How Women Rise

Wrapping this book with a ton of learnings! It’s a great retrospection on the challenges women face while rising. The anecdotes helped me relate how better we can harness our unique strengths and deal with the challenges. Women out there, go for it! A close friend of mine passed this book to me and now it is waiting to be passed to the next ambitious woman I cross paths with. 📚✨

Sharing some of my learnings here. ✨

• What got you here won’t get you there.
• No matter how effective they have been or how much recognition they have received, women often tend to focus on all the ways they believe they fall short. Please do not be too hard on yourself.
• Being blind to the behaviours and habits that keep you stuck is one of the biggest impediments to rising.
• The thing about habits is that they tend to hang around even when the conditions that got them started no longer exist.
• Your habits are not you. They are you on autopilot.
• The idea that high-profile women do not get to make their own life choices without first considering the potential impact upon all other women is a pernicious trap.
• Gossip also diminishes you as a leader since accepting others with their flaws is the first step towards figuring out how to deal with them effectively, which is precisely what good leaders do. The more clearly you see people the more strategic you can be.
• Think of every job as both a job and a bridge to whatever comes next.
• If you want to influence the world is a positive way, you have to have power.
• Having a close relationship with somebody isn’t a prerequisite to be able to count on their support when needed.
• By restricting your sphere of influence, and taking yourself out of what you may dismiss as a distasteful political game, you will ultimately erode your capacity to make a difference in the world.
• A rising tide will lift all boats.
• People who set high standards for themselves usually set very high standards for others.
• Perfectionism makes you reluctant to take risks. If you’re trying to be perfect, every task or encounter feels high stakes. You’re always on the lookout for something to go wrong since even the smallest glitch has the power to undermine your perfect image. You end up sweating on the small stuff.
• Willingness to delegate becomes ever more important as you move to higher levels. You have more people to manage, more of whom have specialized skills and knowledge. If you try to do their jobs for them, you will be eaten alive.
• A root cause of the failure to delegate is often an inability to prioritize, to decide what’s important and what doesn’t require your attention.
• Micromanaging does not give others the chance to flourish and grow, to feel that way and learn from their own mistakes.
• The ‘disease to please’ can undermine your ability to make clear decisions because you’re always trying to create consensus or avoid giving offense.
• To retain any serenity in this ramped-up environment, you need to think long and carefully about your priorities. Not what would please others, not what would make everyone think you are the most wonderful person they’ve ever worked with or met, but what in your heart you want to be and achieve in your life.
• Certainty is often interpreted as arrogance, and women tend to fear getting tagged as arrogant.
• If you’re uncertain, there are high chances you won’t be heard. Come out and say what you mean.
• By demonstrating over-responsiveness, you minimize both your importance and your presence. It may have helped you at some point, but it will undermine you as you reach higher by making it impossible for you to manifest or enjoy serenity and power.
• Push back whenever a negative script works its way into your thoughts.
• The leader has every right to go first. But once the leader speaks, everyone else shuts down because nobody wants to contradict the most senior person. By contrast, a leader who gives others the chance to speak first ends up surfacing new facts, unexpected perspectives, and fresh points of view.
• A ‘Thank You’ works in almost any situation:
• It makes others feel good and increase the sum of happiness in the world. It’s disarming- even people who are defensive, soften when thanked. It creates closure on difficult conversations. It demonstrates humility. Nobody can argue with it or push back.
• Each of us is a work in progress and will be until we draw our final breath.