Nina DiSesa, a pragmatic approach to managing up!

After all of the negative talk about the cement ceiling and our lack of progress in penetrating the senior executive ranks in North America I found it particularly refreshing to speak with Nina DiSesa, Chairman of McCann Erickson New York about her rise to the top and how she made it happen.

While some women find her choice of words for the title of her recently launched book Seducing the Boys Club, offensive, I find it refreshing. Although this is a very serious topic, we tend to take ourselves very seriously and Nina reminds us about the whole package--- wit, charm, personality, smarts, confidence, talent-- all of it. It takes all of it to make it to the top. Period.

You've got to be great not only at what you but how you do it. Nina's take is that we have been looking at this all wrong-- because clearly it hasn't been working for us at the pace we would have hoped. So, rather than following 'the rules' that people are putting in front of us, let's figure out some other way to skin the cat! This can-do determination and creative approach might be just what we need to move the needle in the next decade.

Read the article and listen to the interview (25 minutes duration). I am sure you will find it as refreshing as I did.