Mentoring the Next Generation of Women Leaders

Women in the World Foundation - Next Generation Leadership Academy

[Rachel] Sterne Haot talked about launching her first startup and about the importance of getting over the fear of failure that often holds young women back. “I was full of fear throughout most of the process, but I felt so passionately about it,” she said. “What’s the worst that could happen? I could fail [but] at least I’ll learn something. Every moment in my career when I’ve made a big change, I’ve felt fear but it’s been the good kind of fear.”

[Debora] Spar countered, “I didn’t have that confidence at 6; I’m pretty sure I didn’t have it at 22 either.” She shared her teenage struggles with an eating disorder and ruminated on what might happen if women took all the energy they used to focus on their bodily flaws and focused it outward—“less on themselves and more on the issues of the world. We’d have an energy here that is ripe to explode.”

“Be OK with dreaming big,” said [Kavita] Shukla. “You do have something valuable to offer. You do have something interesting to say,” added Hathi. And above all, Matthews said, “it doesn’t have to be perfect to get started. You don’t have to have it all figured out.”

The article World, Meet your Future Leaders culled terrific perspectives and quotes, such as the foregoing ones,  from the July 29th gathering for the Next Generation Leadership Academy, Women in the World Foundation.

I've said this before, and I'll say it here again:  Women figure prominently in the success of an organization and country.  There is converging evidence to this effect - for example, Leadership Through the Crisis and After, by McKinsey.  In general, their more relationship-oriented, engaging leadership style has a direct link to hard results, such as topline growth and shareholder value, according to longstanding research by Gallup.

There are even more perspectives and quotes, so please have a look-see.