Financial Women's Association

In my first opportunity to partner with the Financial Women's Association (FWA), PricewaterhouseCoopers in San Francisco are hosting a members-only networking breakfast on June 26, and I will be speaking about Winning at the Game of Office Politics (I know office politics is not everyone's favorite topic, but it actually is one of mine!).

Registration and details are at the FWA web site.

Poised for Leadership Seminar Wrap-Up

The most recent cohort to experience our flagship seminar, Poised For Leadership, started back in March with two lively and content-rich days at the San Jose Radisson. It was Leslie's first time co-facilitating with me. This group are a dynamic cadre of women holding diverse roles in banking, sales, technology and HR. What they all share is a common drive to not let their careers run on auto pilot, but to actively take the lead, confer leadership upon themselves, and 'Act As If' in a more responsible leadership role.

To share just a few of the feedback comments we received:

"Rarely have I attended a conference so rich in usable materials. I have new tools in my "bag" that I can use immediately and with excellent results."

"The Women in Leadership course is a fast-paced and fun two days of solid learning and networking opportunities. Anyone who aspires to leadership is highly recommended to take this course - both for the specific range of tactical and strategic skills taught and for the growth and self-insight gained."

"I found the seminar extremely useful. The seminar made me realize key areas that I need to focus on particularly my personal vision of the leader that I intend to become. With your help, I was able to achieve clarity in my personal vision."

Thanks, ladies... keep taking the lead!

We'll post dates soon for upcoming seminars in Denver and San Francisco. Sign up for the newsletter to receive notification. If you have a corporate group of 25 or more emerging women leaders who would like to experience the power of Poised for Leadership, contact me and we will discuss customizing a program for your team.

Negotiation as a Way of Life

As part of our presentation, Negotiation as a Way of Life, for a group of Oracle's high-potential women at the Oracle Women's Leadership Conference (OWL) today, Leslie and I shared some of the most recent (scary) data on women and negotiation from Women Don't Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide, By Babcock and Laschever:

In surveys, women were 2.5 times more likely than men to say they feel "a great deal of apprehension" about negotiating.

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Men initiate negotiations about four times as often as women do.

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20 percent of adult women say they never negotiate at all, even though they often recognize negotiation as appropriate and necessary.

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When asked to pick metaphors for the process of negotiating, men picked “winning a ballgame” and a “wrestling match”. Women said “going to the dentist”.

I asked the group of 100 women "How many of you would rather go to the dentist than negotiate? I was joking when I asked, but a few hands were raised!

The solution we advised is to stop thinking of negotiation as a skill to be used only in rare, high-stakes business circumstances. Instead, think of negotiation as a way of life, meaning that the best way to master this skill is to negotiate everything, every day, in every conversation you encounter.

Examples are: negotiate who cooks dinner, negotiate who will drive the carpool, negotiate which movie to watch, negotiate who will help you on a project... etc. Until negotiation becomes a natural way of life.