women's leadership

British Airways Travel Promotion: A Leadership Failure?

Kate Sweetman — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:33:07 -0400

Dell had its much-ridiculed Della site – a masterpiece of misunderstanding of a large and lucrative customer segment called women. Is British Airways far behind? I wish you could see the image currently

Rock On, Royal Air Maroc Service Desk in JFK

Kate Sweetman — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:47:02 -0400

My apologies to Nabil Alaoui and Mohammed Dahouch. These two gentlemen, both of Royal Air Maroc, deserve swifter praise for their quick and gracious handling of my personal travel crisis last week. Blame it on the flu – not H1N1, fortunately, but something else that kept me largely out of commission un

Thinkers50 Business Guru Competition

Kate Sweetman — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 22:01:37 -0400

The Times of London and McGraw-Hill together sponsor an annual “guru competition” – a World’s Got Talent among management thinkers. Last year’s winner was CK Prahalad -- no big surprise, given his enduring stature, and well deserved given his fascinating work in the fourth tier. Check him and others out at www.thinkers50.co

What Women Bring to Norway’s Boards

Kate Sweetman — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 11:53:35 -0400

I have been blogging since July 1 on the Norwegian experiment: requiring boards to have at least 40% of each gender on its boards. It’s been

How Men and Women Board Members Handled a Scandal in Norway

Kate Sweetman — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:31:41 -0400

Norwegian board members both male and female share a perspective on one particularly important governance issue: women bring an ineffable something to the conversation that supports a board's own highest values.

Norway’s Boards: Two Years Later, What Difference Do Women Make?

Kate Sweetman — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 08:20:52 -0400

A number of Norwegian board members and chairs, many with CEO experience, agreed to meet with me one-on-one in Oslo last month to give their unvarnished "so-what" on the legislation two years later.

It takes a tough man to get the right corporate board

Kate Sweetman — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:41:11 -0400

I recently enjoyed lunch in the Stortinget , the Norwegian parliament building with Ansgar Gabrielsen, former Minister of Trade, who has been internationally recognized for his bold legislation requiring – nay, forcing – publicly traded Norwegian companies to boost astronomically the percentage of women on their corporate boards from a mere six percent to a full 40 to 60 percent representation.

The Leader’s Game Plan for Diversity: Step 1

Kate Sweetman — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:34:19 -0400

It takes a tough man to make a diverse top team.

That is if, as so often remains the case, the current top team is all or almost entirely male despite the best, sincere efforts of all concerned to find and elevate more women.

Conversation with a Woman Leader in a Gulf State

Kate Sweetman — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 07:54:15 -0400

The senior manager, draped in the traditional black abbaya with her hair modestly tucked beneath her head scarf, smiles continuously over tea as she describes what it takes to become a female leader within a business in her small country.

Leaders Creating Leaders on UK Boards

Kate Sweetman — Mon, 04 May 2009 13:10:19 -0400

When I was in London a couple of weeks ago, I was put in contact with two people who exemplify the word “leader” in its purest sense. They do not work for a large organization; in fact, they are entrepreneurs working out of their proverbial garages. But their ability to envision a future, get others on board with it, and make it happe

Captain Leadership

Kate Sweetman — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 14:01:27 -0400

Like many Americans, I was transfixed by the story of the hijacking of the freighter Maersk Alabama since Somali pirates first boarded by force last Wednesday. The larger story of piracy in the region fascinates, of course, but the leadership story of Captain Richard Phillips compels discussion.

Leadership, Innovation and Stonehenge

Kate Sweetman — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 12:10:11 -0400

Senior leaders today are all about getting their people to do more with less - to find innovative solutions to customer needs. So what can 21^st century leaders learn from Stonehenge? Or, more accurately, from retired construction worker Wally Wallington of Flint, Michigan in the US, who seems to have solved the mystery that has stumped leading scientists, archaeologists and engineers for hundreds

Norway's Leadership Leap, Part I

Kate Sweetman — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:54:01 -0400

Why did Ansgar Gabrielson, a conservative minister for trade and industry in Norway with no particular affection for women’s liberation, flip the gender politics of Norwegian business leadership on its head in 2002? By that I mean, why did he suddenly declare without warning that 40% of all boardroom positions in companies listed on the Oslo stock exchange would be held by women within five years, or be shut down? This in a country in which, at

How CFOs Can Increase Their Leadership Impact

Kate Sweetman — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 11:54:35 -0500

Kate O’Sullivan of CFO Magazine has launched a new column on leadership aimed specifically at professionals in the finance organization who aspire to increase their impact on the larger organization.

Leadership Code in Podcast

Kate Sweetman — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 09:15:45 -0500

Amy Reece of LeaderReview invited me to talk about our book The Leadership Code with a group of her clients yesterday.

Does Crisis Crowd Out Leadership?

Kate Sweetman — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 14:40:44 -0500

No one needs to be reminded that the current economic downturn is global. Interestingly, when it comes to leadership at this time, it appears that important questions are universal as well.

Advice to the Woman Leader Aiming to Enter the C-Suite

Kate Sweetman — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 14:31:59 -0500

In our book The Leadership Code: Five Rules to Lead By, one of our key findings in that all great leaders, male and female, are personally proficient in a figuring out and staying true to their goals, while learning, growing and changing along the way.

Does Global Economic Calamity Help or Hurt Women’s Advancement into Top Leadership Jobs?

Kate Sweetman — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 08:09:01 -0500

“Forget it,” said my friend Allison. “This is the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. People these days are interested in the bottom line, not touchy feely stuff. They are not interested in issues of women and leadership, or helping women to get to the top.”

Clutching the Leadership Straw

Kate Sweetman — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 15:56:43 -0500

I was talking to my Uncle Dave Sweetman last night about the curious timing of the launch of the Leadership Code. Our book, meant to consolidate the learning of the most reflective, experienced and knowledgeable people in the world on the topic of lead

GE Work-Out Redux for Today’s Leader

Kate Sweetman — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:37:47 -0500

How do you get more out of the organization that you’ve got, or from the organization that you’re downsizing into? Combine fewer people and higher anxiety, and you’ve got a whole host of possible viruses that can give the organization a teeth-chattering case of organizational ague: internal competition for scarce resources from the top on down, overwork, unclear priorities, conflicting messages – any I have missed?

Leaders Include Variety in Ideas and People

Kate Sweetman — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 21:40:19 -0500

The more I talk about corporate viruses, the more I keep encountering them (see previous blog for a longer discussion on the phenomenon of organizational viruses). The virus on my mind today is called "groupthink", and most of us have encountered it more than once in our working careers.

Wipe Out Organizational Viruses to Speed Change Efforts

Kate Sweetman — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 12:27:43 -0500

Leadership at the Summit

Kate Sweetman — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 12:09:38 -0500

“The most pressing question in America today is, Can American business leadership rise to its opportunities and responsibilities?”

Leadership’s Charge for Innovation

Kate Sweetman — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 11:08:44 -0500

A client of ours recently asked us to develop a 2-day program on three things: innovation, diversity-and-inclusion, and communication. They need their leaders to get a common handle on these issues because this large global company faces changes in their industry driven by customers, competitors and technology, and they need to engage the hearts, minds, and hands of a large workforce on four continents that is diverse in every way imag

Leadership Code Meets Gender Science: part IV of 4 parts

Kate Sweetman — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:00:31 -0500

How does it play out when women are finally at the point when they could “make it” – break through to the executive ranks? We all know that at that point, it is much less about smarts and experience – everyone has that – it is more about “fitting in.” That is the sum total of a lot of things, but surely in large measure about this whole gender thing. Says Michael Gurian of women at this critical point: “They are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. If she has spent her career trying