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About this Episode:

In this episode of The Transformative Leader Podcast, I’m excited to bring you a conversation with speaker, executive coach, and consultant, Dr. Mary Key, about the unique challenges, opportunities, and strengths encountered by women in leadership. Dr. Key is the President of Key Associates, Inc., an organizational transformation consulting firm committed to the growth and development of leaders and organizations for over 20 years. She is also the founder of the Key Women’s Leadership Forums, which bring together women in leadership roles to focus on each other’s pressing issues, leveraging their influence and aligning their careers with what is purposeful for them. Dr. Key’s most recent book is Seizing Success: A Woman’s Guide to Transformational Leadership, which brings together inspiring stories, strategies, tools, and real-life examples to guide seasoned and aspiring female leaders from where they are to where they want to be, and to better position themselves relative to the more favorable business climate for women now and in the future.

Although Dr. Key and Key Associates have done extensive organizational consulting work with Fortune 500 companies, Inc. 500 winners, government entities, and so on, they specialize in leadership development for executive women and their services are designed to help female executives address their challenges—such as hiring the right talent, executive presence, influencing skills and work-life alignment—as well as to serve as a sounding board for ideas and innovation. For a long time, the corporate and executive leadership world has been defined in line with traditionally masculine traits, to the point that it almost seems redundant to even point that out. As a result, women in leadership often face unique challenges in navigating their roles as leaders, and they also bring a different perspective and different strengths to those same roles.

For instance, many of the features that I consider to define transformative leadership, such as introspection, emotional intelligence, empathy, inclusion, receptivity, holistic thinking, and so on, are disparaged by traditional business approaches as “soft“ or “touchy feely“ (despite their supreme effectiveness), while these very same features tend to be more accessible to women in leadership roles. In fact, in my experience, the core message of transformative leadership seems to resonate disproportionately with women in the workplace, leaders or not. This is anecdotal evidence to be sure, but it has held true with the participants in my workshops, internal champions of transformation, consulting clients, and even podcast guests and listeners—so there must be something to it!

I think this is a fascinating subject that really needs more spotlight focused on it, and it was wonderful to be able to speak with Dr. Key about the dynamics involved with women in leadership. Suffice it to say, anyone who is interested in transformative leadership, no matter who they are, should make sure not to miss this episode! (And for those interested in more on the subject, I recommend checking out Dr. Key’s article on Execunet, as well as an academic paper by a previous podcast guest, Dr. Nancy Gordon).

Some topics discussed in this episode include:

• Dr. Key’s journey from an early interest in psychology and organizational development to becoming an international executive coach and consultant.

• Some of the unique challenges and obstacles that women in business and leadership face, including impostor syndrome, gender bias, leadership style, and academic studies on the same.

• The ways in which traditional business and leadership activity have been defined in reference to stereotypically masculine traits, and the consequences of that perception.

• How and why women are especially suited to transformative leadership.

Mary Key, Ph.D. is the founder and President of Key Associates, Inc. For over 20 years, she has worked with Fortune 500 companies, Inc. 500 winners and government entities to help them grow and thrive, including clients such as Ericsson, CitiFinancial Retail Services, Nokia, Nissan, Infiniti, Bausch & Lomb, Wyeth Nutrition, Stanford University, Nielsen, and Waymo. Dr. Key was part of a national team that built Inc. Magazine’s Eagles CEO program, and she was part of the development team that designed the California Healthcare Leadership College. She is currently also a member of the teaching faculty for the Advanced Leadership Program at Stanford University for the Hospitals & Clinics program. She was selected to be part of the Society of International Business Fellows (SIBF), Leadership Florida, Athena Society and the CEO Council of Tampa Bay, and is also a member of the Association of Corporate Executive Coaches (ACEC). In addition to Seizing Success, Dr. Key has authored other books including CEO Road Rules: Right Focus, Right People, Right Execution and The Entrepreneurial Cat: 13 Ways to Transform Your Work Life. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Virginia and her BS from the University of Massachusetts.

Guest Links:

To learn more about Mary and her work, you can visit her website, where you can also complete a free assessment of your competencies as a female leader. You can also connect with Mary on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and by emailing her at mary@keyassociatesinc.com.

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