10 Women In Leadership Share Their Secrets To Success I Fast Company I Business + In... Page 1 ofS

ADVERTISEMENT

TEMBNO[OGY ~EADEH5HiP MAGAZINE MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES [ MOST CREATIVE PEoPIIu8a’~LIoEI NE1~S

7 MINUTE HEAD STRONG FEMALE LEAD

10 Women InLeadership SbareTheir Secrets ToSuccessThese women take responsibility for theirsuccesses and failures, and teach us all a thing ortwo about leadership along the way.

https://www.fastcompany.com!303 1922/strong-female-lead/i 0-women-in-leadership-share... 9/14/2016

10 Women In Leadership Share Their Secrets To Success Fast Company Business ÷ In... Page 2 of~

Si

[Image: Flickr user Andres Nieto Porras]

VIVIAN GIANG 06.17.14 5:48 AM

in

If we want innovative results, we need leaderswho aren’t afraid to think differently. Andwho aren’t afraid to lead differently.

The most successful leaders know all too wellthat their high-demand positions meannothing if they can’t influence others tobelieve in their mission.

What’s their secret to effectively being ontop? We asked 10 successful women leaderswhat they think most people don’t knowabout leadership. Here’s what they had tosay:

BE A “DEEP LISTENER”Katie Rae, managing

director ofTeehstars

https://www.fastcompany.com/303 I 922/strong-female-lead/I 0-women-in-leadership-share... 9/14/2016

10 Women In Leadership Share Their Secrets To Success Fast Company I Business + In... Page 3 of 44

Boston andfounder of

Project ii

Rae, who was named one ofour most creative people in2013, had to learn how to

PBckr user Reedsturtevant really listen because, as an

investor, her wins andlosses were dependent on

her listening skills.

“When it’s a smaller team, you can rapidilymake changes because you’re all sitting in thesame room together, looking at each other,”she tells Fast Company. “As teams get bigger,I have to be very careful about the advice Igive. If the founders ask me, I tell them myopinion, but as teams get bigger, the more Ireally have to listen.”

In a leadership position, Rae says you need totrain yourself on “deep listening” so that youcan really understand what’s going on. “Youlead with much more true confidence whenyou understand how people aroundyou—whether they agree or disagree withyour decision—will react. In that way, you’llbe able to pull them along with you even ifthey don’t agree with you ... by the way, thisworks in marriage too.”

SOMETIMES YOU NEED TO JUST GO WITH YOURGUT

https://www.fastcompany.com/303 1922/strong-female-lead/i 0-women-in-leadership-share... 9/14/2016

10 Women In Leadership Share Their Secrets To Success I Fast Company Business + In... Page 4 of 44

Anne Fulenwider, editor-in-chiefof

Marie Claire

“Sometimes you just have to make a leap offaith. As I was moving up the ranks,sometimes I’d be in a meeting and think, ‘wereally need a decision here,’ and realize a beatlater it was me who had to make thatdecision. Leadership is about presentingconfidence and decisiveness. Of course it’sbest if this is how you’re really feeling at themoment but it’s possible—in factnecessary—to make decisions you’re not 100

percent sure of. The longer you do it the morenatural going with your gut becomes. And

then soon you start giving advice like ~just gowith your gut.’”

FJickr userAnthonyQuintano

PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT YOU ARE DOINGWRONGRachel Sklar,founder ofChange The

Ratio and The Li.st

“There’s a lot of talk about being a bornleader ... having natural leadership. I think

https://www.fastcompany.com!303 1 922/strong-female-lead! 10-women-in-leadership-share... 9/14/2016

10 Women In Leadership Share Their Secrets To Success Fast Company Business + In... Page 5 of 44

that’s a myth. My experience is that if you arenot paying attention to the things you’redoing wrong, then you’re not evolving andlearning. I would say that leadership issomething that is learned. It can be learnedand should be learned. Leadership issomething you’re always honing and learningand reflecting to see ways you could havebeen better at it. Anyone who thinks they’re anatural leader is probably horrible to workwith.”

BE YOUR AUTHENTIC SELFDanae Ringehnann, co

founder and CDO of

Indiegogo

“Don’t be afraid to be youFiickr user OFFICIALLEWEBPHOTOS and own it. If you think

being a leader is abouthaving some agenda, it’s not. Being a leader isactually being completely with who you areand speaking from that place, givingfeedback, sharing opinions from that place.That’s why people follow you.”

Ringelmann tells Fast Company she learnedthis lesson when changing roles at Indiegogoand realized that power is all about the abilityto truly influence people and make an impactin their lives. “It doesn’t come from any titleor position ... a true leader is someone who is

https://www.fastcompany.com!303 I 922/strong-female-lead! 10-women-in-leadership-share... 9/14/2016

wholeheartedly willing to be their authentic

10 Women In Leadership Share Their Secrets To Success Fast Company Business + In... Page 6 of 44

k.t~. .~

~-‘V.’ t~

-

Courtesy otMonifCAfter a blockbuster year in2013, Clarke noticed thather team wasn’t speaking

up as much because they were constantly“nose down” working. That’s when sherealized it was up to her to ask them whatareas they thought needed improving inorder to make their jobs easier and help thecompany continue growing.

“Leadership is asking a lot of questions. I’velearned that between customers, employeesand all our stakeholders, my number one jobis asking [my team] a lot of questions so I canserve them. They are on the front linesdealing with customers or wearing ourproducts and while I am steering the ship,they are the engine and the propellers. I haveto be responsive to what they need and oftenpeople are too busy or bogged down to evenarticulate what they need.”

A LOT OF LEADERSHIP IS A PRIVATE JOURNEYJody Porowski,founder and CEO of

Avelist

self.”

ASK QUESTIONSMonjfClarke,founder

and CEO ofMonjfC Plus

Sizes

https://www.fastcompany.comJ303 1 922/strong-female-lead/i 0-women-in-leadership-share... 9/14/2016

JO Women In Leadership Share Their Secrets To Success I Fast Company I Business + In... Page 7 of 44

“Most acts of leadership happen behind

closed doors. In that sense, a leader’s journey

is actually quite private. It has to be. The

conversations with an employee, the hard

decisions at a board meeting, the thoughts in

bed late at night. It’s counter-intuitive

because we think of leaders as very public

figures.”

“I think one of the biggest ways that I learned

this lesson has been through personal

relationships with other leaders. Specifically

the relationships that have moved beyond

business and into true friendship where

there’s a certain level of trust and

camaraderie,” she says.

“I remember one time in particular, I had just

started to become friends with the leader of a

popular startup. I was kind of in awe of this

particular CEO and had just read a particular

article about some of her glorious

achievements. I remember talking to her

soon after the article came out and she was

talking about the people that she needed to

lay off and some of the office drama. I saw a

whole new side of her leadership based on

how she handled those private matters. And I

realized that those things that take up so

much time and energy and emotion—and

that really define us as leaders—are usually

private situations.”

https://www.fastcompany.comJ3O3 1922/strong-female-lead/I 0-women-in-leadership-share... 9/14/2016

10 Women In Leadership Share Their Secrets To Success I Fast Company Business + In... Page 8 of 44

IN GOOD TIMES AND BAD: BE HUMBLEBrooke Moreland, head ofmarketing at

Gett and co-founder ofFashism

“I think to be a good leader, you really need

to learn humility. To give credit to your

subordinates when things go well and to

shoulder the responsibility when things hit

the fan. It’s hard, but I think the lack of ego is

something that people respect and

appreciate.”

Moreland tells Fast Company she learned

this lesson when starting her company

because no mailer how much you want to

deflect responsibility or assign blame when

things go bad, ultimately, those at the top are

responsible.

LISTENING IS THE BIGGEST PART OF YOUR JOBJessanne Collins, editor-in-chiefof

mentaljloss magazine

“Leadership is mostly about listening. You

can’t create a team that thrives if you can’t

respond to what each member needs. They

don’t always ask directly. And outwardly, you

can’t break through the chaffer in the

marketplace if you can’t hear and respond

directly to what the audience is asking for.”

Collins says that through observing leaders

and being managed herself, she’s discovered

https://www.fastcompany.com/303 1922/strong-female-lead/i 0-women-in-leadership-share... 9/14/2016

10 Women In Leadership Share Their Secrets To Success I Fast Company I Business + In... Page 9 of 44

that the best teams to work on were the oneswith the best communicators—not just interm of articulating a vision, but also torespond to individual personalities on a teamin effective ways.

Courtesy ofKathrynFinney

YOU DON’T HAVE TO HAVE ALL THE ANSWERSKathryn Finney,founder and managing

director ofdigitalundivided (DID)

“Most people think leaders are some sort of‘all-knowing-beings,’ but in reality we oftendon’t know the answers. The difference isthat leaders trust their instincts to lead themto an answer.”

Finney says that when her company had itsfirst conference in 2012, she had no idea whatto expect.

“No one had ever done a startup conferencefor black people before and there was reallyno model for us to follow. People thought Iwas crazy and told me so. But I did know thatthere was a disconnect between the tech

https://www.fastcompany.comJ3O3 1 922/strong-female-lead/i 0-women-in-leadership-share... 9/14/2016

10 Women In Leadership Share Their Secrets To Success I Fast Company Business ... Page 10 of 44

startup world and my community. If mycommunity was to participate in this neweconomy, we had to figure out a way to beinvolved and we had to be involved in a waythat was organic to us. So I took a leap offaith—and $30,000 of my own money—toour first conference.”

Courtesy ofBintaNianibi Brown

REAL LEADERSHIP IS ABOUT SERVICEBinta Niambi Brown, lawyer and

Mossavar-Rahmani seniorfellow at the

Harvard Kennedy School

“Most people don’t realize that leadership isfundamentally about service, about a dying toself and loving others into their truepotential. It isn’t about us personally. It isn’tabout what we can get, or consume. It isn’tabout elevating ourselves above others. Itisn’t about ego. Leadership is about loweringourselves such that the people who work with

us, and our organizations can thrive in waysthat create value (economic and social).”

https://www.fastcompany.comI3O3 1 922/strong-female-lead/i 0-women-in-leadership-share... 9/14/2016

10 Women In Leadership Share Their Secrets To Success I Fast Company Business + ... Page 11 of 44

“When I am serving I can’t help but to becompassionate. And when I am not, thetendency to become jaded, more callous, andless forgiving can take over. This has beenone of my greatest observations since leavingmy law practice. How ineffective businessleaders are once they lose the capacity to putthemselves to the side in favor of thecommon good.”

NEWSLETTERGet the latest Leadership stories delivered toyour inbox daily.

YIURLØMAI[.COM

id also like to receive special Past Companyoffers

in hA

LONG READ CREATIVE CON VEBSATIONS

Jack Dorsey On TheNew Twitter: “We’reNot A Social Network

https://www.fastcompany.com/303 1 922/strong-female-lead! 10-women-in-leadership-share... 9/14/2016