Kamala and the tricky beast of authenticity
Authenticity in leadership is highly valued these days. It often comes up in the context of women leading. But how desirable is it really?
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Supercharging for Go-Getters
Quickest way to stop holding back During my five years as the director of the mentoring program of PWI (Professional Women International), it struck me how many of us struggle to overcome what’s holding us back. Now that I’ve handed over the role to my successor, I’ll be sharing my method to easily tackle those
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How to motivate others and yourself
Here in my house on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, I find it very hard to motivate myself to engage with anything concerning my regular work. All day long, I’m outside. Together with the gardener – and others if needed – we work hard to get all the upkeep done before I return to Brussels.
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Who do you want to be?
Remember being asked when you were small, what you wanted to be when you grew up? Did you become it or did life take you elsewhere? How did you go about picking what you studied, or what you do for a living? And how does it match with what you feel your adult identity to
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Of snowflakes and men
Today’s topic was a tough one to write. I sat with it for a while. To be honest, I felt rather demoralized. Then again, if we want anything to change, it’s very important to speak about it. So here you go. Many of us are reluctant to make ourselves visible, whether that’s in the shape
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She took it out of me, but here’s what I learned
Last week, I have not been so well – sick in bed – and the reason is… no, it’s not my 4-year old (step)granddaughter in the picture above. But she taught me a life lesson I won’t forget. I had cleared my calendar for the week that she was here, to be sure that I
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Drive it like you stole it. Really?
Recently, I came across a post, expressing the widely felt frustration that the needle isn’t moving for women with leadership ambitions. But blaming men doesn’t solve it. What makes a woman successful is being herself. ‘Ladies, “they” don’t want us behind the wheel. So, we better drive it like we stole it,’ the author wrote. But
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Drive it like you stole it
How are you doing? Realizing your ambitions? I often see posts on social media by women who express their frustration about the fact that the needle isn’t moving much in leadership. ‘Ladies, they don’t want us behind the wheel. So, we better drive it like we stole it,’ one author wrote on LinkedIn. I feel
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Of dogs and fulfilment
Every now and then, I get a little obsessed with my need to deliver. Luckily, my dogs tend to remind me of the fact that there’s more to life than being useful. This morning, one of the two insisted on being on my lap, and when that didn’t work, on my overcrowded desk. So, as
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Ever been told to be more assertive? Don’t listen. Read this:
‘What shall we do? ‘I don’t mind. Whatever you like.’ When I was younger, my conversations would often follow this pattern, me being the one not minding. One day, a friend gave me the well-meant advice to get some assertiveness training, because I seemed so insecure. But I didn’t feel like that at all. Nowadays, I sometimes
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Stereotypical Barbie is dead, long live the stereotype!
When I put a few pages about Barbie in my latest book – We-mind vs Me-mind, published in July – I wanted to illustrate how what we’ve learned to value in ourselves and others is making a lot of people deeply unhappy and perpetuates the very situation we want to change. Unfortunately, the latest Barbie
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Let’s stop beating ourselves up! What the latest UN report on gender bias really shows
It sounds shocking: 90 percent of the world population, including women, is biased against women, according to the latest UN Gender Social Norms Index (GSNI). But this representation of the facts is profoundly skewed. Yes, there is a lot of room for improvement. But there is no reason to despair. And the solution is obvious:
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