The wandering tales...

Margaret Thatcher

Share your awesome inner self today!

President Obama in Ghana

I just can’t get enough of Sheryl Sandberg! She’s the type of mentor I dream about - she’s intelligent, well-spoken, incredibly humble, and exudes beauty - both inside and out. I openly admit to (repeatedly) listening to Sheryl’s speeches and want to share her message to the HBS class of 2012. Enjoy and be inspired!

The key highlights of her speech are:

“As you start your post-HBS career, look for opportunities, look for growth, look for impact, look for mission.  Move sideways, move down, move on, move off.  Build your skills, not your resume.  Evaluate what you can do, not the title they’re going to give you.  Do real work.  Take a sales quota, a line role, an ops job.  Don’t plan too much, and don’t expect a direct climb. If I had mapped out my career when I was sitting where you are, I would have missed my career.”

“As you lead in this new world, you will not be able to rely on who you are or the degree you hold.  You’ll have to rely on what you know.  Your strength will not come from your place on some org chart, but from building trust and earning respect.  You’re going to need talent, skill, and imagination and vision.  But more than anything else, you’re going to need the ability to communicate authentically, to speak so that you inspire the people around you and to listen so that you continue to learn each and every day on the job.”

“Motivation comes from working on things we care about.  But it also comes from working with people we care about.  And in order to care about someone, you have to know them.  You have to know what they love and hate, what they feel, not just what they think.  If you want to win hearts and minds, you have to lead with your heart as well as your mind.”

“We need to start talking about how women underestimate their abilities compared to men and how for women, but not men, success and likeability are negatively correlated.  That means that as a woman is more successful in your workplaces, she will be less liked.  This means that women need a different form of management and mentorship, a different form of sponsorship and encouragement than men.”

FOUR THINGS SANDBERG WISHES FOR HARVARD’S GRADUATING CLASS OF 2012

“As you and your classmates spread out across the globe and walk across this stage tomorrow, I wish for you four things:

First, keep in touch via Facebook.  This is critical to your future success!  And since we’re public now, why you are there, click on an ad or two.

Two, that you make the effort to speak as well as seek the truth.

Three, that you remain true to and open about your authentic self.

And four, that your generation accomplishes what mine has failed to do.  Give us a world where half our homes are run by men and half our institutions are run by women.  I’m pretty sure that would be a better world.”

daily dose of inspiration!

When things in your lives seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 cups of coffee.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous “yes.”

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

“Now,” said the professor as the laughter subsided, “I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things—your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions—and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car.

The sand is everything else—the small stuff. “If you put the sand into the jar first,” he continued, “there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

“Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first—the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.”

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled. “I’m glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend.”

Give a hug!

The following post was written by Amy Lockwood over at the Stanford Social Innovation Review and reposted from http://twodollarchallenge.org/

The growing community of students and professionals who are turning their attention to social endeavors as careers is inspiring. As someone who made the career switch from strategy consulting to international development work, I remember all too well the anxiety of trying to understand the different theories, familiarize myself with the players, and become fluent in the languages of this community. In addition to listening more than speaking, cultivating curiosity, and abandoning the fear of looking stupid when asking, “What does [fill in the blank] mean?”—in my first years in this new space, I asked for recommendations of books that would provide a foundation for my understanding of development, aid, and poverty. I recently revisited these recommendations as a member of the Opportunity Collaboration, and the following is a suggested reading list to provide a foundation for your adventures.

The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good (2006)
by William Easterly
Easterly, a celebrated economist, presents one side in what has become an ongoing debate with fellow star-economist Jeffrey Sachs about the role of international aid in global poverty. Easterly argues that existing aid strategies have not and will not reduce poverty, because they don’t seriously take into account feedback from those who need the aid and because they perpetuate western colonial tendencies.

The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time (2006)
by Jeffrey Sachs
Taking an almost entirely diametrical approach than Easterly, Sachs outlines a detailed plan to help the poorest of the poor reach the first rung on the ladder of economic development. By increasing aid significantly to provide the basic infrastructure and human capital for markets to work effectively, Sachs argues such investment is not only economically sound but a moral imperative.

The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It (2007)
by Paul Collier
Economist and Africa expert Collier analyzes why a group of 50 nations, home to the poorest one billion people, are failing. Considering issues such as civil war, dependence on extractive industries, and bad governance, he argues that the strongest industrialized countries must enact a plan to help with international policies and standards.

The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits (2009)
by C.K. Prahalad
Prahalad, a business strategy professor, was among the first to argue that the fastest growing market in the world was made up of the world’s poorest people. He details the purchasing power of this segment, and advocates that big businesses should learn how to understand this population’s needs in order to develop products that address both economic mobility and corporate growth and profit.

Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism (2009)
by Muhammad Yunus
Yunus, an economist and Nobel Prize Winner, was among the first to describe a social business as one that is modestly profitable but designed primarily to address a social objective. Using this approach, he argues that modern-day capitalism is too narrowly defined, particularly in its emphasis on profit maximization. By including social benefits in the equation, he believes that markets and the poor themselves can alleviate poverty.

Out of Poverty: What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail (2009)
by Paul Polak
Polak, a psychiatrist, has applied a behavioral and anthropological approach to alleviating poverty, developed by studying people in their natural surroundings. He argues that there are three mythic solutions to poverty eradication: donations, national economic growth, and big businesses. Instead, he advocates helping the poor earn money through their own efforts of developing low-cost tools that are effective and profitable.

Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa (2009) – TDC’s review of this book.
by Dambisa Moyo
Moyo, a Zambia-born economist, asserts that aid is not only ineffective—it’s harmful. Her argument packs a strong punch because she was born and raised in Africa. Moyo believes aid money promotes the corruption of governments and the dependence of citizens, and advocates that an investment approach will do more to help reduce poverty than aid ever could.

Poor Economics A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty (2011)
by Abhijit Banerjee & Esther Duflo
Using the framework of randomized control trials, which allow for large-scale data collection to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention, these two development economists assess the impact of a wide range of development programs in alleviating poverty. They have found that most programs have not been designed with a rigorous understanding of the behaviors and needs of the poor or how aid effects them, they advocate that for programs to be successful they must be designed with evidence gathered from direct interaction with those who they are meant to benefit.

Development As Freedom (2000)
by Amartya Sen
A Nobel Prize winning economist, Sen examines the essential role that elementary freedoms, social and political, have in improving the prosperity of the society at large. Although his focus on human welfare as a central aspect of economic thought is not universally accepted among economists, this approach inserts elements of ethics into a field from which it is often not emphasized. Although this is a difficult read, the concepts included are important to the dialogue about the causes and remedies to the economics of poverty.

Good to Great and the Social Sectors (2005)
by Jim Collins
Meant to accompany the seminal business book Good to Great that examined why companies succeed or fail and found nine key aspects, including: leadership, simplicity, discipline and innovation, this work focuses on applying these lessons to the nonprofit sector. While more focused on management of organizations than macro economic issues, this short and easy to read monograph suggests a roadmap of how those interested in addressing issues of poverty should pursue these efforts.

kepela:

Beauty isn’t just defined as how you look or what you wear - we must always remember how each of us can be beautiful from the inside as well. 

(via deletable1221-deactivated201208)

When I started my first job after undergraduate university I remember a new initiative called ”women in leadership” where two female partners at my firm were invited to share their career experiences with more junior females over lunch. This happened a few times throughout the year and I thought, “this is great! girl power!” Little did I know how diversity and womens initiatives would evolve. These days when I open my email inbox I can always count on a few girlfriends who send me stories about women leaders, women enterpreneurs, how to succeed as women in business, and all round ‘go girl power!’ inspirational articles.

HBR posted a blog entitled, “Are women better leaders than men?” showing that “women are rated higher in fully 12 of the 16 competencies that go into outstanding leadership” and two traits women excel in over men are “taking initiative and driving for results.” Men outscoured women in “the ability to develop a strategic perspective.”

When queried about the differences, women responded saying: “We need to work harder than men to prove ourselves” and “We feel the constant pressure to never make a mistake, and to continually prove our value to the organization.” The list of reasons could go on but the article concludes that in the end, these leadership behaviours are what makes real leaders, regardless of gender.

So what can women do to build themselves up as leaders? Women 2.0 featured 10 Rules for Brilliant Women stating:

1. Make a pact - To build the life you want
2. Imagine it - Envision your ‘knock the ball out of the park’ life
3. Gasp - Start doing things that make you gasp and get the adrenalin flowing
4. Get a thick skin - Gused to wins and losses, praise and pands, getting a call back and being ignored. Work on letting go of needing to be liked and needing to be universally known as “a nice person”
5. Be an arrogant idiot - Of course you won’t but we can learn a thing from those guys around the office who share their opinions without thinking, who rally everyone around their big, (often unformed) ideas? Be more like them. Even if just a bit.
6. Question the voice that says “I’m not ready yet” - While you are waiting to be ready, gathering more experience, sitting on your ideas, our friends referenced in rule five are being anointed industry visionaries, getting raises, and seeing their ideas come to life in the world. They are no more ready than you, and perhaps less.
7. Don’t wait for your Oscar - Don’t wait to be praised, anointed, or validated. Don’t wait for someone to give you permission to lead. Don’t wait for someone to invite you to share your voice. No one is going to discover you.
8. Filter advice - Interpret feedback carefully. Test advice and evaluate the results, rather than following it wholesale.
9. Recover and restore - Watch your tank to see how much risk-taking juice you have available to you. When it’s running low, stop, recover and restore.
10. Let other women know they are brilliant - Let them know what kind of brilliance you see, and why it’s so special. Call them into greater leadership and action. Let them know that they are ready. Watch out for that subtle, probably unconscious thought, “because I had to struggle and suffer on my way up…they should have to too.” Watch out for thinking this will “take” too much time – when the truth is it always has huge, often unexpected returns.

If there’s one book I would encourage everyone to read this International Womens Day, it’s “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide” by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn. This book candidly provides a platform for the voices of girls and women whose gender has resulted in restrictions from attaining basic human needs, violence, rape, death, abandonment and torture. Rape as a weapon, forced prostitution, female genital mutilation and fistulas as a result from violence are a few of the topics which recount the heartbreaking tales of the women who have suffered from them. Kristof and Wudunn conclude that empowering women and girls is the most effective way to fight poverty and extremism.

http://www.halftheskymovement.org/

The book concludes with 4 ways we can help women worldwide:

1. Provide a loan directly to a woman in need through www.kiva.org or www.globalgiving.org

2. Sponsor a girl or a woman through Plan International, Women for Women International, World Vision, or American Jewish World Service

3. Keep updated on global womens rights issues by signing up for email updates at www.womensnews.org and www.worldpulse.com

4. Join the CARE Action Network at www.can.care.org – to speak out, influence policy makers, and educate people against poverty and injustice.

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