Our popular white paper, “Circles of Light: Women’s Wisdom,” was featured in USA Today! The article highlights the work we’ve done over the years to help women advance by becoming more confident, powerful communicators—including our groundbreaking program, Confident Speaking for Women™.

PowerSpeaking, Inc. President and Owner Mary McGlynn emphasized our commitment to women’s advancement in the article:

“There has been a lack of women leadership in large corporations and multinationals for a long time. So, one of our focus areas has been helping women improve their leadership potential by sharpening their communication skills.” She adds, “One of the reasons we're so passionate about the work we're doing with women in particular, and frankly, any underrepresented group, is just the incredible gratification we get from helping women use their voices to make a difference. At PowerSpeaking, we provide the resources women need to transform their, and their organization's, communication skills.” 

And CEO Carrie Beckstrom talked about the powerful effects of authentic, skilled communication:

“When the communication is right, good ideas are more likely to find wings, critical projects move faster toward completion, company goals are met, and people just feel better about themselves and others. Communication is often described as a soft skill in the business world—but there’s nothing soft about it. Through clear, compassionate human interaction, where we share ideas and perspectives, and listen to each other wholeheartedly, we can change the world,” she says. 

“Circles of Light: Women’s Wisdom” features priceless insights and advice from female executives we interviewed in the process of developing our groundbreaking program, Confident Speaking for Women™. They talk about how clear, confident, and courageous communication can help women break through barriers, gain more visibility and credibility, drive business forward, and build more productive working relationships. 

Here are just a few insights:

🔸 “When women put a lot of inconsequential words around their thoughts or their ideas or their opinions, or they hedge, apologize, raise their hand, come up at the end vocally as if they’re asking permission for their opinion or idea, all of those things diminish the content because of the delivery.” — Cindy Solomon, CEO, Courageous Leadership Institute

🔸 “One of the things that make people good leaders is being their authentic selves. I’m not afraid to show emotion in meetings, I’m not afraid to be sympathetic, or be understanding, or be a listener, or care a lot about people’s personal lives and their well-being. And I think, while they can be stereotyped as women’s traits, they made me very successful as a leader, and make people feel valued and want to get behind the programs, or projects, or initiatives we’re doing.” — Lynne Zaledonis, Executive Vice President, Salesforce

🔸 “When you’re leading a team, the ability for every person to understand how what they do every day matters to the outcome of the company, is what creates success” — Colleen Berube, CIO, Technology Executive