Lead: How Women in Charge Claim Their Authority

(Paperback)

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During Ellen Snees eighteen years as a Catholic nun, she gained a number of essentialand, happily, transferableskills: how to discern a call or deep desire, how to work collaboratively with other women, and how to be a savvy operator within male hierarchies. In Lead, she draws on that knowledgeas well as lessons learned and insights gained from her Harvard dissertation on psychological dimensions of authority for women, two decades of work with executive women as CEO of Fine Line Consulting, and five years as VP of Organizational & Leadership Development at VMware, a global technology leaderto address the exercise of authority by women.

Lead guides readers through specific challenges of leadership Snee has identified as most vital to success through her own corporate experience and consulting work: developing resilience, presenting with authority, gaining financial literacy, managing in every direction, and more. Throughout, Snee urges women to find and speak with their unique voice and claim their personal power. Full of illuminating personal and client anecdotes and surprising research insights, Lead is an accessible, instructive, and empowering road map to finding external successby drawing on the strengths youve carried inside you all along.

Reviews

Featured in Next Big Idea Clubs 84 Books Coming Out in the Fall That We Cant Wait to Read

A solid and insightful guide to succeeding as a woman in business.
Kirkus Reviews

Lead brings a fresh voice to the often-challenging intersection of women, authority, and power. Ellen shares insights into how we become powerful agents of change and advancement at every step in our career. The chapters focus on concrete, proactive steps that can help us become more comfortable with assuming power and stepping up as leaders.
Sally Helgesen, author of How Women Rise, The Female Vision, and The Female Advantage

Ellen, as a coach and a friend, has had a transformative impact on my career. Reading Lead is a little like having Ellen as a personal coach by your side cheering on your efforts, sharing candid career stories you can relate to, and providing thoughtful end-of-chapter exercises that help you to apply the information to your specific career challenges and goals.
Yanbing Li, PHD, VP of Product and Engineering, Google

Lead should be required reading for all women in business school and for those who want to name and claim their authority when exercising leadership. The power of female leaders is undeniable, and this book is an important resource for helping women seize their power.
Wendy York, Dean of Wilbur O. and Ann Powers College of Business, Fortune 500 executive, and successful entrepreneur

No matter your career path, Leadgives useful applicable advice toward identifying and achieving your goals.Any leader will find value in the coaching offered. One of Snee's gifts is presenting masterful summaries that are easy to understand yet retain the inherently nuanced complexities of the original ideas.The well-organized compilation of a wealth of strategies for navigating leadership challenges alone makes Leadinvaluable.
Laurie King, Ph.D., Professor of Computer Science, College of the Holy Cross

As a member of the Society of the Sacred Heart and as a chaired professor of management, I can say with assurance that this is a wonderfully deep, practically useful, stimulating and inspiring book. It provides coaching that is based on scholarly research, Ellens reflection on her life experiences, and elegantly sketched examples that give advice we all can follow. It illustrates and encourages ongoing learning over a lifetime, rather than expecting us all to be perfect immediately in every encounter.
Jean M. Bartunek, Robert A. and Evelyn J. Ferris Chair and Professor of Management and Organization, Carroll School of Management, Boston College

Leadis an essential part of your professional toolkit. Beautifully written, boldly comprehensive, and loaded with critical nuggets for navigating the professional world, Snee unpacks it all, from external biases to the limitations we place on ourselvesand, more importantly, provides great insights on what to do about it!
Robin L. Matlock, public and private board member and former software executive

Drawing from her research in psychology, Dr. Ellen Snee starts this highly actionable book for women leaders by asking the most fundamental question: What do you want She leads the reader on a journey to find their own path to claiming power and authority from the inside out in the face of persistent structural barriers.
Caroline Simard, PhD, Managing Director, Stanford VMware Womens Leadership Innovation Lab

Ellens book is insightful and empowering. Her own experience from being a nun, corporate executive, and coach is unique in the business world. Ellen offers actionable advice on how to navigate systems and relationships and ultimately claim our authority in any situation; Leadis a must-read for aspiring women leaders!
Barbara Adachi, former National Managing Partner, Womens Initiative, Deloitte (retired) andPresident & Board Chair, International Womens Forum, Northern California

A book that should be a graduation, promotion, and special occasion gift for every woman in business.ReadingLeadis like having Ellen by your sidecheering on your efforts, sharing candid and relevant career stories, and providing practical end-of-chapter tools.
Jessica Parisi,President & CEO BTS North America

Leadlays out a clear action plan to balance authority with leadership. But what gives this book its power are the stories about the women Snee has coached and led throughout her career.This book is a must for any woman seeking to claim authority while leading in todays world.
Theresa Kushner, former Sr Vice President, Dell Technologies

If you are ready to buildyour authority anduse your power toeffect changewithin your organization, this book is a must-read! Snees wisdom, depth of experience, and commitment to women leaders shine through on every page. I recommend it highly.
Denise Brosseau, best-selling author of Ready to Be a Thought Leader

I finished Leadand absolutely loved it! The content, writing style, and examples make it a great piece of work.It will great be for any female leader, aspiring or already in a position of authority. Itshould be compulsory reading at business schools. I wish Id had it thirty years ago!
Susanna Harkonen, Founder and CEO, Innerwork

As a woman leader, I honestly couldnt put the book down; I wanted to capture the nuggets in each chapter. I loved the actions/next steps at the end of each chapterI like to set goals, so it was perfect for me.
Laura Ortman, President, Cologix, Inc.

ReadingLeadwas like getting a live coaching session with actionable insights. It lit a fire inside me! The topics Ellen touches on are very relevant to women striving to lead and succeed in todays work environment.
Rashmi Gupta,CHRO, PRO Unlimited

With Lead, Ellen Snee gives us a blueprint for leading and living in our power and influence by working with our inherent authority. Her coaching expertise shines through every page of this book, which is bound to help many women build a brighter future for themselves.
Julie Abrams, Founder and CEO of How Women Lead and GP of How Women Invest

As an advocate for technical women, I realize the importance of learning leadership skills,andLeadprovides a powerful tool for all of us. Snee covers essential topics such as listening to your inner voice, catching success, creating executive presence, and demonstrating your authority, and I couldnt put the book down. The book will be an ongoing resource for many, and following its simple steps can lead to profound change.
Dr. Telle Whitney, cofounder of the Grace Hopper Conference and former CEO of Anita Borg Institute

Leadis a distillation of insights, stories, and suggested actions steps based on Dr. Snee's conversations and coaching experience with women executives. Itintegrates her field research and work experiences as a nun, an entrepreneur, an executive, and a coacha must-read for women leaders.
Homa Bahrami, Professor, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley

In Lead, Ellen achieves the near impossible balance of offering practical, spot-on advice combined with brilliant research-based insights.Leadis a playbook for successfully navigating the workplace.
Lori Nishiura Mackenzie, cofounder of the Stanford VMware Womens Leadership Innovation Lab and Lead Strategist of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Stanford Graduate School of Business

Author Bio

Ellen Snee has worked at the forefront of womens leadership development for more than twenty-five years. As an academic, she examined the experience of women in roles of authority in her doctoral dissertation before going on to turn theory into practice with the launch of Fine Line Consulting,a boutique firm that worked with Fortune 500 companies such as Pfizer, Schwab, Marriott, and Goodyear to provide both programs and one-to-one coaching for their high-potential and executive-level women. Following 9/11, she moved to Californialife is short and she wanted sunwhere she worked in Silicon Valley at Apple, Cisco, KPMG, Ebay, Citrix, VMware, and others before, in 2015, returning to the work she loves most: accelerating the career advancement of talented women through executive coaching.Today, she provides mentoring and leadership development to women and the corporate sector through organizations like How Women Lead, She Can, and the International Womens Forum. Ellen lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and works remotely as well as locally with clients.