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Over the next few months we will regularly be discussing lessons learned from tips taken directly from Skirt Strategies: 249 Success Tips for Women in Leadership (available on Amazon). We hope you enjoy and would love to hear from you. Email us at Katie@skirtstrategies.com or Carol@skirtstrategies.com or leave a recorded message on the right side tab of our website www.skirtstrategies.com . If we use your recorded message in a future podcast we will send you an autographed copy of the book. We LOVE to hear from you!
The global workplace is full of managers, yet not the old-fashioned sort that dictate orders to underlings. Those of today are managers of intellectual talent. That means we are leaders of people and relationships.
Relationship building is an inherent ability in which women are particularly strong, those strengths are natural – yeah, built-in. At Skirt Strategies we believe that by developing women’s natural strengths they will excel in the workplace and be more comfortable taking leadership positions.
Our mission at Skirt Strategies is simply this: to change the face of the nation by helping women recognize, develop and fully utilize their natural female leadership skills.
The latest research shows overwhelmingly that a gender-balanced workplace is more profitable and has more integrity than one that is not balanced, namely a male-dominated one. Unfortunately many talented women drop out of the workforce or pass up leadership positions before adding their number to the headcount. This occurs for various reasons. We believe one of those reasons is that women are not comfortable leading with a man’s natural skill set, such as divide and conquer, or command and control. Our research has shown that women’s natural leadership skills are valuable in this information age but they aren’t encouraged in the workplace … yet. We are acting as if we need permission to deploy them. Hogwash.
One way to change this is simple: work with women on an individual basis to hone their leadership skills, uncover mental barriers that hinder their full deployment, and enable them to build a world around them where they may thrive as leaders. Frame a big picture strategy filled with personal beliefs and a feminine style, then couple it with techniques to use now, and practice.
That’s the Skirt Strategies way.
PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION
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Hello and welcome to the Skirt Strategies podcast – the podcast to help you get the support, validation and skills you need to accomplish your goals and really succeed in a male dominated world – all without having to give up your incredible female strengths.
Katie: Welcome everyone! It’s Katie.
Carol: And Carol.
Katie: With a brief introduction about what’s coming up next.
Carol: This is kind of exciting.
Katie: Well, it’s quite the genesis of a thought that Carol and I had about podcasting for you – those of you that like to listen in an audio-type format. What is in the content of our book – Skirt Strategies: 249 Success Tips for Women in Leadership?
Carol: Absolutely. So this is an intro. Basically, what we’re going to tell you is a little bit about our book and then we will go into podcasting all of our tips.
Katie: So there will be a separate standalone book tips podcast for each of the 249. Some will be glommed together – the ones that make sense that are organized more together.
Carol: Yes.
Katie: But we wanted to give you listeners a feel for what the book is about, why you might want to listen, how you can pick and choose certain tips that grab you or maybe don’t grab you.
Carol: And what our philosophy is.
Katie: Because we think that fundamentals sometimes – is lost in this crazy world of ours.
Carol: Well, I think we say this in the forward to our book – is that so often, we’re reading some great book that has great philosophy and we want to take this on and make this us.
And right now, reading… one first, break all the rules. And there’s 12 things that you have to do in order to be a great manager. So I’m thinking about all the things I have to go change in order to do this.
Katie: Right.
Carol: But Katie and I – really our philosophy is to get back to the fundamentals. And when you’re at the fundamental level, you’re always learning.
Katie: Plus the fundamentals are different for women than they are for men.
Carol: Right.
Katie: They’re more beautiful. They’re prettier. Sometimes our natural instinct of going about something in a way that is intuitive for us, we bury.
Carol: Right.
Katie: So you’ve heard us say this before. If you’re any sort of a follower, you’ve heard us say that we think women bury their natural skills for several reasons.
Some of it is mental baggage. But a lot of it is being in a male-based work environment or a historically male-based industry – (if that’s where you are) where it’s kind of not the way you do things around here.
Carol: It’s not the way you do things and you have a role model and your role model is a male.
Katie: Almost always men.
Carol: Yes. And therefore, you try to make yourself look like a man in a management position. And just one of the things that we bring out is – you know, relationship building is so important in this day in age. I mean, I think it used to be that you could manage people making widgets.
Katie: Yeah. You’re not paid to think.
Carol: Right. “Clock in, clock out, do that.” But now we really are managing relationships more and more and woman are great at that. And we need to embrace that and make that a part of our management style.
Katie: And I wouldn’t say what we have in our book is rocket science. I mean, nobody would say that. But boy! How…
Carol: Wait, wait. Aren’t you a rocket scientist?
Katie: I am a rocket scientist.
Carol: Yes, you are.
Katie: I kind of wish that we’re a rocket scientist. Some of the things will be more comfortable.
Carol: I’m sorry. I stopped you in the middle of that. Go ahead.
Katie: That’s okay. I love the fact that women will come together to talk about things that are like – “Well, yeah obviously.” But to be able to talk about it with one another is the whole purpose.
Carol: Sure.
Katie: And you and I say that if there’s something in this book that you’re thinking, “I don’t know if I agree with that.”
Oh! Push back. Chew on it. Come at it from a different direction. Maybe you don’t agree that the way to sometimes work best with men is to sometimes let them win.
Carol: Right. If you don’t believe that, then you know what? We’d love to hear from you.
Katie: Yeah.
Carol: And that’s part of this podcast and our website – is we do want your comments, we want the conversation, we want you telling us what you think. I mean, you can always tell us when we’re right. We love that. But then, you can also tell us when you think we’re wrong and there’s a pushback that needs to happen.
It’s a conversation. And although, Katie and I – you’re hearing us having it together, we’re having it in your head as well and we’d love for you to get back to us on that.
Katie: We’re going to get in your head. We’re going to get in that pretty little head of yours.
So take a look at some of the subsequent tips. So there will be podcast book tips – it’s what they will be called. So podcast around book tips from Skirt Strategies: 249 Success Tips for Women in Leadership.
Some of them are basic fundamentals. Some of them are a little corky. Some of them are – “Hey. Try doing something pretty in your office because it’s motivational and it makes you feel more like at home and then you’re going to be more productive.”
I mean, something as shallow as that is sometimes really powerful because now you’re in an environment where you’re embracing your natural you – if that indeed, is you.
Carol: And you feel good about being there – which is if you got to work eight hours a day, you should feel good about being there.
Katie: I’m very, very affected by the work environment around me.
Carol: Oh, I know. Katie always has to have like streaming sunlight and if it’s grey outside…
Katie: Yeah, fresh air.
Carol: Oh my, gosh! So one thing I would like to bring up here is our mission and I’m going to read this.
Our mission at Skirt Strategies is simply this. “To change the phase of the nation by helping women recognize, develop and fully utilize their natural feminine leadership skills.”
So that’s what we’re about. We are about helping women come up in the world and be the leaders that we are. We know we’re leaders. We know we’ve been leaders for a millennia, but we’re being held back.
And it’s partially us that’s holding us back and it’s partially other things that are either in or not in our control and we’re just not going to let that bother us.
Katie: We also come at some of this from two different angles. You know, some days I feel like – “Oh, God! I’m not doing anything right.” And other days, I’m really embracing my strengths.
So know that we’re not just trying to… Oh, this isn’t a story about fixing you. This is a story about recognizing what you really do well and listening to it just a little bit more often.
Carol: Well, and remembering. Remembering for yourself what your talents really are.
Katie: Yeah.
Carol: You know, just keeping that in the forefront, keeping those skills. And we get into more than just the fundamentals – I do believe. But we like to bring us back to the fundamentals. In order to be a great leader, that’s really what it’s all about.
We’ll talk about other things. In this podcast alone, we talk about charisma and other parts of leadership that are not terribly fundamental, but a little more advanced. And we love to do that too and love to have you look at our book. And we have a kindle version. We have the book version all on Amazon. Go look at it.
Katie: If you’re wanting a hard copy and you want to scribble some things in.
For those of you that do have the hard copy, you know that there’s a lot of blank space in it. Many people use it as a journal. Many people use it as a reference for mentoring and coaching.
Carol: Right.
Katie: So if you’re working with someone else, mentoring or you’re in a book club or you’re in a women’s network – at the workplace, it’s a great source for fodder. I call it fodder.
Because you can pick up the book, open it to just about any tip and make that what the discussion topic is for the week or the day or the month.
Carol: Especially for those of you who are in that mentoring relationship. Sometimes just coming up with topics to talk about is a little bit difficult. So you know, get your mentor in the book, you get the book and it becomes a perfect topic setting instrument.
Katie: Yeah, for making it happen.
Carol: Yeah.
Katie: Okay. So you will see subsequent podcast from this point on. You will see other podcast as well – that aren’t necessarily tips from the book.
We also have guest interviews on book topics. We have guest interviews on other topics. We have podcast on technology tools for being effective and productive. We have technology tips on how to be a great leader. And we have other sorts of features that are just kind of fun and interactive. Stay tuned!
We hope you leave questions at the website. And my email is katie@skirtstrategies.com. Carol is carol@skirtstrategies.com. Being a part of us and following along with us at Skirt Strategies is always something that we encourage you to do. We love to have you there.
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That’s it for this episode of the Skirt Strategies podcast. Thank you for joining us! And please be sure to leave a question or comment at skirtstrategies.com. Remember that success comes when you lead – using your natural female strengths.
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