Merit Badge In Leadership Summary

In the two articles titled Frances Hesselbein’s Merit Badge in Leadership by Sally Helgesen and Women Rising: The Unseen Barriers by Herminia Ibarra, Robin Ely, and Deborah Kolb both obtain numerous similarities in the messages in which they are conveying. Both articles discuss women in leadership positions. The article about Frances Hesselbein focuses primarily on her as an effective leader and the philosophy that she lived by to ensure that her nonprofit organizations would become a success, whereas the second article about Women Rising, primarily discussed the challenges that women in leadership positions tend to face, and what actions women can take in overcoming them in a male dominated workplace. The first similarity that I have noticed, …show more content…
Frances Hesselbein became CEO of the Girl Scouts at a difficult time for the organization, it had declining membership and a negative reputation, however she had begun to lead the organization through a turnaround. Under her guidance she focused on helping girls from a wide variety of diverse backgrounds to achieve their goals and highest potential through a program that emphasizes leadership and helped to provide knowledge in science, technology, and math (Frances Hesselbein’s Merit Badge in Leadership). The article about Women Rising discussed how many companies and CEOs tend to make gender diversity a priority by enlisting their employees in a variety of developing and mentoring programs to inspire gender diversity among their workforce. They also help to set aspirational goals for women in leadership positions; however companies are starting to become frustrated with these processes and programs, because they feel that these options are not maximizing the best optimal results for women in leadership positions (Women Rising: The Unseen …show more content…
Second generation gender bias does not intentionally exclude any individual; instead it focuses on women who fail to thrive or reach their full potential, such as feeling less connected to male colleagues and being advised to take staff roles instead of leadership positons to accommodate their family situations. All of these examples reflect the various work structures and practices that tend to put women in leadership roles at a disadvantage. Women need to develop a higher sense of confidence to display leadership in male dominated settings (Women Rising: The Unseen Barriers).
Frances Hesselbein’s article focuses more on leadership in a general form by focusing on innovation, whereas the Women Rising article has a higher emphasis on gender roles and what additional actions can be taken to improve the chances that women will gain a sense of themselves as leaders, which will allow them to