Career Women Coaching

Feminist Consciousness in America

If you ask American feminists who came of age in the seventies they will as often as not tell you that the movement came to political life when Gloria Steinem first said, “If it’s not good for all women, it’s not good for any living thing.”

The struggle for women’s suffrage is known today in the movement as “first wave” feminism, though it’s unlikely that the kind of man who, nearly fifty years ago, paid for the privilege of tweaking cottontails at a Playboy Club had ever heard the term, let alone knew that a second wave was on the way. Not even Steinem knew that at the time.

In England, in route to India at the beginning of 1957, Steinem discovered that she was pregnant by her erstwhile fiancé. She ended the pregnancy when a doctor, at considerable risk to himself, referred her for an abortion, in a country where, as in the United States, abortions were still illegal when the life of the mother was not at stake. The doctor, knowing only that she “had broken an engagement at home to seek an unknown fate,” exacted two promises from Steinem: “First, you will not tell anyone my name. Second, you will do what you want to do with your life.”

For nearly ten years, nobody, not even her closest friends, knew that she had had an abortion. 

At the beginning of “My Life on the Road,” there is a dedication to John Sharpe, the doctor who helped Steinem in London, fifty-eight years ago. “Dear Dr. Sharpe,” it says. “I believe you, who knew the law was unjust, would not mind if I say this so long after your death: I’ve done the best I could with my life. This book is for you.” 

Source: Gloria Steinem: My Life on the Road in The New Yorker, October 19, 2015

It was Gloria Steinem who said, "I've yet to hear a man ask for advice about how to combine marriage and a career."

 

Here are other books focused on---Self-coaching guides for Career Women:

 

Anne-Marie Slaughter: Unfinished Business: Women Men Work Family

 

Pamela Stone: Opting Out?: Why Women Really Quit Careers and Head Home  

 

Sheryl Sandberg: Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead

 

  When Doing It All Won't Do: A self-coaching guide for career women. (ebook edition $0.99, Workbook Edition in paperback $13.41)  

 

   When Doing It All Won't Do: A Self-Coaching Guide for Career Women--Workbook Edition--Paperback $13.41    

Improving the Quality of Your Life   By  Author M.B. Tosi   on April 1, 2013

Every now and then a person runs across a great book that really helps improve the quality of life. This is such a book! Written by top coaches of executive women, Barb McEwen and John Agno, the goal of When Doing It All Won’t Do is to develop solutions and strategies to help women’s lives be easier, richer, happier, and saner.

 

It’s based on the premise that doing it all won’t do. If you are a woman who is weary and stressed and taking on too much and struggling to juggle it all, this book is dedicated to helping you find the enjoyment and satisfaction you expected with your success.

 

Well-organized with real solutions and a helpful workbook section, this book focuses on developing your signature talents to do what you do best, developing a formula for success, and prioritizing your values and goals.  A great read! 

 

 

 

Do women business owners have it all?

This is the question that comes to mind upon reviewing the results of The Business Journals 13th annual SMB Insights segment on women.

In this proprietary study, we gathered data from a national sample of women business owners. Here we share the results and provide key learnings on the following subjects:

• Achieving critical mass

• Making decisions

• Wealth and household incomes

• Striking a "work-values" balance

• Leveraging social media

• Choosing brands for business

• Paying the price of having it all

here's the link to request the report. 

Here are a few self-coaching books especially for career women:

 When Doing It All Won't Do: A self-coaching guide for career women. (ebook edition $0.99, Workbook Edition in paperback $13.41)   

 Women, Know Thyself: The most important knowledge is self-knowledge.  (ebook and paperback editions)   

 Women and Time (ebook and paperback editions) 

How to Become Your Boss’ Secret Weapon

By: Guest Author Jan Jones  www.theceossecretweapon.com 

During promotion for my new book “The CEO’s Secret Weapon How Great Leaders and Their Assistants Maximize Productivity and Effectiveness”, I met an enthusiastic young woman who asked me how she, too, could become a highly effective assistant to a top executive.

Here’s some of what I told her: 

Sweat the Small Stuff

My first boss had a fastidious adherence to procedures, protocols and details that drove me nuts.  But, this pedantic executive was the best thing for my career. His insistence on attention to detail was foundational in my evolution into an exceptional executive assistant.  I embodied the saying “if a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing well.” When I understood what I was doing and why I was doing it, I realized details matter.   

See the Big Picture

Learn to see the big picture.  Do this by listening and absorbing everything you can from your boss and others.  Read everything that comes across your desk. Listen to phone conversations, but keep mum about confidential information. Read up about your industry and business in general. Be informed, so you can connect seemingly unrelated dots.  Have frequent face-to-face communication with your boss to observe body language and other hints that will teach you to “read” situations and know how to deal with them confidently. 

Get the Action Habit 

The best way to learn is to do.  The more you do, the better you’ll get.  Doing builds confidence and you learn to think on your feet. Embrace everything that has the remotest connection to your job that will make you better at it. Don’t hesitate to take on extra projects. There’s no such thing as “it’s not my job”.  Everything of a business nature that involves your boss is your concern.   

Be Generous 

Offer support to team members who need a hand, even if you are buried with work yourself. Share your expertise.  Offer good customer service to people within and outside your company.  Cultivate diplomacy. Be an ambassador for your boss.   

Develop a Reputation for Getting Things Done 

Become a mind reader. Develop your ability to anticipate and stay ahead of the game.  Sharpen problem resolution skills. Complete tasks ahead of schedule. Follow up outstanding matters rigorously and deliver results.   

These habits will see you well on your way to being a vital asset to your boss and get you that all-important seat at the table.

Source: Jan Jones: The CEO's Secret Weapon: How Great Leaders and Their Assistants Maximize Productivity and Effectiveness 

"At the current pace of progress, we are more than 100 years away from gender equality in the C-suite."  Sheryl Sandberg   

Here are some other self-coaching books to get started in shifting gears:

 When Doing It All Won't Do: A self-coaching guide for career women. (ebook edition $0.99, Workbook Edition in paperback $13.41)   

 Women, Know Thyself: The most important knowledge is self-knowledge.  (ebook and paperback editions)   

 Women and Time (ebook and paperback editions) 

 

 

When You Are New

For most of us, the prospect of having to meet new people, learn new skills, and take on new roles provokes uneasy, anxious feelings.  For some, that anxiety escalates into dread, resulting in missed opportunities, disappointment, and failure.

Empowering newcomers to push past their anxieties and take action, "WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU'RE NEW" opens the door to exciting new worlds.  "Put yourself out there, try new things, meet new people," author Keith Rollag, Ph.D., "urges the reader to seek the success, energy, and joy you deserve."

Every time we change jobs, move to new neighborhoods, take new classes, or join new clubs, we find ourselves surrounded by strangers and unfamiliar social situations.  Most of us have had hundreds or thousands of these newcomer experiences in our lifetime.  Occasionally, we might truly embarrass ourselves, or find ourselves snubbed by strangers.  But most of the time, we have a relatively good newcomer experience.

Who needs a personal coach?  Maybe you do--whether you know it or not?

New job. New employer. And new headaches when staffers resist your new approaches. How can you champion enough change to justify your hiring -- without rocking the boat so much that you endanger your career prospects?

Leaders in new positions often fail for a few common reasons: due to unclear or outsized expectations, a failure to build partnerships with key stakeholders, a failure to learn the company, industry or the job itself fast enough, a failure to determine the process for gaining commitments from direct reports and a failure to recognize and manage the impact of change on people.

Onboarding coaching of the newly recruited or promoted executive can turnaround this high rate of failure.

Source: Keith Rollag Ph.D.: What to Do When You're New: How to Be Comfortable, Confident, and Successful in New Situations

 

 

 Can't Get Enough Leadership

 

 Develop Leadership Skills: A Mobile Reference Guide

 

 Ask the Coach 

- See more at: http://www.coachingtip.com/2015/09/why-high-professionals-leave.html

Executive and Assistant Relationship

If you have an exceptional executive assistant, chances are they are already finding ways to maximize their role, and have you humming along like a well-oiled machine.  Congratulations!

Be grateful for your good fortune.  Many executive assistants are looking to take on greater responsibility.  They want a more dynamic role and a chance to show what they can do.  They want job satisfaction.

A story of one assistant taking on greater responsibility:

Her name was Marion Keisker.  She was the tireless assistant and office manager to Sam Phillips, who owned and operated Sun Records.

A shy young man came into Sun Records to record a couple of songs.  Marion got him set up in the studio and halfway through the first side, she got a very strange feeling; literally the hair began to prickle on the back of her neck and she grabbed up a tape and started it.  One thing she remembered Sam saying on many occasions that if he could ever find a white man who sang like a Negro, he could make a million dollars.

The young man took the recording home and Marion took down his address and telephone number and wrote on the paper: ELVIS PRESLEY. GOOD BALLAD SINGER. SAVE.

On July 5, 1954, Elvis, guitarist Scotty Moore, and bassist Bill Black recorded "That's All Right Mama." It was an instant smash when disk jockey Dewey Phillips played it on the radio in Memphis.  In fact, Elvis' music ushered in a cultural revolution that swept the world and inspired the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Bruce Springsteen, and virtually all the famous rock and pop musicians today.  In the 1950s, it was nothing short of revolutionary.

Marion knew what Sam Phillips was looking for before he knew it himself.  Years later, Elvis would be quick to remind anyone who would ask that it was in fact Marion Keisker, not Sam Phillips, who saw his potential.  Through her persistence, Elvis finally got his big break.

Source: Jan Jones: The CEO's Secret Weapon: How Great Leaders and Their Assistants Maximize Productivity and Effectiveness

 

"At the current pace of progress, we are more than 100 years away from gender equality in the C-suite."  Sheryl Sandberg  

 

Here are some self-coaching books to get started in shifting gears:

 When Doing It All Won't Do: A self-coaching guide for career women. (ebook edition $0.99, Workbook Edition in paperback $13.41)  

 

 Women, Know Thyself: The most important knowledge is self-knowledge.  (ebook and paperback editions)  

 

 Women and Time (ebook and paperback editions) 

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(Interview) Deflation: It's Been a Stealth Move

Elliott Wave International's European Financial Forecast Editor discusses deflation

By Elliott Wave International

In this new interview, Elliott Wave International's Brian Whitmer explains the indirect connection between Europe's volatility and deflation. Find out how Brian's advising his subscribers prepare for deflation.

Not familiar with deflation? Learn more about how you can survive and prosper during deflation from the world's leading deflationists -- FREE.

Learn about the Unexpected But Imminent and Grave Risk to Your Portfolio PLUS 29 Specific Forecasts for Stocks, Real Estate, Gold, New Cultural Trends -- and More (excerpted from Prechter's New York Times bestseller Conquer the Crash -- You Can Survive and Prosper in a Deflationary Depression)

Complete your free Club EWI profile to get instant access to this new eBook.

---

This article was syndicated by Elliott Wave International and was originally published under the headline (Interview) Deflation: It's Been a Stealth Move. EWI is the world's largest market forecasting firm. Its staff of full-time analysts led by Chartered Market Technician Robert Prechter provides 24-hour-a-day market analysis to institutional and private investors around the world.

Robert R. Prechter Jr.: Conquer the Crash: You Can Survive and Prosper in a Deflationary Depression 

 

Women on Corporate Boards

More women joined S&P 500 boards during the 2015 proxy year, but at a slowing pace, data from the 30th annual Spencer Stuart Board Index shows.

Thirty-one percent (117) of new independent directors were women, an increase of one percentage point — representing just seven more women than in 2014. Women now represent 20 percent of all S&P 500 directors, compared with 16 percent five years ago yet are underrepresented in leadership roles. Only 16% of nominating committees are chaired by a female director, 13% of audit committees and 10% of compensation committees.  

With turnover of S&P 500 boards averaging about 7 percent annually and women representing less than a third of those new directors, change in the composition of boards is likely to be slow. Lack of director term limits and high mandatory retirement ages contribute to the low turnover.  Only 13 S&P 500 boards, 3%, set an explicit term limit for non-executive directors. Seventy-three percent of boards have a mandatory retirement age for directors. Of those, nearly all, 94 percent, set the retirement age at 72 or older. 

Meanwhile, a survey of corporate secretaries conducted as part of the report shows a decline in the number of boards prioritizing the recruitment of women. In contrast with last year, the percentage of respondents prioritizing the recruitment of active CEOs (65 percent) topped the number prioritizing the recruitment of women (58 percent). In 2014, 71 percent said they wanted to add a woman, while 60 percent said they were looking for an active CEO.   

“Given the current pace of turnover, it will take a long time before we see meaningful progress. Particularly when boards limit the pool of new directors to CEOs, women will have fewer board opportunities,” said Julie Hembrock Daum, who leads Spencer Stuart’s North American Board Practice. “Increasing the presence of women on management teams, corporate boards and board leadership roles requires a multi-front effort. That’s why our work with the WCD Foundation is so important.”

 

"At the current pace of progress, we are more than 100 years away from gender equality in the C-suite."  Sheryl Sandberg 

 

Here are some self-coaching books to get started in shifting gears:

 

 When Doing It All Won't Do: A self-coaching guide for career women. (ebook edition $0.99, Workbook Edition in paperback $13.41) 

 

 

 

 Women, Know Thyself: The most important knowledge is self-knowledge.  (ebook and paperback editions) 

 

 

 

 Women and Time (ebook and paperback editions)