InnovateHERs

Business & Investing

synopsis

Synopsis

“There are many books that delve into how to succeed as an entrepreneur, but most are written by men, for me. InnovateHERs provides a much-needed roadmap for the female entrepreneurial mindset. It’s a must-read for anyone looking to support women in building successful companies!” —Kate Eberle Walker, CEO of PresenceLearning, Author of The Good Boss

As a woman, have you leveraged an entrepreneurial mindset to advance in your career? Do you want to align your purpose with your traits and skills to “do well” and “do good” in your profession?

Authors Barbara Kurshan and Kathy Hurley, both experienced and highly regarded leaders in business and education, wanted to know how today’s top female leaders might answer these questions. So, they asked. The result is InnovateHERs: Why Purpose-Driven Entrepreneurial Women Rise to the Top.

Through personal interviews with 29 of today’s global, top-performing women in purpose-driven organizations, Kurshan and Hurley offer readers a unique, insider view into the diverse pathways to success. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, corporate leader, or new to business, InnovateHERs provides stories and ideas that show you how to leverage your personal entrepreneurial mindset to accelerate your purpose-driven professional journey.

Learn how these accomplished, purpose-driven, entrepreneurial women blazed new trails and rose to the top of their professions around the world. Discover how to think bigger, lead stronger, and embrace your unique passions, traits, and skills. They are InnovateHERs, and they’ll show you how to be one, too.

bio

Author Biography

Dr. Barbara (Bobbi) Kurshan has honed her vision of “what can be” using technology while supporting education companies and developing innovative products. She currently serves as a Senior Innovation Advisor at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania where she builds and advises education innovation ecosystems and co-directs the global certificate in Innovation and Entrepreneurship. As President of ECC, she provides strategic consulting in the areas of investment, digital transformation, entrepreneurship, and innovation. As past Executive Director of Curriki, Bobbi helped to build one of the most innovative global open-source education communities. She previously has served as the Co-CEO of Core Learning, an education investment fund, and the Chief Academic Officer of bigchalk, one of the first online digital libraries with K-12 educational content. As an investor she has invested in numerous edtech startups including Fablevision, Mindprint Learning, SoWork, Mindstone, BoxMedia and The Qgroup, a language learning company that she took from startup to IPO. She currently serves on the corporate board of American Public Education Inc.; and advises several edtech companies including Thinkster, Edconnective, RobotLabs, and TeachMe TV. She is the author of several books, articles and regularly blogs for Forbes.com. Bobbi is the 2023 Winner of the IBIT Innovator of the Year Award; and also was selected as the Globant Woman that Build Board Executive Winner for 2022.

Kathleen Hurley is a former senior executive for numerous educational publishing and technology companies, including IBM and Pearson. Currently, she is a senior advisor to educational technology companies, education associations, and school superintendent networks. She also serves on the board of directors for several non-profit and for-profit organizations. After retiring from Pearson, she was selected as a Fellow of the Advanced Leadership Initiative (ALI) at Harvard University. Upon completion of the program, she co-founded a global nonprofit organization, Girls Thinking Global, which has since merged with the Women’s Education Project, where she serves on the board of directors. In 2004 Kathy was inducted into the Association of Educational Publishers’ Hall of Fame and, in 2019, she received the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award in Education Technology from the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA). In 2022, she received the Founders Award from the National Coalition for Technology in Education & Training (NCTET), the inaugural Distinctive Mentor Award from the Education Research and Development Institute (ERDI), and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents (ALAS). She is the co-editor, with Priscilla Shumway, of Real Women, Real Leaders: Surviving and Succeeding in the Business World (Wiley). and co-author, with Dr. Bobbi Kurshan of InnovateHERs: Why Purpose-Driven Entrepreneurial Women Rise to the Top.

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Author Insight

Be Willing to Learn from the Experts

Our research revealed that for purpose-driven leaders, the gap is wider than for typical entrepreneurs and corporate managers. Women working for purpose-driven organizations scored 14 percentage points higher than women entrepreneurs and corporate managers on the need to achieve trait, and they also scored 12 percentage points lower on self-confidence. As we saw in Chapter 4, InnovateHERs hold themselves to incredibly high standards, especially if their job or organization has a social impact. What we saw when discussing InhibitHERs was that women show a tendency to devalue their contributions, making it more difficult to feel successful and qualified for top leadership jobs. This raises the question, “How do industry veterans respond to this dichotomy?” Today, more than 30 years into her successful career, Mary Louise has learned to leverage her domain expertise in a way that feels authentic and helps her build confidence. Instead of advocating for a fake-it-till-you-make-it approach, she believes in showing up with humility first and working through the discomfort by using questions to your advantage when you are still building self-confidence. One way to help you earn trust with your team and stakeholders is by being vulnerable enough to ask questions and listen deeply.

Book Excerpt

InnovateHERs

“When working to make an impact for a population that doesn’t come from the same background as you, you need to reach out and admit you’re there to learn. Then, you need to learn from them by soliciting and taking their advice. When my husband and I started Talent Beyond Boundaries, the people we were working with trusted us because we didn’t pretend to be something we weren’t, and we deeply value their input to this day. You need to learn from the experts and not assume you know it all just because you’re a smart lawyer or because you’ve had a successful career.”

This radical approach earned Mary Louise credibility both with the people she serves and with her team. Above all, it taught her that curiosity is disarming. As Mary Louise gained more trust from her stakeholders, Talent Beyond Boundaries refined the value proposition of what the organization offers to companies looking to hire skilled talent and has helped over 430 refugees on the path to securing a job and visa in a new country so that they can start rebuilding their lives.

By admitting she didn’t know everything, Mary Louise turned her InhibitHER into an ActivateHER and learned the skills of questioning, listening, and observing. Those skills helped pave her way into being a more effective leader in an industry where she was not an “expert.” According to Mary Louise, she gained the confidence to lead and grow her purpose-driven organization through the following ways:

Validating the skills she did have to build confidence when feeling insecure.
Acknowledging she didn’t know everything while showing a genuine eagerness to learn from the stakeholders she was looking to serve.

Krishanti O’Mara Vignarajah’s Story: Self-Confidence and Getting What You Want

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Kathy Hurley Barbara Kurshan

InnovateHERs

Synopsis

Author Biography

Author Insight

Be Willing to Learn from the Experts

Book Excerpt

InnovateHERs

Comment on this Bubble