The ideas for the Strategies and Practices of Women Who Lead began to simmer several years after I completed my doctoral dissertation. For that research project, I interviewed 20 successful female executives. They told me about their experiences in the workplace, describing milestones, growth, learning curves, impacts, barriers, and perspectives on how those experiences fueled their personal trajectories. I concluded that factors such as growth, barriers, and impact represented the prominent features of female leadership. However, as is often the case, things just aren’t that simple.

Each woman, depending on her personality, circumstances, and objectives, must determine what success means to her, and each woman’s success is unique. Still, each person’s leadership journey may offer insight and lessons to other leaders or aspiring leaders. This book is a collection of materials from podcast interviews with women executives. The focus here is on the individual, however, and I have highlighted the insights I most wish I had as I was starting out as a young woman on the path to executive responsibility.