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."

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