In this episode, champion of women’s leadership and serial entrepreneur Leslie Grossman traces her path from public relations agency owner to finding her intentional legacy focusing on women’s leadership and gender equity. Through the challenges of starting and running five businesses, her leadership in mostly women-centric organizations, and her extensive research, her work legacy has evolved and is illuminating how she has and intends to scale her contributions and impact. Leslie has created over her career a strong and ambitious “vision” toward gender equity and how women can be leaders in both their career and personal life.
As a super-networker and connector throughout her career, Leslie’s core values are developing and maintaining deep, trusted relationships that are mutual, what she calls an entourage. She has been led by those values from her early career on, and that has enabled her to grow her influence and to follow her vision. She defines legacy as a vision which guides you. Hers is to create a world where gender equity is a given, not a goal.
Interestingly, Leslie described an early career challenge as having lost her second job because she had too much confidence! That led to her entrepreneurial journey starting a series of businesses. Now she teaches and trains women to have more confidence, which she thinks men come by naturally.
Gender equity was not her original goal when she started focusing on women’s businesses, but rather it was helping women to get the tools to have successful, scalable businesses. After a great deal of research, which she constantly reads up on, her vision has centered on training women to step into leadership and be the best leaders. Going forward, starting in September 2021, she intends 75% of her effort to go to her vision of bringing all women the ability to be the best leader of all aspects of their life, not limited to career only. That is a huge aspiration, which doesn’t faze her, and she knows that she can’t possibly do that alone, so she intends to create a program to train other women to teach what she is teaching and “multiply herself.”
Takeaways:
Get in touch with yourself. Think about what lights you up in your career and pursue it.
Develop the confidence to speak out and be a strong leader in whatever you do.
Quotes
“It’s important, especially for women, to be surrounded by other leaders and have relationships with influencers who can make introductions.”
“It’s evident now that women need to learn what seems to come naturally to men.”
“Be smart about choosing your significant other to achieve gender equity in your career and your own life.”
Bio
An entrepreneur for much of her career, Leslie founded 5 businesses. She has dedicated 25 years to helping women leaders, executives, entrepreneurs and CEOs reach their goals and live fulfilling lives. For the past 10 years, her work has been focused on developing women as confident leaders. For some of that time, she served as a chair/executive coach for Vistage International, a CEO peer group (all genders) organization.
Currently, Leslie is Senior Fellow, Faculty Director and Educator, Executive Women’s Leadership, at The George Washington University Center for Excellence in Public Leadership. Leslie leads the Executive Women’s Program and Women Leaders on the Rise for high-potential women.
Prior to starting Leslie Grossman Leadership, her training and coaching company, she co-founded the Women’s Leadership Exchange (WLE). Preceding the Women’s Leadership Exchange, Grossman founded and led an integrated marketing agency — CMA / B2Women. Grossman’s first book, Sellsation! How Companies Can Capture Today’s Hottest Market: Women Business Owners and Executives helped companies market and sell to the growing market of professional women. She also authored Link Out: How to Turn Your Network into a Chain of Lasting Connections.
Leslie received a B.A. in psychology/business from The George Washington University, Washington, DC; attended graduate school at New York University in Counselor Education, and she is certified as an executive coach by Vistage International and in assessing emotional intelligence with EQi-2.0/EQ 360.
How to reach Leslie:
Email: leslie@lesliegrossmanleadership.com.
Website:www.lesliegrossmanleadership.com