Category Archives for "Leadership"

15 secrets of success from a top female leader

By amandaalexander | Gender Equality

In episode 004 of the Inspiring Women Interviews podcast, Emma McGuigan, Senior Managing Director Technology, Accenture UK and Ireland shared some of her “secrets of success” for to help you to build a successful career whilst balancing it with life and family.

I’ve summarised my 15 favourites from my interview with Emma in this post. Enjoy – and let me know which one is the most useful to YOU right now in the comments section below the post.

  1. Don’t beat yourself up when things don’t go right. Draw a line in the sand and move on.
  2. Decide what’s important to YOU and focus on those things. Let go of what’s NOT important to you.
  3. What is YOUR “set in stone” for managing your work-life balance? For Emma, it’s having one meal a day with her family. Choose yours and do it!
  4. Your life will continuously evolve. Treat your life an old fashioned radio that continually needs fine-tuning. Be gentle with yourself – guilt is useless.
  5. How do you reflect on how you are spending your time each day? What works for you? For Emma it is running. Find the thing that helps you to reflect on each day so that you are spending your time on the things that are important.
  6. Never feel guilty and never live with regrets. Instead, decide what you will do differently next time.
  7. Positive energy comes from always looking for the learning, not dwelling on the things that didn’t work out and keeping yourself moving forward.
  8. Don’t place limitations on yourself: STOP saying ‘I can’t do this because…’ and look for a reason you can!
  9. Measure your success by the outcomes you want, rather than the number of hours you sit behind a desk or spend replying to emails.
  10. At the start of your day, ask yourself what you’re going to focus on that day and whether that’s the best use of your time in relation to your current priorities.
  11. Keep asking for feedback. If for example, if you have just chaired a meeting but you’re not sure how you performed, ask others what they thought and what they would’ve done differently. Just ask!
  12. You can’t go through life beating yourself up about things you didn’t do, just celebrate the things you did.
  13. Avoid being a victim. When something happens that feels “unfair”, turn that feeling of injustice into something that empowers you. What do you want to happen? Use the “bad” situation to create your own “good” situation.
  14. Remember that NOBODY cares more about your career than you. If you expect someone else to tell you what you should do next, you could be waiting a very long time! OWN your career management.
  15. You only get one chance at your life, so make sure you grab every opportunity that comes along – and grab them fast! Get into the habit of going for it rather than deliberating. Give it a go and if it doesn’t work out, try something else!

You’ll get more of Emma’s tips and you’ll benefit from the full impact of the summary above by listening to the interview on the .  If you enjoy the show, I would be so grateful if you could leave feedback over on or Stitcher and share it with your own connections.  By doing this, you will help to get the podcast to more women and inspire them to be the best they can!

Interviews with Inspirational Female Leaders

By amandaalexander | Leadership

I am thrilled to announce the launch of my brand new podcast show: “Inspiring Women Interviews”. And I mean “thrilled”. This is a huge and exciting step for me and it aligns perfectly with my own mission to help professional women to achieve success and change the world in their own way. This is not a throwaway “tagline” – I believe that when smart women have the courage and confidence to actively use their skills and talents, without holding themselves back, that the World will become a better place.

One of the best ways I know of encouraging professional women to stretch outside their comfort zone is to introduce them to inspirational female leaders. And so the podcast was born!

Hence the official description of the “Inspiring Women Interviews”:

Each month, Amanda Alexander interviews a high-flying female leader who is committed to sharing her experience openly and honestly to support gender equality. The purpose of the show is twofold:

1. To inspire women to BELIEVE in themselves so that they can reach higher in their careers and

2. To help them to be creative and resilient in their response to the challenges they may face along the way.

If you are a professional woman who wants inspiration to step up, then this podcast is for you! However, this isn’t a podcast only for women: These interviews will help men who recognise the wider benefits of encouraging more women into leadership. Together we can change the World!

The first interview is with a truly inspirational female leader and advocate of women in leadership, Kristen Pressner of Roche Diagnostics. Kristen is a VP and Head of  HR for EMEA and Latin America. She is also a champion for women in leadership and a mother of 4.

Since the podcast went live on Tuesday 2nd June, Kristen and I have received many messages of thanks and praise.

Here’s just a few of the most recent comments:

▪ “This should be required listening for ALL women and girls from aged 14″
▪ “I could listen to you both all day!”
▪ “It energised and inspired me”
▪ “Such a fluid interview”
▪ “It inspires me to make sure that the women who come into my life get my help to change the world one thought at a time.”
▪ “Fantastic interview…There were so many points in it that were relevant to me both personally and from a business perspective.”
▪ “She (Kristen) was very authentic in her answers and you could see she is so passionate about women in leadership and in the workplace in general. Loads of things she was saying resonated within me”

I can almost guarantee that you will thoroughly enjoy and learn from this interview, in which Kristen and I discuss:

▪ Planning your career progression
▪ How to make it “work” as a working mother
▪ How to return from maternity leave with confidence
▪ The most important qualities of a leader
▪ Why we need more female leaders globally
▪ The challenges faced by women in leadership positions
▪ The case for positive discrimination to increase the number of women on boards
▪ Being  strong female role models for our children

I invite you to listen to this whilst you are cooking, driving, walking, running, ironing or even having your hair cut! But please DO listen because I am certain that you’ll love it.

I’d also like to ask you to help me spread the word about this podcast. You can do this quickly and simply:

1. Click here to subscribe to the show on iTunes
2. Rate it 5 stars!
3. Pop a quick comment under your rating to say why you enjoyed the podcast.
4. Let your friends know about the interview with Kristen.

And if you have a teenage daughter, you might want to listen to this with her. Let’s give our future female leaders the insider knowledge BEFORE they have to make big decisions about their careers!

Click here to listen to the interview with Kristen Pressner

p.s. I’m looking for future interviewees. Are you – or do you know an inspirational female leader? My interviewees will be highly successful women who are authentic, approachable and keen to share their experiences for the benefit of women and girls. Once you have listened to my interview with Kristen, you’ll know exactly the type of interviewee that will fit the bill! I’ll also be interviewing in my capacity as a Psychologies magazine blogger, so this represents an incredible opportunity for profile-raising for the right people. Please drop me an email if you would like to make an introduction.