Strong female lead By Arwa Mahdawi

BOOK REVIEWS BY BINOD

BINOD’S RATING: 8/10

Top 20 points:

1. Diversity at the table doesn’t matter if there’s no real diversity in policy

2. Business people avoid clear language because the goal is to persuade people, not inform people.

3. Teaching is of course an overwhelmingly female profession, which means its undervalued.

4. You are more likely to use buzzwords when you’re insecure and have a lower professional status.

5. You solve the crisis of trust with leaders who say what they mean and mean what they say. The language you use should reflect the person you are, not the image you want to project. Otherwise, it’s almost inevitable you’ll look like a hypocrite.

6. If Blasio and Cuomo had worked together, thousands of lives could have been saved. Once again, two men who were supposed to be leading New York let their egos get in the way.

7.  Women tend to be plagued with imposter syndrome because, from an early age, we are bombarded with messages that tell us we are not as good as men.

8. The traditional thinking around confidence has been that the more the better. Too little self-confidence is obviously not good. There’s a balance required. We need to stop fetishizing confidence. Studies show that encouraging women to be over confident might stop them being effective leaders.

9. Lower levels of confidence can enhance leadership by encouraging self-criticism. Self-doubt isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

10. The best sort of confidence is quiet. Quietly confident people don’t need to be the center of attention, they don’t need to win every argument and they aren’t desperate to be liked (like Boris Johnson).

11. We often think leaders are supposed to have all the answers.  But a great leader is someone who knows to ask the right questions and creates an environment where people feel comfortable giving honest answers. Ego can get in the way of both these things.

12. Musk may be changing the world but it isn’t always for the better. During COVID he repeatedly downplayed the virus and tweeted misinformation to his 40 mln followers. He promoted chloroquine. He called the panic about COVID ‘dumb’. He stated publicly that he wouldn’t take a vaccine.

13.When we treat leaders like demi gods they act like demi gods. And that can have disastrous consequences for the rest of us.

14. Women are less likely to take risks with things we don’t understand and be reckless with our health. When you are traditionally the care giver, you simply can’t afford to be reckless- too many people depend on you.

15. The priority in female led countries during COVID was saving lives not the stock market.

16. Women are substantially more skeptical about innovation than men. Why? Because they are the protectors of the family. The guys are like “Whoa, just another gadget, let’s roll”. No. What are the consequences to society?

17. You may get rejected for a job because the algorithm is inadvertently sexist or doesn’t like your accent. You may get arrested because a computer mistranslated your social media post. You may be unable to rent space because of an algorithm. ALL this has actually happened.

18. Instead of fetishizing the new, make the most of the now.

19. Learn to use humor. It can be very powerful. It shows how relaxed you are, it means breaking down barriers and bringing people in.

20. You don’t become mega optimistic overnight. It’s a path. It starts by choosing to be grateful for small things.