Female Roles Models Are Important For Ambitious Women
I had no female role models at the first company where I worked. The executives were all male, and I didn’t have a great relationship with my male boss who was neither supportive nor invested in my professional development. I left after four years. Looking back now, I...
Ambitious Women Deserve Our Praise, Not Our Disdain
No one with ambition has come under fire more than Hillary Clinton. As early as 2006, a survey by The New York Observer found a “virtual cottage industry” of anti-Clinton literature. Her political career, especially her bid for the 2016 presidency, has only increased...
Political Savvy: The Missing Link To Women’s Advancement
Every year Forbes publishes its list of the world’s most powerful women. Many such lists honor women who have made it to the top of their field. Yet currently, women hold only 5.3 percent of Fortune 500 CEO positions and 5.4 percent of Fortune 1,000 positions. The...
Career Curveballs: Hey Boss, Are Those Cement Shoes You’re Handing Me?
This is a guest post from Whitney Johnson. It’s 1996. I work in investment banking at Smith Barney Shearson. My boss, who hired and mentored me, has been given the boot. Because I’m on the wrong side of the political aisle, I'm also in peril. Realizing that I can’t...
What Misty Copeland Teaches Us About Ambition
At 19, Misty Copeland imagined herself not as a member of the corps, but as a principal dancer. In her memoir, Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina, Misty writes that “It felt right. It felt like a promise. Someday, somehow, it was going to happen for me.” And so it...
How Introverts Can Master Office Politics
Until recently, it was a commonly held belief that extroverts are the real winners in the workplace. We expect extroverts to have the charisma and natural ability to lead; to connect and influence others. Our assumption, therefore, has always been that extroverts have...
Do You Talk About Problems Or Potential Solutions?
Early in my career, I was so passionate about my work and the company I worked for that I wanted everything to be perfect. I would get very upset when I noticed that there was an issue that I felt needed to be addressed by senior management. My frustration would...
Constructive Feedback Is A Gift
Last week I was asked by the New York Times to submit a draft of an Op-Ed piece on The Politics of Promotion. Needless to say, I was honored and worked diligently for two and a half days to complete an article I thought worthy of submission. In my quest for...
The Lessons I Learned From Burning Myself Out
This past week I hit a wall. Exhausted from traveling, speaking, and book events, I couldn’t put a pen to paper. The thought of opening my computer and trying to write something that others would find interesting or valuable was beyond my capacity. What happened? My...