difficult it can be to achieve a corner office if you're a woman. Her climb to the top has involved becoming Facebook's COO and one of Fortune's Most Powerful Women. She's clearly an expert on kicking ass and taking names. We highly recommend you watch her popular TED Talk on the fall of women leadership, which outlines 3 success strategies for women in the workplace.

1. Sit at the table

2. Make your partner a real partner

3. Don't leave before you leave

Leading Through Love, Not the Iron-Fist of Fear

By Natasha L. Foreman

No matter what your title or position, no matter if your leadership role is in the office, the classroom, the hospital, an airplane, a courtroom, or your home, there is a must-read book for all. This book stresses a new way to lead through the basic principle of love. Author John Hope Bryant shares in his book, LOVE LEADERSHIP: A New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World, five laws of love-based leadership, which include:

1.     Loss creates leaders

2.     Fear fails

3.     Love makes money

4.     Vulnerability is power

5.     Giving is getting

Mr. Bryant, the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Operation HOPE shares his personal stories and those of great leaders which he interviewed, such as former U.S. President Bill Clinton; the late great Dr. Dorothy I. Height; and Zainab Salbi, president and CEO of Women for Women International, among others, as they discussed what leading through love has meant for them professionally and personally and how leading through fear "...is the kiss of death" in business, leading to "short-termism."

As Mr. Bryant shares, "Leading through fear is antiquated and self-defeating, a crippling indulgence that we can no longer afford." Several fear-based tactics Bryant highlights are:

1.    Using aggressive language, tone, and eye contact

2.    Criticizing unfairly

3.    Blaming, without offering reasonable recourse

4.    Applying rules inconsistently

5.    Stealing credit

6.    Making unreasonable demands

7.    Issuing threats, insults, and accusations

8.    Denying accomplishments

9.    Excluding others from opportunities

10.    Assigning pointless tasks

11.  Personalizing problems

12.  Breaching confidentiality

13.  Spreading rumors

This book is a great leadership and management tool for every organization and household. The holidays are a blink away - consider purchasing copies for friends, family, and colleagues to start the new year off on a love leadership path! Proceeds benefit Operation HOPE, Inc.

 

Natasha L. Foreman, MBA is a Business and Entertainment Consultant, Certified Personal Fitness Trainer, and Blogger. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Organization and Management with a specialization in Management Education, and a certificate in College Teaching. Natasha has been involved in various philanthropic and grassroots movements for over 20 years. She is actively involved in her community, visiting and speaking with students at local K-12 schools throughout Metro Atlanta, Georgia and Orange County, California. 

Natasha can be reached via email at natasha@natashaforeman.info, through her Paradigm Life blog at paradigmlife.blogspot.com, or you can follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/natashaforeman

Centered Leadership

In Joanna Barsh and Susie Cranston's new book How Remarkable Women Lead, they break down a new model of leadership based on 5 years of research conducted during their Centered Leadership Project. Joanna sums up their system in five dimensions:

Meaning: Happiness, core strengths, and purpose

Framing: Self-awareness, learned optimism, moving on, adaptability

Connecting: Inclusiveness, reciprocity, network design, and sponsorship

Engaging: Voice, ownership, opportunities, risks, fears

Energizing: Sources and uses, recovery, and flow

If you add these items to their defined preconditions for successful leadership (talent, desire to lead, and tolerance for change), as well as factor in your personal and professional context, you should be left with the outcomes of impact, renewal, and joy.

Gender Schemas and How They Affect Women's Leadership

In her Huffington Post article "Ginger Rogers, Competency, and Women," Birute Regine points out that women have to work twice as hard to get noticed as men, because of gender schemas. From her article: "So if you think you are being held to a higher standard, it's not your imagination. It's the Ginger Rogers syndrome: she has to do everything Fred does except backwards and in high heels." According to Regine, younger women do not always encounter this in their early careers but can expect to experience it as we climb the corporate ladder.

How to Succeed in Life

“If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes.” – Andrew Carnegie

In 1903, rags-to-riches steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie wrote an article in The Pittsburg Bulletin on how to succeed in life. Among other things, Carnegie tells us, “Whatever your wages are, save a little” and to “Put all your eggs into one basket and then watch that basket.”

What Does Leadership Mean to You?

The Younger Women's Task Force - Atlanta wants to know what leadership means to you. Comment below. The best response earns you a gift.

Leadership Wednesday

Recommended leadership reading: The 21 Indispensible Qualities of a Leader: Becoming the Person Others Will Want to Follow by John C. Maxwell. Available on Amazon. In this title, Maxwell clearly defines the traits leaders need to be effective, as well as provides action items to help you improve these qualities in yourself.