Barbara Kellerman > Quotes

“What is assertive in a man can appear abrasive in a woman, and female leaders risk appearing too feminine or not feminine enough.”
― Barbara Kellerman

“Most characteristics associated with leaders are masculine: dominance, authority, assertiveness, and so forth.”
― Barbara Kellerman

“If women are choosing not to run the world, it’s partly because men are choosing not to run the washer and dryer.”
― Barbara Kellerman

“Aspiring female leaders risk being liked but not respected, or respected but not liked, in settings that may require individuals to be both in order to succeed.”
― Barbara Kellerman

“In short, women who do not opt out of demanding professional positions are more likely to opt out of demanding family obligations.”
― Barbara Kellerman

“Double standards in domestic roles are deeply rooted in cultural attitudes and workplace practices. Working mothers are held to higher standards than working fathers and are often criticized for being insufficiently committed, either as parents or professionals. Those who seem willing to sacrifice family needs to workplace demands appear lacking as mothers. Those who take extended leave or reduced schedules appear lacking as leaders.”
― Barbara Kellerman

“Bad leaders do not typically wake up one morning and say, “Golly gee, I’ve been bad. I need to change my ways.” They will stop being bad only if someone else or something else stops them. And if nothing stops them and no one stops them, they will go from bad to worse.”
― Barbara Kellerman

“Going outside the system seems sometimes the only way to get anything done—even by those within the system.”
― Barbara Kellerman, The End of Leadership: A Provocative Reassessment of Leadership in the Digital Age—Questioning Beliefs That Are Dangerously Out-of-Date

“In government we have leaders who are perceived by and large as unable to do what they are supposed to do, to lead. In business we have leaders who are perceived by and large as able to do what they are supposed to do, to lead, but who nevertheless do so in ways that disappoint and dishearten.”
― Barbara Kellerman, The End of Leadership: A Provocative Reassessment of Leadership in the Digital Age—Questioning Beliefs That Are Dangerously Out-of-Date

“has the American presidency become the most impossible job in the world?”
― Barbara Kellerman, The End of Leadership: A Provocative Reassessment of Leadership in the Digital Age—Questioning Beliefs That Are Dangerously Out-of-Date

“It was management oriented and goal dominated, authoritative and quantitative, short-term and cost-benefit driven, hierarchical and technical, rational, pragmatic, materialistic, and male.5”
― Barbara Kellerman, The End of Leadership: A Provocative Reassessment of Leadership in the Digital Age—Questioning Beliefs That Are Dangerously Out-of-Date