I learned So Much from this book. Below you can see my highlights – all 125+ of them. You should just read the whole book! It can be life-changing for women and great perspective for men.

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http://www.annedoylestrategies.com/poweringup/

Powering Up: How America’s Women Achievers Become Leaders
Anne Doyle

It isn’t until minority voices reach a “tipping point” of one-third representation in groups that they begin to significantly influence outcomes.
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What size stake does a Warren Buffett-size investor or a company need to own in a business in order to make sure that its voice is heard? And listened to? The magic number is thirty-three and one-third percent. While I was working as a communications and governmental affairs executive at Ford Motor Company, that was exactly the percentage of Mazda stock that Ford owned–just enough to influence outcomes–anything lower than that, and you’re truly a minority stockholder.
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Not one is a Queen Bee, which Dr. Julianne Malveaux, president of Bennett College for women describes as, “Women who get some psychic pleasure by being the first and only. Queen Bees don’t give other women a break because no one gave them one, by golly.”9
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Positive social change doesn’t just happen. People have to lead it. People with vision–who can imagine a better future. People with courage–to change the status quo. People with tenacity–to get the job done even when the going gets tough.
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The question is this: is individual achievement enough? If so, the path we’ve been on for nearly four decades is smoothly paved, brightly lit, and
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getting more crowded every year. The only downside is this: it’s a bit like collectively treading water. We’re working very hard, but too few of us are going anywhere we haven’t already been.
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I believe individual achievement is not enough. The human race will never reach its highest potential as long as female leaders are hampered from reaching theirs. It’s time for American women to be on the move again and finally tackle our next frontier: leadership. That path is barely cleared, unmarked, lonely, and sometimes treacherous. There’s plenty of uncharted territory ahead for strivers daring enough to venture forth. What I admire most about Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin and Michelle Obama are two essential leadership qualities they each possess. They are willing to take great risks. And their fierce ambition is fueled by a sense of purpose.
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“Women want leadership served as a gift, presented on a silver platter,” observes Kathleen Ligocki, Chief Executive Officer of Next Autoworks, a new American car company. “Or, they naively believe recognition comes to those who deserve it. Not always,” Ligocki warns. What’s her advice? “You have to fight for what you want.”
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The evidence of how much women want to achieve is now overwhelming. For over four decades, we’ve been breaking barriers and feasting at a banquet of unprecedented opportunity in nearly every arena you can think of. From politics to business, from medical operating rooms to judicial court rooms, accomplished, highly educated, professional women are no longer the exception. Consider a few recent developments: • In early 2010, for the first time, there were more women in the U.S. workforce than men, due in part to significant job losses by men in the predominantly male manufacturing and construction sectors. The number of women who are the primary breadwinners for their families has increased dramatically.8 • Nationally, women have been dominating higher education for several decades. According to data from the U.S. Department of Education, the last time that men earned more master’s degrees than women was 1984-1985. For the graduating class of 2009, here are the stunning facts: Bachelor’s degrees: for every 142 earned by women, men earned 100. Master’s degrees: for every 159 earned by women, 100 were conferred on men. Doctoral degrees: 107 PhDs were earned by women scholars for every 100 by men.9 • The highly respected global magazine, The Economist, made the case nearly five years ago that “. . . women are now the most powerful engine of global growth.”10 • In early 2010, the Pew Research Center reported that a dramatic gender role reversal is underway in marriage, as growing numbers of men are married to women whose income and education exceed their own. The Pew study calls this development “The Rise of Wives.”11
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Regardless of whether huge numbers of educated, accomplished, professional women “opt out” or are systematically blocked out, there’s something very wrong with 51 percent of our citizens only having the influence of a special interest group–in nearly every professional and public arena.
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You don’t believe me? Consider a few myth-busting facts: • The United States ranks 40th out of 134 countries for its percentage of women political leaders in their national legislatures. We lag behind Spain (5), Israel (7), Germany (15), Argentina (20), Uganda (29) and Canada (36), as well as such gender equality luminaries as India (23) and Cuba (24).13 • The presence of women in middle and upper managerial ranks has tripled; we now hold 51 percent of America’s managerial and professional positions. Yet we made almost no progress at the top during the 1990s, according to Catalyst, whose research is considered the “gold standard” on women in corporate leadership. “Women still hold only 15 percent of board positions at Fortune 500 companies and 13 percent of those companies
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Women are nearly 60 percent of all college students, but only 21 percent of full professors. From 1986 to 2006, the percentage of women college and university presidents doubled from 10 percent to 23 percent. However, in recent years, progress has slowed.17
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Of the top 15 media corporations (including print, TV, radio, and online businesses), all CEOs are men, and women hold only 17 percent of the board seats. Since 1977, the majority of college journalism majors have been women; yet articles written by men outnumber those by women by a ratio of 7:1 at our most influential magazines, which help shape our national values and agenda.18
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Even the percentage of women coaching college sports–a leadership training ground–is declining. As coaching salaries for women’s athletics have increased, more men are competing for and taking over those positions. Yet it remains unthinkable for top women coaches, such as Tennessee’s Pat Summitt, the all-time winningest coach in NCAA history, to be even considered for positions coaching men.19
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As the Wall Street Journal reported in May 2008: “Surveys of powerful men feature layers of billionaires, but the most-powerful women surveys are forced to reach down into the
ranks of salaried, upper-level managers to fill the lists.”
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The United States is clearly ready for women leaders–up to a point. But here’s the problem. “This comfort level that Americans express about women in leadership,” says Marie Wilson, president of the White House Project, “is accompanied by the misperception that women are already leading equally alongside their male peers.”
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Why Women’s Leadership Matters Why does the number of women in leadership really matter? It matters because when women are in positions of power: • Priorities are different. Women leaders are more likely than men to address issues that impact the most vulnerable in our societies: women and children. One of the greatest examples of this occurred during the 2009 debate in Congress over health care reform. It was U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland who told her colleagues–and everyone watching on C-SPAN–“For many insurance companies, simply being a woman is a preexisting condition.” • Outcomes are different. An abundance of research, including studies done by Goldman Sachs, Columbia University, and Catalyst, have examined the relationship between bottom line results and women in corporate leadership roles. There is a growing body of evidence that companies with multiple women officers and board directors outperform those with no women. One or two token women in a group aren’t enough to significantly impact strategic conversations and decisions. • Institutions are different. Women impact values and ethics and are much more likely than men to be whistleblowers. Remember Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” in 2002? Instead of one person, it was three courageous women: Sherron Watkins, Cynthia Cooper, and Colleen Rowley–the whistleblowers (when men stayed silent) at Enron, WorldCom, and the FBI.27 In 2010, Time once again featured three women on its cover, calling them “The New Sheriffs of Wall Street.” Of Sheila Bair, Chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC); Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Mary Schapiro; and Elizabeth Warren, who chaired the Oversight Committee for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), Time wrote, “these women may not run Wall Street, but in this new era, they are telling Wall Street how to clean up its act.”28 • Work feels different. Women’s natural collaborative leadership style encourages teamwork and builds morale. Furthermore, brain research confirms that women bring skills–such as a superior ability to read nonverbal signals (emotional intelligence)–that tend to be in short supply in all-male groups. • Possibilities are different. The Diversity Prediction Theorem, developed by academic experts in complex problem solving, has shown that diverse groups nearly always outperform homogenous groups by a substantial margin. “The key is diverse minds,” explains University of Michigan professor Scott Page. When solving complex problems, the diversity of a group matters as much, or even more, than the ability and brainpower of its members. “You want,” Dr. Page contends, “people who categorize things in different ways.” Leadership Isn’t a Job Description, It’s a Risk
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What do I mean by leadership? I mean putting your face into the wind, raising your voice and daring to advocate for fresh perspectives to old problems. It also requires the confidence to take responsibility for others–for those you are asking to follow you and to trust that you know the way. As a friend said to me, “What slows me down when I think about leadership is the risk; the responsibility; the weight of it.”
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As with most worthwhile things in life, becoming a leader isn’t easy. It means exposing yourself to criticism, risking failure, challenging “the way we’ve always done things” and envisioning new possibilities. Leaders must be courageous, passionate and have the ability to inspire others to follow their vision. Instead of simply climbing another rung on the ladder, a leader encourages everyone around her to reach higher, and pushes the edges to find solutions, whether
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The fastest way for women to dramatically increase our leadership influence is for more of us–lots more–to run for office. The Benchmarking Women’s Leadership report explains why. “Women leaders in politics are the most visible manifestation of women’s leadership in our culture. Because they operate in the public eye, they have the potential to transform the perception of women in a far greater sphere than in any other sector.”29
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Within the next decade, we need women decision makers at the highest levels to be as common and expected as women are today in our law schools, medical schools, and business schools.
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We need women on all paths. Not everyone is called to lead. But if you hear that voice inside calling you to dare to lead, to take the risks, to challenge old thinking, and to envision new solutions to long-festering problems, this book is for you.
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Yet rather than feeling connected by our similarities as aspiring women, too often we are fractionalized by mistrust and stereotypes. You know what I’m talking about. The savvy executive who wants nothing to do with those “feminists still carrying chips on their shoulders,” or the fast-track whiz kid who has no patience for working mothers trying to juggle office and family deadlines. Women may bond outside of the office in professional organizations or with parents of their children’s friends, but all too often, we shy away from strong, overt alliances with one another in the workplace. That’s a mistake that men don’t make.
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Each of those remarkable leaders epitomizes the courage, ambition, and sheer mental toughness that characterize this unique breed of American women. Today, most Interlopers are in their 50s and beyond, their resumes heavily sprinkled with the word first. Who are these unconventional and once-considered “uppity” women who chose to follow roads least taken? First of all, they were lucky–lucky enough to come of age at a point in history when a cultural window was opening. Not all women dared or wanted to break out of the gender comfort zones of the 1960s and 1970s, but hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, did. Today, their achievements seem mainstream. For their times, they were extraordinary.
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Unlike women today, who can build their skills and confidence for years before running into serious gender barriers, Interlopers were tested before we had a chance to get our professional sea legs. Right out of the gates, we had to routinely fight for every inch of professional ground we gained.
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Unapologetic discrimination, sexual advances, hostility, and open mockery were all part of the work environment Interlopers customarily faced.
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It’s that Interlopers were usually the first professional-level women most of their male colleagues and supervisors had ever worked with.
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Ironically, the very skills that helped Interlopers succeed are frequently the source of misunderstanding with younger women. Interlopers are often seen as: • Individualists, not team players. In order to break out of the confining gender roles of their times, Interlopers needed to be strong individualists who nearly always had to go it alone. In addition, as pre-Title IX girls, few had
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Men in skirts. First Wave professional women were measured by male standards of dress, professional demeanor, language, and personal style.
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Adapting the navy blue power suit as their uniform, swearing, and telling off-color jokes with the guys were some of the ways many Interlopers tried to fit in. Femininity was a card they rarely played, because misplaying it, even in a light way, could too easily be misinterpreted.
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Too tough. Tested over and over, Interlopers learned to develop a thick skin. That protective layer is often interpreted as rough edges or “having a chip on their shoulders.”
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Not supportive of work/life balance concerns. The concept of achieving a magical “balance” between ambitious career goals and the traditional responsibilities of motherhood and homemaking didn’t occur to Interlopers. Most felt they had to make an either/or choice. They were fighting to prove they could do “a man’s job,”
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What We Can Learn from Interlopers • How to dress to impress. Thanks to John Molloy’s 1975 best seller, Dress for Success, Interlopers learned early to dress for the job they wanted, not merely the one they had.
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A sense of sisterhood.
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True, they had to be strong individualists to break away from expected female roles of the times. But they also felt a strong sense of sisterhood as they worked to open doors for younger women who they knew hoped to follow them.
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The responsibility to give back.
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My challenge to you is twofold: First, take pride in the paths you forged and the foundation you laid for women who followed you. Now, take it up a notch. Run for office. Write a book. Produce a film. Mentor in ways you wish you’d been mentored.
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No one knows better than you that positive social change doesn’t just happen. People with vision, courage, skill, and tenacity must make it happen. You led once. It’s time to lead again.
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If the Interlopers were the Marines establishing the first beachheads of professional opportunity, then the Influential Insiders were the diplomats who followed on their heels.
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Rather than aligning themselves with the Interlopers, whom they often considered too radical, Insiders tended to be more interested in
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fitting in than rocking the boat. They were savvy enough to realize that different skills were needed to get seats at the tables of influence than were required to crowbar open locked doors.
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Insiders weren’t nearly as alone in the workplace as Interlopers had been. They were much more likely to have career role models and were supported with growing social acceptance for their professional ambitions.
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With both academic credentials and ambition, Insiders pushed against glass ceilings with such force that they began to inch upward. Many achieved positions of influence and authority that Interlopers only dreamed about. Today, Insiders are beginning to dominate the innumerable lists of influential women,
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Insiders didn’t feel the need to neutralize themselves as Interlopers often did, leading to the demise of the navy blue power suit as the uniform of an ambitious woman.
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The cohort group of professional American women I call Influential Insiders has often been criticized for reaping the benefits of the heavy lifting done by the generation before them, while not being particularly supportive of other women.
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Perhaps that is because they were often pitted against one another. By the time Insiders were entering the workforce, U.S. corporations and employers in all sectors were beginning to feel the heat from federal government Affirmative Action policies that required them to demonstrate their hiring and employment practices didn’t discriminate against women and minorities. That opened up new opportunities, but only a few. Rather than being considered equally with men for all positions, by the 1980s and early 1990s women often found themselves competing against one another for what was commonly known as “the token woman spot.” Regardless of their shared gender, Insiders were more likely to view other women as rivals for limited opportunities rather than potential allies for mutual advancement.
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Insiders also tend to shy away from publicly aligning themselves with other women and women’s issues.
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Another distinguishing characteristic of Insiders was their determination to prove they could “have it all,” which usually meant doing it all.
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It was the determination of Insiders to find a way to balance the push and pull of career and family that led to work culture innovations such as on-site daycare, job sharing, flexible work schedules, and telecommuting. They also are the group
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most responsible for the dramatic increase we’ve seen in the number of fathers more actively involved with day-to-day parenting and the continued softening of the once rigid gender roles for both men and women.
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Role models. Influential Insiders grew up watching Geraldine Ferraro run for vice president of the United States, astronaut Sally Ride go into space, and tennis champion Billie Jean King defeat Bobby Riggs, the man who had declared to the world that no female athlete could ever defeat a male athlete. Insiders were the first generation of American women to come of age suspecting that they truly could do anything.
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Title IX. Another huge differentiator between Insiders and generations of women before them was Title IX of the Education Act. Passed in 1972, this federal law outlawed gender discrimination in education, including sports.5 In the stroke of a presidential pen, female students had the legal right to participate in sports at every level, from grade school through college.
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“Sports are very mental activities,” she told the young sports reporter. “It takes a lot of planning and decision making. It takes a lot of risk taking and guts. Those are the very words that employers then say, ‘Oh, women don’t have what it takes to get ahead. They don’t take risks. They aren’t competitive. They don’t try hard enough.’ All the very skills that men have been taught through sports. It isn’t that women aren’t that way. It’s that a part of their education has been almost universally cut out.”
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Landmark lawsuits.
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pay and penalties discovered that gender discrimination and sexual harassment could have expensive consequences. It was primarily Interlopers who stood up and publicly challenged discriminatory practices.
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Military service. The military has long been considered an excellent training ground for the development of leaders. For men, that is. It took an Act of Congress in 1975 to open the U.S. service academies, including West Point and Annapolis to women.8
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Professional development resources. Finally, it would be hard to overestimate the value of the wealth of books, workshops, training and individual mentoring specifically tailored for professional women that were becoming widely available as Insiders were coming of age.
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Influential Insiders: Differences that Divide Insiders and Interlopers share all of the fundamental qualities essential for professional achievement: ambition, drive, perseverance, versatility. But the dramatically different work environments and social attitudes they encountered early in their careers created differences that run deep. Here are the two most common criticisms I hear about Insiders: • They separate themselves from Interlopers.
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They are reluctant to lead change. One of the harshest and most common complaints I hear from women of all ages about Insiders is that few of them are willing to be catalysts for change. “I felt I needed to be accepted by the old boys club,” Insider Judith Mühlberg, who rose to executive levels in two very male industries:
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What We Can Learn from Influential Insiders • Diplomacy. One of the keys to Insiders’ success has been their ability to fit in to male-dominated work cultures and work effectively with men as peers. Yes, many were also constantly under the microscope.
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And they’re more likely to have a sense of humor about gender differences.
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Confidence. Interlopers needed courage to tackle the mountains they did, but it was often backed up with more bravado than rock solid confidence. Many Insiders developed true confidence in their own abilities at a much younger age. The opportunity to compete in sports, an abundance of female role models, and growing up in a culture that was beginning to celebrate women spreading their wings all built Insiders’ self-esteem.
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Womaninity.
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A Few Words to Influential Insiders If you recognize yourself in this section, I encourage you to think about what a pivotal role you and your peers are positioned to play in continuing women’s upward momentum.
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If you are in a position of influence, what are you doing to help other women achievers break through to leadership opportunities? Are you a catalyst for work culture changes that reflect the different rhythms of women’s lives? Or are you satisfied to go along with old school attitudes, policies, and practices that continue to waste women’s capabilities?
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Never before has there been a cohort of women so well prepared and perfectly positioned to ascend to leadership in record numbers. I call them the I’ll-Do-It-My-Way Innovators because they have no intention of playing by anyone’s rules but their own. If you are an Interloper or Insider, don’t expect Innovators to wait patiently for promotions, to accept being paid less than their male peers, or to stick around long in work cultures that offer little flexibility for their lives beyond the office.
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Brimming with confidence and high expectations, they are more likely to have multicultural friendships and progressive values about homosexual rights and gender roles. They have little knowledge, however, of how far women have progressed in very recent history.
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Perhaps that’s one reason why Innovators feel little personal connection to the struggles of their more seasoned, professional sisters, be they Interlopers who marched in the streets for the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s or Insiders who still faced widespread bias throughout the 1980s.
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Forces that Shaped Them Just as Interlopers and Insiders were shaped by the cultural forces and attitudes at work during their coming of age years, Innovators are reflections of the cultural forces shaping their generation. Their attitudes, values, and behavior have been heavily influenced by: • Technology, technology, technology.
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This has given them a window on the world that has no geographical or cultural boundaries.
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Ethnic and multicultural America.
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Innovators are coming of age in a United States that looks and thinks very differently. As a result, their cultural comfort zones are fluid. They’re more likely to judge people and choose friends based on common interests than previous generations.
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Oversexualization of women. Perhaps it was the influence of Britney Spears, hip-hop lyrics, and America’s obsession with sex. Or maybe it was just the cultural pendulum swinging in the opposite direction after several decades of women struggling to be measured by their mental abilities rather than their physical attributes.
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Innovators: • Truly believe that girls rule. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Newsweek magazine reported that large numbers of young American women never jumped on the Hillary Clinton bandwagon. Innovators are used to being equally influential with their male peers in shaping the arenas they’ve competed in. This gives them a strong sense of entitlement to an equal share of the spoils of professional competition. Only an Innovator would write, as the young author of the Newsweek article did, “A female president does not seem like change.”
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Are both androgynous and overtly sexual. Innovators feel little conflict between their ambitions and their gender, as evidenced by the cleavage they so often display during business hours. Because they don’t carry the weight of limiting stereotypes of the past, they tend to be much more comfortable with fluid gender roles.
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Will flee work cultures that don’t work for them. Innovators grew up watching their working mothers struggle to do it all, which was nearly always too much. As a result, they have very different expectations of the companies they will choose to work for. Part of a generation accustomed to instant gratification, their expectations are high for money, opportunity, and work environments with social values that match their own. At the same time, they are much less likely than any previous generation to stick around and “pay their dues” in unfulfilling jobs with inflexible career tracks.
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Big ambition, no perseverance. The jury is still out on how hard Innovators will be willing to work to achieve their high career expectations.
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I think they underestimate what is required, the depth and breadth of learning that needs to take place before you are really prepared to move into senior leadership roles.”
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Unable to handle criticism. Often raised by so-called “helicopter parents” who hovered, coddled and built up their self-esteem with oodles of positive reinforcement, few Innovators have grown the Teflon skin that Interlopers and Insiders needed to arm themselves with.
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Naive about gender barriers ahead. Because they are still at the very beginnings of their career paths, where so many women have already smoothed the way, Innovators have rarely encountered gender barriers or experienced the “good old boys club” in action. Not until they reach higher levels, where the financial stakes are so much greater, will Innovators discover that plenty of gender land mines still await. In addition, most have barely begun to face the complexities of family “speed bumps” that slow many a promising woman’s ascent to leadership opportunities.
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Don’t dress for success.
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Even those who are not dressing provocatively are frequently dressing too casually for their ambitions and underestimating the significance of professional attire.
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What We Can Learn from Innovators • Technology skills.
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Mentoring and connecting with other women. This generation doesn’t have the hang-ups that Insiders did about aligning closely with other professional women. They recognize and welcome the benefits of coming together as women, without any concern about jeopardizing their ability to bond effectively with men. They also embrace mentoring opportunities, which are in greater demand than ever.
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Global world view.
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They are much more likely to think globally and are comfortable engaging with diverse people of different genders, cultures, and life experiences. We can learn plenty from Innovators about getting out of our comfort zones and becoming engaged citizens of our complex planet.
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Until you are in charge, I encourage you to remember that you are being evaluated by colleagues and superiors who will measure you by their standards, not yours. Individuality is great. However, don’t underestimate the importance of matching your work ethic, demeanor, and attire to the highest standards of your workplace.
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The more widespread reality, however, is that most women view one another as their primary competition–for everything: men, jobs, the spotlight, you name it. As a gender, we have little concept of a fundamental principal that men figured out centuries ago: teams can accomplish much more than even the most talented individual.
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But here’s the problem: in leadership, as in sports, it takes more than exceptional individual performance for a group to excel. I’m convinced that one–but not the only–of the primary reasons that girls don’t rule and women still do not have appropriate influence and power in shaping our nation and culture comes down to one simple fact: Women haven’t learned that leadership is a team sport.
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When the day finally comes that large numbers of women recognize that we’re all in this together, there will be no stopping us. But right now, three of the biggest reasons that girls still don’t make the rules, let alone rule, are staring right back at us in the mirror. We don’t believe in ourselves. We don’t believe in each other. And we’ve barely begun to pull together to raise our collective game. Leadership is a team sport because it requires both strong individual performance as well as groups of people pulling together in the same direction.
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Women will continue to be leadership underachievers until we stop making the following three critical mistakes: • We eliminate ourselves; • We fail to join team women; and • We play the other guy’s game.
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Mistake #1: We Eliminate Ourselves
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“If you’re not good enough to make the team, get hired for a job you want, or earn the promotion you’re going after, the world will eliminate you. There is plenty of competition out there. But if you never go for it because you think you’re not ready or you’re afraid of being embarrassed if you fail, then you’ve eliminated yourself.”
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Too few of us have the confidence to see ourselves as authority figures.
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similar to lifting weights. The more reps you do, even with small weights, the stronger you get. Yet too many of us are still reluctant to present ourselves as experts for speeches, professional panels and media interviews. We are dramatically less likely than men to negotiate our salaries and ask for promotions. And our widespread tendency to hold back, to wait to be asked, and to allow others (and men are happy to comply) to go first is the primary reason we have so few women in elected office today.
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Buying into pop culture’s prevailing theme–that women’s greatest attribute is our sexual impact on men–is one of the most insidious ways that we continue to eliminate ourselves and allow other women to be eliminated from becoming truly empowered.
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Mistake #2: We Fail to Join Team Women
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three major divides that separate us and dilute our collective power: • The Tribe Divide, • The Color Divide, and • The Mother Divide. Let’s take a look at each.
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G23 funded and published “The 8 Female Tribes that Power the Global Economy,” an unprecedented study of women’s economic lives in 16 countries.5
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That’s the difference. When it comes to business, too few women have learned the fundamental rule: you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. There’s nothing unethical about this. Yet as long as men routinely do business with other men and women are reluctant to be seen as aligning too closely with other women, the status quo will prevail: males will have a major leg up in the rainmaking department and will continue their vice-like grip on the lion’s share of power and influence.
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