Key Leadership Skills for Women Leaders - Your Career Intel

Key Leadership Skills for Women Leaders - Your Career IntelDo women and men lead differently? The answer is an unequivocal yes, according to Sharon Hadary, the founding executive director of the Center for Womens Business Research and Laura Henderson, the founder of Prospect Associates, a $20-million health communications and biomedical research firm. For mora than two decades, Hadary and Henderson have conducted research into how women lead to understand and how women leadership skills position top-achieving women for success.Consider the following from Hadary and Hendersons research Pepperdine University has tracked the performance of Fortune 500 companies for the last decade companies with women in leadership report better financial results than those with fewer women leaders. Harvard Business School reported that peers, bosses and associates rate senior women executives 10% higzu sich as leaders than male senior executives. Credit Suisse found that women on their boards outperfor m those with all-male boards.So, what is it that makes women leaders so effective and how can women better cultivate their leadership skills? Based on thirty years in corporate America and nearly two decades of experience recruiting highly talented women leaders, I recommend the followingInvest time in consultation and collaboration. Women are naturally better at collaboration and consultation, according to Hadary and Hendersons research. The most successful female leaders foster an inclusive company culture where all employees feel that their ideas are valued and respected.Build exceptional teams. The best leaders are not afraid to surround themselves with people who are smarter or more talented in a specific field. Assemble the best employees possible and nurture a team-oriented approach built on trust, respect and open communication.Be willing to delegate. Accept that its simply impossible to do everything. Trust your team to get the job done and hold them accountable. Never beli ttle team members build morale and loyalty through constructive feedback.Define success on your own terms. Integrate traditional milestones for achievement, like promotions and raises, with less-traditional goals, such as working for socially responsible companies, making a positive community impact, and achieving a personally satisfying work-life balance. Know your personal goals and hold yourself accountable. Dont be afraid to use your own yardstick to measure success and keep yourself motivated to achieve more.Every individual has his or her own unique leadership style. Whether you are a man or a woman, however, cultivating leadership skills that are considered to be traditional female strengths such as collaboration, teamwork, and inclusivity will boost employee engagement and productivity.If you are a woman leader, what leadership skills serve you best in the workplace? I welcome your insights below.

Introvert Quotes on Why Alone Time Is the Best Time

Introvert Quotes on Why Alone Time Is the Best Time Some people thrive in social situations. Other prefer spending time alone or having one-on-one time with close friends.A common misconception about introverts is that theyre shy and quiet. Thats not necessarily true they just find big social interactions somewhat draining, as opposed to extroverts, who enjoy social situations and find them energizing.Introverts can exhibit many personality traits that make them great employees and workers. Theyre often good listeners, and while some can be highly sensitiveas extroverts can be, tootheir ability to think deeply and inwardly allows them to reflect on what they want to do and say. Of course, introverts and extroverts alike have many different personality traits, so you cant apply a one-size-fits-all approach to interacting with them.Here are 15 quotes from famous introverts on why they prefer solitude and how spending time alone helps them cope and recharge.1. I have to be alone very of ten. Id be quite happy if I spent from Saturday night until Monday morning alone in my apartment. Thats how I refuel.Audrey Hepburn2. There is a tremendous difference between alone and lonely. You could be lonely in a group of people. I like being alone. I like eating by myself. I go home at night and just watch a movie or hang out with my dog. I have to exert myself and really say, oh God, Ive got to see my friends because Im too content by myself.Drew Barrymora3. I think a lot, but I dont say much.Anne Frank4. Solitude matters, and for some people, its the air they breathe.?Susan Cain5. Dont underestimate me because Im quiet. I know more than I say, think more than I speak and observe more than you know. Michaela Chung6. I restore myself when Im alone.Marilyn Monroe7. I owe everything that I have done to the fact that I am very much at ease being alone.Marilynne Robinson8. When I am alone I can become invisible. I can sit on the top of a dune as motionless as an uprise of weeds, u ntil the foxes run by unconcerned. I can hear the almost unhearable sound of the roses singing.Mary Oliver9. Solitude has its own very strange beauty to it.Liv Tyler10. As an introvert, you can be your own best friend or your worst enemy. The good news is we generally like our own company, a quality that extroverts often envy. We find comfort in solitude and know how to soothe ourselves.Laurie Helgoe11. What a commentary on our civilization, when being alone is considered suspect when one has to apologize for it, make excuses, hide the fact that one practices it like a secret viceAnne Morrow Lindbergh12. How much better is silence the coffee cup, the table. How much better to sit by myself like the solitary sea-bird that opens its wings on the stake. Let me sit here forever with bare things, this coffee cup, this knife, this fork, things in themselves, myself being myself.Virginia Wolf, The Waves13. I tend to be very self-reliant and private. And I have this history of wanting to wo rk things out on my own and protect people from whats going on with me.Kerry Washington14. Introverts live in two worlds We visit the world of people, but solitude and the inner world will always be our home.?Jenn Granneman, The Secret Lives of Introverts Inside Our Hidden World15. Life isnt about just talking, its about thinking too.?Marie SymeouLooking for something else to share with your introvert pal? Try one of these 27 Best Introvert Memes.