Women helping women is the best way for us to get ahead. Now the science backs this up. A new study tracked 700 MBA students as they made it into leadership positions, analyzing the make-up of their social network. The finding? 75% of high ranking women had strong ties to a female-dominated inner circle. If you combined this female domination with a wide network, women saw 2.5x greater job placement level than those with a male-dominated small network. So right now, sho

Brene Brown is one of my key mentors. So is Tim Ferris and Gretchen Rubin. I mean, they don't know this. In fact, I've never actually spoken with any of them. Brene—yes, in my imaginary mentor world, we are on a first name basis. Brene introduced me to this idea in one of her talks, by describing her relationship with her imaginary mentor, Maya Angelo (who she later got to meet). I love it. In critical times in my life, I'll ask myself, 'What would Brene do?' I'll rese

Lately, I've been having lots of conversations with near-40-year-old friends not knowing what they wanted to be when they grow up. In some ways, the older you get, the harder that question is, as golden handcuffs or the fear of starting over strike. One powerful question I always ask is 'What work would you do for free?' Usually, this gets at both what they are good at (because it's easier to do something for free when it comes easily) and where their passions lie. Wha

The Skimm podcast with Alexa von Tobel, the founder of Learnvest is a must-listen. She literally sold her company the same week she gave birth. Talk about a tough mama! My favorite tip was on how to frame ideas to your team: "Here's my bad idea. Make it better." This puts out an idea but also defers to your team to put their own mark and work their superpowers. Humility and empowerment wrapped in one. With these emails, let's take that approach. here's my bad idea. Make

I work next to an incredible company, Equal Reality which does diversity and inclusion training in virtual reality. They show people what its like to be discriminated against, and run them through a "fire drill" for how to recognize and interrupt that behavior in their daily lives. Their next project? Training to prevent biases around moms, which is the most significant bias in the workplace. Unfortunately, I know that too many of you have these to share. Please help

Do you know what has been found to be the biggest bias in the workplace? Being a mom. A man becomes a dad and is viewed as being more responsible. A woman becomes a mom, and she's viewed as less committed. 60% of women experience this bias. One study used the same resume with one identified as a mother vs. non-mother. The non-mother received 2.1x more callbacks. This bias is sneaky because it shows up as benevolent versus hostile sexism -- people think they are doing

I can be incredibly impulsive. Great for a fun Saturday adventure, potentially detrimental at work. Last week, my leadership coach and I created a decision matrix—a checklist to make sure I'm pausing and using specific criteria before leaping. Everyone's will be different, but here is what's on mine: Ratings (from 1 to 5) of the opportunity across different vectors (Networking, sales, investment, learning, etc.) Alignment with priorities, mission, and values of both my compan

My team is distributed across the globe—in the Philippines, Dubai, Spain, and multiple US time zones. The past few weeks I've been focusing on how to make us feel like a 'team' even though none of sit together. We've started a simple task that has made us all more connected. When we log-in for the day, we each share three words that define that day. Mine today: Coaches: I'm holding a focus group to learn more about how we can make them more effective and their lives easier. C

The 5-minute favor was coined by Adam Rifkin, who supposedly has more connections on LinkedIn to the most influential people in the world than anyone else. The concept is simple. You should be willing to do something that will take 5 minutes or less for anybody. Givers get good karma. It also just feels great. So, I'm putting it out there to you. What 5-minute favors do you need? I'll try to help! #career #gratitude #habits

I got a great tip on grit from Aditi Shekar, founder of Zeta, software that helps couples manage their money together. (Check it out.) When hit with adversity, she asks herself, "What level is this?" Minor: Small disappointments that ultimately won't make or break you—You didn't get that sales deal or accepted to an incubator. Take a deep breath and move on. Remember if you aren't getting rejected, you aren't putting yourself out there enough. Code Red: Your company is at ris

The past few weeks have been intense, work-wise. My default is to enter super-execution mode. Do. Do. Do. However, I’m wiser than that. (Thanks to years of slip-ups.) Whenever I start feeling that manic panic, I block off an hour on my calendar to take a step back. I first look at everything on my to-do list and cross off the non-essential. I then look at my team. Do I have the right people? What are my holes? What on my plate can I give to others? Is my time better spent hir

When listening to Reid Hoffman’s recent interview of Ariana Huffington on his podcast, Masters of Scale, I was impressed. Her company, Thrive, wove its mission to help prevent burnout throughout their company culture. Employees can take rests in nap pods throughout the day. When they have a grueling period at work, they can take a “Thrive Day” to recharge. Using Machine Learning, they measure whether a call center call was particularly negative and follow it with a call with

Scott Belsky, Chief Product Officer at Adobe, revealed a helpful mantra on Tim Ferriss' latest podcast: Do your fucking job. Too often I have found myself putting off or shying away from the hard parts of my work. One benefit of being a bootstrapping entrepreneur is that I no longer have the choice. Don't want to fire that contractor that is not delivering? Kari, do your fucking job. Timid around making the sales ask for fear of rejection? Kari, do your fucking job. Nervou

Jay Newton-Small, the founder of MemoryWell, a digital storytelling platform for the aging, recently mentioned a simple prioritization method for her team—the dolphin scale. Each project on her team gets assigned a "dolphin" rating—5 for high priority, 1 for low. Every week she relooks at projects to adjust the scores. This process acts as a communication shortcut. People on the team know five comes over three. It also prevents folks from spending all week tackling the ones.

The tendency for women to over-apologize starts when we are kids, so it's not surprising that it's a hard habit to break. We need constant in-the-moment feedback to change. Enter the Gmail plug-in, Just Not Sorry, which warns you when you use words or phrases that undermine your message, such as: I think Sorry Just Does that make sense? Actually Try it today.  I'm no expert, but I think this might actually cause real change. #career #habits #productrecommendations #selfawaren

I just started an incubator program, Halcyon. 427 companies applied, the program accepted eight. Orientation day, I took a quick look at the other fellow's bios and was shocked by the difference between the men and the women's. The men's sounded more impressive than the women, not because the men were, but because they had puffed out their chests. Self-promotion is downright uncomfortable for me. However, I know that it is essential. So here's my rewritten bio, horn tooting a

Today: our next installment of our Day in the Life of a Working Mom Instagram stories. We are joinged by Alli Young, the CEO and Founder of The Forem, a training program that helps women at all levels get further faster. She's a no-nonsense rockstar. You'll love her. If you don't yet, follow @theforem on Instagram for tips on overcoming imposter syndrome, decreasing bias at work, and negotiating for what you are worth. Here are some gems from her feed. Can't wait to see what

One of the big goals of Uplift is to reduce bias against moms in the workforce. When women make up over half the workforce, why is only 20% of the C Suite female? A new study out of Harvard is the most extensive study I've read on the subject, diving deep into a single company - analyzing every email and meeting schedule, even having participants wear a badge that tracked who people associated with and who dominated those conversations. The shocking outcome: men and women beh

This week, I noticed one of my team members was struggling. I know this woman is super sharp and hard-working, so I was surprised. My natural response is to push harder. I turned into one of those tourists who speaks louder when a local can't understand their Spanglish. I'm sure you can predict how effective that was. Then I was reminded of two of the best pieces of management advice I've ever received: Always assume the best intent. People want to do a great job. When someth

My first visit to my kid's preschool struck me. It was quiet. Somehow a room full of toddlers was less noisy than my house with two kids. I asked the teacher, "How?" She explained that they themselves don't ever raise their voice, which models ideal behavior. Quick kid tip: they love whispers and will pay attention when you do. So do adults. I love the quote from attorney and founder of It's Over Easy, Laura Wasser: "If you speak softly, they will lean in to hear you. You don