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

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

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

I tell women to learn their company’s operating and management systems as a foundation for building a success career. But most women (and men) have never been taught how to think in terms of systems or how to map out processes so my advice may seem daunting. If you took the initia

Have you ever heard a manager say “If I have to get down in the weeds then what do I need you for?” I’ve heard it many times. Why do they say that? Is it just to make you feel inferior – incapable of doing your job? When I hear a manager say this, my first thought is that he d

I came up with the concept of Swamp Wars about two years ago. It stemmed from my work experiences and for a while I thought it was unique to my industry because we have so many classic Alligator Slayers. But as I wrote this series of articles (Swamp Wars and The Rachel Letter) the nat

I introduced the concept of the power seat and told you how to find it in your conference room in my article Understanding the Power Seat.  Now it is time to learn how to use it so you can take lead a discussion and lead your collegues to better solutions.

From the example on the “Your Best Leverage” page, poor Bob has to build a wall but has no material.  There is a crisis!  And in the male workplace that is a cry for action!  But will the male approach really solve the crisis or just lead to new problems? Let’s look at how

For women it is critical that we have a basic understanding of the principles of TQM and systems-thinking. It is through systems-thinking that we can improve the processes our employees use to perform work. Systems-thinking is a natural fit for women while men are taught by society

In one of my earliest career assignments I used processes to train a team for a competition. Even though the team was by far the most inexperienced, their knowledge of the singular best process allowed them to excel. I learned that having the "best and the brightest" does not guaran