Category: Lean In

Aspire to Lead

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7WTxDstUIQ

This is fantastic video on female leadership and confidence. I watched this web cast, live with thousands of others across the world- very exciting as we run up to International Women’s Day 2015.

The panel featured ‘The Confidence Code’ authors – Katty Kay and Claire Shipman, Eileen Naughton – Managing Director of Google UK and Ireland and Mike Fenlon PwC’s Global and US Talent leader.

This webcast is worth watching as it talks about:

  • the importance of risk taking
  • the benefits of taking action versus over-analysing,
  • how to build your own authentic confidence code,
  • how central it is to support others even if that means saying whats needs to be said
  • and finally do things even if you feel afraid.

There is plenty more -really insightful stuff.

Enjoy!

Carrie Green – The Confident Mindset

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What is it about:

In this video Carrie Green the founder and owner of the Female Entrepreneur Association gives an energetic talk on achievement. Broadly, from Carrie’s point of view, success is achieved by design, by (re)programming your mind.

How is this different?
Carrie is an inspiring and award winning Entrepreneur  that offers lessons from her own life. She started her first  successful businesses at 19 and went on to found the Female Entrepreneur Association. So she has walked the talk. As Carrie describes her entrepreneurial journey, we get some insight into the challenges she faced. Important for us, Carrie also talks about the strategies she used to achieve her own success, on her own terms.

How it can help
There are some great every day tips for ‘getting out of your own way’ in this video. In this talk Carries takes you through what I would call as self mastery or self leadership strategies. To use Carrie’s own words, you will lean  about the  ‘power of your mind’ to empower you to achieve your goals. Her top tips are:
• The importance of getting clear about what you want. Crystal clear.
• Challenge your self limiting beliefs as they happen.
• Daily positive visualisation

For more info check out her website here: www.femaleentrepreneurassociation.com

Enjoy!

Women in Tech: Lessons from Silicon Valley- a leadership event and reflections on serendipity

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What is it:

This last post of 2014 is about the power of serendipity. I went to an event in November titled Women in Tech: Lessons from Silicon Valley. The event brings together a range of executives to the UK to talk about their experiences in the work place. The speakers were:
• Megan Smith, U.S. Chief Technology Officer and Assistant to the President

• Margaret Gould-Stewart, Director of Product Design, Facebook

• Angela Lin, Head of YouTube Education, Google

• Catherine Mohr, VP of Medical Research, Intuitive Surgical

• Crystal Hutter, Founder & CEO, Edmodo

• Liz Dickinson, Founder & CEO, MIO

How is it different?:

It was an inspiring event, as it gave you access to people you don’t normally get to meet every day. All on the panel were very candid. The panel spoke about insights they had learnt on their career journey, their lessons as well as advice they wish they had known early on.

How can it help?:

I said this post was about the power of serendipity and I’m going to tell you about that now. When I went to the talk the speakers on the panel shared lots of interesting lessons and even more so in the after drinks session where you could talk to them one on one. For instance one of the speakers recommended a book on the growth mind-set (I did a review here). This isn’t a book I had come across before and I have done a lot of reading on the topics of personal development! Even though these individuals may feel superhuman, through power of networking, I myself learnt lots of new ideas. Very helpful. Even powerful. Its an endorsement of placing networking high on your to do list for 2015.

Enjoy networking and serendipity in 2015!

The Women in Tech: Lessons from Silicon Valley, was a Leadership event. The talk was part of a series called Silicon Valley comes to the UK. More details can be found here.

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How to get the most out of high stakes situations

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What is this about?

This is the final contribution to the theme of productivity this October. We will look at a book that helps you get the most out of high stakes situations. The book is called Gravitas by Caroline Goyder. In short Caroline will help you own the room in a variety of anxiety inducing social situations.

How is this different?

I really like the non prescriptive style of the author. Caroline sets out a range of tools and, encourages you to pick out the ones that fit best. This relaxed approach helps you get the best from yourself.

How it can help

This is a mini voice coach in your pocket. Its practical and easy to read. The book will talk you through the features of Gravitas step by step. As a bonus, Caroline provides situation specific tips such as interviews, presentations and talking on TV. A real gem.

Caroline recently did a talk at Ted X Brixton. Check her out here when the video goes up.
You can also get her book on amazon.

Enjoy!

 

Make a change in our body to have a more positive outcome

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What is it
In the last post Sheryl called us to action, to ‘lean in’. Well, I think that it can be quite tough to one day, to decide to well, ‘lean in’. So in todays talk  I highlight the work of Amy Cuddy a researcher at Harvard. Amy I think, provides some helpful tips for our leadership journey by showing us, how we can generate confidence in ourselves.

How is it different
Amy talks about how non verbal communication can influence how we think. The talks shows the evidence behind our ability to generate our own confidence, improve our thinking and increase our optimism. Amy tells us that if we make a subtle change in our body , we can have more positive behavioural outcomes. Amy also talks from experience. This isn’t a purely academic talk. So watch out for the heartfelt personal story of  ‘impostor syndrome’ at the end.

How it can help
Amy provides the top tip to exude confidence for those all important events such as job interviews. Amy shows us how to stand in a high power pose  (check out the video), which essentially is open body language (in contrast to folding yourself up and making yourself small).  When you hold this pose for two minutes you become more assertive, confident and comfortable as opposed to stress reactive. So don’t hunch over your notes before a job interview.

Enjoy and get posing!

‘Lean in’ and Lead

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What is it
This is a talk by Sheryl Sandberg – Chief Operating Officer at Facebook and, is quite a famous talk now. Sheryl talks about how lucky we are as women given the progress been made on gender equality. But, and a big but. The numbers tell us that women are not making it to the ‘top’,  the leadership levels, anywhere. She asks how do we fix this? How do we change these numbers at the ‘top’.

How is it different
To change the stats, Sheryl wants us to focus on what we can do as individuals. What messages we tell ourselves. This for some is a controversial statement given the role structure plays in inequality. Sheryl takes a decidedly different tact and chunks the equality challenge down a couple of notches. She does this by asking what practical steps women can take in their day to day lives to become leaders. This talk is different for me because, rather than just talking about the problem, she also talks bout what she sees as the solution.

How it can help
Sheryl calls women at work to action- to aim for the stars, to ‘lean in’. To push ourselves. She breaks down ‘leaning in’ into three aspects:

  1. Sit at the table – no one gets the promotion if you don’t own or understand your successes.
  2. Make your parter a real partner – make equality in the home a priority. Share the responsibility. (It also leads to happier marriages according research she cites).
  3. Don’t leave before you leave- when you decide to be a mother. Don’t stop going for the promotion. Keep striving. Remember, to leave your child at home, your job better be worth it.

Enjoy leaning in!