If you missed Sallie Krawcheck on today's show,
listen to our conversation here!
In her first book, OWN IT: The Power of Women at Work, former Wall Street powerhouse-turned-entrepreneur Sallie Krawcheck invites readers to throw out stale (read: male) definitions of what success looks like and embrace the qualities that make them amazing collaborators, extraordinary leaders, and invaluable assets to their companies. Before launching Ellevest, a digital investment platform for women, Krawcheck served as CEO of Smith Barney, CEO of Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, and CFO of Citigroup.
In OWN IT, she draws on her unique experiences (and the battle scars she has to prove them) from the highest levels of business and entrepreneurship to offer a fresh and contrarian outlook on navigating today’s business landscape, namely: Being a woman in the business world today isn’t a liability - it’s an asset.
Success for professional women will no longer be about trying to compete at the men’s version of the game, Krawcheck says. And it will no longer be about contorting to men’s expectations of how powerful people behave. Instead, it’s about embracing and investing in our authentic selves as women - and bringing those selves proudly and unapologetically, to work.
When we do this, Krawcheck says, we gain the power to advance in our careers in more natural ways. We gain the power to initiate courageous conversations in the workplace. We gain the power to forge non-traditional career paths; to leave companies that don’t respect our worth, and instead, go start our own. And we gain the power to invest our economic muscle in making our lives, and the world, better.
There are many reasons to be optimistic about the future, because the business world is changing fast –driven largely by technology - and it’s changing in ways that play to women’s strengths. This gives us more power and opportunities than ever…and even more than we yet realize.
This change is real, and it’s coming fast. It’s time to own it.
Sallie Krawcheck is the cofounder and CEO of Ellevest, an innovative digital investment platform designed to help women reach their financial goals. She is also chair of Ellevate Network; a professional networking community whose mission is to advance women in business. She is one of the highest ranked women ever to have worked on Wall Street, having held posts such as CEO of Smith Barney, CEO of Merrill Lynch Wealth Management and CFO of Citigroup and was a top-ranked research analyst. She has been profiled as one of Fast Company’s “Most Creative People” in Business, as well as in the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Forbes, and more. Krawcheck attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and holds an MBA from Columbia University. For more information, please visit: www.salliekrawcheck.com
