Issue 248 — December 18, 2023
Oftentimes well-meaning men ask me how they can help women to advance in their careers.
I answer, “Listen. Just listen.”
Now comes a breathtaking example of what can happen when men don’t listen to women:
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Colleagues, teams, clients, customers and mentees are looking to leaders now for direction in difficult global times. The words and phrasing all leaders and managers use in every discussion at work and in public statements are of crucial importance. Reactions can lead to firings, resignations—or support.
Care and fairness is critical. This is where leadership can shine or dissolve.
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Issue 247 — December 11, 2023
“I never doubted that equal rights was the right direction. Most reforms, most problems are complicated. But to me there is nothing complicated about ordinary equality.” — Alice Paul, suffragist leader and author of the Equal Rights Amendment, which a century later still is not published into the U.S. Constitution.
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It’s holiday party time at work.
If you are spending your days in an office, or you are going in from your remote office for the special in-person occasion of a year’s end celebration, there will be an abundance of buffets, holiday treats and goodies.
That can be wonderful and it can also be dreadful, particularly if you are labelled as overweight, a person in a larger body and fatshaming, fatphobia and sizeism are prevalent in your workplace culture. Subtle or overt comments such as, “Thats a full plate!” or “Why not try the fruit instead of the cookies?” may make anyone want to opt out of any celebration.
Sizeism is defined as bias or discrimination against an individual based on their weight or size. Women and weight is a toxic workplace stew with millions affected.
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Z friend was recently agonizing to a handful of us at a party about her great job offer in the company where she has worked for seven years. The offer included a title promotion, raise, cost of living expenses, global travel and high visibility.
What was the problem?
She would have to move almost immediately to New York from Chicago, a city where she enjoyed her personal and professional life with a great apartment, positive workplace culture plus family and friends close by.
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Issue 246 — November 27, 2023
No doubt you have noticed that Giving Tuesday 2023 is today, November 27. I’m challenging you to share what’s on the shirt of your convictions about women’s leadership.
My personal favorite shirt is historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s well-used quote, “Well behaved women rarely make history.” But today I’m wearing the shirt designed by Michael Stars for this Giving Tuesday.
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More women give. But women give less. And the causes and organizations strictly benefiting women and girls receive a tiny percentage overall. That needs to change.
Yes, women are more frequent givers, as 65 % of donors on GivingTuesday are women, according to Forbes. But the sites and causes that cater to women and girls earn less than 2% of all donations in the U.S., according to Philanthropy Women.
Why the disparity?
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Entrepreneurship is a dream that many individuals desire to pursue for a variety of reasons, from acting on a passion project to leaving a job that no longer aligns with their career goals. After the pandemic, entrepreneurship boomed – with women having a major part in leading that charge.
Female entrepreneurship, from startups to buying existing businesses, has continued to change the business world landscape, and women taking the entrepreneurial charge has been the biggest difference between 2019 and 2023 business rates.
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Issue 245 — November 20, 2023
Scrolling social media, as I do far too much, I saw this post:
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We can always use a new book, life approach, history lesson, toolkit or bible of strategies to improve ourselves and how we think and behave as leaders. Reading and learning is what great leaders do.
At a time when books and the prohibition of books makes news across the country, it is necessary to maintain reverence for books as a way to create, recreate and reimagine our lives.
Pink knows books are essential gifts to ourselves, our children and all others as she announced recently she is giving away thousands of banned books at her concerts, in cooperation with PEN America and poet laureate Amanda Gorman.
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Sometimes it is impossible to keep calm and carry on.
With so many affected by catastrophes globally, nationally and locally that are top of mind, as well as additional personal considerations and tolerated toxic behaviors, learning how to effectively handle the impact on yourself, colleagues, clients and customers is a necessary skill.
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You might call it Ellevator’s elevator speech.
Ayesha Whyte, founder and CEO of Ellevator, a private membership organization designed to enhance the skills and opportunities for women of color, says, “We don’t want to look back and see a gap because no one helped move women along.”
Since its launch last month, Whyte says she wants members to know, “There is a place for you if your heart is in nonprofit or corporate. We wish we would have had something like this.“
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