Your First Leadership Job: How Catalyst Leaders Bring Out the Best in Others

Your First Leadership Job

Mastery and Leadership Skills21 A Woman's First Leadership JobOwn the Moment

Pre:Think

Take a moment to notice what your body language is when you join in a meeting. Do you slip in late? Take a seat away from the table? Do you walk in quietly? Or, instead strike a power pose? Ask a trusted peer to tell you how you appear to others.

A Make-or-Break Point

More than any other moment in a woman's professional life, her first leadership role marks a make-or-break point that can shape her choices for the rest of her career. This chapter features practical advice from Tacy on how to be—or support—a successful female first-time leader.

Erika didn't just lean in and pursue her ambitions; she took control. I'm a technical analyst, but had always wanted to move into management, she said. For software engineers making the leap, that typically meant working with a company for a long time, paying your dues and proving yourself. She had been inching her way up the ladder by lobbying for and winning increasingly high-profile projects for eight years. Everything was going according to plan! Her manager was supportive. There was a job for her in the works, and her life was falling into perfect order. Once I mastered my new position, she thought, we were going to have a kid. Because it's almost impossible to do both at the same time. And that's when things got dicey. ...