Dare to Compete: Leadership Lessons From Hillary Clinton

Photo by Carla Osberg

By CEO and Founder Nicki Gilmour

The 35th Annual Simmons Leadership Conference held in Boston last week had an amazing roster of speakers, as always, including opening speaker, Denise Morrison CEO of Campbell. However, it was the anticipation of Hillary Clinton’s closing keynote that had over 3,000 women and men securing their seats, waiting to hear this accomplished leader speak. She didn’t disappoint and the themes she chose –intelligently as always – aligned well with the topics we discuss on a daily basis here on The Glass Hammer.

Women’s Participation in the Global Economy
In her role as US Secretary of State, Clinton got to see first hand how women are not being treated equally, and she commented on how almost twenty years has passed since she spoke of women’s rights as human rights at the UN 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. Clinton endorsed the usefulness of the annual Simmon’s Leadership conference, stating it was important to be part of conferences like this one.

“I believe that advancing the rights, opportunities and full participation of women and girls, here at home and around the world, is the great unfinished business of the Twenty-first century. I saw that very personally, as Senator of NY, as First Lady and most recently as Secretary of State.”

Clinton discussed the participation of women in the global economic workforce and reminded us that progress has been stagnant over the last three decades.

She stated, “We have made important progress since that conference. We have seen progress. More women do serve in public office, but it’s a glass half full at best, because in too many places there are too many women who are still facing ceilings.”

“You might think that this is only a problem in faraway places,” Clinton said as she referred to some of the cognitive dissonance around diversity issues being exclusively outside the US that we have written about, and have heard –from women and men alike – in companies that describe a fantastical post-bias world.

“Here in the US, we still have our own barriers,” said Clinton. “For every success story of a woman making it, whether it is Mary Barra or Denise Morrison, who you heard from this morning, there are so many stories of dreams deferred.”

Clinton went on to reference the fact only 17 percent of US board seats are filled by women, and that we are “far behind many other developed economies.” When discussing under-representation of women directors on boards –specifically women comprising only 11 percent of technology company boards – she said, “It is a real problem when America’s most cutting edge companies are so far behind the curve.”

Hillary clearly gets it, and she shared her story of how she got into politics and became a leader in her own right. She recounted when people approached her to run for the Senate for NY when she was First Lady. At first she refused, not wanting to be the sacrificial lamb to run against Rudy Giuliani, but then one day when she was in NY at the launch of a documentary film called “Dare to Compete”, she found herself receiving advice that she had spent a lifetime giving.

At the event, she was introduced by the captain of the school’s women’s basketball team, and as the young lady was about to leave the stage, she bent down a little while shaking Hillary’s hand and whispered in her ear, “Dare to compete, Mrs. Clinton, dare to compete.” This really got her thinking and she did end up running for the Senate.

Women, Ambition and Double Standards
Hillary Clinton spoke of ambition, how double standards are still in play, and how this can impact women.

“My heroine, Eleanor Roosevelt said, ‘every women in public life needs to develop skin as thick as rhinoceros hide’….Whether it’s 1920’s America or now, it still is hard.”

She spoke of sexism in politics, and said,

“Yes we all know that women can be held to a different standard.”

She spoke of Julia Gillard, the previous Prime Minister of Australia, and the outrageous sexism she faced in the public arena. Clinton focused on how we can turn away from the status quo of accepting double standards.

“We have to call it, speak up about it,” she advised. “Some people said, ‘well that’s just the way it is.’ I thought –what a terrible indictment of us!”

Advice to Younger Women
Clinton explained that critics can be our best friends, and urged us to sort it through, see what the motivation is behind it, and to use it to be stronger and better.

Specifically she referred to three things that could help women to lead:

-Women themselves have to develop the confidence to pursue their ambitions.

-Women need to support other women who are pursing public seats (and leadership positions).

-Take criticism seriously, but not personally.

Clinton commented about feedback from others, saying, “Make sure it doesn’t knock you down, don’t let it make you feel like your ambition is illegitimate.”

According to Clinton, a combination of self-doubt and perfectionism can become major obstacles in our advancement; women have to dare to compete.

“I have won all of these lessons, the hard way, over many years. Fighting with the perfectionist gene, Its amazing how many young women feel that they have to be perfect, I rarely meet a young man who doesn’t already think that he is,” Clinton remarked.

Clinton talked about how we all need friends and colleagues –support around us so that it’s not just the voice in your head, to give you a firmer foundation.

When she spoke about The Clinton Foundation’s project “No Ceilings- The Full Participation Project”, and about women gaining equality in all senses of the word in both the US and beyond, she concluded,

“For progress to take hold, we need all of us.”

Whether you like her politics or not, she is a leader who reflects deeply on her experience and says the hard stuff.