How Women Lead by Sharon Hadary & Laura Henderson - Book review

How Women Lead

The 8 Essential Strategies Successful Women Know

By: Sharon Hadary, Laura Henderson

Published: August 14, 2012
Format: hardcover, 272 pages
ISBN-10: 0071781250
ISBN-13: 978-0071781251
Publisher McGraw Hill










"Research has proven time and again that women have the capacity to be leaders and contribute significantly to profitability and success. All women need is the knowledge and tools to capitalize on their skills and strengths within the context of the business world", write Principal of Sharon Hadary & Co., Sharon Hadary; and President of Henderson Associates, Laura Henderson, in their insightful and action oriented book How Women Lead: The 8 Essential Strategies Successful Women Know. The authors describe the tremendous potential offered by women as leaders, and share practical and proven strategies for women to achieve their full leadership potential in any organization.

Sharon Hadary (photo left) and Laura Henderson recognize that women are moving into middle management and executive roles at an unprecedented rate. Despite that huge influx of female managers, armed with very impressive credentials exceeding those of their male counterparts, women are still moving very slowly into the very top leadership positions.

The authors point out that the pipeline of talented women is moving upward at a very slow pace, and women simply can't wait until the system rights itself. To guide the talented, resilient, and motivated women upward in the corporate hierarchy, to achieve the leadership spots where these women are more than capable of succeeding, the authors share their eight strategies for success.

Laura Henderson (photo left) and Sharon Hadery understand that men and women possess different leadership styles. The authors assert that neither one style or the other is superior, but instead suggest an integration of the two styles. Organizations are doing themselves and their stakeholders a disservice by failing to capitalize on the leadership skills that women bring to the table.

The authors present eight success strategies that have worked effectively for women who have reached the highest executive positions within their companies. The eight essential strategies are as follows:

* Empower the woman leader within
* Own your destiny
* Be the architect of your career
* Advocate unabashedly for yourself
* Translate the stories numbers tell to drive strategic results
* Create exceptional teams
* Nurture your greatest asset - You
* Turn possibilities into reality

For me, the power of the book is how Sharon Hadary and Laura Henderson combine leading edge research into women as leaders, with proven strategies for guiding women on their journey to the executive suite. The authors present their techniques with an eye to the skills that women possess in terms of motivation, skills, and resilience. With women being more holistic, collaborative, inclusive, and consultative than men, women bring these real strengths to the boardroom. The authors share many insightful interviews, throughout the book, conducted with successful women leaders.

The strengths and traits these amazing female executives share in common form the basis for the eight leadership principles outlined in the book. The authors go into detail about how each of the leadership pillars works for women, and how to apply these concepts to the real world of business leadership.

I highly recommend the empowering and engaging book How Women Lead: The 8 Essential Strategies Successful Women Know by Sharon Hadary and Laura Henderson, to any women managers, executives, their male counterparts, and current organizational leaders who are seeking a clear and comprehensive blueprint to strengthening corporate leadership through the addition of talented women. This book will motivate and inspire leaders everywhere to recognize, advocate, and promote more women leaders into the boardroom.