It is time for women to lead like women. And for both men and women to encourage and appreciate it. Women represent more than half of the world population, more than half of College graduates….and less than half drop-outs. . Whether that is considered male-or-female one. Yet, too many indications that this is not the […]
Managing Friction: Top-Down and Bottom-Up
In government and business, I have often heard that “teams in the field don’t understand the big picture” coming out of headquarters. Or, emanating from the grassroots level, “headquarters is clueless about what´s happening in the field.” How do you manage the natural friction between corporate headquarters and its divisions or subsidiaries? In Afghanistan, the tension […]
Leadership: finding a sweet spot between flexibility and control
I recall when I first started out as an officer in the military, it took time and me making mistakes to figure out a healthy balance between flexibility and discipline. During one of my first training exercises, I sat back and gave up some of my autonomy, trusting my subordinate leaders to get the job […]
Asia Also Wants to Break the Glass Ceiling
I am back in Barcelona after spending a week in Asia, extremely encouraged by what I observed in that continent: work-family balance and, consequently, the advancement of women in leadership positions, is gaining importance at the political and corporate level. I had the opportunity to visit two large Japanese companies in Tokyo and meet the […]
Stepping Up to Uncertainty
In both business and the military, preparing leaders and their teams/units to manage in unpredictable environments – from strategy to tactical execution – is crucial. U.S. military planners have come up with a term to describe dynamic and unstable environments: VUCA. This acronym, which is also now often applied to business, stands for Volatile, Uncertain, […]
International Women’s Forum: Transforming Tomorrow’s Reality Today
At the end of last month, I participated in the IWF World Leadership Conference. I am a board member of the association in Spain. The title “Transforming Tomorrow Today” embodied the incredible, proactive energy of the 800 Top Women from 40 countries who came together once again for the annual conference. The association, founded in […]
Why does depression bear a woman’s name?
The incidence of depression in women is currently twice that of men. What are the causes of this increased incidence? The psychiatrist Marian Rojas Estapé told us about this causal relationship during the last conference of the IWILL women’s platform at the IESE campus in Barcelona. The causes of this major difference vary greatly. It […]
The Power of Emotions and Decision Making
A few weeks ago I saw Inside Out, the latest film from Pixar, which premiered in June. Inside the head of the protagonist, a young girl named Riley, five emotions—Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust—act as the governing body responsible for the decisions she must make in her life. The premise of Inside Out is […]
Gender Quotas and the Boomerang Effect
The debate on the system of gender quotas for boards of directors is ongoing and although we should congratulate ourselves on some important advances, there is still a long way to go. I’m afraid the “coffee for all” approach often imposed in some countries, involving a mandatory percentage applicable to all companies in all sectors, […]
Five Measures to Create Jobs for Countries with High Unemployment
Job creation is one of the most important challenges facing society. This is true from both the social and economic points of view, particularly amid an economic crisis as persistent as the one that hit the Western world in the opening decade of the 21st century. One of the most dramatic consequences of this crisis […]
