As a weekly contributor to Forbes for nearly the last two years, Lelia regularly shares her insights into career fulfilment, negotiation, and workplace dynamics for women. Her work had been translated into 6 languages and published in 13 countries.
Interested in a specific area? Check out the topics below.
Being pregnant at work can be exhausting. My support network is both insightful and hilarious – advising me to “follow the koala”. I share their great advice and my experience with a particularly nosy post office customer.
Read MoreA recurring theme at women’s conferences is the narrative that “women just need to be confident.”
If confidence were a switch in our brains that we could flip on, this well-intentioned advice would be transformative. Since it’s not exactly a binary system that we can activate – confident vs unconfident – it’s worth considering why women’s professional confidence might be a little shakier than our male counterparts’. (Hint: it’s not just you.)
Research recently published in the Harvard Business Review found that well-curated women's conferences can increase both attendees' income and optimism.
Read MoreFollowing #metoo, there's far more pressure on women to be vocal about their experiences of harassment. The repercussions for women who do come forward is a topic that's largely been missing from the conversation.
Three women share their stories of what life is like after making those accusations public.
Following #metoo, there's far more pressure on women to be vocal about their experiences of harassment. The repercussions for women who do come forward is a topic that's largely been missing from the conversation.
Three women share their stories of what life is like after making those accusations public.
Read MoreTEDWomen cofounder and curator, Pat Mitchell provides insight into her career and the current landscape for women.
Read MoreFor 20 years, Jean Oelwang successfully climbed the corporate ladder and broke glass ceilings, but she says, “With each shattered ceiling, I felt more and more alone and less and less myself.”
Her life partner, Chris Waddell, is a world-champion mono-skier who set Paralympic history. As he achieved each new physical feat, though, he said there was a sense of isolation that kept him feeling separate and alone.
Read MoreOn a recent episode of Saturday Night Live, Colin Jost captured my feelings surrounding sexual harassment rather perfectly, saying, “Well, it’s a good weekend to stay inside, since it’s 20 degrees out and everyone you’ve ever heard of is a sex monster.”
There’s a not-so-small part of me that would love nothing more than to “stay inside” and ignore it all. Even as someone whose business focuses on gender dynamics in the workplace and who also happens to moonlight as a sex educator, the culture of sexual harassment often feels intractable and overwhelming.
Read MoreOctober 16 was not a productive day for me. #MeToo was so pervasive, my entire Monday should’ve come with a trigger warning.
The hashtag took over my Facebook, monopolized my conversations and completely absorbed my thoughts.
Read MoreHow often do you find yourself in a challenging work situation and think, “I just don’t know who I can talk to about this,” or need real time professional advice when your best friend is unavailable?
Read MoreIn an effort to get taken seriously as a young female CEO, Eileen Carey dyed her blonde hair brown, switched to more androgynous clothing and ditched contacts for thick-frame glasses.
While Carey’s change in appearance was dramatic, aspects of her story echo the decisions of women across sectors and other demographics.
Research from Harvard Medical School shows that, based only on appearance, people evaluate your competence and trustworthiness in a quarter of a second. For women who face other biases surrounding their age, race, or gender presentation, this adds another level of complexity to achieving coveted “executive presence”.
Read MoreTwelve years ago today, my friend Julia dropped off a Winnie the Pooh coloring book, a 64-pack of Crayolas, and a note that coloring has been shown to relieve stress. Hurricane Katrina had just made landfall and meteorologists were talking about my beloved hometown becoming the lost city of Atlantis. I spent the next week in my Dallas apartment struggling to get in touch with loved ones, watching the news, crying and coloring.
Read MoreWe know executive presence when we see it. It’s that feeling you get when a woman walks in poised and polished, with the presence of a leader. There’s a certain je ne sais quoi about how she carries herself, which of course, seems effortless.
We all want it, but how do we get it? Until there is a Harry Potter-style magic potion for executive presence, there’s Jennifer Lee, a director of training and development and executive presence expert.
Read MoreAccording to a new survey from PayScale, the advice women have been getting about sharing their salary history may be wrong. Almost universally, the recommendation has been this: don’t answer the question
Read MorePhoto credit: The Muse
As co-founder of the popular career website, The Muse, Kathryn Minshew is deeply immersed in the career advice space. While tips and tricks can be helpful, the thing she wishes we talked about more is how deeply personal careers are.
It’s tempting to believe “there are such things as good jobs and bad jobs, good companies and bad companies,” Minshew explains. Lists like ‘100 Best Places to Work’ oversimplify what it means to be a good employer. And they completely overlook the nuanced combination of qualities that make a company the right fit for you.
Read MoreVenture capitalist Jillian Manus has had female entrepreneurs call her crying from the bathroom, the sidewalk, and from their cars after facing harassment from male VCs. Now people from across the country are learning about women’s experiences in the industry.
Read MoreYou know those moments when you’re at a dead end in a conversation with your boss, partner or airline customer service rep? Whether it’s explicitly stated or not, your counterpart is saying, “There’s nothing more I can do,” or “This conversation is over,” but you’re not ready to throw in the towel.
I’ve hit many such roadblocks recently. Over the last week, I’ve been booked on a total of 16 flights trying to fly to and from two (2!) client events. While my travel karma is usually excellent, I found myself negotiating with many an airline employee due to weather delays, unrealistically tight connections, and a particularly embarrassing personal first – waking up 30 minutes after my early morning flight departed.
Read MoreJillian Manus is something of a legend in the world of venture capitalists, and I can see why. Based on my time with her, she's exceedingly insightful, candid as hell, and downright hilarious.
Professionally, she's a managing partner at Structure Capital, a Silicon Valley early-stage venture capital firm, where she provides strategic support to founding teams, focusing on creating value in underutilized assets and excess capacity.
Photo curtesy of Gimlet Media
Read MoreKnow that needling feeling at the back of your mind that you’re a fake, your success was good luck or an accident, and soon (maybe today!) everyone will discover your secret? Impostor syndrome is all too common among high-achieving women.
Actress Jodie Foster summed it up nicely, “When I won the Oscar, I thought it was a fluke. I thought everybody would find out, and they’d take it back. They’d come to my house, knocking on the door, ‘Excuse me, we meant to give that to someone else. That was going to Meryl Streep.’“
Read MoreRobots are becoming part of the workforce faster than many industry experts predicted. This can have particularly unsettling implications for women and minorities.
Read MoreWithin moments of arriving at the Collision tech conference, I met two women with t-shirts that read,
Black
Female
Founder
Fund Me
