When Women Take the Lead

Week this week by Bloomberg's Area and Cohen. It was about how to get more women in leadership roles, and it basically just said, what you're considering individuals for leadership roles, consider everyone to be a candidate unless they opt out, basically saying that Katie, a lot of women don't put themselves forward because they just don't think they have the skills or that they're up to it. Yeah, it was a fantastic uh story to read, and it makes a lot of sense to the Really, you should just be

considering everyone. Every one's fair game, right, open up the pool, all right, So getting to those positions that's one struggle. Another one is thriving in a leadership position once you get there, And that's where our next guest comes in. Back with us is Janet um Foundy. She is executive director at the of the Board at the Deloitte US excuse me. On her book, it's called Arrive and Thrive.

Seven Impactful Practices for women navigating leadership, and she joins us on the phone own in Europe, Janet, nice to have you back with us. Tell us about the premise of this, because it is true like women, you know, once they get there, that's one struggle, but then it's like figuring out the position and navigating through that leadership position. So Carol and Katie, thank you so much for having me.

And it's truly a pleasure to be back, and you're helping me conquer my newly found jet lag as I'm traveling against. So we did no, no, no, it's perfect. Actually, you know, there is so much written about how women get to leadership, and I actually loved your your your comments about the story around really widening the aperture of who you think could be a leader. There's not enough conversation about how women can be both successful and happy

personally once they're there. So there's a lot about arising and not as much about thriving. So we took a giant step back and had some amazing conversations with leaders um and came up with sort of a set of super practical lived experiences that have generated stories and research and tools that have allowed us to I hope lay out a really good set of practices and ideas and conversation starters for women as they talk about thriving once

they've arrived in leadership. Well, Janet walked through some of those practices because you you identify and bullet point seven of them we do so UM, it's a it's a lot to spin through on the fly. UM. What sits at the absolute center is UM is really knowing your absolute best self UM and really getting sort of confident in who you are and and what makes you you. UM. We talk about courage, We talk about being an inclusive leader.

We talked about the building healthy teams, authenticity, maybe my favorite, which is inspiring a bold vision, UM, and courage. So we've got UM seven things that are very interrelated and very intertwined that we think are absolutely UM critical as you think about being UM, thriving and being productive when you're there. Well, and it's interesting you talk about these seven actionable practices, and I do wonder you know, you talked about, you know, investing in your best self authenticity.

Is there one or two that you think might surprise our audience about what you need to be thinking about as a woman And and well, let me actually take a step back, if I make because I was thinking about this when I knew you were coming on, and I was looking at the book. You know, why is it that we need a book on women navigating leadership?

What's so sex specific about that? Like I, I can't wait, Janet for the time where we just talk about leadership and we don't have to talk about men and leadership and what they need to do versus women in leadership, you and me both UM and actually I think I think a lot of this, and I've been in some great conversations, is highly relevant to men as well. But we did want to til as the conversation to women.

We certainly know, and I know you've reported on UM the absolute steps backwards we've taken in the pandemic in terms of women advancing their careers, given all the responsibilities that they have. We know that women are often stepping into mail dominated environments, and we wanted to really bring a lens to the conversation that would help them think about, um, what would help them be great leaders through through a

lens of being a woman. But I think you'll find that much of his really practical advice for all leaders as well. And Janet, you brought up the pandemic and I want to build on that because that's something I think about a lot. How just the past two years working from home, trying to return to the office. Now you know a lot of places putting in place a hybrid model. UM. I mean, how do how does that

factor into this conversation? End end your book? How do how does this change strategies from what we might have been talking about two years ago, for example, or more than two years ago. Yeah, so yeah, right, times flying by there. UM. A couple of things in the book

that I think are are tied into this conversation. Maybe at the top of the list is authenticity and amazing conversations UM in and around authenticity, And I do think the pandemic has shined a very different spotlight UM as our living rooms have turned into conference rooms in and around authenticity and frankly helped advance the conversation or an

authenticity in in a really meaningful way. I also think that resiliency and adaptability certainly has been tested in all of us in UM two levels that I don't think any of us expected in the pandemic. And I actually think the strength that we can build on both of those attributes and practices um as we have a return to whatever the next normal is is a place will actually, I actually think can be an accelerant for women because those two topics um are places where we I think

developed more strength over the last couple of years. I love the one cultivated courage commit to action alongside with your fear, your fear alongside your fear of doing so. I mean, this is something you know, it's interesting. You know a lot of you read lot of books um about entrepreneurs, Male entrepreneurs, you start a company, I mean, they break things up, they mess it up, it's uncomfortable,

but they're revered for it. Is that part of what you're saying for women in terms of leadership, that they need to do something similar. So maybe I just touched on two quick things around courage. I actually think the thing for women as they really as we push our collective boundaries around courage is acknowledging when you don't know and having the courage to ask for help. And I think that is a place where all leaders can learn and grow. But I think women in particular, I think

we really need to push ourselves to that end. But we talk also about inspiring a bold vision and to your point of sort of getting in the soup, we're getting in the mass. You know. I think a lot of women think that you have to wake up in the morning with the brilliant new idea um to inspire a vision, and are are so anxious that if they're not the person that wakes up with that lightning bolt with a new idea. But I and we really believe

that creating a vision is often about listening. It's about connecting the dots, is looking for the white space and then being able to really clearly articulate where you think the organization, the team, um, the business needs to go. So those are two threads of things, right, I think tie into that conversation well and certainly a subject that we talk a lot about it in some sound advice. UM. Janet, thank you so much, really appreciate and thanks for staying up.

I'm glad able to help a little bit with your jet lag. Janet Foudy she's executive chair of the board over at Deloitte US. Her new book is Arrived and Thrive, Seven Impactful Practices for Women Navigating Leadership, and she did join us on the phone,