Kim BrattainFounder/ CEO, Kim Brattain Media · Award-winning Corporate and Documentary Film Producer

Kathryn Heath - Flynn Heath Holt

7 Feb 2018 · 2 min

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1:46

In this solo talk, Kathryn Heath outlines a vision for increasing women’s representation in corporate America’s C‑suite to 30%, arguing that more women leaders would improve the world. She emphasizes that personal development—through feedback, coaching, stretch assignments, and deliberately building courage—acts as a muscle that strengthens over time. Heath advises women to keep an accomplishment log, project personal power and presence, and actively support one another, citing Madeleine Albright’s warning about women who don’t help other women. She stresses that great leaders continuously reflect, learn, and reinvent themselves. The talk introduces the “Influence Effect,” a framework for growing influence and navigating the ambiguous “white‑space” decision‑making that intensifies at higher organizational levels. Ultimately, Heath conveys that mastering leadership is a long‑term, practice‑based journey that anyone can undertake.

Chapters

It's an honor to lead people. We want women to find their power and be successful. We have a goal that 30% of the people in corporate America in leadership jobs in the C-suite should be women. That's what we think is important. We think the world would be a better place if there were more women leaders. We all have blind spots, and through feedback and coaching and doing stretch assignments, You can figure out what's working for you and what's getting in your way, and you can grow. Courage is a muscle, and the more you use it, the stronger you get. We say keep an accomplishment log, but move yourself up and be— project lots of personal power and presence. That's a big deal. You've all heard the Madeleine Albright quote, there's a special place in hell for women who don't help other women. So help each other and you'll be successful. What we know about great leaders is they reflect and they learn. And the leader of the future is somebody who is learning all the time. We've constantly got to be reinventing ourselves. The Influence Effect is about how to grow your influence and really define the path to power for you. As you go higher and higher in the organization, it gets more ambiguous. Decisions are made in the white space, and what we want is for women to figure out, how can I navigate and be successful? You do it for years and years and years, and you get better and better. It's not something you just know how to do one day. You really have to work at it, and you can too.