11/27/2023

Four Essential Leadership Skills You Need to Navigate a Crisis

These skills can weather crisis, chaos and calm

This week, we’ve had a collective front-row seat to the Sturm und Drang at OpenAI, in which we witnessed a dramatic dismissal and return of a CEO, an interim female tech leader installed, an employee uprising to get the board to step down, and the easy glide of the fired former CEO into an open leadership position at Microsoft—all within 48 hours.

It was enough to give even the most dedicated tech devotee whiplash, but the saga (as it's still unfolding) is an object lesson in how toxic masculinity continues to dominate Silicon Valley and reverberates into the fabric of our corporate culture and the life-changing tools it continues to develop.

The bigger implications on equity, or lack thereof, are thrown in high relief. We already know that women across industries—not just in tech—are held back from leadership. Recent research surfaced 30 different characteristics and qualities of a woman's identity, ranging from accents to race, residence to occupational position, that have become points of criticism creating barriers to women's success. "The clear message to women is that—whatever they are—they are ‘never quite right.’” This is just one more reason why so many incompetent men become leaders.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Fast Company.