Letting Strengths Become Risks We continue to get ongoing requests to speak at women’s leadership forums, so here is another entry about landmines politically for women in particular… Every strength pushed to the extreme or unbridled can become a weakness or block. Given women’s aptitude and traditional role of being nurturers in families, it makes … Read more
I wish I had a dime for every time a training, learning & development, or line manager has told me, “I need a program on influence skills.” After all, part of Organizational and Political Savvy is the ability to sell your ideas–– to influence. But too many curriculum planners fail to target with enough precision … Read more
Welcome back to the Savvy Blog which will from now on be updated at least weekly and so sorry for the Savvy Seasonal Vacation! By popular demand, this week’s Guest Author is again Ken Bruss, Ed.D., picking up on the theme of Savvy and Six Sigma or Continuous Improvement. Ken has extensive experience managing the … Read more
This week’s Guest Author is Ken Bruss, Ed.D. Ken has extensive experience managing the implications of Organizational and Political Savvy inherent in quality and process improvement initiatives. A primary area of focus has been New Product Development processes. Ken will be contributing a few blog entries based upon his experience. Why is Political Savvy Critical … Read more
This week, Jane Porter featured my input in her Wall Street Journal article (Careers D-2) entitled “New Job, Same Firm: Learning the Ropes.” I thought it would be helpful to link you here, and to review some of the thoughts I shared about the challenge of switching roles in the same organization. Whether from re-structuring, … Read more
As covered in recent blogs, many women under-estimate how their attitudes and actions about power and how their traditional sex-role socialized behavioral patterns can impact their career, influence, and team’s credibility. We’ve discussed how they may define power differently, dislike traditional power versus collaborative power, slip into language conventions that attract disparaging labels, or allow … Read more
Losing Through Language Deborah Tannen, in Talking from 9 to 5, and others have documented how women use different language patterns than men. It is not that these are mistakes in and of themselves, since they are simply different conventions. The risk occurs when women do not recognize how some habits are interpreted by some … Read more
A core career mistake women can easily correct is that of ignoring blind spots about organizational politics, and overlooking common behavioral differences between males and females that often lead to unfair corporate “buzz” and interpretations that impact credibility. Sometimes blocking, negative perceptions are the outgrowth of mere language conventions, which we’ll cover in my next … Read more
Next month, I’m addressing the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association’s annual Leadership Conference on women’s political blind spots, so I’m writing several blogs on this focused niche–– ethical politics for women. To keep myself honest, I’ll first address three common resistance points about the very premise of treating women as a politically marginalized group: Are such niche … Read more
Why is Political Savvy Vital in the Economic Downturn? My recent discussions with clients confirm an unavoidable truth–-in these economically uncertain times, maintaining a resilient and productive corporate environment demands a healthy political landscape. A climate of fear and scarcity can trigger destructive and resource-draining internal competition within companies at the very time we must … Read more