Women Not Visionary Enough?  Let's change that in 2013!

Did you know that women in the workplace are not perceived as being as visionary as men? This perception is one of the key obstacles preventing women from senior executive roles. 

Being able to create and communicate vision are vital competencies for all leaders. Vision is how we create new opportunities, set strategy and inspire those around us to get the results that we want.

In the article, "Women and the Vision Thing," authors Herminia Ibarra and Otilia Obodaru (Harvard Business Review, January 2009) share their findings from their extensive study on why more women aren't in the top levels of management.  While they found that women rated higher than their male counterparts in most leadership competencies, women were ranked lower in "envisioning". The article explores many reasons why this is so, and concludes that many women are not aware of the value and impact of "the vision thing". 

As the authors summarize, "The challenge facing women then, is to stop dismissing the vision thing and make vision one of the things that they are known for."

So, how can you become more visionary?  A few ideas include:

• Learn the craft of creating vision and practice it in your work and life
• Believe in your ideas for creating new possibilities for yourself and your organization
• Speak up and articulate your vision and ideas to others

Our passion in helping women leaders learn to be more visionary and find their voices led Kate and me to a compelling new vision for She Leads. Yes, we use our own visioning process in our business planning! We first allowed ourselves time and space in order to determine what we wanted to contribute and to envision what Nebo could be offering a few years out. The result is that we imagined and have now created an innovative program that offers women leaders online courses, news, coaching and much more to come. 

In this edition, you will find tip for creating your own vision and learn more about She Leads new online course offerings for women leaders.  Plus, we have a mini-review of a book that will help you move forward in 2013!  Each month we will also point out articles, videos and books that will hopefully inform and inspire you.

We hope you will join us each month as we explore various challenges, choices and opportunities for women leaders! 

Warmest regards,