Sheryl Sandberg’s Inspirational 2010 TED Talk

Sheryl Sandberg is not only a power technology executive, the COO of Facebook, Inc., but also one of the leading activists within the industry fighting for women’s rightful place in the executive room. Below is Sandberg’s powerful, inspirational and thoughtful TED talk from 2010.

It is important to note that Sandberg is cautious in her speech about women in the workforce, making it known that it is ultimately up to the women themselves if and how they are to remain in the workforce. This is an important factor to consider, and Sandberg knows that very well.

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Woman in Leadership: Indra Nooyi

Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi has built a career that many people are envious of. One of the most influential women leaders in today’s society, Indra credits much of her success to a tough love atmosphere growing up. Her mother, despite Nooyi’s position running a multi-billion dollar company, affectionately tells her to “leave that damned crown in the garage” when she goes home. Such an outlook on life contributes to some of the best career advice she has to give others.

Embrace Tough Assignments

The woman who ranked at the number 14 position in the 2014 Forbes World’s 100 most powerful women says that the path of least resistance doe not take you to the promised land for any career. Common practice says to take the easiest assignments, and excel at them. This will push you up the corporate ladder faster. Unfortunately for those who have been following this wisdom, the inverse is closer to the truth.

Management and bosses understand when a task is a difficult one, and take note of a good job done on such tasks. By challenging oneself to a more difficult problem, you not only stand out from the crowd, but train yourself for difficult tasks in the future.

It pays to be a contributor to an organization, not just a taker. In order to show those in charge you are worth your weight in gold, it is going to take some elbow grease.

Indra Nooyi has been named one of America’s Best Leaders by U.S. News & World Report in 2008 as well as being elected to the Fellowship of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has ranked on Forbes 100 most Powerful Women in Business seven times, and Fortune’s 100 Most Powerful Women in Business five times.

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Woman in Leadership: Hillary Clinton

From her role as first lady to President Bill Clinton, to now a presidential candidate herself, Hillary Clinton has transformed into a role model for women across the United States. She has showed strong determination, willpower and persistence to get herself where she is today. Hillary likes to look back to her past and reminds herself of the hard times which helped make who she is. She also has a few secrets which she uses to make a great leader.

Be authentic to yourself

Hillary understands that it is very easy to get lost in the bustle of politics and lose focus on what really means a lot to her and go with what is popular. She claims “toughing it out” is important in politics. Being able to face the adversity and hold ground on what you believe is important and will give the general population more of a reason to believe in you and what you are trying to prove.

Communicate to impact and inspire

One staple she believes is important while being a leader is to communicate impactful thoughts and beliefs. Rather than throwing promises and communicating with the wrong demographic, it is important to take the time to focus on the target and positively speak with them and hope they truly understand the viewpoint you are trying to get across while getting them engaged.

Build connections and bridges

An important aspect of leadership with Hillary finds key is being able to build strong bridges and connections in order to gain support and broaden your level of intelligence. This secret is the most difficult to accomplish since it is tough to go out and meet various people and have them have the same viewpoint as you. If you can accomplish this, you can be a great, successful leader.

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Women Leader: Marissa Mayer and Yahoo!

March 8, 2015 marked this years International Women’s Day, a multi-national holiday since the early 20th century. Honoring the women who paved the way for women’s rights, we take a look at yet another woman who has made an impact on the business world by breaking through the glass ceiling. Marissa Mayer is the current sitting CEO of technology company Yahoo!. She has been at the helm of the company since 2012, attempting to reinvent the crippled structure of the business. Making her way from search engine and technology pioneering firm Google, Mayer held an executive, usability leader and spokesperson position for years prior to Yahoo!.

Since beginning her career, Mayer has an ambition that knows no limits. The 20th employee at now gigantic Google, she was not comfortable in just building a radically new business and powerhouse. She found her next undertaking in Yahoo! and their struggling platform. Search and media has become out of touch for the once dominant site and she was enthusiastic about pulling this staple of the internet back up to its appropriate perch. She has pursued its reinvention by acquiring the likes of Tumblr, as well as employing high profile journalist, Katie Couric. Her constant vision for capturing the young target market has led her to place conduites on apps such as Snapchat where users can see the latest news from the desk of Katie Couric, for deeper insight viewers will visit the site. This type of cerebral marketing and broad spectrum touch points may prove to be what it takes to pull Yahoo! out of the dog house. While stock prices have not been too kind to the firm, her strategic mind is always planning the next move with a cool confidence that is enviable.

A mom and a CEO, Mayer has set the bar for how young women see women in business. She is breaking down barriers by showing her taste for fashion, innovative thinking, and caring for her child. The balance between all three is a sight to cherish, as young girls who know who Marissa Mayer is can envision what it will be like to run a bigtime Silicon Valley company and raise a family.

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Oprah’s Road To Success

Everyone knows Oprah. No matter where you are in the world, everyone has heard of Oprah Winfrey in one way or another. Many of these people do not understand or know how Oprah came to be. Nothing was handed to her, it was hard work and determination that got her to where she is today.

Growing up, Oprah lived with her grandmother since her parents were only teenagers at the time. This lasted until she was the age of six, when her grandmother passed away and when she moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin with her mother. While with her mother, Oprah rebelled as she transitioned into a teenager. She acted just as any other teenager, running away from home, breaking her things to get newer things, and even getting pregnant at the age of fourteen, even though the baby sadly passed away at birth. With her mother being fed up with Oprah, sent her to Nashville, Tennessee to live with her father. This move was a turning point for Oprah as she found herself in Tennessee.

When Oprah arrived to Nashville she found, unlike her mother, her father was very strict and made sure Oprah focused on school and going to college. This push by her father helped Oprah become an honor roll student, and help mold her into the social butterfly she is today. Her grades and outstanding ability to speak publicly earned Oprah a scholarship to Tennessee State University. At TSU, she blossomed in her communications program which landed her jobs on talk shows, radio shows locally and shortly after in Chicago.

Her success while working for a talk show in Chicago came quick. Before anyone knew what had hit them, the station changed the name of the show to the ‘Oprah Winfrey Show.’ She went on to own her own magazine, talk show and even book club. But her most impressive accomplishment was after she earned success.

Oprah always gives back to her communities and to the less fortunate who are going through the same struggles she had gone through. She built schools, programs, and donated money to various foundations. Her biggest accomplishment in her mind was when she started a school in Africa called the Oprah Leadership Academy. Her hopes are that the girl’s in the academy will become Africa’s and the worlds future. Oprah continues to help the less fortunate and ultimately hopes to see a change.

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Leda Braga A Top Hedge Fund Manager

Hedge funds have long been run by a mostly male majority but to kick off the year 2015, we have seen one woman take over a well known, large firm. Leda Braga takes the reigns at Systematica Investments after she left her long time European firm, BlueCrest Capital Management. Braga will be managing $8.5 billion, a figure similar to what she managed at BlueCrest. This will make her the most influential female manager in charge of her own firm.

Systematica ranks among the top 100 hedge funds by assets. Well known funds are managing $18.3 billion (Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management), $16.5 billion, (Dan Loeb’s Third Point), $10 billion (Larry Robbins’ Glenview Capital Management).

Braga is a 48 year old Brazilian who has climbed the financial latter quickly using her elite business practices. A recipient of an engineering Ph.D. from Imperial College London, where she also lectured, Braga worked at JP Morgan Chase as an analyst on their derivatives research team. She joined the BlueCrest ranks in 2001 after a short tenure at Cygnifi Derivatives Services, and by 2004 she was managing the firms largest fund named, Bluetrend. BlueTrend manages futures of stocks, currencies, bonds, and commodities by looking for trends within each respective market.

Her qualifications for her new title comes from BlueTrend’s success and growth. It is now a sub $8 billion fund while averaging 11.2% net increase in fees over the 10 year span from 2004 to 2014. This beat the Absolute Return Managed Futures Index over the 10 year period, beating their 4.91% growth.

Her position as the top woman hedge fund manager marks her as a force to be reckoned with in the investment world. It will be a pleasure to watch Braga continue to succeed in her profession and prove there is no limits to what women can achieve.

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Reframing Gender Issues in Corporations

Companies with a gender-balanced leadership team are way ahead of those that are not.

Worldwide, sixty percent of university graduates are women.  In the United States, women under the age of thirty out earn their male counterparts.  As a result, forty percent of American households can label the woman as their main source of income; therefore, it is unsurprising that women are often the decision maker on purchasing consumer goods.  Despite all of these statistics, women remain underrepresented in senior level positions in corporate America, according to an article recently completed by the Harvard Business Review.

There is a decided split to be addressed—women’s potential on the one hand, and their relative absence from the highest levels of business on the other. As a result, it can be the easy approach to continue to insist that the process is unfair and unequal, that women are simply disregarded in the process of hiring for senior levels.  This can often lead to the assumption that women who don’t make it to the top must be doing something wrong.

The article offers a solution to this assumption and conflict0.  Instead of focusing on the issue as a lingering women’s problem or an issue of equality, choose instead to view the issue as a massive business opportunity.  Don’t fester on the problem; seek solutions instead, such as roadmaps to businesses that are better balanced, arguments that help companies and managers understand and benefit from shifting global gender balances.  As a result, the discussion will veer away from what is wrong with women who didn’t make it to the top to focus on analyzing what is right with companies and leaders that do build gender balanced leadership teams.

Focusing on these teams will draw attention to the healthy mode of competition that results to a properly gender balanced leadership team.  According to the article, gender balance delivers better and more sustainable performance.  Research shows that companies with more gender-balanced leadership teams out-perform those with less.  Essentially, seeking gender balance in leadership teams will put a company decades ahead of its competition; while skeptics will spend another decade resisting this fact, the best leaders will charge forward, armed with the information.

 

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