TLDR: Use preparatory language to increase your chances of being heard and gaining the respect you deserve. Preparatory language is a comment made before the important comment. It is designed to draw attention to you so that you have gained attention before making your important point. "I am unheard in meetings. The men especially talk over me, interrupt or restate - minutes later - the very point I made." This is one of the most common complaints that I hear from women - especially those...

TLDR: Scroll down to the Recap to read the summarized career advice from a woman who was a pioneer in engineering and IT. Susan: Good morning from beautiful Epona Dressage Center outside of Carmona, Spain, where I have spent the week with some amazing women. This morning I'm speaking with Wendy McLeod. I was struck by Wendy's career history because she was in the forefront and cutting edge of women in engineering and in IT. So how did you move into IT? First, let me say one thing about...

Leadership Differs by Levels - Get the Table: https://www.bebusinesssavvy.com/download-leadership-differs-by-levels ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ TL;DL: As you move into new opportunities there are things you leave behind, there are things you take with you and things you have to add. By "things" I mean: skill sets, perspectives, identity.  You leave "things" behind to create bandwidth for adding what you need to succeed in the new position. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ As some of you...

TLDL: Instead of covering over your flame of confidence, try these 5 ways to give it oxygen! (scan the headings for the 5 tips). This morning I answered a LinkedIn message from a woman who wanted to know how to deal with "learned" lack of confidence due to the toxic work culture she lived in. She said this was important because she had to deal, and even sometimes partner, with one of the people who created that toxic culture.Her question gave me pause because I thought about that word...

Good morning from the sleepy little village of El Rompido in Andalusia, Spain. About as close to the Portuguese border as I could be.  This morning I'm musing on the consciousness of successful women about having developed business, financial and strategic acumen. They Just Don't See It I have interviewed dozens of women CEOs, some from Fortune 500 companies, And even more women who hold senior positions - mostly in  Fortune 500 or Global 1000 companies. When I've asked them, "What did you...

Stop Accepting the Blame Good morning from the sleepy little village of El Rompido in Andalusia, Spain. This morning (Oct '23), for the first time in about 10 days, I scrolled through my homepage on LinkedIn and there were two bits of research that caught my eye. One was the latest McKinsey and Lean In study. The other was a study about the rates at which United States Supreme Court justices interrupt women versus men attorneys who are presenting oral arguments.What struck me about the...

 Good morning from the shores of beautiful Rincon, Puerto Rico, where this morning, I am musing on the most important thing to know when you're seeking a promotion.   First, Do This! Before I get into it, I want you to try something.    If you're in a place where you can stand up, I'd like you to do that.     Take your dominant hand, extend your pointer finger and raise your hand with your finger pointing straight up above your head and with your arm, make a circle going clockwise. ...

5 Steps to Self-Promote with Grace, Ease and Authenticity. Good morning from the nature trail in El Rompido, Spain.  Based on a post I wrote on LinkedIn while I was here, I am musing on self promotion.  Specifically for this podcast, the myth that if you self promote, you cannot be humble.  The reality couldn't be further from the truth. And here's why. Paradoxical Blend of Personal Humility and Intense Professional Will One of the books that had a profound impact on my understanding of...

Build Business Acumen When I discovered The Missing 33% of the career success equation for women - in other words, the fact that managers don't expect us to have or demonstrate business, financial, and strategic acumen - and that is a barrier to our advancement, it means we have to work extra hard to develop and demonstrate that we have business, financial, and strategic acumen, or what I call Business Savvy.  I realized that part of my mission was going to be to help women develop, enhance,...

This morning as I walk along the beautiful shore in Rincon, Puerto Rico, I'm focusing on keeping leadership simple.What popped into my mind this morning is when I was working at a large medical center, and I was consulting to the Chief Nursing Officer, working with her managers.Nurse managers are accountable for an immense number of metrics. And, generally speaking, they feel overwhelmed by the demands to deliver on all of them. This might sound familiar to you in your job.And of course the...

WHY DIY Business Acumen Will Fail You Imagine that you have just bought the perfect piece of furniture from Ikea and you open the box and in front of you are pieces of wood and screws and screwdrivers and nuts and bolts in the dozens and you frantically search within the packaging And you cannot find the instruction manual. Imagine how frustrated you'd feel if that were to happen. This is a little bit like trying the do it yourself approach to developing or enhancing your business acumen....

 Business, financial and strategic acumen are all Interrelated, so sometimes it can be difficult to define each one without slipping over into the others, but this morning I'm going to try to do that for business acumen.   Intro Good morning from the shores of Rincon, Puerto Rico.  This morning I'm musing about business acumen because a colleague was struggling to find her own definition. So, let me share with you my thoughts about business acumen. As you know, I've said a million times...

If you are like most people, you come to work with a laser sharp focus on the job ahead of you. You've heard messages like  "Work hard." "Do your job." " Get results, and good things will come to you. So your orientation is looking downward at the job for which you've been hired. In this morning's musings I want to ask you to lift your head, look around, look above in order to clarify your positional purpose. Eyes Up! Every job in an organization exists because it is important to invest...

Good morning. It's Susan Colantuono here with my musings on The Missing 33%. This morning. I want to touch on something that I mentioned in another podcast. It's what I call your leadership daily practice. I want you to know that I walked my talk about this as I was growing my company that I have since sold. I did this every day and it helped me quadruple the size of the company in three years. What is a leadership daily practice? Well, it's based on my definition of leadership, which...

" Executive presence is the ability to comfortably draw and hold attention while delivering a business-savvy message." Susan L. Colantuono ------------------------  In an earlier podcast I talked about a woman who had received feedback about needing greater executive presence. This could be an any of thousands of women who've received that feedback that I've worked with over the years. So I want to do a quick musing into the topic of executive presence. What is Executive Presence? The...

 "In order to be prepared to present at higher levels. It's important to realize that your work product means different things at different levels." Susan L. Colantuono ---------------- Yesterday a woman told me that she got feedback about needing executive presence because she had to have all the answers when she went into a meeting to present. Now, that's patently ridiculous. But here's how The Missing 33%, coupled with the knowledge about how leadership differs by levels, can help. In...

Good morning again from the boardwalk in beautiful El Rompido in Spain. This morning I'm musing about courage, confidence, and business savvy. You've Earned Your Place Imagine that you're walking into a business meeting. It's the first time you have encountered the members of the team you'll be working with. And while you carry in with you an exceptional track record of performance and great skills at engaging others, it's natural to have a little trepidation about how you will be received...

Use Business Savvy to De-Clutter Your To-Do List Hi, this is Susan Colantuono coming to you from beautiful South County, Rhode Island. Today I'm musing on the importance of de-cluttering your to do list for your mental sanity and well being.Have you ever had the experience where something comes into your inbox or across your desk or into your DMs and you have thought, "I'm going to tackle that later?" Later comes and all of a sudden it's not even important. I have had that happen so many...

The Single Best Way to Proactively Seek the Benefits of Mentoring This will be a multi part series of musings coming to you from the shores of Rincón, Puerto Rico.Part one. 8 Things To Know About Accessing Mentorship Women are improperly/imperfectly mentored. So you may have seen books and articles positing the idea that women are over-mentored and under-sponsored. What I want to say about that is, yes, women are under-sponsored, but we are most likely improperly mentored. Mentoring and...

In an earlier musing on The Missing 33%, I gave a brief summary of my TED Talk. On this I want to dive a little further into the concept of The Missing 33%. Discovering The Missing 33% I discovered it based on research published in 2000. Which was kicked off by a BusinessWeek title that said, "As leaders, women rule new studies find that female managers outshine their male counterparts on almost every measure." Now because I had my three part definition of leadership: Leadership is using...

This morning I'm using about the fact that you might not have found me through my TED Talk, so I want to share with you key messages from the TED Talk that will help you in your career journey. First of all, I needed to have a definition of leadership that was actionable if I wanted to help women grow in their careers and be successful. I couldn't find one that met all my criteria, which you can read about in my book. No Ceiling, no Walls. So I developed one and here's my definition. Attend...

Hi, this is Susan Colantuono introducing my new mini podcast series, "Be Business Savvy." I want to share its backstory, so that you understand why you're hearing what you're hearing. Short to Fit Your Busy Life I'm a very busy woman, as are you, and I find sitting through 60 minute and even 30 minute podcast really difficult. So I decided that I wanted my podcast to be in bite-size chunks addressing key career and leadership development content that you could. nibble on and take one six...