When I entered the Air Force many years ago, I was told that I needed a “Sponsor” to help ensure my rise through the ranks. My Sponsor should be a higher ranking officer who was upwardly mobile. My Sponsor should also have a Sponsor who was a well-connected senior ranking officer wh

I came across this story that a woman (Linda) posted on LinkedIn.  It goes along with a lot of my recent posts so I want to share it with you.  This is one of those stories that we like to pass on.  And generally that is what we would do. But I want to take it one (actually several) s

I came across a statement I made in an article : The successful businessman is the Hero and the driver of our society. If you are paying attention to the stock market, 2013 is proving this statement is true. I don’t know what made me do it but on January 20th I turned on CNBC.

The Woman In The Room is one year old!! For me this is a milestone and cause to celebrate! At work, how do you celebrate milestones and achievements? Are they subdued? Do you talk about doing something and then nothing really materializes? Who is responsible for or takes the le

When I started my career there was a common saying about women who went into non-traditional career fields: “They are looking for a man or they want to be a man.” Think about the two extreme options this statement presents for women. Our choices are that we are desperate to get m

In my last article, The Woman In the Arena, I quoted an excerpt from Teddy Roosevelt’s “Citizenship In A Republic” speech that he deliver in 1910.  When I wrote the article I looked up the entire speech and found another excerpt that has tremendous meaning for where our culture and ec

I like to express myself at work. If I had my druthers, I would start every day blaring a song that fit the mood of the day. But I was never quite able to put together a large enough sound system. So I found another method. I started digging up quotes to fit the mood and plaster

One of the traits women are most credited with is improving collaboration. We get more people to open up and participate in conversations and problem solving. The result is a more complete solution to a problem. Sounds great – in theory! The issue many women face is that coll

Have you ever noticed years that singers have their biggest hits when they sing songs that they pick or write themselves, not what the industry tells them to sing? They do best when they connect with a song to express who they really are. When I think about this Garth Brooks

Monday morning I was finishing up this article as the news came on about the Boston Marathon terrorist attack. I decided to re-write it since I talk about a study I did on terrorism several years ago. Back in 1985 when I was an Air Force 1st Lt. I had a project dumped on me. Orig

I never really liked my tag line “Empowering Women for Success in the Male-Dominated Workplace.” To me it sounds kind of blah-blah, boring typical professional language. I always felt it was missing something – that it wasn’t exactly hitting the mark of what I needed to say, but I

Have you ever been called infuriating? I have – many times – “You are the most infuriating woman I’ve ever known!” Even though it was meant to belittle me, I take it as a compliment.  My reply is simply “Thank you.” The scenarios in which I’ve been called infuriating are a

It’s hard for me to believe that after 30 years, women are still discussing working versus spending time with family – it is an issue we should have settled years ago. It’s actually very simple - do what you think is best for you and your family. You don’t have to meet anyone

It seems every discussion lately about working women is tied to the term "work-life balance." Having been there, done that - I don't get it! I don't know what the issue is or what point women are trying to make. Are women trying to justify leaving work to watch the kids at socc

In my last few articles I’ve danced around an issue and now I am just going to put it out there. Is corporate America using female employees as a ploy in their business development and marketing? And even worse, are women blind to it?

I’ve looked at a lot of company websites lately and notice that there are a lot more women listed in the staff and corporate officer pages. Can it be – women are finally breaking through the corporate ranks?!! Being me, I always do a little more reading – where is the company headqu

A magazine published an article about the advances women are making in construction. To my surprise the article featured a former co-worker of mine and painted a pretty rosy picture. Reading the article it sounds like women have finally achieved parity with men in construction. The

A few weeks after I got to my large construction project in the-middle-of-nowhere New Mexico, I walked into the superintendent’s area and found most of my staff deep in discussion about a process. A functional manager within the company distributed the process dictating - It must be

An article titled “Another Woman Makes It In Construction” caught my attention. The article was about a woman who was retiring after a successful career in construction industry. Cool! As I read further into the article, I learned that her career was not as I expected. She was the

As I write my articles I find myself correcting my writing based upon the counseling session I had with a manager many years ago. He did not like it when I referred to my direct reports as “My Team.” He wanted me to say “The Team”. I didn’t like saying that. Even as I write today,