Beyoncé said it best, who run the world? Girls!
Some people are motivated by the benevolence and gentle effort of the leaders, while some people are responding to resilience and perseverance.
No matter which leadership style you adopt, you can try to learn new things from these 15 world’s top Women CEOs.
Whether you are planning your next working project, transition yourself to an entrepreneur, pursue a dream, we hope these leadership quotes from successful women leaders can inspire your next effort.
1. Jerry Zhang, CEO of Standard Chartered Bank China
“We should always reflect on the paths we’ve travelled, to reinforce what we’ve done well, improve what we haven’t done so well and avoid mistakes other people have made before.
People often repeat similar mistakes, as if they were inevitable, but it’s because they haven’t figured out the root cause behind these mistakes.
If we can reflect regularly and really learn our lessons, the chances of success will greatly improve.”
2. Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook
“Option A is not available. So let’s kick the sh** out of option B.”
3. Mary Kay Ash, Founder Mary Kay Cosmetics
“Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve.”
4. Anita Roddick, Founder of The Body Shop
“Whatever you do, be different – that was the advice my mother gave me, and I can’t think of better advice for an entrepreneur. If you’re different, you will stand out.”
5. Ginni Rometty, Former Chairman, president and CEO of IBM
“If you’re clear on what you believe, you have a great foundation to go make a market.”
6.Lynette Ortiz, CEO of Standard Chartered Bank Philipines
“I think females tend to be forced into stereotypes, or pigeonholed. It’s almost like there are traits ascribed to a female leader by default.
For example, a male leader is expected to be tough and demanding, but people expect women to be nurturing and collaborative, and that can be construed as weak. A man exhibiting command will be praised for taking the bull by its horns.
You don’t call a man bossy, right? But if you’re a woman, you’re being bossy. These are stereotypes that need to be broken. The first order of the day should always be competence and capability, whether you are male or female.”
7. Alaina Percival, CEO of Women Who Code
“I realized that if I was willing to step up and be in the spotlight, I’d be able to make everyone else around me much more powerful as well.”
8. Coco Chanel, founder of Chanel
“In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.”
9. Sandra Day O’Connor, the first women appointed to the US Supreme Court
“Do the best you can in every task, no matter how unimportant it may seem at the time. No one learns more about a problem than the person at the bottom.”
10. Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors
“It’s okay to admit what you don’t know. It’s okay to ask for help. And it’s more than okay to listen to the people you lead – in fact, it’s essential.”
11. Indra K. Nooyi, Former CEO of Pepsi Co
“There is nothing like a concrete life plan to weigh you down.
Because if you always have one eye on some future goal, you stop paying attention to the job at hand, miss opportunities that might arise, and stay fixedly on one path, even when a better, newer course might have opened up.”
12. Adriana Gascoigne, CEO and founder of Girls in Tech
“You have to follow your dreams and be true to yourself, even if that takes you down a less popular road.”
13. Claire Wasserman, CEO and founder of Ladies Get Paid
“Don’t ever be afraid to ask for help. Always be cultivating a support network so that when you stumble — and you will — they’ll be there to catch you.”
14. Susan Wojcicki, CEO of Youtube
“Rarely are opportunities presented to you in a perfect way. In a nice little box with a yellow bow on top. ‘Here, open it, it’s perfect. You’ll love it.’ Opportunities – the good ones – are messy, confusing and hard to recognize. They’re risky. They challenge you.”
15. Marissa Mayer – Former CEO of Yahoo
“I always did something I was a little not ready to do. I think that’s how you grow.
When there’s that moment of ‘Wow, I’m not really sure I can do this,’ and you push through those moments, that’s when you have a breakthrough.”
16. Emma Watson, Actor and Activist
“If you want to run for Prime Minister, you can. If you don’t, that’s wonderful, too. Shave your armpits, don’t shave them, wear flats one day, heels the next.
These things are so irrelevant and surface to what it is all really about, and I wish people wouldn’t get caught up in that. We want to empower women to do exactly what they want, to be true to themselves, to have the opportunities to develop.”
Take the 1st step to materialize your entrepreneurial dream’s this March!
Kickstart your online presence and let us help you build a website of your own.
Women Entrepreneurship with Exabytes campaign will run throughout March 2021 and is open to any woman entrepreneur in Malaysia and Singapore who has a registered business.
The deadline to apply is by 31 March 2021. For more information on Women Entrepreneurship with Exabytes and the eligibility for the initiative, please visit here:
