Falling Off The Ladder: Do Women “Shoot Themselves In The Foot”?

ladder.jpgby Anna T. Collins, Esq. (Portland, Maine)

Women are employed at higher levels today than ever before, but some are still struggling to stay up at the top of the ladder of success. While experts agree that gender bias remains a force to be reckoned with, some say that women may have another enemy in the workplace: themselves.

Jo Miller, CEO of Women’s Leadership Coaching Inc. in California believes that the most rampant behaviors preventing women from breaking into positions of leadership include refusing to acknowledge or “play the game” of office politics, relinquishing power and influence, working when they should be schmoozing, accepting low-visibility assignments, and downplaying accomplishments.

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Inform, Inspire, Persuade: Communicating Effectively with Clients and Peers

NancyDuarte_HeadShot_1_.jpgContributed by Nancy Duarte of Duarte Design

No matter how profound a presentation’s message is, it can be lost in a moment – buried beneath a web of uninspiring imagery and the monotonous recital of text on a slide. Many of us will be required to make a visual presentation at some point, but unlike verbal communication, which is practiced from day one, thinking visually isn’t easy, natural or commonly taught in schools or business programs.

The quality of your presentation depends on interaction – the interaction you have with your slides, and the interaction between your audience and the message you are attempting to deliver. If you merely stand and read bullet points, your audience will likely be disengaged. If you speak in concise terms while your slides are cluttered with text, your audience will be torn between listening and reading, and most likely won’t give either very much attention. As the presenter, the quality of your presentation is your responsibility, and learning to create visual stories that connect with your audience is imperative – especially in consideration of increasing competitive pressure on a global scale.

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Pink Slips

pinkslip.jpgContributed by Amy Dorn Kopelan, Co-Creator of The Guru Nation

At the recent CEO summit I produced in Canada, one of the women directors admitted to me that she was mortified when she was handed a pink slip and went to hide in the Ladies Room so no one would see her cry. She left the company at the end of the day, but before exiting, quickly signed the severance agreement given to her by an HR manager. She did not address her team nor did she say goodbye to her colleagues. She was just so embarrassed by the situation.

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Women Who Make It Work: The Secrets of Success for Female Leaders

ALMbookpic.jpgContributed by Alison Maitland, journalist and co-author of “Why Women Mean Business“

Amid the mass job cuts and wall-to-wall gloom, it’s a welcome relief to hear some positive stories about successful women.

Typically, such stories take the form of interviews with CEOs or entrepreneurs whose careers may or may not resonate with other ambitious women. Bring together the success tips of nearly 600 women, and you have a feast of ideas on which everyone can feed.

That’s what Aspire, a UK coaching and leadership development company for senior women, has done in its latest survey, Women Who Make It Work: The secrets of success for female leaders.

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Managing Email Overload

emailinbox.jpgby Liz O’Donnell (Boston)

A strategic planning executive starts her day by opening her inbox and sorting all of her emails alphabetically. She answers messages from her boss first, followed by emails from the company’s management team and then she responds to everyone else in the organization. The whole process usually takes the first two hours of her day.

A former vice president in a technology firm, used to spend her day running from one client meeting to the next. “I was never at my desk,” she says, “but I felt compelled to answer every email I received within twenty-four hours.” She spent most of her evenings answering emails until 10 or 11 at night.

These two women could save time and increase their productivity if they knew a little secret about email: You don’t have to clean out your inbox.

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Rexify Me: The Art of the Unforgettable Presentation

mircrophone.jpgby Heather Cassell (San Francisco)

As a little girl, Carmen Taran, Ph.D. was already on her way to being an in demand global keynote speaker and teaching corporate executives how to communicate on multiple platforms. Taran’s first audience was 12 dolls, which were very hard to come by in communist Romania, where she grew up.

“I had these 12 participants daily,” said Taran, a former AT&T research and development manager. “They were very punctual and, unlike today’s groups, they didn’t talk back,” she laughed.

Taran is the co-founder of Rexi Media and author of Better Beginnings: How to Capture Your Audience in 30 Seconds, the first book out of the Rexify series released in October. She, along with her business partner, Danielle Daly, a former Adobe Systems Incorporated technology sales and business developer, recently sat down with The Glass Hammer in a coffee shop in San Francisco’s Ferry Building.

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Elevator Speeches: Not Just for Elevators

elevator.jpgContributed by Emily A. Donahoe of www.womenspeaktraining.com


An Elevator Speech is defined as a persuasive, “call-to-action” presentation that is 30-60 seconds in length and approximately 100-150 words. The origin of its name is self-evident; it can be delivered, effectively, in the span of a typical elevator ride.

Elevator Speeches (also called Elevator Pitches) are all the rage these days in communications training and for good reason; these mini-presentations are fairly easy to construct and to deliver, and pack a powerful punch. Not limited just to entrepreneurs pitching to potential investors, these speeches can serve as compelling and competitive means of self-advocacy across several channels of communication for a variety of agenda and target audiences. Elevator Speeches can be used as a networking tool, a sales pitch, in a job interview or to promote a special event or project.

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5 Easy Ways to Beef Up Your Linked In Profile

womencomputer.JPGby Cindy Kraft, the CFO–Coach

There is no question that social and business networking sites provide a wealth of prospects for recruiters who are sourcing passive candidates (prospects who are employed, top talent, and open to hearing about new opportunities). Jason Blessing of Taleo, a leading eRecruiting software company, says, “I’ll be stunned if 20–50% of candidate referrals aren’t coming through online communities in five to six years.” I’m stunned he thinks it will take that long. The recruiters I talk with are big fans of Linked In and Facebook as a premier recruiting strategy for the highly desired passive candidate.

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Be a Productivity Role Model

calendar.JPGContributed by Laura Stack of www.TheProductivityPro.com

Have you ever taken an honest look at how you are perceived around the office? Your behavior, attitude, and reputation play a huge role in how you interact with coworkers and subordinates. Others may listen to you because of your job title, but if that’s the only reason, you have a serious problem on your hands.

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The Seven Biggest Opportunity Blockers in Career Development

roadblock.JPGContributed by Ari L. Kaplan, Esq.

Just as superheroes have their arch enemies, opportunity makers have their career blockers. Individuals motivated by possibility and inspired by their peers can be stifled in their efforts, whether they are related to business or career development, by a few key characteristics that have varying degrees of influence. Purge them at the right times and success will be much easier to capture and maintain.

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