Working in a male-dominated field taught me a lot about leadership, culture and success. Now, as a career coach, I have some advice for women.

After 20 years coaching both women and men through career advancement and transitions, I have learned a lot about how women are holding themselves back at work—especially in male-dominated fields, because that’s where I started my career.

I was one of the first female traders on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. When it comes to career, it would have been hard to choose a more aggressive, male-dominated field—especially in the ‘80s when I was starting out.

I faced many double standards in the workplace. At the time, there were no real laws or standards governing sexual harassment and politically incorrect behavior. I simply accepted this for what it was, as I believe most women did in that era. Whether it was projected or real, it always felt like I needed to be twice as good as the men. I loved the competition and believed if I produced the same results I would get the same monetary rewards and opportunities for advancement. Repeatedly, I found that was not the case.

After 15 years in that testosterone-driven environment, I made a change. It was fueled by a desire to wake up every morning and love what I was doing—to help people become more effective leaders, create transformational change personally and professionally, and embrace and foster accountability.

Based on my own experience and listening to the stories of more than a thousand leaders, from aspiring to world-class, here is my advice for women who want to thrive in the corporate world.

Know the Difference Between Truth and Perception

First, it’s important to remember that words and actions are filtered, received and assessed differently by men and women. If you are a powerful, decisive, assertive female leader, you are often perceived as a ball-buster, or worse. This is a cultural nuance and not always conscious—even a very enlightened man might not realize that he’s experiencing and processing men and women differently and not necessarily equally. It’s the soup of our culture but remember, an assessment is merely an assessment—it’s not the truth.

Increase Your Emotional Intelligence

Research shows that raising your emotional intelligence will take you further personally and professionally than anything else you can do. We’re often blind to ourselves and we don’t accurately perceive how we’re being experienced by others. We’re not aware that the impact of what we say and do is often wildly different than our intent. Read up on emotional intelligence, learn how to read a room or engage in individual coaching to accelerate your growth in this area.

It’s Not About “Acting Like a Man”

We lose our authentic selves when we try to model what the male version of power looks like. Yes, women need to get comfortable with confrontation, stand strong in convictions and make decisions quickly, but those are not exclusively male traits. It’s a stereotype that women make emotional decisions and men make analytical decisions. In reality, we all work with three brains. We actually have brain cells in our hearts, stomachs, too. Don’t diminish the power of your instincts—a recent study shows that when it comes to decision-making, instinct may even trump analytics.

Manage Your Emotions

There is no more important leadership skill than the ability to manage yourself. Dave Ulrich, a thought leader in management, once believed that the most important skill for a leader was the ability to inspire teams. But, he found that the self-management of one’s thoughts and mood states was actually more important. Controlling your inner world makes the biggest difference in executive leadership. Women may be more emotionally based; couple that with low self-esteem, a problem many women face, and it’s a career-threatening combination.

Build Your Confidence

If self-confidence is an issue, tackle it. For me, sports made the biggest impact on my ability to succeed in a male-dominated field. I felt like I had an edge because I was fearless and competitive in a way most women were not. All great leaders possess authentic confidence. One of the best ways for women to build confidence is by setting a goal they think is out of their reach and then achieving it. Improv classes are a great way to practice discomfort and learn to think on your feet while building self-esteem.

Toot Your Own Horn

In contrast to men, women are less comfortable showcasing their accomplishments and do less to promote and strategize their personal brand. This has a domino effect because women are not only more humble, they discount their talent and success, while men tend to accentuate their talents. The divide between what an employer thinks an equally qualified man and woman are worth starts with how they present and value themselves in the interview process. Look for opportunities to strategically highlight your achievements.

Stop Being Too Nice

As women, we tend toward being nice and accommodating. You will never be seen as a leader if your primary mode of engagement in the workplace is caretaking. One of my favorite books on this subject is “Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office”—every woman will identify with at least one of its eye-opening lessons.

Control the Conversation

Leadership occurs every time there is a conversation, and each conversation offers the opportunity for impact and influence. Your words hold the possibility for building your self-esteem or destroying it. In fact, your leadership, your future, your success—and even what’s possible for you and not possible for you—they are all created by these conversational moments. How aware are you of these moments? Words are the building blocks to creating the life you want. Choose them carefully.

The most powerful and transformational shift you can make is in how you perceive your environment, respond to your environment and move through hard times.

At the end of the day, find your voice and nurture your strengths—be fearless and be bold.

 Jody Michael is a Chicago-based career coach. Get more leadership advice on her blog.

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Image: la_farfalla_22

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Modern ladies need successful women with leadership skills to serve as role models when the going gets tough. Here are five females whose leadership skills are worthy of your admiration.

Who we read, surround ourselves with, and follow is so often who we become. Having strong captivating women role as models reminds us that we all have leadership skills, and that with confidence, we can achieve our dreams in an age where women still face unequal pay and representation.

1. Anne-Marie Slaughter

Anne-Marie Slaughter is currently the President and CEO of the New America Foundation. She’s also a professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University. From 2009-2011 she was the Director of Policy Planning for the U.S. Department of State and prior to that, she was Dean of Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Slaughter is famous for her article Why Women Still Can’t Have it All, published in the Atlantic. It was the most popular article ever written for the publication and it drastically changed the conversation around the female struggle for work/life balance. The article discussed how women need more flexibility in the workplace and that expectations for successful women must be redefined to include time for parenting. According to Slaughter, women with leadership skills currently do not have the same options with regard to family and career that men have.

2. Caterina Fake

She’s the founder of Flickr, the largest website devoted to sharing photos. Most recently, Fake founded Hunch.com along with Chris Dixon, a site which allows users to acquire recommendations on books, tech gadgets, restaurants, and much more based on predictions gathered from various sources. Hunch.com was bought by Ebay for $80 million.

3. Marion Nestle

Marion Nestle is a professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University. She’s also a professor of Sociology at New York University and a visiting professor of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University. Nestle has been a formidable voice in the arena of public health, food safety, and food politics through a number of best selling books and her website Food Politics. Her leadership skills can be seen in her stance on issues like school nutrition, the soda tax, and healthcare. She has brought these important issues to the mainstream, making them less complicated and easier to digest (excuse the pun!).

4. Janet Hanson

Janet Hanson graduated from Columbia Business School before becoming the first women sales manager at Goldman Sachs. Her leadership skills were instrumental in the founding of 85 Broads a networking site that connects highly motivated, successful, educated women with career and mentoring opportunities. It was founded by a group of former Goldman Sachs female executives and named for the address of the Goldman Sachs headquarters, located at 85 Broad Street.

5. Gwen Ifill

Gwen Ifill is the moderator and managing editor of Washington Week. And she’s part of the first women team to co-anchor a nightly news program. She co-anchors the PBS News Hour with Judy Woodruff. Her thoughtful, impartial, and deliberate reporting are a breath of fresh air in an often sensational and opinionated news media. She also wrote the best selling book The Break Through: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.

Related on EcoSalon:
Women Fueling the Clean Tech Industry
10 Women Who Inspire Us to Succeed
The 20 Most Influential Women in Green

Images: Bill Ebbessen, cseeman, Janet Hanson, Marion Nestle, Joi, Anne-Marie Slaughter

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Hard work and long(er) hours alone won’t get you there. Sponsors are crucial if you want to move up the ladder.

You are one of the majority of women graduating from college and graduate schools, and you know that women comprise more than half the workforce and make more than 80 percent of household buying decisions. You’ve landed a good job and your hard work has led to some recognition and added responsibilities, but your upward trajectory has stalled. You want to lead and your goal is to make it all the way to the top. If you think that even longer hours and more hard work is the path to leadership, you’re in good company – but you’d be wrong.

Many say women are achieving parity and the CEO of Coca Cola says this century should go to women, yet still, few women have made it to the upper echelons of management. Theories for the dearth of women at the top range from a lack of ambition, to the interference of family obligations to gender bias.

Two recent studies (The Sponsor Effect: Breaking Through the Last Glass Ceiling, by the Center for Work-Life Policy and Catalyst’s Sponsoring Women to Success) claim that hard work alone won’t get you to the top, but who you know will. Catalyst reports that 77 percent of women believe that hard work and long hours alone will pay off, but most men know better. Sponsorship is crucial for both men and women to move into leadership positions, but it is especially important for women, and they are the ones who receive it the least.

Sponsors vs. Mentors

Many women have mentors, but while mentors are a valuable part of navigating the workplace landscape, a mentor’s role is usually that of a passive advice-giver. A sponsor takes an active role in your career. According to the Catalyst report, a sponsor’s role is predicated on power. A highly placed sponsor champions you in leadership meetings that you can’t attend, recommends you for high-profile assignments and highlights your accomplishments to the other leaders in your organization.

Many times it’s women themselves who sabotage their own advancement by a lack of assertiveness or inability to negotiate for themselves. Women actually learn at an early age not to champion themselves. Having someone else endorse a woman applicant lends them credibility and makes a much bigger statement than if the woman does it herself. It happens all the time in politics, but isn’t as formal in business.

Everyone Who Enjoys Success Gets a Helping Hand From Someone

Sheryl Sandberg’s excellence in her economics class at Harvard caught the attention of her professor, Larry Summers. When Summers became U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, he appointed her as his chief of staff. From there, her career only rocketed upward to Google and finally to COO of Facebook. Mika Brzezinski’s Morning Joe co-host, Joe Scarborough, went to bat for her at NBC over the disparity in their salaries (he was making fourteen times what she was), even paying her out of his own compensation until they finally offered her a better contract.

Colleen Plimpton, a garden columnist, described how another garden writer, Lorraine Ballato, took an interest in her career. Ballato opened up her personal contact list to Plimpton in order for her to contact people who might hire her as a speaker or writer, and gave her the names of garden radio show hosts who had interviewed her and might interview Plimpton. Ballato even went the extra mile and drove Plimpton to trade shows, and demonstrated how to sell a book and create an effective presentation. “Every time I get to a sticky wicket in my career, I have but to ask Lorraine, and she comes through for me,” Plimpton said.

When Susan Bender Phelps switched careers to marketing, the first company she called granted her an interview. After that initial meeting, they asked her to come back in a week and pitch them on how she would market their company. Phelps had no idea how to go about pitching a plan, so she called her friend Bob, who had volunteered at her former organization. Bob opened up his own firm’s marketing plans to her, taught her what comprised a successful proposal and discussed local market conditions and the roles of different well-known players.

Bob then introduced her to his colleague Tina, who took Phelps to a two-hour lunch and briefed her on the personalities of all the members of the firm where she would be pitching. Both she and Bob offered to be references for Phelps. Phelps got that job and went on to do marketing for several engineering firms. In three years, she helped them bring in more than fifty million dollars in construction projects, and more than 130 employees kept their jobs and saw their careers grow. “Bob and Tina remained friends and resources over the following five years. They continuously shared their networks with me, and introduced me to people and organizations that could help me,” Phelps said.

Workplace Fairy Godmothers

So where can you find such a person that will take hours out of his or her own schedule to help you in your career? Good question. Unfortunately, sponsors are hard to come by these days. A tough job market and the current competitive work climate we’re presently in doesn’t help, although sponsorships are valuable relationships for organizations. Companies who rely on an existing, overworked workforce are making the problem worse.

Mean boys and girls make more money, but it’s a short-sighted tactic. Networking and building relationships is extremely important. If you step on the wrong person in your haste to climb the ladder, that just might be the person who later becomes an important client or works at a company you want to move to. Burning bridges can have consequences.

Let’s be clear – It’s a Partnership

Sponsors put their own reputations on the line when vouching for sponsorees, but the payoff can also be significant. Sponsors put a large amount of trust in the people they help and recommend, so it’s imperative that if you are fortunate enough to be sponsored, you reciprocate by living up to that faith and working hard. However, sponsors also gain insight into the organization and look good by recognizing and promoting talented individuals, and many report feeling good about helping other employees achieve their goals. Retaining workers is becoming more and more important, especially if the economy ever bounces back and employees feel more empowered to switch jobs. Employees who had sponsors reported feeling supported and valued,  and stayed with their companies longer.

Generosity and Diversity Required

While women and men can move up on the lower rungs of the ladder, the higher level jobs are fewer and farther between, so having someone champion you for these positions helps you have an edge. The reason that men have had this advantage until now, is that men tended to sponsor other men like themselves, and with many more men in power sponsoring men, women were at a disadvantage. Several companies like American Express, Cisco, Citi, Deloitte, and Time Warner are putting formal sponsorship programs in place, and for many the first criteria is: you must sponsor someone different from you (whether by gender or race or both).

Many sponsors in the Catalyst study said that they unconsciously gravitated toward sponsoring people like themselves, but when it became a mandate to start looking at other employees with fresh eyes, they discovered a lot about colleagues they had never been in contact with before.

Previously men in power were (understandably) leery of sponsoring a younger woman inside their organization for fear of being accused of a sexual relationship. And, in some cases, women who fought their way up aren’t as willing to help other women advance, especially past their own position. Since there is such a shortage of top spots awarded to women, there can be a feeling that there isn’t enough to go around. But with the rise of women’s business groups and networking, that feeling is subsiding. Women who worked hard to climb the ladder certainly can be an infinite help to other women on their way up, but the key is for more men to advocate for women to move into higher positions.

Repeated studies have shown that having multiple women on corporate boards and in leadership positions result in a better financial performance for organizations. And to get women, women of color, and minorities into leadership positions requires sponsors and advocates who have already walked the challenging road.

image: Alvaro Canivell, mnsc, lumaxart, BinaryApe, vokakvklim and Nicholas_T via Flickr cc (some rights reserved)

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A look at 10 powerful men who have grown to become better people who in turn, better our lives.

We continue to seek leaders among movers and shakers capable of making a difference. Who is out there, we ask, in these bleak times to govern, protect and prosper? Here is a look at some men who have proven able to rise to challenging tasks, become better people with stances of substance, and capable of changing our world in a myriad number of positive ways.

1. Steve Jobs

We can’t help but think of Apple founder Steve Jobs, the single most important figure to date to spring from Silicon Valley, who leaves behind an enormous legacy after losing his battle with pancreatic cancer at 56. Likened to titans Ford and Edison by The Globe and Mail, he lives on in downloaded songs, finger swipes and sleek white headphones – “a man whose vision ended up disrupting almost every creative and commercial industry on Earth” thereby changing the earth as we know it. While cynics have said there is a special place in hell for technology peddlers who insure gadgets are readily replaced, Jobs gave us the convenience factor which made it easier to do what we do most: cyber speak.

It appeared everything he touched turned to gold, from the Macintosh and mouse to the iPad and Pixar. True, he changed the world with his visionary acumen but also the world changed him as he confronted his mortality, telling a graduating class of Stanford University grads that the notion of dying was the biggest catapult in following his heart. “It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”

He also cited his firing from Apple at age 30 after taking the company from a fledgling computer brainstorm built in a garage to a $2 billion giant with over 4,000 employees as the best thing that ever happened to him. “The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life. ”

2. Louis Rossetto

The co-founder of  Wired Magazine  has been called a Fair Trade Willie Wonka for his success of adapting Silicon Valley start up tools to the chocolate industry. Rossetto became the first investor and then CEO of TCHO, launched in 2005 on the premise that chocolate should be measured by flavor and not percentage of cacao content, using the Flavor Wheel approach established by NASA contractor Timothy Childs and chocolate industry veteran Karl Bittong.

Shifting the focus to taste and flavor labs and cutting out notorious slave labor practices on plantations in the Ivory Coast and elsewhere, TCHO collaborates with growers and co-ops in cacao-producing countries like Peru, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic, teaching growers how to improve methods and secure better prices. “It’s the lowest-cost, most-efficient technology to get the job done,” Rossetto says about the labs, adding it’s not unlike grape growing in Napa Valley where growers can either sell commodity table grapes or get top dollar for premium wine grapes for really good wineries.

The producers now sell from 75 cents up to $8 and margins, boasting big customers like Whole Foods and Starbucks. Across the globe, the chocolate is sold at famous restaurants like Mario Batali’s chain and at Paul Young in London and Fresh and Fresh in Japan. It’s also sold on its website. In 2010, sales were up eight percent across the spectrum and expected to reach double-digit millions and beyond by 2012. First revenues for TCHO started below $1 million in 2009 and tripled last year – demonstrating that fair trade and organic is viable if well supported by believers. Rossetto got friends and family to invest. Today, TCHO produces 10 to 20 tons of chocolate every few weeks from its factory in the heart of San Francisco.

3. Blake Mycoskie

Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS Shoes was a kid kicking around in Argentina when the light went off – footwear is a basic need like water and air, and many are without the coverage to protect their feet from harsh environs. He not only launched a fashion movement (the new must-have uniform of school girls) but a charitable movement – distributing over 600,000 pairs of new shoes in 2010 to kids in need through giving partners around the globe.

What changed in him in 2006? Prior to that he demonstrated an entrepreneurial spirit starting five businesses before TOMS including a national campus laundry service. Most visionaries see a  hole needing filling, but with TOMS, he changed the way much of the industry sees its role – the ability not to just churn out profits but also to help children around the world. As a result, others are following suit with programs like the Good Shoe Project introduced by Payless ShoeSource and World Vision and the Shoes2Spare project.

The bottom line for the man behind the little shoe that could? Stuff doesn’t make you happy. “When I started distributing shoes in Ethiopia, South Africa, and South America, I saw that the people had so little, yet seemed to worry so much less than my friends and family back home,” he says. “Instead of stressing over gadgets, they were talking around the campfire.”

 4. Michael Moore

Clearly not everyone’s cup of tea –  Michael Moore can rub audiences and subjects the wrong way with his overwrought hubris, and that is entirely the point. But as he ages, he is learning to be a less obnoxious man of the people, something that has overshadowed supporters and detractors alike as his provocations drew attention away from the filmmaker with a focus on the film character. As one of his fellow filmmakers sees it: “Moore is a genius, who created an entire genre of documentary film making using the reflexive mode, and I view him as a pamphleteer, say a modern Thomas Paine, who says provocative things that aren’t always meant to be taken literally.”

Not the academic ilk of a Kevin Burns nor the inconspicuous diplomacy of Michael Apted, Moore has changed in the way he doesn’t so much get in your face and slap it silly but continues to rock the boat like no other documentary film maker, not exposing tainted meat and animal cruelty as much as exposing our inexcusable apathy in accepting corporate crime, insurance fraud, imperialism via drummed up invasions and tolerance of school bullies.

Is it any wonder he joined protesters staging Occupy Wall Street? Coming to their aid, he said “What you see here, and what you’re seeing across the country, are millions of people who’ve had it.” Moore promised to donate proceeds from his book, Here Comes Trouble, to their effort and to deliver wi-fi to the park and to other demonstrations being held across the nation. “I’ll do what I can do,” he offered, “because these bankers overplayed their hand. They were already rich, but filthy rich wasn’t enough. They are trying to turn our democracy from a democracy into a kleptocracy.”

The Flint native and so-called poster boy for the working class does boast nearly 900,000 Twitter followers who have been stirred and shaken by his bawdy cocktails like Stupid White Men and Fahrenheit 911. And while critics have tried to expose Moore as a hypocrite for owning a million-dollar apartment or sending his child to private school,  Moore remains a bigger than life figure who gets us to think.

 5. Dr. Mehmet Oz

“Who is the new great and powerful Oz?” asked the New York Post about the heart surgeon in scrubs who has taken over Oprah’s time slot and the health-bound viewing audience by storm. Described as a genuine medical folk hero in the making by turning genital warts and controversial diets like HCG into entertainment, the TV doc goes further than Dr. Phil by bypassing tabloid tactics in favor of a bare bones anatomy lecture. Like most successful physicians, he started out wanting a good career without fame, but has become the ear for a world obsessed with dieting, aging, longevity and stress, spending 40 minutes answering studio audience questions which many other arrogant doctors would dismiss out of hand or tell patients they don’t need to know the answers.

“Folks are desperate to have a relationship with their healer,” he says. “Marcus Welby is dead today, and they want a regular doctor who they can have a dialogue with and get truthful answers from. I reach a whole lot of people this way.”

As close to a regular guy as a rock star TV celeb can get, he lives in New Jersey with his wife and four kids and considers himself a hermit who shaves rarely, plays basketball with friends and meditates.  One of his assets is his listening skills – which shouldn’t be undermined as most of us are starved for listeners to our complaints and concerns. A big sign of his ability to change us – patients quoting his advice when visiting their own internists. If Dr. Oz thinks something is kosher, then it probably is kosher.

6. Douglas Holtz-Eakins

Who doesn’t love a conservative who changes his course when needed? Among the new directions in the sails of the conservative economist, praising the once debunked American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 as a stimulus that operated exactly as intended, growing the economy and spawning millions of jobs. The former Congressional Budget Office director and former chief economic advisor to Sen John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, pledged in August to throw support behind the bill.

Meantime, while the Tea Party elements insist global warming is a science fiction concept, Holtz-Eakin is now working with the New Hampshire-based Clean Air-Cool planet, addressing the economic benefits of addressing the very real issue. One proposal that entices him is tax-swapping, imposing a levy on carbon emissions while eliminating the payroll tax.

“We have watched with foreboding as powerful forces in the Republican Party want to close down this debate and reject the idea that this is a problem that needs to be solved,” says Brooks Yeager of the climate policy advocacy group. “Our interest in working with someone like Douglas, who has enormous credibility in conservative ranks and economists and agrees with our fundamental position that needs to be solved, is that he is exceptionally well positioned to reopen this debate.”

7. John Stewart

First, he changed his name from John Leibowitz, then he changed his game from his breakthrough comedy role on The Larry Sanders show to the serious business of changing mainstream media. The Daily Show with John Stewart is highly respected for its moxie in telling it like it is while everyone else tiptoes through the tulips and kisses the backsides of corporate sponsors. Or, as aptly put by Hub Brown of the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University: “The stock-in-trade of The Daily Show is hypocrisy exposing hypocrisy and nobody else has the guts to do it. They really know how to crystallize an issue on all sides, see the silliness everywhere.” A prime example was second guessing the war in Iraq while mainstream press was towing the line of national leaders. Stewart decided to take them to task, lampooning Bush policies.

The Comedy Central staple has scored nine consecutive Emmy awards  validating that yes, perhaps the industry has a liberal slant, but also that the truth hurts less than we think when it comes to bashing the Tea Party or even criticizing our leaders, including President Obama’s failure to make inroads with a ridiculously stubborn congress. “Conditions are what they are and Obama is president,” says the host. “You are judged by how well you negotiate those conditions, not by how excusable the shitty end result is based on that it’s difficult.”

 8. Brad Pitt

While some of our moms refuse to forgive him for what he did to Jen, Pitt has revamped his image from willing victim of a home wrecker to determined home repairer in New Orleans. There has been much banter of him there switching to politics, as he rubs shoulders with Nancy Pelosi and the Chief on the New Orleans Housing Project while his better half works for UNICEF.

It’s an accepted fact no one wields more clout than celebs like Pitt who have huge followings among all age groups and tremendous visibility. While Dave Eggers’ poignant prose draws attention to the flood aftermath in Zeitoun, Pitt is allegedly considered a great mayoral candidate of the city – but it is one of many causes he embraces which led Newsweek Magazine to list him as one of 15 People Who Make America Great. Among his contributions is shedding light on neglected causes in Africa as cameras follow him wherever he and his extended family travel. This was the thinking when he and Jolie say they sold the first picture of their daughter, Shiloh, to People magazine for a reported $4million saying all proceeds would go to charity.

“Knowing that someone was going to hound us for that first photo — and was going to profit immensely for doing it — I just couldn’t live with it,” Pitt told the magazine. “We were able to turn that around and collect millions for people who are really going to need it.” Now as he makes the round to plug his film Moneyball, interviews on NPR and elsewhere highlight the intellectual Pitt – whose sensitivity emerges in the film, just as it did in Benjamin Button illustrating old dogs can learn new tricks at any time.

9. Warren Buffett

Read his lips: Yes, new taxes!!! And please let my rich friends step up to the plate. Billionaire Buffett- who inspired Obama’s millionaires’ tax – challenged owner of Fox News Rupert Murdoch to make his own federal tax returns public, after admitting he pays a lower rate than his secretary and the government should stop coddling the super rich “as if we were spotted owls or some other endangered species.” A recent CBS news poll showed most Americans agree with Buffett including many who have taken to those Wall Street protests. Militant conservatives are up in arms about it – no doubt viewing Buffett more of a trader than hero, but hero he is for more ways than one.

His stock went way up when joining forces with Bill Gates to urge the wealthy to join the campaign Giving Pledge and to give away at least half of their fortunes during their lifetimes or after their deaths. The 80-year-old Berkshire Hathaway CEO who wants to work past age 100 is famous for maintaining a frugal lifestyle – living in the same home he bought in Omaha in 1958. But his change has come in the way of being much more bold and out there, so to speak, despite how he might be viewed by fellow rich guys and their heirs. As a philanthropist he has set the bar and in seeking more revenues to fund programs, he shows not all billionaires are out for personal gain.

 10. Van Jones

There were such high hopes when Jones became the top green man in the White House – only succumbing to a malicious Tea Party campaign and resigning. “It has been a tough couple of years,” Jones  confessed. “We went from hope to heartbreak in about a minute…We have the wrong theory of the presidency.”

So he is a changed man for the better in terms of seeing bureaucracy only muddles progress. He is now the leading evangelist of the American Dream Movement in partnership with his own organization, Rebuild the Dream – something he told Alternet was for real progressives in 2012 with the goal to train a million new leaders.

“We’re just glad that the volcano is starting to erupt,” he shares. ” We just want to fight. And there are some pre-existing grassroots assets that need to be re-aligned or redeployed; we’re trying to do that here.” The plan calls for house meetings (with real leadership) as well as protests, networking leaders online and locating dream candidates.  Jones sees his new mission as a social battle like no other in history.

“This is thrilling stuff! The dream-killers on Wall Street — who are so disgusting and so despicable; they are ingrates who are sitting up there laughing at us. I mean, every other bloc of capital that has this much weight, they try to do something to make you like them. Even the polluters, they say, ‘We’ll get clean coal.’ They try to do something. But these people on Wall Street – they just don’t care. So it’s just going to be an epic battle now between the worst people in America, the most selfish people in America, and the most selfless. And that’s going to be amazing.”

Images: Acaben; TCHO; Kwaku Alston; Shankbone; Nayrb7; Atlantic; The jointsstaff; Giving; Tedizen; Americanprogressaction, gadgetdude

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Why it’s good for girls to play sports.

Your news editor was once a tomboy. I had two older brothers, and there wasn’t another girl on my street until I was 12. What was left but to follow the boys around, play with their toys and games, and be on their sports teams? Little did I know that deciding to play soccer – just because my brother did – would be a decision that would have many positive effects on my life.

The Raising Strong Girls, Raising Strong Leaders panel at the Women in the World 2011: Stories and Solutions summit made the case that learning about teamwork, participating in athletics, and having strong role models can help girls. Moderated by Juju Chang, Anita DeFrantz, (President, board member, LA84 Foundation, and Chairperson of the Women and Sport Commission, the International Olympic Committee) and Rachel Simmons (teacher, author and co-founder, Girls Leadership Institute) discussed the undermining portrayal of girls in the media today and how heavy exposure affects a girl’s worldview. Worth noting:

• Girls who frequently consume mainstream media place physical attractiveness at the center of women’s value
• 80% of female Fortune 500 executives identified themselves as former tomboys
• Teen girls are becoming the prime target of sexualized content
• Athletics and other extracurricular programs negate the impact of media influence on girls

Media Blitz
In the past decade, marketers have recognized that tween girls (age 7- to 14-year-olds) are an extremely attractive demographic for selling everything from dolls to purses to makeup, and have mounted a campaign that literally bombards girls with materialism in every form of media. Simmons said that the number of 8- to 12-year-old girls buying eyeliner has doubled in the past two years, and that age group is currently the biggest growth market in cosmetics. Simmons calls lip-gloss “the gateway drug.” You start with cherry-flavored lip gloss and the next thing you know, your 10-year-old is wearing red lipstick to class. Simmons believes that due to the heavy marketing and media barrage, “Girls are learning that it’s much more about how you appear, than who you are.”

Sports Can Break the Spell
DeFrantz, a former Olympic rower, is a strong advocate for girls becoming involved in sports. When girls (and boys) are involved in sports, they learn about decision-making, mastering a skill, and working together to accomplish a goal. Girls learn to work with others who aren’t their best friends. Chang, a collegiate swimmer, talked about the importance of investing sweat-equity to learn a skill. Sports help girls learn about effort, about failing, and about trying again, so that when they achieve success, they realize they earned it, and are willing to work toward the next success, and the one after that. Girls are also less likely to drop out of school, get pregnant, and get bad grades if they are involved in a sport.

Girls who don’t participate in extracurricular activities are more prone to internalize the omnipresent marketing. Simmons observed that girls are more likely to spend the day thinking about their appearance, how much they weigh and what they’ve eaten that day, instead of about what they should be learning, what else is going on in the world, or caring about others outside their circle of friends. Can girls still enjoy being girls? Of course, but I think participating in extra-curricular activities provides a balance.

Oh The Places You’ll Go
Participating in extra-curricular activities, whether they are sports, or some other group activity, is a great way to learn about other people that you might not have known and go places you wouldn’t have gone otherwise.

I played soccer from third grade through high school. During that time, I had the opportunity to travel to Hawaii to play in a tournament when I was 12. My teammates and I sold cookies and useless trinkets to our friends, families, and neighbors for a year to earn the money. When I was 15, we went to Scandinavia. For another year and a half, we sold more fattening snacks, had car washes and garage sales, and our friends, families and neighbors bought even more dime-store junk from us.

The friends I made playing soccer were some of the best I’ve had in my life, and I still am close to several of them 20 years later. At the time, I knew it was a great experience, but now I know it was an amazing one. Our team was made up of girls of all shapes, sizes, and interests. Would we all have been friends if we weren’t on a team together? Probably not. Soccer united us. We weren’t all best friends, but we were a team.

Of course, we’ve all since scattered to the four winds. Many of us went on to play in later years, some in college, some in recreational leagues, and each time, we built new friendships and loyalties, learned how to work with new teams, and achieved new successes. These are lessons and skills that we took with us for the rest of our lives.

image credit: wilmotuhs (travis wetzel) via creative commons license on Flickr

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