To mark International Women’s Day 2018, we at Mojo For Leaders have combined our years of experience, training and research and our work with some amazing, inspirational female leaders to put together what we feel are the most valuable lessons in leadership for women. Here goes.

• You have power. Don’t be afraid of your power. Don’t be afraid of your vulnerability. Showing up fully owning both will make you a true force for positive change!
• Make friends with your internal critic! She(he) is there to serve a purpose. Understand that purpose and don’t let their voice drown out the  other positive, encouraging voices in your head.
  
• Be courageous. Confidence builds by taking a series of courageous steps out of your comfort zone.
  
• Not knowing isn’t a problem. Being afraid of not knowing is.
  
• Nobody does it alone. Get yourself a good coach. Build yourself a circle of trusted peers whom you can turn to for support and celebration.
  
• Invest time, energy and money in building your own resilience, skills, and capacity to take on challenges and succeed. You are your own major asset. Look after yourself.
  
• Let me say it again – “look after yourself”. Find the ways that you can keep yourself at your best. Sleep well, move often and with joy and nourish your body and your soul with consistent, exquisite care.
  
• Mind your language! Language creates worlds! The language you use consistently will serve to create a particular type of world for you and your people to live in. Notice if you are more negatively focused or positive. Always push towards the positive and see the energy and resilience of yourself and your people grow.
  
• Value what you bring to your organisation as a woman. The research is overwhelming now that organisations with a more diverse representation on their leadership teams out-perform others. Don’t water down your womanhood!
  
• And finally, don't forget to laugh! Check if you or your team have had a good belly laugh lately, and if not, do something fast to bring more joy and fun back into your work!
  

                                               Happy International Women's Day everyone!

Mojo For Leaders provides effective and meaningful support to the ordinary person stepping up to achieve the extraordinary.

2. Mojo – How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It by Marshall Goldsmith
Mojo is the moment when we do something that's purposeful, powerful, and positive and the rest of the world recognizes it. This book is about that moment--and how we can create it in our lives, maintain it, and recapture it when we need it.
In his follow-up to the New York Times bestseller What Got You Here Won't Get You There, #1 executive coach Marshall Goldsmith shares the ways in which to get--and keep--our Mojo. Our professional and personal Mojo is impacted by four key factors: identity (who do you think you are), achievement (what have you done lately?), reputation (who do other people think you are--and what have you've done lately?), and acceptance (what can you change--and when do you need to just "let it go"?). Goldsmith outlines the positive actions leaders must take, with their teams or themselves, to initiate winning streaks and keep them coming.

3. Start With Why – How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek
Sinek starts with a fundamental question: Why are some people and organizations more innovative, more influential, and more profitable than others? Why do some command greater loyalty from customers and employees alike? Even among the successful, why are so few able to repeat their success over and over?
 
People like Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Jobs, and the Wright Brothers had little in common, but they all started with WHY. They realized that people won't truly buy into a product, service, movement, or idea until they understand the WHY behind it. 
 
START WITH WHY shows that the leaders who've had the greatest influence in the world all think, act, and communicate the same way -- and it's the opposite of what everyone else does. Sinek calls this powerful idea The Golden Circle, and it provides a framework upon which organizations can be built, movements can be led, and people can be inspired. And it all starts with WHY

4. The Situational Leader by Dr. Paul Hersey
The Situational Leader introduces a highly effective system for managing and inspiring people that is both conceptual and practical. Exploring the dynamics of influence and motivation, The Situational Leader illustrates a pathway to high performing teams, empowerment, and self-management.Addressing leadership style, task and relationship behaviours, as well as ability and attitude, Hersey’s Situational Leadership Model is a powerful and easily applied approach – As Dr Warren Bennis says of this book ‘Hersey’s book uncovers the decisive factor in organisational success: Empowering people. Everybody nowadays seems to be searching for excellence.  Hersey’s intriguing and concise book demonstrates how this can be done.’  Published in 1984, The Situational Leader has stood the test of time.

5. Survival of the Savvy – High-Integrity Political Tactics for Career and Company Success by Rick Brandon, Ph. D. and Marty Seldman, Ph. D.
Each day in business, a corporate version of "survival of the fittest" is played out. Power plays, turf battles, deceptions, and sabotages block individuals' career progress and threaten companies' resources and results. In Survival of the Savvy, Rick Brandon and Marty Seldman provide ethical but street-smart strategies for navigating corporate politics to gain "impact with integrity," helping readers to:
-Identify political styles at work through the Style Strengths Finder, and avoid being under or overly political
-Discover the corporate "buzz" on you, and manage the corporate "airwaves"
-Decipher unwritten company rules and protect yourself from sabotage and hidden agendas
-Build key networks to promote yourself and your ideas with integrity
-Learn to detect deception and filter misleading information
-Increase your team's organizational savvy, influence, and impact
-Gauge the political health of the company and forge a high-integrity political culture
In addition, Survival of the Savvy helps individuals discover and overcome their own political blind spots and vulnerabilities. They learn step-by-step methods to avoid being underestimated or denied full recognition for their achievements. It shows them how to put forward their ideas and advance their careers in an ethical manner, with a high level of political awareness and skill.
After reading this book, you will never have to say, "I didn't see it coming." Organizational savvy is a mission-critical competency for the complete leader. This timely and timeless book provides cutting-edge strategies and skills for surviving and thriving as you build individual and company success.

6. The Intuitive Body – Discovering the Wisdom of Conscious Embodiment and Aikido by Wendy Palmer
The Intuitive Body draws on the principles of the non-aggressive Japanese martial art aikido and meditation to present a fresh approach to cultivating awareness, attention, and self-acceptance. Author Wendy Palmer shows readers through basic practice and partner exercises how to become more aware of the body and trust its innate wisdom. She introduces exercises from the Conscious Embodiment and Intuition Training program she pioneered, connection movement, meditation, and breathing. These exercises form a daily practice that can help the process of integration, of deepening and unifying the self, and learning to deal with fear and anger. Written in a direct yet nurturing style and based on the author’s many years of practice and teaching, this revised edition of The Intuitive Body contains new material on Conscious Embodiment movement and meditation practices. Also here are new chapters on advocating without aggressing and the wisdom of not knowing — embodying the qualities of dignity and integrity in everyday life. The book is ideal for readers who are already engaged in the process of becoming, as well as for those who are looking for ways to find the courage to begin.

Have you any treasured books that you would recommend. We would love to hear about them in our comments section.