Leadership – More from the Institute for Women's Entrepreneurship at Cornell

Which Dialogue Are You Listening To?

There is a piece just posted today in Fast Company entitled “The mindset shift you need in order to stop your inner voice from sabotaging you”.

In the article, author Lydia Fenet reflects on how “Imposter Syndrome” can often sneak up on us in our professional lives. Specifically she makes the important point of pausing to consider whether you are listening to what colleagues are actually saying or if you are listening to what you *think* they are saying. Read the article for the example – great content to ponder on your entrepreneurial journey.

7 Trailblazing American Women Entrepreneurs

Women entrepreneurs in the US have the traction and opportunities available today due in part to women who began to blaze the trail dating as far back as the mid-1700s. This article from History.com shares the stories of seven of these women – many of whom launched businesses that survived for a century or longer!

Working at the World’s 15 Most Female-friendly Companies

Great Place to Work is a global leader in analyzing and reporting on workplace culture. They partnered with Fortune magazine to publish a study that analyzed feedback from over a half a million women to determine the most female-friendly companies (organizations with > 1,000 employees). Number one on the list was Hilton and was surprisingly followed by many companies in the financial and tech sectors. Perhaps positive change is finally underfoot! This article in CEO magazine shares the list in greater detail.

Support Women’s Leadership Progression in the World of Work

As the world emerges from the COVID pandemic, most employers – especially those that manage knowledge workers – have had to contemplate what the future of the office looks like in terms of in-person versus at-home expectations. This new hybrid model is an interesting one when it comes to the impact on women in the workforce. This article in Talent Management shares four important ways that business leaders can build hybrid workplaces that support their organizations’ diversity goals and encourage the advancement of women into leadership roles.

Female Entrepreneur Turns $10K to $2MM in 2 Years

Tiffany James , a 27-year-old African American woman from New York City, is the founder of Modern Blk Girl, which helps educate women on how they can build wealth through investing. James was inspired to launch this venture and share her knowledge after she turned a $10,000 starting investment in the stock market into $2 million in just 2 years. Read more about her investing journey and her commitment to educating women about building wealth in this article in Black Enterprise.

Success Is Never Guaranteed And Requires Perpetual Work

Monique Rodriguez, self-made millionaire and founder of Mielle Organics, founded her natural hair care brand in the wake of losing her son at eight months of pregnancy. She decided to leave her career as a nurse and pour her energy into her startup which would also enable her to cope with her post-partum depression. That creative outlet that helped her get through the trauma of losing her son has become a multimillion-dollar brand sold in over 100,000 stores across the U.S.

Rodriquez mentions that the best career advice she’s ever received came from her husband who said, “Success, if not owned, is rented — and rent is due everyday. Don’t get complacent, don’t get comfortable, and never feel like you ‘made it.’ Because when you get to that place, there’s always someone trying to take your spot. You have to continue working and striving as if you know [your spot] is not guaranteed.” To read more about Rodriguez’s journey, check out this piece on CNBC.

Being Yourself

In this article from Inc., four separate successful women (Oprah Winfrey, Melinda Gates, Dolly Parton, and Suneera Madhani) all share that their most important piece of advice for being successful was to be yourself. According to the piece, “Giving yourself a surface polish can pay off. But faking it when it comes to core aspects of your personality and background is exhausting and distracting. You’ll never have the energy to make it to the top if you’re frittering it away pretending to be someone you’re not”

Squashing the Negative

Many successful individuals – especially women – struggle with negative self-talk (sometimes referred to as having an Inner Critic). In this podcast from NPR’s Lifekit, Joy Harden Bradford, Ph.D., an Atlanta-based clinical psychologist and the host and founder of Therapy for Black Girls, shares several strategies to tame those voices. From reframing how you speak to yourself to reducing the time you spend doom-scrolling on social media, her tips are a worthwhile listen!

Top Three Things That Make Female Leaders Successful

In this post on CNBC.com, journalist and writer Julia Boorstin shares insights from what she learned in interviewing 120-plus CEOs, founders and VC investors for her new book “When Women Lead”. Her top three takeaways are that the most successful women leaders stay true to their strongest traits, rely on data rather than ego and find grounding in their purpose. To learn more about the examples behind these findings, click the above link to the piece.

Interview with Founder of Hiring Platform, We Are Rosie

This piece in Inc. is a conversation with We Are Rosie‘s CEO Stephanie Nadi Olson. She shares how the challenges of trying to juggle a family and the demands of a high powered corporate job – and then a startup job – led her to launch her own business focused on finding “good work for everyone who needs it in a way that aligns with their life and treats them with dignity and respect”. Her company now has over 15,000 contractors in the marketing and advertising space – whose contracts are capped at 40 hours per week. She states, “For culture to be truly compassionate, it cannot be prescriptive. Leadership decisions cannot happen in a vacuum.” Click the link above to read more about this incredible leader.