Tag: Women’s leadership

How Can More Women Brand Themselves for the Corner Office?

Posted December 8, 2022 by Catherine Kaputa in Branding, Leadership, Women / 0 Comments

 

Women, who hold about 25 percent of leadership roles in Fortune 100 companies, still rarely break into the top three jobs: CEO, president or chief operating officer. Only about six percent of women hold these top three titles, a number that has been flat for two decades.

Women in top jobs tend to congregate in support roles like legal, finance, marketing and human resources.

How can more women break into the top echelon? Here are five moves ambitious women should make to break into the top three jobs from my new book, “The New Brand You: How to Wow in the New World of Work.”

1. Make personal branding a priority: Realize that personal branding is not optional in the new world of work with hybrid, remote and in-office working. It wasn’t easy to be recognized when everyone came to the office in person every day. It’s even more challenging now.


2. Actively seek a role with P&L responsibilities: General managers and positions in operations have profit-and-loss responsibility. It’s the yellow brick road to the corner office and you must take that path if you want one of the top three jobs in the company.


3. Seek out projects in the sight line of the CEO: You must get your work and talents recognized by the right people beginning with the top honcho. Don’t wait to be tapped. Volunteer.


4. Speak up in meetings: It’s not easy when you are in meetings with Alpha. males, but figuring out ways to break through the noise with your point of view is critical.


5. Dress like a CEO in waiting: It may seem superficial, but looking the part is important. Clothes are silent ambassadors who convey power messages about you. Women are scrutinized more than men in terms of visual identity, clothes and hair styles, so let it work in your favor.

Taking these five steps can help women break through the strongest glass ceiling of all?—?the one protecting the top three executive jobs in corporations.

A Star is Born: Amanda Gorman

Posted January 22, 2021 by Catherine Kaputa in Famous People, Personal Branding, Uncategorized / 0 Comments

Best Speaker. Best Message. Best Outfit at the Inauguration 2021

Not just her poem, “The Hill We Climb” had a powerful message, so did her fashion. Her iconic coat was a nod to Jill Biden who invited her, and her ring in the shape of a caged bird, a nod to Maya Angelou. Fashion “it’s my way to lean into the history that came before me and all the people supporting me” (January Vogue interview). 

Not What the Doctor Ordered: Jill Biden Deserves to be Admired, Not Mocked

Posted December 14, 2020 by Catherine Kaputa in Personal Branding, Uncategorized / 0 Comments

The December 11, 2020 Op Ed by Joseph Epstein, “Is There a Doctor in the House, Not if You Need an M.D reads like a female put-down. Seems like Epstein and the WSJ need a doctor, a spin doctor, to dig themselves out of this misogynistic mess. Jill Biden should be admired for her achievements and commitment to her career as a “working” first lady, rather than mocked for calling herself Dr.Biden and her Ed.D. dissertation titled mocked.

Nasdaq: Put More Women on Boards!

Posted December 9, 2020 by Catherine Kaputa in Uncategorized, Women / 0 Comments


The drive to get more women and minorities on boards is picking up speed. This week the Nasdaq stock exchange headed by female CEO Adena Friedman proposed new diversity and inclusion rules for corporate boards that most companies don’t meet. In short, Nasdaq is proposing to delist companies that don’t have at least one woman and one minority on their boards. https://www.wsj.com/articles/nasdaq-proposes-board-diversity-rule-for-listed-companies-11606829244?mod=article_inline.

Mandates can make a difference. Just last year, California passed a similar mandate and it’s working. Already, California has increased the representation of women and minorities on the boards of companies with headquarters in California. Of the 138 women who joined all male boards in California since the mandate, 62% are serving on their first company board according to reporting by Axios’ Courtnay Brown. https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-nasdaq-chiefs-diversity-stunt-11607469679

Not everyone is pleased by the idea of mandates. The WSJ’s Holman Jenkins Jr calls the proposal “A Nasdaq Chief’s Diversity Stunt.https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-nasdaq-chiefs-diversity-stunt-11607469679

The Dawn of a New Era for Women

Posted December 8, 2020 by Catherine Kaputa in Famous People, Uncategorized, Women / 0 Comments

We’ve had many wrong calls about this being the “year of the woman” over the last decade or so. All the prognosticators were wrong. The march of women leaders wasn’t sustained, but this year might be different. The era of women leaders might be a reality that sticks.

The Wall Street Journal’s Gerald Seib recently gave a rundown of the key evidence for the rise of women power based on their showing in the 2020 elections in the United States (WSJ, November 17, 2020):

• Senator Kamala Harris will become the first woman vice president of the United States.
• An all-time high number of Republican women were elected to the House of Representatives, doubling the last high number of Republican women representatives.
• Women voters were the key reason Biden won. In fact, the entire winning margin for Biden came from women.
• For the second presidential election in a row, a woman was in charge of the winning presidential campaign (Kellyanne Conway in 2016 and Jen O’Mally Dillon in 2020.
• There is a record number of women being chosen for key cabinet positions, such as Janet Yellen for Secretary of the Treasury (another first).

Alas, we may finally be seeing political leaders who reflect the electorate in terms of gender who, hopefully, will bring about a more diverse points of view and a less polarized political environment.

The Empathy of Michelle Obama

Posted August 19, 2020 by Catherine Kaputa in Branding, Famous People / 0 Comments

On Tuesday night, Michelle Obama, in her speech at the Democratic National Convention spoke about empathy.

“Empathy: that’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. The ability to walk in someone else’s shoes; the recognition that someone else’s experience has value, too. Most of us practice this without a second thought. If we see someone suffering or struggling, we don’t stand in judgment. We reach out because, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.” It is not a hard concept to grasp. It’s what we teach our children.

And like so many of you, Barack and I have tried our best to instill in our girls a strong moral foundation to carry forward the values that our parents and grandparents poured into us. But right now, kids in this country are seeing what happens when we stop requiring empathy of one another. They’re looking around wondering if we’ve been lying to them this whole time about who we are and what we truly value.”

I’ve been thinking about empathy too because it’s a strong feature of most women and female leaders I admire. Women in general tend to have dramatically more empathy than men in assessments like the PONS (Profile of Nonverbal Sensitivity) test and EQ (Empathy Quotient). In the Myers-Brigs test, about three-fourths of women tested as “Feelers” in a national study. Feelers use empathy and emotional intelligence to supplement facts and provide meaningful solutions.

Rather than focusing on division, empathetic feelers seek solutions that bring about harmony and consensus. And that’s something we need to see more of in this pandemic moment. #Michelle Obama, #empathy, #Womensleadership, #women

Whatever Your Politics, the Selection of Kamala Harris as the Democratic VP Candidate is Important for #womenleaders #gender equality and #BlackLivesMatter

Posted August 12, 2020 by Catherine Kaputa in Branding, Famous People / 0 Comments

It’s more than an individual choice. Kamala Harris represents the growing political power of women, and Black women in particular. Black women are an important demographic in America. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/12/opinion/kamala-harris-joe-biden-election.html

No other major demographic is as loyal to either party as Black people, according to a 2018 Pew Research study https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/11/08/the-2018-midterm-vote-divisions-by-race-gender-education/

Of course this moment was a long time in coming. A century ago, this month, women got the right to vote in the 19th amendment. Now momentum is afoot in gender equity. And that is good for all women.

As the saying goes, all ships rise with the tide.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern: What Good Leadership in a Crisis Looks like

Posted May 14, 2020 by Catherine Kaputa in Branding, Famous People, Women / 0 Comments

Women are wired for empathy. What a powerful tool that can be in a crisis as New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern has demonstrated twice in the last year.

Her first crisis was the mass shooting at two mosques in Christchurch on March 15, 2019. She immediately shared heartfelt compassion for the victims, condemned the hate talk of the shooter and affirmed the country’s values. Later, she took action by changing the country’s gun laws.

Now, Ardern is being praised for her handling of Covid-19. On March 21, 2020, she addressed the island country from the prime minister’s office, last used for a major announcement in 1982, so it heralded the importance of her message. She spoke of the pandemic with empathy and specifics, outlining her pre-emptive strategy to “fight by going hard and going early.” She followed up with weekly Q&A sessions from her home, and taking a twenty percent pay cut.

This week, on a Facebook Live video, she announced that the country has “won the battle” over Covid-19 with three consecutive days with no new cases and 21 deaths so far in the country of nearly five million people.

What’s next on her agenda? She’s working on a plan to rebuild the economy.