BIG NAMES, BIG LESSONS - Ardern, Clinton, Lagarde, May & more..
Chatting with a dear friend of mine about undertaking the Women in leadership programme through Oxford University, without hesitation and in her charming Australian accent, she said, “Have you read Julia Gillard’s new book?”
I promptly ordered, Women and leadership real lives, real lessons by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Julia Gillard.
The authors have in common that they were both the first women to be appointed in their respective roles; Julia was the first female prime minister of Australia and Ngozi the first female finance minister of Nigeria. Both not only have first hand experience as powerful women in the political arena, they have impressive legacies and have combined forces in this book to shed light on what it is like to be a woman in politics, a woman in leadership and lessons learned along the way.
Now before I go any further, if you haven’t already heard Julia Gillard’s now “infamous misogyny speech”, stop reading this post now and click here it is worth a watch! Then come rushing back to read the rest of my post!
Regardless of your partisanship, the authors have managed to bring in eight powerful women political leaders from around the globe to discuss their stories detailing varying degrees of struggles and triumphs. There are twelve chapters; the titles of which takes the form of quirky phrases that are typically associated with women (you go girl, who’s minding the kids, she’s a bit of a bitch).
The conversational style of writing makes for comfortable reading and the content relevant in the public and private sector, combining data with real stories and practical advice.
There are many takeaways from the book and I am sure different messages will resonate depending on where you are at in your leadership journey. I will share a couple of key ones that resonated with me.
Hypothesis two: (chapter five) It’s all about the hair. We live in a society focused on looks, this is no surprise, I mean who can forget Bernie Sanders outfit at this year’s U.S Presidential inauguration it spouted many memes! The book points out Barak Obama’s ‘tan suit’ almost broke the internet, and while both men and women can be judged on their appearance, women have always been measured on their looks as opposed to their competence. What advice is given? Leaders should be judged by what they say and do not what they look like, and for many women in leadership, adopting a ‘uniform’ (Hilary Clinton adopted pant suits and the author, Ngozi states in the book she embraced an African look that is ‘unique to her brand’) ends up being an anti-distraction technique and refocuses the audience on their messaging.
Another standout lesson from the book is for us women to support each other, and you may think this an obvious statement. The book draw’s on Olympic gold medallist Abby Wambach commencement speech in chapter 9 (Hypothesis six: A special place in hell - do women really support women?) as an example of what true celebration of each other accomplishments should look like. Does that mean we should all go running onto a football field and hug each other to mark an achievement…I will leave you the judge of that but it could be fun! It does give food for thought as to whether we really are fully recognising other women successes.
So what do I think overall?…. In homage to my Australian friend who recommended it in the first place, I would say, “it’s a cracker of a book”!
Let me know what you got out of this book, or recommend any absolute must reads!
P.S. As I was writing this blog, Kamala Harris entered the White House as the first female vice-president of the USA (perhaps worthy of its own blog post) and Estonia elected a female president, Kersti Kaljulaid, and female prime minister, Kaja Kallas. Great to see that we broke another glass ceiling in seeing women in key leadership roles!
