In a Davos‑style event segment, a presenter lauds Shelley Zalis for embodying and operationalising an "inner architecture" of leadership that integrates IQ, EQ, and a distinct Female Quotient (FQ). The speaker highlights Zalis’s decade‑long vision to celebrate influential women in AI, noting her authentic disclosure of age and family status, and her concrete actions that support other women rather than mere rhetoric. Zalis then emphasizes empathy and compassion as essential, market‑valued leadership skills, while also praising Deloitte’s recent contract successes. The dialogue underscores the alignment between personal values and public leadership, the strategic importance of gender‑focused leadership metrics, and the role of supportive networks in advancing women leaders.
Chapters
So there's a really interesting observation. I had the wonderful privilege of having quite a conversation with Shelly here at Female Quotient. One of the things that I often find myself talking about is the inner architecture of the leader. What are the values? What are the ways that they manage themselves? And to see in Shelly, one of the things that she was saying from the stage as she was in interviewing Joe, the global CEO of Deloitte, was some of the most successful ways of navigating this moment Oh, when we take IQ and we take EQ, and for her it was also FQ, the female quotient. And to see her inner world displayed so clearly like that, what she believes in, she's actually taken action on that. So there's, this is applied, this isn't theory. 10 years ago, she had a vision for the female quotient, and now she is celebrating some of the most influential, admired, powerful and consequential female leaders in AI. And that's a real reflection of the work she's done. One thing that struck me as well was she was not afraid to talk about her age. She's 60, she's got grandkids, and she just, from a stage, just announces this. So there's none of the performance. So she is, there is a consistency and alignment between her inner world and her outer world that I got to observe. And another thing that I was saying to a number of other women in the audience here, what I noticed Was her force in celebrating and complimenting other women. She has a conviction that being a supporter takes action. It's not just words. And that was completely on display today. It was quite wonderful. I have to say, you can probably see I'm a little bit awestruck by the force of that woman who, yeah, I'm growing in admiration for. So thank you, Shelley, for this opportunity. Appreciate it.
These important skills, we hide them for the wrong reasons. Empathy, compassion, these are the ding, ding, dings of what's going to get you the big, big, big jobs these days. Don't hide it. Joe, I just have to say, because Deloitte is winning in so many ways right now with huge contracts, Olympics, and things like that.
