On Being With 7,000 Women at the Pennsylvania Conference for Women

On November 1st I attended the 10th Annual Pennsylvania Conference for Women and spent the day with 7,000 women! Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright delivered the key-note addresses and there were many other extraordinary women leaders who spoke through out the day. It was a conference alive with waves of energy that kept surging. While… Continue reading…

Taking on Fear Advances a Career

Last week I was sitting in a workshop on courage and leadership at the Pennsylvania Conference for Women when the panel moderator asked “Does fear ever go away or do you need to be willing to take the leap and be fearful while taking action?” Suddenly my mind flashed back 27 years to when I… Continue reading…

It in Adversity that We Learn are Biggest Lessons

In his new book The Gift of Adversity: The Unexpected Benefits of Life’s Difficulties, Setbacks, and Imperfections, Norman Rosenthal, M.D., shares his belief that adversity is by far the best teacher most of us will ever encounter. To make his point, he draws on case studies, his upbringing in apartheid South Africa, and the experiences… Continue reading…

Beyond Sheryl Sandberg’s Leaning In

In an interview in the April Harvard Business Review, Sheryl Sandberg said, “Women face huge institutional barriers. But we also face barriers that exist within ourselves, sometimes as the result of our socialization. For most of my professional life, no one ever talked to me about the ways I held myself back.” (Harvard Business Review… Continue reading…

Surprising News on What Actually Makes Us Productive

While reading the paper last Sunday morning, I was reminded of why I prioritize getting up and out the door to my weekly yoga classes. According to Tony Schwartz, author of Being Excellent at Anything, “strategic renewal — including daytime workouts, short afternoon naps, longer sleep hours, more time away from the office and longer,… Continue reading…

It All Comes Down to Virtual vs. Real

Late Thursday afternoon I was driving home and did the usual… I clicked on NPR for whatever program was on the air. I listened intently as the reporter told the story of a Notre Dame football star, Manti Te’o, who was fooled into believing that a virtual romance with a woman was actually real. After… Continue reading…

Reimagining Leadership

Last weekend, I heard Kitty Kolbert, the Director of the Athena Center for Leadership Studies at Barnard College, say, “If we can develop women as leaders, we can also develop men to be better leaders.” Hosting a TEDxWomen event to “re-imagine leadership,” The Athena Center for Leadership Studies had organized a day of live performances,… Continue reading…