Leadership Sessions

These sessions will feature speakers who model and provide insights about ‘how to be’ in order to gain acceptance to move into leadership positions. Time and again, women, particularly women of color, leaders are not well regarded, or they lose credibility because they are perceived as crazy, too demanding, too serious, too opportunistic, and so on. The issue of trying to gain credibility as a leader is complicated but such credibility is necessary to be a leader. 

In fact, the reality that there are widely shared beliefs about how women and men must present themselves in order to gain acceptance as leaders can limit what they can do and how they can lead. Suggesting how to lead may feed into gender and racial stereotypes of what leaders are expected to conform to. The series will feature leaders who have gained respect and credibility to consider key questions: What communication strategies, qualities or features, or ways of interacting make leaders persuasive, credible, successful, and well regarded?

This series was started in spring 2024. The plan is to feature one speaker each semester.