There are six elements of gravitas critical to leadership: grace under fire, decisiveness, emotional intelligence and the ability to read a room, integrity and authenticity (people don't like fakes), a vision that inspires others, and a stellar reputation.
Sylvia Ann HewlettIf you show up without makeup or looking sloppy, no matter how impressive your ideas are, no one is going to pay attention to you. People take you more seriously if you look polished.
Sylvia Ann HewlettQuite simply, promotions are not just functions of ability, values, or the numbers you hit, but also rest critically on how you are perceived.
Sylvia Ann HewlettThe decision to have a child is both a private and a public decision, for children are our collective future.
Sylvia Ann HewlettWomen have made enormous progress on the lower and middle rungs of the career ladder, but we are failing to make the leap into senior positions. Everyone jumps to the conclusion that it's motherhood that holds women back, but often the big roadblock is the lack of executive presence.
Sylvia Ann HewlettWomen of my age in America are at the mercy of two powerful and antagonistic traditions. The first is the ultradomestic fifties with its powerful cult of motherhood; the other is the strident feminism of the seventies with its attempt to clone the male competitive model.... Only in America are these ideologies pushed to extremes.
Sylvia Ann Hewlett