A Personal Letter from Molly D. Shepard - January 2002

Welcome to The Leader's Edge™ website. The Leader's Edge is an organization dedicated to enhancing women's effectiveness as senior leaders and helping them take on greater roles in their companies. We encourage you to look at all the information on our site and hope that you find it valuable.

We recently completed a nationwide research study of the behavior and leadership styles of Fortune 500 and other senior executives. The results are fascinating (see our Research Page) and illustrate areas in which women may need to enhance their skills as leaders. For example, one of the research findings is that senior level executive women are more formal in their communication styles than either their male counterparts or more junior level women. This behavior may have unforeseen consequences.

I recently had the opportunity to observe this behavior firsthand. The Leader's Edge™ gathered information about a senior executive woman in a major corporation for feedback purposes in the course of her coaching. We spoke with a number of colleagues who work for, and with, her and her boss in order to develop a profile on her leadership style as perceived by those who experienced it firsthand. When I met with my client to discuss her results, she was shocked to learn how much her colleagues' view of her differed from her self-image. They thought she was a snob. She was referred to as "cold". People commented that she was too formal, didn't join her associates for lunch or socialize in the office and dressed "too well" for the corporate culture. They didn't feel she had an "open door policy" and weren't comfortable talking to her without an appointment - although, in reality, she always kept her door open.

My client was caught in the trap of continuing to prove her success primarily through productivity in terms of memos, reports and getting her work done well. While this is clearly essential to job performance, she overlooked a key factor to rising in the organization. That is, being an effective leader means more than proficiency in one's area of expertise -- it requires becoming embedded in the culture of the organization and cultivating relationships with the people who have a stake in your personal success. In addition to navigating the political arena, leadership includes mobilizing and inspiring others, as well as leading by example.

For a senior woman executive, it is indeed lonely at the top, and for some women it's easier to focus on those areas they are comfortable with and know they do well rather than go about the more risky business of building relationships and networks in a primarily male culture. Yet, it is something that is integral to womens' advancement into leadership roles in corporations.

Have any of you encountered similar situation in your own career where you thought you were doing the right thing but actually you were getting a negative response? If so, what were the circumstances and what steps did you/they take to resolve it? Please send me your thoughts and comments about this issue. You can e-mail them to me at info@the-leaders-edge.com. I believe it would be interesting and valuable for other women to hear your stories, and I will share some of them on this page.

At The Leader's Edge™, we are committed to helping women gain the knowledge and leadership skills they need to participate as effective leaders in their organizations and sharing experiences can certainly be beneficial. I look forward to hearing from you.

Molly D. Shepard
Founder and CEO
The Leader's Edge™

Visit the archive of Molly's Personal Letters