5 Ways to Highlight Your Leadership Skills on Your Resume

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leadership skills on your resumeStrong leadership skills are a hot commodity — adept leaders make things happen, promote and enhance a company’s vision, and elevate the performance of everyone they work with. Emphasizing your leadership abilities on your resume can help potential employers see the value you’d bring to their enterprise, and ultimately, make you a more attractive candidate.

A slick, well-organized resume is the first step to upping your profile as a leader, so choose a fresh template, and get ready to dive into the content.

Job searching can be draining, trying to get one of the highest paying jobs or even getting that interview, but you may be missing out on opportunities to craft each section of your resume so it reflects essential leadership skills, making it stand out among a sea of applications from similarly-experienced candidates.

Emphasizing crucial skills such as making tough decisions under pressure, guiding colleagues, or coming up with innovative ideas that shape the direction of projects can help propel your resume to the top of a company’s interview list. Below, we’ll go through 5 great ways to highlight leadership on your resume for maximum impact.

1. Include examples of coaching and mentorship

Experience in coaching or mentoring can make you more attractive to hiring managers because it shows your ability to enhance the performance of those around you.

As a starting point, note whether the job description uses specific mentorship-related keywords, such as ‘guide’ or ‘support.’ Mirroring the job description by incorporating these keywords into your resume summary or experience bullet points is a great move because it shows you have the exact skills they’re looking for and optimizes your resume for ATS software.

Then, add a few specific examples of coaching that demonstrate the impact of your mentorship. If you have metrics displaying results such as reduced employee turnover or improved employee satisfaction, now’s the time to mention them.

You can also outline positive outcomes for individuals to demonstrate your impact, such as your mentee receiving a promotion or meeting more KPIs.

2. Highlight the outcome of your projects or teams

Including measurable outcomes in your resume shows hiring managers that you don’t just lead — you lead effectively. Potential employers want to gauge the impact of your leadership on your company’s performance, so backing up your experience with hard data can help employers visualize your impact.

Examples of metrics to include in the experience or achievements sections of your resume include:

  • Increases in revenue, profit, or sales
  • Measurable improvements in team productivity
  • Enhanced employee or client satisfaction ratings
  • Improved employee retention
  • Time or resources saved as a result of streamlined workflows or processes

Even if you don’t have much hard data to work with, you can still use the examples above to guide you in making your resume’s experience section more results-focused so hiring managers can see your successes, not just your experiences.

3. Emphasize effective collaboration

A recent report on HR statistics found that effective teamwork and communication are two of the biggest skill gaps applicants struggle to match. While this applies to any role, effective collaboration is an especially appealing quality in a leader because it’s vital to ensuring team unity, performance, and productivity.

Managers must be able to delegate tasks effectively to ensure roles are clear and prevent workflow bottlenecks. If you have a good example of how your communication skills have improved your team’s ability to collaborate effectively, be sure to include it in the experience section of your resume.

Describe positive results after giving constructive feedback so potential employers can envision how you’ll ensure your colleagues’ growth and development. It could also be worth giving an example of how you’ve acted on feedback you received to demonstrate your ability to reflect and adapt.

4. Show you can lead a team or project remotely

According to McKinsey’s American Opportunity Survey, over half of American workers are working remotely for at least part of the week. Remote leadership skills are in high demand as companies support their employees in maintaining a healthy work-life balance and ensure deliverables are met by a scattered workforce.

Demonstrating remote work skills and experience shows hiring managers you can help their company overcome these hurdles, particularly if you have experience managing a team or project in a remote setting. Even online part-time jobs like a virtual assistant or copywriter help you develop necessary skills to lead remotely.

Describe any strategies you’ve successfully employed to manage issues such as scheduling, employee development, or task management in your experience bullet points and include any quantifiable positive impacts.

5. Demonstrate your problem-solving skills

Problem-solving skills are an essential part of any successful leader’s toolkit because they allow you to identify and troubleshoot issues early, from less significant snags causing inefficiency to major problems threatening entire projects.

Providing examples of changes you’ve made to address a problem and their positive impact offers employers a clearer idea of your abilities than simply listing ‘problem-solving’ in your resume’s skills section. For example, you could add a bullet to your experience section outlining how you streamlined a key process and what difference it made to your team’s time management or productivity.

If you’re unsure where to start, abilities such as organization, effective planning, and critical analysis are strong examples of skills necessary for problem-solving and risk management.

Key Takeaway

Creating a leadership-focused resume involves more than simply listing your experience as a manager. Providing examples of how you applied leadership skills, adding performance metrics to experience bullet points, and enhancing your resume summary and skills section with the right keywords can help you communicate your career story more effectively and paint a compelling picture for potential employers.

By: Emily Crowley is a Senior Content Writer and Resume Expert at Resume Genius, where she loves helping job seekers overcome obstacles and advance their careers. She graduated from George Mason University with a degree in Foreign Language and Culture.

(The opinions and views of guest contributions are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com).

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Different Methods of Personal Development in the Workplace

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personal developmentIn the ever-changing world of work, it’s essential to continually develop your skills in order to stay ahead of the competition and further your career. This is particularly relevant following the recent evolution of remote working, as new skills are required to operate efficiently. However, the reality is that up to 35% of workers have never sought out training on their own.

Fortunately, there are many ways to begin your personal development journey and stay ahead of the trends. In this article, we cover several different methods of personal development to help you find the best fit.

Undertake training courses

Although personal development isn’t exclusive to training courses, they remain an effective way to pick up new skills. You can find all kinds of courses for almost any area of development, ranging from job-specific to more general soft skills such as communication.

To know which type of training would be most beneficial to you specifically, look at your performance review feedback and your personal goals to see which areas you need to buff up. Especially if you work in a competitive industry, it’s well worth doing your research and staying up to date with emerging trends and technologies that you could learn to help keep you at the front of the pack. If you’re not sure, then make sure to follow some industry leaders on social media, and see what skills they’re displaying that you’re not.

Finding and embarking on a training course is easier than ever in the modern age of remote learning. There’s no longer a need to travel in order to upskill yourself, making it more accessible and convenient. Completing the course remotely also tends to make it a lot cheaper, owing to the typical venue overhead costs being eliminated.

Set achievable goals

Setting goals provides a sense of direction and purpose, motivating workers to focus on their priorities. When setting goals, it’s important to ensure that they’re achievable amongst other things. Using the SMART method can help with this, standing for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

Ask yourself what it is that you want to achieve in order to further your personal development. Once you’ve decided on your target areas of improvement, use that to formulate goals following the SMART method. This can really help to break down a seemingly big task into smaller, more manageable steps.

Use an executive coach

An executive coach is a specialist dedicated to your own personal development. Their industry experience means they’re able to provide clients with detailed advice specific to their own situation. This kind of customized plan is invaluable when it comes to self-improvement, as your coach will be able to help you quickly identify areas of improvement and provide you with tips on how to tackle them.

Be sure to also ask your employer about mentorship opportunities, as they may be able to assign you to someone within the company to help your progress and expand your professional skills. Perhaps you’re interested in learning more about a different department, or leadership skills to help you climb the ladder of success. Being active and seeking new learning opportunities is a great way to show your employer you take your professional progression seriously.

(If you would like to be coached by the founder of theglasshammer, please email nicki@theglasshammer.com or book an exploratory session.)

Learn something new every day

Keeping your brain active can be done in many different ways, and you shouldn’t only focus on work-based learning. Reading regularly, whether it’s fiction or nonfiction, exercises your brain and makes you better able to absorb knowledge, improves cognitive function, enhances memory and enriches your vocabulary. These skills are beneficial not just for personal evolution but will also go a long way to furthering your professional pursuits.

From listening to podcasts to learning a new hobby, cooking, or just socializing with new people, there are plenty of ways to enrich your brain and learn new skills to help your professional development.

Work on your existing skills

No matter your industry, there is always room for improvement within your existing skill set. You might think you’re an expert on your current tools, but quite often there are ways to further optimize your work.

Think about what your typical day consists of and do some research on the tools you use the most often. Sometimes something as simple as watching a quick video online can provide you with new shortcuts or ideas, but if you’re looking for more in-depth knowledge, consider reaching out to a coworker or friend that’s familiar with the tool.

You might find that you can both learn things from each other that can help to make you more productive. As the saying goes, knowledge is power, so make sure you’re taking the time to invest in yourself.

By: Kathleen White, who works as an independent business analyst for several small businesses. She completed her degree in Business and Management. She enjoys writing in her spare time to share what she has learned, in hopes of benefiting other businesses.

(The opinions and views of guest contributions are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com).

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Op-Ed: Go Ahead, Burn That Bridge – How to Stop Being a People Pleaser

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Laura Gassner OttingDuring a two decade career in executive search, it was my job to call the most successful people in the world and recruit them away on behalf of my clients. They were successful, which is why I was calling them. But despite all this success, they weren’t very happy, which is why they were calling me back. Over time, I became fascinated with the question, “Why doesn’t success equal happiness?”

One reason stood out: Most of us were handed a definition of success by someone else. In other words, when we were younger, someone – perhaps a parent, a teacher, a friend, even a celebrity – told us who we should be when we grew up, and we adopted it, either consciously or subconsciously, until it became our path.

For me, there was a fourth grade teacher who told me that I was argumentative and should become a lawyer. There was a grandmother who wanted me to marry a nice Jewish doctor. There was the boss who wanted me to maximize his profit margin. For each of these people, I jumped through hoops. And then one day, I woke up and asked myself, when all the boxes were so full, why did I still feel so empty?

Once I identified the problem, I was aghast: it was me. I was trying so hard to please everyone around me that I didn’t stop to ask myself if what I was doing was really pleasing me.

If this sounds all too familiar, you are not alone. According to a survey conducted by YouGov, “About half (49%) of Americans say they would self-identify as people-pleasers. Women (56%) are more likely than men (42%) to say they would describe themselves this way.” Psychology Today notes that people pleasing, at its roots, comes from insecurity (probably based in early childhood), a lack of confidence, and an aversion to conflict. When I wanted to get to the bottom of this, I had to look in the mirror, but I also had to look at who was surrounding me, and who I was so afraid would reject me.

“People won’t like the me I really want to be.”

I hear that a lot from individuals in my executive coaching practice who come to me when they’ve had just enough success to see a version of their increased potential that they never knew existed. I call this moment Wonderhell. It’s amazing and exciting and humbling to achieve something you didn’t think possible. But it also introduces uncertainty, doubt, impostor syndrome, and exhaustion. It’s wonder and it’s hell. It’s Wonderhell, and it’s the space in between who you were yesterday and who you just realized you can become tomorrow.

In this space, we have two choices. First, we can either continue to please the people from our yesterdays. Some of these people are incredibly helpful allies, supporters, and champions. Perhaps they love you and don’t want to see you get hurt. Perhaps they are jealous and, when they see your rise, can only reflect on their own stagnation. Perhaps they are scared and think, “You can’t do that. That’s too scary!” And what they really mean is “I can’t do that. I’m too scared.” But, what about the ones who aren’t so well meaning?

Herein lies the second choice. When we stop pleasing the people whose lack of imagination is holding back our ambitions, we can make room for the people who should populate our tomorrows. It’s not that those other people won’t like the new, real, bigger you. It’s that those people’s opinions no longer matter.

Burn That Bridge

It’s not just people in your intimate physical circle, either. The influences that compel you to please others come from social media, too.

Did you know that people with overweight friends are 57% more likely to become overweight themselves, even if those friends live on the other side of the country? Your emotional connection, not your physical proximity, is the key factor. Studies show that the behavior of your closest intimates—wherever they are—influences the way you behave.

So whether it is slacking on your diet or exercise plan, or deciding an unfulfilling career path, personal relationship or hobby, what they do becomes what you do. What they think becomes what you think. What they normalize becomes what you normalize. Which begs the question: are you pleasing people who make you better, or who make you worse?

Each time you want to run full speed into your next Wonderhell, you’ll find friction with those who aren’t going there with you. They won’t like the you that you want to become. But why let them define your success? Why should they get a vote about what or who you should be? When you grow—when your life gets bigger—you are inevitably going to outgrow the people who liked you when you were smaller.

It’s time to stop giving votes in your life to people who shouldn’t even have voices.

Laura Gassner Otting is the author of Wonderhell: Why Success Doesn’t Feel Like It Should… and What To Do About It, where she explores themes such as impostor syndrome, doubt, and burnout. She can be found everywhere @heyLGO and at LauraGassnerOtting.com.

(The opinions and views of guest contributions are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com).

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How to Master Remote Interviews

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remote interviewsTen years ago, the idea of a fully remote role would have been unusual, if not unheard of, especially in some industries. But with the COVID-19 pandemic forcing many of us to work from home in recent years, remote work post-pandemic has become increasingly normal.

The benefits of working from home are clear: better work-life balance, no more lost commuting time, reduced costs, and perhaps even increased productivity without office distractions. But working remotely requires a skill set that is focused on communication, self-management and technical confidence.

Job applicants will want to ensure that their CV accurately reflects these skills, but the interview stage is crucial to successfully be hired for a role. Particularly with remote roles, a video interview is part of the process of understanding whether a candidate has the necessary experience to succeed in the future. So how can job seekers set themselves up for success? We take a look.

Be aware of body language

Saying the right things is understandably important when it comes to interviewing, but body language will also play a part. Even if it’s subconscious, the interviewer may warm to a candidate if their body language is open, calm, and confident. This has always been true at in-person interviews, where eye contact and handshakes are a normal part of the process. But how can candidates replicate this on a screen?

Firstly, candidates should make sure to position their camera at eye level so that they’re able to give the impression of eye contact, and the interviewer is able to clearly see their facial expressions. Having a good posture, keeping a calm but confident tone of voice, and smiling will all help applicants ace virtual interviews according to this guide to job hunting in the age of remote work. Interviewing over an internet connection can make it harder to hear what’s being said, so the interviewee should also ensure they’re speaking slowly enough and speaking up.

If a candidate is worried that they will mumble or get flustered when answering, then they can make sure to consider some responses to generic questions before the call. Practicing answers in front of a mirror might sound excessive, but it can help with correcting any body language issues before the big day. Interviewees can also either choose to hide their self-view on screen if it’s too distracting or keep it open to check on how their body language is coming across to others.

Dress professionally

Dressing professionally, even if the interview is taking place virtually, is key for any hopeful remote employee. If in doubt, it’s always best to be a bit overdressed than underdressed – first impressions count. Whilst it can be tempting to go smart on the top half and casual when it comes to trousers, dressing for the role can help encourage confidence and self-belief. Plus, on the off chance that a candidate needs to stand up on the call (unexpected fire alarms do happen), the professional impression will last.

Test the technology

Technology is vital for success in any remote role, and as such it’s important that it works correctly at the interview stage to give a good impression. Interviewees should make sure that their camera, microphone, and internet connection are working properly ahead of time, and know how to use the meeting platform that the interviewer has proposed. Having a small test meeting with a friend can be a good way to ensure that everything is as it should be, checking that the picture is clear and the lighting is good.

Applicants should also make sure that they know how to handle things if they don’t quite go to plan. Remaining calm and professional is important no matter what happens, and it can help to have a backup such as dialing into the meeting from a phone instead of a laptop. If possible, it may also be worth learning how to set up a phone hotspot in case of a patchy internet connection.

Use prompts

The joy of a remote interview is the ability to use sticky note prompts, short summaries, or even have your resume to hand. As long as candidates are not looking away from the screen for long periods of time, using cues can be a great way to give clear answers, and cover all the necessary points. Some interviewees also like to use these notecards to prepare their answers before the interview and then memorize key details, similar to revision flashcards.

It’s important to ensure that answers remain natural – note cards can help with key points to remember, but should not be read aloud word for word.

Keep things quiet

Finally, it’s good practice to ensure that any housemates or family members are informed of interviews well ahead of time, to ensure they will be quiet wherever possible. Whilst noise-canceling headphones will handle background sounds with ease, they won’t block out any loud sounds like doors shutting or the vacuum cleaner. Keeping disruption to a minimum is both professional and less distracting for the person interviewing.

Interviewees should also mute any phone or computer notifications to avoid them getting distracted – it’s easier to lose focus when you’re not in the room with the interviewer. However, this is highly noticeable on a screen. This is not good news when it comes to interviewing success – research has shown that 80% of unsuccessful candidates seemed distracted in their video interviews.

The best chance of success

In the modern world of work, candidates are more likely than ever to find a remote role. However, just because we’re working from home more, it doesn’t mean that first impressions at an interview should also be casual. By following these tips, job seekers can help give themselves the best chance of success.

By: Kathleen White, who works as an independent business analyst for several small businesses. She completed her degree in Business and Management. She enjoys writing in her spare time to share what she has learned, in hopes of benefiting other businesses.

(The opinions and views of guest contributions are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com).

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Op-Ed: The Fine Line of Executive Presence for Professional Women

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Nicki Gilmour As a coach, I am often hired by companies to work with very high potential women (and men) who are destined for senior leadership, the executive committee and in some cases even have a real shot at being a CEO or CFO of a publicly traded company, even a Fortune 50.

Around 90% of the time, the words ‘executive presence’ come up as part of the brief, or from the women themselves, on what they want to work on in the safety of a coaching relationship. Executive presence really can mean a myriad of things and it is a term I do not love as it has connotations of assimilation to legacy male traits and behaviors that, when transposed, seem awkward or, at their worst, are actually things that women get penalized for behaviorally. As the past thirty years has shown us, progress can be tricky when societal norms hold firm outside the office. ‘Who is rewarded for what?’ is the ultimate diagnostic question for a workplace culture analysis, not just ‘how many women and BIPOC are in the building?’ It is not Noah’s Ark alone, it is about who gets to be Noah and his ultimate successor and why that is. Also, who does the work and who gets the glory?

It is the double standard, academically defined and much written about double bind that still keeps women out of the office from the White House to the principal’s office (with over 64% of men holding that job while over 80% of teachers are female) to the corner office.

Here are the two fine lines that tend to pop up when people get perception-based feedback.
  1. Passive-seeming versus Assertive. When women are perceived as passive, it is often because they are in fact exercising positive traits but culturally in the organization, more assertive or aggressive behaviors have been rewarded. It is interesting when someone gets labeled conflict avoidant as leaders do need to be able to have the hard conversations and deliver messages upwards to the board and downwards to the team that are sometimes not as favorable as one would hope for. Collaboration is something that should be rewarded in companies but through the lens of innovation and evolving process for best results. Gravitas is really a key trait for all leaders so that the people following them can really trust in what they say as true from an expert or authority perspective.
  2. Aggressive versus Assertive. When women are told that they are aggressive, it is often these days accompanied by people admitting that they wouldn’t think the women getting the feedback would be hearing that same comment if she was a man. So, awareness of the gendered nature of the two sides of the positive and negative stereotype is encouraging, yet still remains a coach’s main fare more often than not. What do you do if you hear this? Separate the “what” from the “how” as it is not about competence or delivery of the tasks and responsibilities, but rather how you make people feel and that can be easily addressed with active listening, charm, captioning and aligning tools to put into your toolkit.
Recognizing and honing your own leadership learning and communication styles

To grow into the leader you want to be on your leadership journey, start with you and understanding your styles and preferences regarding work. You can recognize that others have a different style to you, once you see styles for what they are and how they show up in communications, learning and thinking. How do you uncover your style? The fastest way is to work with a good executive coach who specializes in executive and leadership development, as opposed to straight career coaching.

But, if you don’t have access to that type of resource, then ask yourself: what are your style preferences when it comes to communicating and being communicated with? Are you direct and candid or do you prefer to couch your requests in sentences where the audience can hear a gentler message, sometimes amongst other messages? We are all different and there are many free versions of Myers Briggs and other great tools free online to start, such as SCARF (the neuro-leadership institute) and Emotional Agility report by Dr. Susan David. The Learning Styles Inventory (LSI) is not expensive and comes with a full explanation of how you learn and apply knowledge. Curious souls on their development journey will benefit.

We are all somewhat beholden to how we were raised in our families and societies, unless we have taken the time to disrupt that – which you can start doing today by reading Immunity to Change. Doing this with a coach, or even by yourself, will help you to understand what is stopping you from reaching goals in any sense, including D&I ones.

Nicki Gilmour is the founder of theglasshammer and also works as a leadership and executive coach, helping the companies to lean in while empowering executives to grow and develop. If you would like to be coached by Nicki please email nicki@theglasshammer.com or book an exploratory session. If you are a leader or an HR professional who wishes to know more about the Organizational development work we do check out our site evolvedemployer.com

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Op-Ed: Disillusioned by the 9-5? Entrepreneurship Could Help You Have Greater Impact.

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Leena Bakshi McLean As women who go to work every day with a passion to create change and impact in the world, navigating the workforce can be difficult and often lead to cynicism, burnout, and disillusionment. It’s easy to forget why we took the job in the first place, especially when we get too removed from the impact we’re trying to create. I’ve been there too, and it was my own disillusionment that led me to quit my 9-5 job and try another route.

In fact, entrepreneurship was the tool that allowed me to pursue solutions to a problem I cared deeply about—equitable education—without all the red tape and obstacles associated with working in school districts. If you find yourself feeling discouraged about the impact you’ve had (or haven’t had) at your job perhaps now is the perfect time to also consider another route. These are the steps I took in evaluating my transition from my role as a teacher and an administrator to one of founder and executive director.

Know When It’s Time to Go

Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education has always been my passion; my mom would say it was ingrained in me as a child when my grandfather would read calculus textbooks instead of literature to me. I started as a Biology, Algebra and Health teacher before becoming a program director for science at a County Office of Education in California. It was the perfect role to work with districts on a holistic level, researching systems change, fostering teacher leadership, and encouraging teams to look at equity within their district programming. I finally had the opportunity to run science programs at the county and state levels. I thought it was my dream job, and it was until I realized that my programs were not serving every student in the county.

I saw so much racism at play in my school district that I couldn’t ignore the ways it directly impacted students and their ability to flourish. The tipping point came while planning a computer science fair for the students at the court and community schools. Several supervisors spoke up about security concerns—they thought we didn’t have enough security to “manage” certain students. They recommended that we un-invite these students to the fair.

When the team I was on spoke up about the drastic inequity and the blatant restriction of access to our students from the court and community schools, we ruffled feathers. Although we were eventually able to allow the students to attend the fair, my colleagues and I were penalized for it by getting passed up for promotions, having our teams separated, and dealing with supervisors doing “cubicle walk-throughs” to police the staff. This is when I knew that politics and power were being prioritized over students. I had to ask myself: will I sit down in compliance or stand up for justice?

As you plan for the year ahead, take stock of what’s keeping you from having the impact you desire at work. Is it a similar situation where politics are at play and the power of a few is being prioritized over the mission? Is that you just have a few roadblocks in your way that a manager could help remove? Is that you’re in the wrong role or on the wrong team? Trace back your disappointment to see if it’s time to make a shift internally or if it really is time to go.

Consider Your Next Step

Despite all this drama behind the scenes, I loved working with every group of students and helping teachers increase access to quality and equitable STEM education. I knew I wanted to stay in my professional field, so I looked for other similar positions to fill the void created by my 9-5 role. However, none of the potential jobs combined STEM and social justice. This was important to me because I would often end up in professional development where the two topics were seen as separate entities in education. I knew combining the two was key to my mission of creating equitable education. When I couldn’t find what I was looking for, I decided to be the first to create it and jumped into entrepreneurship to do so.

So what will your next step be? Perhaps it is simply making the ask of a manager to provide more support and lessen obstacles. Perhaps it’s looking for a new role. Perhaps it’s even approaching the issue you care about from a new angle. For example, if you work for a nonprofit, are there for-profit organizations you could apply to for a different approach?

If you’re completely roadblocked at your current role and no other job fits you or you find yourself compromising your values and passions for a job, then maybe it’s time to take a leap and try entrepreneurship.

Set Up for Impact

If you’re considering entrepreneurship as your next step, welcome aboard! Entrepreneurship has been a difficult journey, but in retrospect, I would not trade this life for anything else. I do what I love with the people I love, and I get to stay true to my values in the meantime.

If you decide the risk is worth the potential impact, you can set yourself up for impact with the following steps:

  • Strengthen and Reinforce Your Vision: When you find yourself at a crossroads where you have a vision and you want to make a change, and you can’t do it in your own context or another organization, I recommend “dreamstorming” what it would take to carry out this vision. That’s how STEM4Real started: as a vision that is now an educational movement, making STEM #4Real for each student.
  • Own Your Voice: Once you have your vision, you’ll need a strong and distinct voice to share it. Whether it’s online and in marketing materials, in sales meetings, or at networking events, you want to be able to share your vision consistently and with conviction.
  • Seek Other Values-Aligned Organizations in Your Field: I am so inspired by the work we see from our partners, fellow organizations, and other entrepreneurs. Seek out other people and groups who are doing similar work, guided by values that match yours. That community and connection will be invaluable.

Going at it “alone” or from the outside isn’t always easy. But if you’ve tried the traditional 9-5 path and haven’t been able to create the impact you want, consider this your invitation to weigh the possibility of entrepreneurship as the path to impact.

By: Dr. Leena Bakshi McLean is the founder of STEM4Real, a nonprofit professional learning organization committed to combining STEM and NGSS standards-based content learning and leadership with principles of equity and social justice. She is a former county and state-level administrator and mathematics, science and health teacher with research interests in Science/STEM education and figuring out how to create access and opportunities for each and every student regardless of race, ethnicity, religion or socioeconomic status.

(The opinions and views of guest contributions are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com)

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Five Actions to Take to Manage Your Career Better in 2023

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Nicki GilmourSo far, this decade has been a rollercoaster for professional women. Everyone has been inundated with large amounts of work to get through, while all sorts of moving targets and complex constraints to deal with just keep coming. A potential hit to the economy looms as the usual cyclical market downbeat slides to recession with layoffs already starting. Dovetail this with almost everyone having a really long, hard think about their values over the past couple of years, and the unanimous request from all workers in every survey ever done to have more flexibility, we should be set up for the most interesting years to come on the topic of work, career and what is professionalism.

Normally we write a year-end review piece, which we have written for the past fifteen years, detailing progress for professional women and examining trends that matter, and it was implicitly assumed that progress on parity had to be linear. Now we know the real issue is overwork and outdated ways of working for all. Perhaps this is what changed the game for us here at theglasshammer as we realized that battling an old system, and defining ourselves and our success by the standards of that system, is not the only way to look at it with the latest UN women report stating unsurprisingly that the goal of gender equality is not on track to happen by 2030.

The glass ceiling is still there for all the legacy and structural reasons we know about, but overwhelmingly people have been open about multiple realities and having multidimensional lives. Assimilation, sacrifice and silence is not trending right now and in a study conducted on work identity by Kathryn Boyle at the Glasgow Caledonian University (UK), Gen Y are not feeling like their narrative arc in their career has to be as cohesive as others did in Gen X and Boomer generations. This means the career ladder which we have written about extensively is somewhat less powerful a construct than it has ever been, and the ceiling, or rather the structures and rules that held the game together, are being replaced with people choosing to leave to play other games or ignoring the rules entirely. The lattice is where most of us find ourselves.

What Do Future Leaders Want?

What Gen Z want from their managers most of all is a positive attitude and a clear delineation of goals while millennials want open communication and feedback, followed by goal clarity according to a recent study at Berkeley Haas School of Business, University of California. Jarringly, the same study suggests Gen X managers are not really prepared to play ball in this way with only 33% ready and willing to give feedback with a positive attitude. There is a disconnect that should be addressed by savvy managers who want to liberate and empower so people can innovate. And this disconnect will only be accentuated by companies not setting managers up for success operationally in the hybrid environment.

Regardless of ambition levels, ability and willingness to work long hours, professional women and men want work to work for them – they want flexibility and a lattice approach to work, or even for work to not be all-consuming as professional careers in banking, law and executive life has previously been known for. The physical and psychological boundaries we once knew such as going to the office on a train five days per week is less desirable than ever as seen in the endless studies citing hybrid as the preferred format for the future. It doesn’t mean productivity is down or that people aren’t passionate about their work or career, it just means that we have arrived at a time where smart bosses know that trust is the social currency and that removing organizational grind and tasks that don’t belong to the team is the key to a happy and high functioning workforce.

Here are Five Things for You to Do for the Best Career Results in 2023
  1. Leave the anxiety and worry at the door. While there are serious swirls inside companies and in the external marketplace, it is ok to just control what you can. Start by understanding what exactly your responsibilities are in your role and then try to align your ability to execute on them as closely as you can – resources, authority, budgets, for example. Avoid perfectionism and over-responsibility tendencies where you think you are responsible for all outcomes or other people’s happiness or success. Thirdly, examine your relationship with uncertainty and figure out how to get comfortable with ambiguity as this year coming promises plenty of that.
  2. Get an executive coach. Advice on its own means nothing as its abstract and subjective. A good coach will help you understand yourself and your behaviors in context of what is going on around you. Think growth, think development. Coaching is one of those industries where there is a low bar to entry so pick your coach wisely as you should be able to have a chemistry meeting with your coach to make sure you can vet them for the value that they will add to your present goals and challenges. There are career coaches and there are executive coaches. Mentors, sponsors and consultants are different from a coach as a mentor will share their advice from their perspective and a sponsor will advocate for you. A coach will evoke your highest thinking and help you build muscle around goal achievement, strategic insight and co create behaviorial toolkits to deploy live time in meetings and work situations. It helps if your coach has a background in organizational development or industrial psychology as context does matter. A coach that gives you advice only is a bad coach.
  3. Read these three books in 2023 that will help you in your career- no matter where you are at. Herminia Ibarra’s Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader which will help you refresh you do your job with new insights, consider what your next job could look like and generally challenge everything you thought you knew about being competent and how that is enough. My second favorite book to recommend is Kegan and Lahey’s Immunity to Change which is academic to read but really is powerful for anyone wrestling with fear, shame or imposter syndrome – it is a user friendly book to clear the debris to really achieve your career goals behaviorally. And finally, I reccommend Kolb and Williams’ Everyday Negotiation as a must-read for anyone who thinks how did that person get the upper hand in that conversation? This book explores how to operate in everyday conversations at work. If you cannot read the whole book, start with the HBR article as it is a great way to understand how to navigate the power dynamics that exist in any work relationship. There has been an updated article discussing negotiating as a women of color to read on HBR this year.
  4. Network and mean it. Find people who can help you and you can help in return. Be sincere in your offer for help. Make it personal. No one likes an endless taker, and no one has time to do the work for you. Know your value in the exchange!
  5. Be authentic, and at the same time, seek advice that inspires you to be the best version of you. Use the sites like this one, and others like landit.com, fairygodboss.com and the muse as well as elevate to garner specific career advice for women in the workplace. Look for other sincere people as there are many false prophets and dead poets in this gender space taking your money for something that you already have.

Here at theglasshammer.com we have spent 15 years deeply covering the topic of advancing, empowering, informing and inspiring professional women and with 8000 articles in our archives, we encourage you to delve in and read any that might be useful to you. We have profiled over 1000 amazing women. We have coached rising stars as well as the best in the business to be even better leaders.

In 2023, we will continue to have our digital campfire for women who are change leaders to tell their story around. We want to profile creators and leaders who understand that the future is a vision that can be reached with the right focus. Our main offering is leadership coaching so if you wish to go from mid-level to senior level, or even are very close to the top and need an extra piece of work to polish and refine your behaviors, then book an exploratory chemistry session here with Nicki Gilmour – our founder, and executive and organizational coach.

By Nicki Gilmour, Founder and CEO of theglasshammer.com

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Seven Things about Gut Instinct You Might Not Know

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Gut instinct Gut instinct – that instinctual sense of knowing that does not come from conscious reasoning, also sometimes called intuition – is one aspect of your decision-making that is worth better understanding – including how and when to leverage it. Here are seven things to know about gut instinct.

  1. The gut truly is the “second brain.” – A neural network of 100 million neurons line your digestive tract, evidencing the gut’s processing ability. The gut has more neurons than the spine. It’s not only the stomach that has a brain, but the heart also has neural cells – there’s more to processing than we “think.” According to Sarah Garfinkel, professor and cognitive neuroscientist at University College London, “Instinct is when physiological signals change quickly in response to different stimuli, with or without the conscious awareness of the properties of those stimuli. A capacity to tap into and be guided by those signals gives us a route to gut instinct, which bypasses higher-order awareness mechanisms that don’t yet have access to that information.”
  2. Gut instinct is not a mind “or” body thing, and it’s complicated. – When considering a decision, the brain works in tandem with the gut, making intuition a mix of emotional and experiential data as the brain accesses memories, preferences, needs, past learnings and more. The mind-body dualistic idea that suggests mind and body responses are separate has long been disproven. They are interrelated. We feel in the body the result of cognitive processing happening in the brain. As a predictive processing network, the brain seeks to quickly compare sensory information with past experience, knowledge and memories, sending signals to the gut. These rapid assessments are subject to error, due to things like confirmation bias where we scramble to see what we already believe true or when we impose past circumstances upon a current situation and perceive danger.
  3. Gut instinct is often a valuable part of decision-making. Partnering gut feelings with analytical thinking leads to better, faster, and more accurate decisions and increases the confidence behind your choices – especially when there is no “correct” and clear-cut option and you’re overthinking. The majority of top executives report that they leverage feelings when managing crises. Women often speak to The Glass Hammer about their ability to read the room as way of informing how they approach a meeting or having gut instinct around an idea that comes up. And when, for example, you are in a familiar setting or with a familiar person, your intuition can pick up subtle cues that something is off or amiss by noticing indicators that are not usually present. It can also guide you against making a wrong choice that presents unnecessary risk. Without gut instinct, and a sensitivity to somatic cues, we can fall into analysis paralysis.
  4. Gut instinct is NOT such a good indicator for decision-making at other times – such as in hiring and recruitment. A clear example for where gut instinct should not be trusted in decision making is in hiring and recruitment, when guts instincts (fast thinking) around the “right candidate” and “culture fit” or “likability” are usually just unconscious bias (such as affinity bias, anchoring bias) – especially related to race, disability, gender and sex. Within seconds of hearing speech, Yale found that we make snap perceptions on social class (based on speech patterns such as pronunciation), competence and pay package. We also like people who are like us in tone, body movements and word choices – and the things we like cast a positive halo over the rest of the interview. Assessments from unstructured and organic interviews, where managers go with their gut, have very poor correlation with job effectiveness and finding the most qualified candidate, because unconscious bias is rife and gut instinct is often rationalized.
  5. The quality of gut instinct is interrelated to emotional intelligence. Research has shown that people with lower EI tend to misread their own bodily signal and somatic cues, misinterpreting the warnings of intuition that would normally guide us against bad risk-taking and decision making. But just as emotional intelligence can be strengthened through intentional training, as we become more sensitive to our ability to read and discern different emotions, where they are coming from and how they influence us, so can we develop our gut instinct. Discerning fear from intuition is an important part of honing our ability to use gut instinct in decision making, as these can often be confused. People who are highly sensitive – and perceive, process, and synthesize information more deeply – often have stronger intuition but may also have learned to distrust and invalidate this strength. Like a muscle, intuition can be built up. Practicing using it through fast, decisive actions on relatively inconsequential matters to build up trust and your ability to emotional regulate through discomfort. By role-playing the outcomes of different decisions, you can also see if your intuitive-based decisions would be aligned with your highest values on the other side.
  6. Distraction from overthinking helps our intuition to weigh in on decisions. When processing a lot of complex and difficult to remember information around a big decision, the tendency can be to painfully overthink – going between all the pros and cons – or to make a snap decision to escape the pain of indecision. But research has found that there’s a value in allowing our minds to wander in unrelated activity, as the unconscious mind helps to sort through the seeds. Participants who were distracted by an unrelated activity after being presented with a bunch of information about a decision made better (and more intuitive led) objective choices than those who consciously weighed up options before making a final decision. Overthinking in a strictly analytical way can muddy your judgement. But in the pause, the unconscious mind can help to surface the gist from the information overload and improve the accuracy of intuitive judgement.
  7. Timing and context is critical and most people don’t know when to use their gut instinct. Because it’s intertwined with many other rapid processes happening in the brain (triggering, bias, memory), it’s critical to assess when to rely on gut instinct in decision-making and when not to, and most business leaders do not know the difference – not only that, but it’s the same for most doctors, therapists and other kinds of professionals.

All in all, gut instinct is a valuable aspect of processing that is bound to contribute it’s voice into your decision-making, whether you are going with it, weighing it up or fighting against it. The more you can learn about gut instinct, the more you’ll be equipped as a leader to use it – and not use it – wisely.

By Aimee Hansen

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Women Leaders – Walking Out or Walking Onwards?

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For every woman at the director level that was promoted to the next level in 2021, two women directors walked out the door of their company. Women leaders are now demanding more, and leaving their companies at unprecedented rates, according to The Women in The Workplace 2022 report by LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Company, who have released the research annually since 2015.

“We’re finally seeing the moment where women in leadership are voting with their feet,” said Alexis Krivkovich, a managing partner at McKinsey and cofounding report author.

In this “profound change,” women are indeed deciding to vote for the workplace they want with the most compelling power they will ever have: their presence, time and energy. Nothing short of this will shake up the workplace as we have known it. No matter the current representation, senior women are going beyond just getting access to upper levels and getting clearer on what they would like to experience and see happen there, and seeking that out. Could senior women’s participation from this place of self-empowerment catalyze greater change?

Women Aren’t Leaving, They’re Leaving For Better

“We are in the midst of a Great Breakup in corporate America. Women leaders are leaving their companies at the highest rate we’ve ever seen. They aren’t leaving the workforce entirely but are choosing to leave for companies with better career opportunities, flexibility, and a real commitment to DEI,” said Sheryl Sandberg, founder of Lean In, who leaned out of Facebook this past summer.

About 10.5% of female leaders (senior management and above) left their companies in 2021, compared to 9% of male leaders. On the average year, the spread is close with only a half-point gap.

Senior women leaders, after all the journey they have gained, aren’t walking out because they don’t think they have choices. They are walking about because they finally know they do – and they are taking their leadership assets with them in search of better opportunities. Having now recovered from pandemic job losses, women are more attuned to the relationship they want (and the ones will not tolerate) within the workplace. Women’s threshold to tolerate toxicity and inequity has been thinned, yet the broken rung is still there and the broken record of unequal outcomes plays wearingly on repeat. Women leaders are voting for the relationships they want to have with work.

Cultures That Work for Women’s Advancement

Women are as ambitious as men. Black women leaders (59%) and women of color (41%) are even more likely to want to be top executives (27%). But only 1 in 4 C-Suite leaders is a woman and only one in 20 is a woman of color. For every 100 men promoted from entry level to manager, just 87 women and 82 women of color are promoted.

And the signals that counter advancement come across in microaggressions or more overt dynamics: Female leaders are twice as likely as male counterparts to be mistaken for someone junior. 37% of women leaders said they’ve had a co-worker get credit for their idea, compared to 27% of men. Black female leaders are 1.5x more likely than women overall to have had their judgment or qualification questioned. Many women still feel undermined or passed over in the workplace.

Recognition for and Performance Consideration Of Essential Work 

While women are twice as likely to do be doing DEI-related and inclusion work that is helping with company performance, they are disproportionally carrying an increasingly ‘valued’ aspect of leadership that too often goes unrecognized and 40% say does not factor into the performance review. Meanwhile, women leaders are more burnt out (43%) than male counterparts (31%).

Flexible Work Cultures that Embody the Talk Around Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Women want a better work culture. Only 1 in 10 women wants to work on-site most of the time, and women will move for flexibility. It’s not surprising considering that 52% of senior female leaders do most of the family housework and childcare compared to 13% of senior male leaders. Women who work the way they want to feel far happier, feel they have more equal opportunity to advance and are less likely to leave their job. Remote work also provides a reprieve from office-based exclusion and as McKinsey points out, that is a fundamental issue for organizations to address: “Companies cannot rely on remote and hybrid work as a solution; they need to invest in creating a truly inclusive culture.”

Over the past two years, being in a culture committed to well-being and DEI has become more important to women, and they are 1.5 more likely to have left a job because they wanted a more inclusive culture.

Better And More Supportive Managers 

Having a supportive manager is a top three criteria for women when thinking of joining or staying with an organization. Only about half of women say their manager encourages respectful behavior on their team regularly. Less than half say their manager shows interest in their career and helps them manage their workload. Black women and Latinas are particularly less likely to feel their manager shows interest in their career, checks in on their well-being or promotes inclusion on the team. They also experience less psychological safety. Women with various intersectional identities see gaps between the lip service to inclusion and what is actually happening in their experience.

Towards A Work Paradigm That Works For Women?

Female directors are becoming more sensitive to the conditions that don’t work for them, and it matters for them and future generations. Women under 30 are highly ambitious to become senior leaders, but 2/3 would be more interested if they saw senior women with a covetable work-life balance, an increasingly important career requirement for younger people.

The press isn’t focused on how bad this attrition of women leaders is for women. It’s focused on how bad the attrition of women leaders is for organizations. McKinsey has previously found that executives teams in the top quartile of gender diversity have a 25% greater likelihood of outperformance (above average profitability) than those in the bottom. LeanIn.Org and McKinsey have several recommendations for organizations following this recent report.

Stepping back, we are interested in what happens when women leaders take stock of their own value. All along, women have been trying to pave the way for those behind them by fighting to have a seat at the table. But increasingly, women are realizing that modeling leadership is not only about the rooms you are able to walk into, but also the rooms you are willing to walk away from. Because we need to walk towards creating organizational missions and cultures where all women (and people) are welcome and supported to lead and live their lives.

That is the power of esteeming the self. How would that mindset shift, at a collective level, give rise to more change in our workplace?

By Aimee Hansen

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Do You Have an Intrapreneurial Mindset?

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intrapreneurThere is no lack of entrepreneurial spirit among women. Women began 49% of new businesses in the U.S. in 2021 (up from 28% in 2019). Women entrepreneurs grew by 48% year-over-year, outpacing men in the entrepreneurial space by 22%. But how are women tracking in intrapreneurship?

According to Wikipedia, intrapreneurship “is the act of behaving like an entrepreneur while working within a large organization. Intrapreneurship is known as the practice of a corporate management style that integrates risk-taking and innovation approaches, as well as the reward and motivational techniques, that are more traditionally thought of as being the province of entrepreneurship.”

Psychology Today says that “teaching employees to become mindful intrapreneurs is the way to future-proof an organization.”

Intrapreneurial Assignments

According to Investopedia, intrapreneurship happens when an employee is “tasked” with the initiative of developing an innovative idea or project inside an organization – and given the freedom and autonomy to explore it. Although unlike entrepreneurs, an intrapreneur has access to the resources of an established company and doesn’t face the same level of outsized risks or outsized rewards. And yet, the intrapreneur does put skin in the game.

In one way or another, the intrapreneur is leading the charge on developing something that hasn’t been done in the organization before – whether a new section, a new department, a new product – or perhaps even a new approach or new team. Intrapreneurship has an internal start-up feel. Also, the Post-It Note, Gmail and Facebook like button are all arguably products of intrapreneurial thinking.

Just as formal sponsorship would change visibility and increase equitability in opportunity for women in the leadership pipeline, Forbes has argued that intrapreneurship is one way to fast track women to high-profile and high-potential initiatives, build leadership profiles and ultimately boost female executive numbers.

But also, in the same way that entrepreneurial spirit implies an intrinsic fire, an intrapreneurial spirit does not wait around to be assigned a task. Nor should you wait for permission, if you resonate with an intrapreneurial mindset.

An Intrapreneurial Mindset

Senior leaders have told us about the value of holding an intrapreneurial attitude – which we’ve counted among top tips for elevating your leadership mindset.

Linda Descano, Executive Vice President at Red Havas, told us: “So as I think of being an ‘intrapreneurial executive,’ I bring that same sense of acting like an owner to the organization I work for. I’m going to be constantly thinking about ways of improving the business. I act like I own it, as if it’s my investment. It’s working with that same sense of responsibility and drive to make it grow.”

Indhira Arrington, Global CDEIO at Ares Management, asked: “Outside of your day job responsibilities, what are you doing to contribute to the greater good of the organization and to make yourself an impact player? Anybody can get work done. People want to promote impact players.”

With creative passion and risk-tolerance akin to entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs focus on evolving the business from within. They see opportunities that are not obvious to others. They are willing to take risks, expansive in their thinking and often dynamic in their network. They keep an eye towards opportunities. They understand the internal cultural context and external business context.

Intrapreneurs are also ideas-driven and intrinsically motivated to break down barriers and collaborate with others to make new things happen at scalable levels. That often involves going outside of departmental silos and means impacting your surroundings in a way that goes above and beyond your job description. It requires stakeholder management and ability to manage upwards, as well as project management.

It also means being organizationally savvy and knowing how to sell and pre-sell your ideas. It requires a high level of accountability, resilience and willingness to see failure as a valuable part of the journey.

As written by Tendayi Wiki in Forbes, intrapreneurs need to have a particular mindset because they are operating within larger organizations. They need to focus on creating tangible value for the organization or clients, not just on the ‘theater of innovation.’ They focus on building relationships to garner support and enthusiasm and focus on getting others behind the clear value proposition of their ideas. They also have an ‘ecosystem mindset’ that focuses on identifying repeatable processes that will apply for future projects and build environments for ideas to emerge.

The Organizational Context of Intrapreneurship

According to Samantha Paxson, CMO of CO-OP Financial Services, “What makes intrapreneurs so successful is their empathy toward colleagues’ challenges and their ability to apply critical creativity to generate new ideas.”

Paxson argues that intrapreneurship draws upon innately feminine leadership qualities of being receptive to how to better serve colleagues, clients or customers from a leadership stance. She points out that research has indicated that women score higher than men in 3/4 of the important leadership competencies that support intrapreneurshi – including taking initiative, motivating and developing others, championing change, collaboration and teamwork, problem-solving and driving results.

Though according to Women Unlimited, Inc, intrapreneurship requires two sides – both the intrapreneurial mindset and an environment that is ready to support it (and from that individual).

Organizational characteristics conducive to supporting intrapreneurism include:

  • Regularly soliciting new ideas and input from employees at all levels
  • Ideas incentive funds
  • Fostering inter-departmental collaboration
  • Monitoring customer opinions relevant to products and services
  • Creating an environment where employees are free to speak up
  • Setting aside an in-house venture capital fund
  • Rewarding innovative ideas monetarily
  • Holding training and immersions to encourage and spark employee creativity
  • Encourage fun, creativity and innovation in the environment

How many women of color have left the corporate workplace for entrepreneurialism because they did not find an environment which was prepared to fully include their intrapreneurial mindset? An important part of encouraging an intrapreneurial mindset is that individuals are validated and rewarded for what they bring forward.

And sometimes, as Claudia Vazquez, Founder of elevink told us, it requires refusing to let go of the vision, and waiting for new opportunities and new angles, or even new contexts, to drive ahead.

Cultivating Creativity For an Intrapreneurial Mindset

While there are many components to an intrapreneurial mindset, and not everyone wants to take up that role, it’s possible to build up the qualities that support it.

Some playful advice for improving the muscle of your creative intelligence to support your ability to cultivate an intrapreneurial mindset includes:

  • Physical agility: Move your body and make changes in your physical environment when you feel creatively stuck.
  • Emotional agility: Become self-aware of your emotions, as the ability to name and regulate your emotions is tied to creative performance.
  • Mental agility: Embrace the symbiotic relationship in creativity between generating ideas and being able to apply creative thinking to those ideas.
  • Curiosity: A passionate level of curiosity is often required to catalyze the desire to create, so follow the thread of curiosity and nurture it.
  • Self-belief: Valuing your unique perspective and contribution is important to allowing self-belief to build momentum behind your ideas.
  • Intuition: Trusting and validating your intuition and gut instinct – when you know without knowing how you know – is critical in seeing new possibilities.
  • Daydreaming: The productive activity of letting your mind wander is correlated with higher intellect and creative ability.

If you hold an intrapreneurial mindset, embrace it as a leadership asset and find a culture in which you can thrive for your ability to cast your vision above and beyond the day job.

By Aimee Hansen

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