My friend and colleague Dr. Anna Marie Valero has recently completed an important a new book which she has been working on for years. It focuses on developing women leaderships; it beautifully lays out the benefits of women leadership, the handicaps and prejudices they must address and what HR leaders and CEOs can do to support and challenge. In addition to the informative content which is drawn from a combination of research and dozens of interviews with male and females leaders, the book casts a very positive light on the future possibilities for more and more women to flourish in the ranks of management. Women are different than men and they bring different qualities to the workplace. The book is also filled with facts such as the return on investment is higher in firms where women are the leaders.

I recently asked Anna Marie what was the greatest surprise  she experienced while doing all the work for the book. She stated the enthusiasm, interest and encouragement that all her participants shared with her as she moved forward with her task. She mentioned that everyone she spoke with wanted her to complete the book and to get the message out that there were things that people can do to help women become more successful in the workplace. One of the major findings discussed in the book is the need to give women challenging assignments with the sufficient support in order to be successful.  She also noted that certain positions carry a great risk of failure — there are jobs that nobody wants that often fall to women and they should be alert to these assignments and not readily take them.  She also found that some leaders, both male and female, are reluctant to provide concrete objective feedback to women leaders.

This is a wonderful book and I will talk more about it in the future.