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INTENTIONING: THE KEY TO REACHING GENDER PARITY IN LEADERSHIP
Author(s) -
Feldt Gloria
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
leader to leader
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1531-5355
pISSN - 1087-8149
DOI - 10.1002/ltl.20561
Subject(s) - chief executive officer , feeling , power (physics) , officer , action (physics) , management , corporate title , public relations , happening , political science , business , psychology , law , social psychology , economics , history , corporate governance , performance art , physics , quantum mechanics , art history
Abstract Author Gloria Feldt raises the paradox that while there are many leadership advancement programs for women in U.S.‐based companies, “women in corporate life nevertheless occupy only an estimated 26.5 percent of executive and upper management positions.” Surveys show that many women are indeed ambitious about moving into the top ranks of corporations. Yet there is still a disconnect with the statistics on top leadership positions. Why is this the case? She points to examples of high‐profile women who have achieved chief executive officer (CEO) status: Meg Whitman, formerly at Hewlett Packard, Mary Barra, General Motors’ CEO, and Ursula Burns, previously of Xerox. Yet “many more women stay over‐long at a dead‐end job or move laterally from company to company feeling under valued, under appreciated and under‐compensated.” Feldt explains the difference between ambition and intention. Ambition reflects desire and determination to achieve something, yet intention puts this into action. Feldt dubs this “intentioning.” Feldt states that this “begins with assuming an active leadership role and embracing the power to achieve one's highest and boldest goals.” It requires asking four questions; which in her words are: What's happening now? What do you want to happen instead? How are you going to make it happen? What's next?