Ladies That Know How to Lead: Redefining Success for Women

  • 1 min read

The ladies in this piece, a select portion of Forbes 100 Most Powerful Women list, have shaken up countries, boardrooms and entire industries as much as the climatic hurricanes and earthquakes that have been done to the eastern United States in the past few weeks. In contrast, these women leave a path of success, leadership and new methodologies behind as they continue to grow rather than destruction, devastation and questions of what is to come.

U.S. ladies that lead

Current Secretary of State, former First Lady and Presidential Candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton (63) ranked #2 on the list followed by a Fortune 500 CEO, PepsiCo’s Indra Nooyi (55) ranked #4, proving that politics and business can mix one way or another.

Business women are making great strides as Sheryl Sandberg (42), ranked #5, one of the one’s that has clearly redefined what success looks like for women as the Chief Operating Officer for Facebook, led by the iconic college dropout and social media genius 27 yr. old, Mark Zuckerberg. In the world of connecting people, Melinda Gates (47), ranked #6 for her role as the Co Founder and Co Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation.

Always known for their initiatives helping the nation and world at large, First Lady Michelle Obama (47) ranked #8, just ahead of another Fortune 500 C.E.O., Kraft Foods long-time leader Irene Rosenfeld (58) who rounded out the Top 10 of Forbes 100 Most Powerful Women.

An impressive list of women redefining success for those looking to their next choice in their career with 6 of the Top 10 held by U.S. leading ladies in business, politics and non-profit among their worldwide counterparts, two of whom are The President of India and President of Brazil.

What’s in a name?

This list of power players have names all over the board from Michelle to Hillary, Irene to Melinda. Is there anything to draw from this that helps a career, or a personal brand for that matter? Yes there is.

In a study conducted by LinkedIn, they found that “Female CEOs tend to use their full names and not nicknames, which could signify that they want to be taken more seriously and want co-workers to think of them in a more professional light.”

If this list is any indicator, using your full name is a great way to elevate your brand to the CEO, COO, President or Secretary of State level.

Next time someone asks if you have a nickname, simply respond that you prefer to use your full name and ask what they like to use. As for me, nicknames abound from Adriana; however, I always have preferred my full name. Now I have one more reason to be grateful to my parents for blessing me with such a beautiful, albeit difficult to pronounce, name.

Picture of Adriana Llames

Adriana Llames

Adriana Llames is a veteran career coach and acclaimed author of Career Sudoku: 9 Ways to Win the Job Search Game. She is creator of “HR In-A-Box,” a Human Resources software product helping small businesses across America and a professional keynote speaker motivating and inspiring audiences with her focused programs on “9 Ways to Win the Job Search Game”, “Confessions of a Career Coach” and “Nice Girls End Up on Welfare."

TRENDING AROUND THE WEB

I dropped out of college at 19 and spent thirty years building a business from nothing — and the moment my son came home with his MBA telling me how things ‘should’ work, I realized the gap between knowing theory and surviving reality is wider than any degree can measure

I dropped out of college at 19 and spent thirty years building a business from nothing — and the moment my son came home with his MBA telling me how things ‘should’ work, I realized the gap between knowing theory and surviving reality is wider than any degree can measure

Global English Editing
I’m 66 and if I could go back I wouldn’t change the career or the marriage or the house — I’d change the morning routine, specifically the 25 years of waking up and immediately reaching for the list of things I had to do instead of lying there for five minutes and asking myself what I actually wanted to do, because the man who starts every day in obligation eventually forgets that desire was ever an option, and by the time the obligations end the wanting muscle has atrophied completely

I’m 66 and if I could go back I wouldn’t change the career or the marriage or the house — I’d change the morning routine, specifically the 25 years of waking up and immediately reaching for the list of things I had to do instead of lying there for five minutes and asking myself what I actually wanted to do, because the man who starts every day in obligation eventually forgets that desire was ever an option, and by the time the obligations end the wanting muscle has atrophied completely

Global English Editing
I stopped drinking two years ago and the hardest part wasn’t the cravings or the social awkwardness — it was realizing that most of my friendships were built entirely around shared consumption and nothing else

I stopped drinking two years ago and the hardest part wasn’t the cravings or the social awkwardness — it was realizing that most of my friendships were built entirely around shared consumption and nothing else

Global English Editing
I’m 66 and I’ve stopped explaining to my children why I’m selling the house, traveling alone, or skipping holidays — because living life to the fullest means I no longer need my choices to make sense to anyone but me

I’m 66 and I’ve stopped explaining to my children why I’m selling the house, traveling alone, or skipping holidays — because living life to the fullest means I no longer need my choices to make sense to anyone but me

Global English Editing
I noticed my wife started saying ‘I’m going to bed’ instead of ‘we should go to bed’ and that one word change — from we to I — made me realize how long we’ve been operating as individuals instead of a couple

I noticed my wife started saying ‘I’m going to bed’ instead of ‘we should go to bed’ and that one word change — from we to I — made me realize how long we’ve been operating as individuals instead of a couple

Global English Editing
I spent thirty years building a career so my wife could have security, and she spent thirty years raising our kids so I could focus on work — and now that both jobs are done, we’re sitting in an empty nest realizing we never actually built an ‘us’

I spent thirty years building a career so my wife could have security, and she spent thirty years raising our kids so I could focus on work — and now that both jobs are done, we’re sitting in an empty nest realizing we never actually built an ‘us’

Global English Editing
Load more
CATEGORIES
Explore