The Latest Insights from Leading NOW

In celebration of Pride Month, we invited Michelle Redfern, our Senior Consultant based in Melbourne, Australia, to author this blog post. Read ON! --- I have been in a deeply committed and loving relationship with my (now) wife for nearly 20 years. Our relationship is public knowledge. However, in the early years of our relationship I wasn’t ‘out’ about my same sex relationship, particularly in my workplace. I made this choice because amongst other things, I was fearful of being judged and having my career aspirations affected because of my sexual identity. I worried about the negative consequences of being openly gay at work. LGBTIQ+ people are often not able to bring their full self to work, feel like they have to hide elements of their life and have their psychological well-being compromised by feelings of ‘otherness’. This is a significant issue that 68% of LGBTIQ+ people in America are still grappling with.

BOSTON, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading Women, a distinguished global consulting firm noted for championing workplace culture transformation and promoting Gender Balance in corporate leadership, announces it has entered into in a strategic partnership with the Northeast Human Resources Association (NEHRA). Leading Women will leverage the opportunity to provide thought leadership to NEHRA, the largest HR organization in the Northeast. The partnership will enhance NEHRA's commitment to providing its more than 2,600 members with relevant and timely educational programs for HR professionals by offering innovative research-based solutions as a resource to help accelerate women's career growth.

Wondering how you can navigate to the “new normal” when you’re not even sure what the new normal is? Although you may not realize it, change is constant, and acknowledging this means you have actually taken the first step to the path forward. Leading Women, named a 2020 Top 10 Leadership Development Training/Coaching Company by HR Tech Outlook, put together the following list to help you navigate and emerge successfully as your organization transitions out of quarantine.

BOSTON, May 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading Women, one of the world's premier global consulting firms for bringing Gender Balance to corporate leadership, has been recognized by HR Tech Outlook as a Top 10 Leadership Development Training/Coaching Company for 2020, and featured among an elite group of companies in the Leadership special edition of HR Tech Outlook magazine. "We are honored to make the HR Tech Top 10 List, and to be acknowledged for our innovative, research-based solutions and proven women's leadership development programs, which have been helping organizations achieve workplace culture transformation for almost two decades," said Kelly Lockwood Primus, CEO & President of Leading Women.

Leading Women is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. We have updated our Privacy Policy to make our policies more clear to you, and to comply with the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) law in the European Union (EU). Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with our data collection and storage policies and our commitment to keeping your information secure. If you have any questions or concerns please contact us at contact@leadingwomen.biz.

This is the final post in our current blog series on the core leadership competencies needed to navigate an environment of constant change. So far, we’ve looked at what it means to demonstrate Interpersonal Savvy, Organizational Agility, Dealing with Ambiguity, and Managing Complexity. And today, we’ll conclude with a look at “Resiliency” -- appropriately so, given the change we are collectively navigating across our world. When we began this series back in March, it was just days after International Women’s Day and during the first moments when the reality of the current Covid-19 crisis was becoming clear. And here we are today, globally still navigating change -- one where the power and strength of resiliency has become abundantly clear. Whether we’ve seen this through the visible and heroic demonstrations by essential workers on the front lines of the crisis in healthcare, public safety, education and food services -- or a version that is less visible because it’s happening inside each of our homes as we adjust and navigate work, family, connection, and our physical & mental well-being while in quarantine. Resilience is most certainly essential.

We are continuing our series on the core leadership competencies needed to navigate an environment of constant change. Change that is defined as volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA). So far we’ve looked at Interpersonal Savvy, Organizational Agility and Dealing with Ambiguity. This week, we’ll take a look at Managing Complexity, which we define as: A focus on achieving results while minding multiple factors including ones like geography, risk, media attention, government regulation & diverse communities.

We are continuing our current blog series on the core leadership competencies needed to navigate change. Change that is defined as volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA). So far we’ve covered “Interpersonal Savvy” and “Organizational Agility” - and today we are digging into “Dealing with Ambiguity.” “Ambiguity is a type of meaning in which a phrase, statement or resolution is not explicitly defined, making several interpretations plausible. A common aspect of ambiguity is uncertainty.”

We are continuing our series on the core leadership competencies needed to navigate an environment of constant change. Change that is defined as volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA). Last week we focused on the “Interpersonal Savvy” competency and this week we are highlighting “Organizational Agility.” We define this competency as: “Getting “it” done through formal and informal processes.”

As we look towards another month (at least) of quarantine, many of us may feel like we have settled into some kind of new normal. Whether you’ve drastically adjusted to where and how you work, or you’ve unfortunately been displaced from work due to pandemic related lay-offs, the truth is that leadership in the pace of change today, has never been more important. As we discussed in our recent blog -- change is the only constant in life -- and that is so very true at this present time. While we must accept what’s out of our control and work to settle into a new normal, abandoning any of the core leadership competencies for managing change is not an option. So, today we wanted to share with you info on the leadership competency: Interpersonal Savvy. Interpersonal Savvy is “relating well with all kinds of people - inside and outside of the organization, building support, relationships, using diplomacy & defusing high tension situations.”