A quick tidbit to share from a recent dialogue on women’s leadership between Naomi Wolf and emotional intelligence guru Daniel Goleman, entitled “The Inner Compass for Ethics and Excellence.”

Naomi, among many other things of course, is co-founder of the Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership, where I’m a Fellow. During the dialogue, Naomi says something in reference to some of the young women who pass through Woodhull that may be tres a propos for GWP readers:

“Something we see a lot, is that young women come in, especially if they are highly educated, with a false voice – a false demeanor as a leader. You were talking about the visionary who speaks from the heart to the heart, but you can’t get there if you are presenting or accessing a persona that is artificial. People feel it and they are not moved. And you don’t produce as well as you could if you are putting all this energy into presenting a false front. It can be young women who have spent time in the academy, who tend to talk in an academic, stiff, jargoned way; women in the nonprofit world who tend to use abstractions; women from a male-dominated workplace, or who are surrounded by scientists in a male-dominated atmosphere, who feel like they have to repress the range of knowledge and interaction they have as women in order to be taken seriously. What’s really beautiful, is that when you bring out your highest ideals and aspirations and talents, and you send it out in the world, that’s when you are most effective. You see this amazing transformation.”

I’m thinking young men who come out of the academy and wonkland tend to speak stiffly too. But not, IMHO, Obama! Then again, he’s been said to have a “feminine” style of leadership–whatever that is.

Also from Naomi this fall is a new book: Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries. And to that I say hells yeah–we sure could use more revolutionaries of late!

(Thanks to Matt for the heads up.)