When I was just entering the business world, I became friends with a retired CEO through the board of a nonprofit organization. While this man was not a formal mentor, he took an interest in my career and often offered advice based on his many years of experience and success. Read more…
When the pandemic hit in 2020, I remember reading the media headlines warning of a “she-cession,” or mass exodus of women from the workforce. I witnessed this firsthand as countless women I knew quit their jobs, exhausted from bearing a disproportionate burden of juggling responsibilities at work and home. Many Read more…
Chances are, if you ask a young girl in Iowa who her role model is these days, she’ll mention University of Iowa basketball player Caitlin Clark. Clark’s athletic skill and leadership have inspired girls, boys, women and men all over the state – including me – and even people across Read more…
“Would you be able to pick Gloria Steinem up from the airport?” was one of the more memorable questions Peg Lonnquist asked me when I was a college student at Iowa State University. As executive director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Women’s Center, Lonnquist (“Peg,” as we called her) was Read more…
I never dreamed I would someday be a CEO until a man suggested it. In a summer job during my MBA program, my boss asked me what roles I aspired to in the future. I told him I could see myself as the head of marketing or sales somewhere. “You Read more…
As the new year approached, I reviewed my resolutions from last year and was shocked to realize I’d met the personal and professional goals I had set for myself. Why the surprise? Over the last year I experienced a great deal of change and loss, and in the midst of Read more…
At a previous job, I supervised a talented leader who struggled to provide constructive feedback to her team members because she worried that pointing out performance issues would hurt her employees’ feelings. One day, I asked her how she would feel if she was doing something wrong at work and Read more…
One of the most memorable scenes in the recent blockbuster “Barbie” movie is the monologue on the impossible double standards of being a woman delivered by Gloria, the character played by America Ferrera. Gloria addresses a despondent Barbie with these words: “It is literally impossible to be a woman. You Read more…
When I was a child, my English professor aunt and my book-loving mom gave my sister and me their own set of Nancy Drew mysteries. As we turned the dog-eared pages of these books, we were mesmerized by Nancy’s ability to solve crimes that stumped adults and marveled at her Read more…
QUESTION: What will it take for women to achieve gender parity in leadership positions? Barbara Quijano Decker, Executive director, Catholic Charities – Des Moines, IowaChanges in our leadership culture, business models and in education. Valuing qualities that demonstrate how women are effective and provide leadership in the workplace. Women mentoring and Read more…