My Strenght and Weaknesses as a Leader

In this up and coming election the GOP has offered Americans’ quite a variety of candidates that will flood our social media, news articles, and the streets. One such candidate is Cara Carleton Fiorina, born Cara Carleton Sneed in September 6, 1954 and is from Austin, Texas. (Carly Fiorina Biography ) She went to the University of Los Angeles, but later dropped out of law school to become a businessperson and AT&T’s “first female officer in the Network Systems division”. (Carly Fiorina Biography ) Additionally, she later earned a MS degree from MIT’s Sloan School of Management and MBA degree from University of Maryland. What is more, while working for a world leader in technology she opted to assist Michael Hayden of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) after the 9-11 attack and divert a major shipment to assist the United States in the race against terrorism. Furthermore, at the age of sixty-one, she has declared herself a

Carly Fiorina: “One change is we are in control in the House and the Senate. What’s disappointing is we’re having the same old conversations. Nothing has changed.”

Marisa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo, is one of the most influential leaders in a world dominated by men. After she was named CEO, Vogue magazine ran a biographical article describing her rise to the position. “‘She is really talented. She is really aggressive,’ says Henry Blodget, whose Business Insider site is a partner with Yahoo Finance. ‘She is extremely driven, and that inspires people. Developers are excited about working for a leader like her, someone who says, “I’m in; who’s with me?’’(Weisberg) Mayer started her career as a Google engineer and is credited with creating the Google home page. At 37 years old she was offered the CEO position at Yahoo now turning the tables as she is turning Yahoo into the next biggest thing. As a leader, Mayer

The engineering career of Ursula Burns began as a summer intern at Xerox in 1980; in 2009, she became the first African-American female CEO.

fabulous founder, who shows that women are very capable of having high power jobs and that they can be successful too.

She wrote her autobiography in 2006, Tough Choices, which showed her views on her career, leadership, women in business and even technology. Carly was then placed on various corporate boards, including Kellogg Co., and Merck & Co. She was the Chairman of the American Conservative Union Foundation, the Chairman of the world’s largest product philanthropy organization, and even was a chairman of a Christian-based organization to help poverty. Carly’s rise to success did not stop there, however; she also became a commentator on Fox and was a consultant in John McCain’s 2008 Presidential

Understanding who Carly Fiorina is as a leader, and her path to the C-Suite, it is important to start at the beginning. Fiorina, born in 1954, is highly educated and holds dual masters degrees in Business Administration (1980) and Information Technology (1989) from the University of Maryland and MIT respectively. She married Frank Fiorina after her first marriage ended in divorce, and is the step-mother to Frank’s two daughters Traci and Lori Ann. Having never had children herself she considers Traci and Lori Ann (now deceased) to be her children.

The Economist labeled her ‘Tech’s ice queen’ in its January 2015 article on her leadership style (“Marissa Mayer”, 2015). Moreover, she is known for being dismissive to executives who report to

The 2016 presidential election signified only the second election of my short voting career. I understood this unconventional election sparked extreme emotions from major political pop culture figures and required new campaign strategies. As a young adult trying to form my own political opinion, the election atmosphere made it challenging to uncover unbiased information about the candidates. I chose to read Carly Fiorina’s memoir of her leadership journey in order to learn more about a candidate that sparked my interest. I find women politicians fascinating and Fiorina’s background in business proved relevant. I began reading with an open and curious mind. I came to learn that Fiorina’s political views are shaped from her real world experience making her genuine and relatable. Specifically, I believe her experience in the business world has made her a stronger leader and offers her a unique perspective to bring to the Republican Party. I am supportive of Fiorina’s ultimate goal to better America by unlocking the potential of US citizens.

Carly became a commentator for Fox News and then she served as a consultant to John

According to CNBC news (Wachenje et al., 2014) Meg Whitman is the only woman that has lead two major United States public companies. This phenomenal woman has had the pleasure of holding the title of CEO for not only eBay but also Hewlett-Packard. Margret Whitman, better known as Meg was born on August 4th, 1956 to Margret Cushing and Hedrick Hallett Whitman, Jr. in Cold Spring Harbor, New York. Whitman is the youngest of three children. Her mother was a stay-at-home mom and her father ran his own loan business. Whitman graduated high school in 1974 and from there went on to enroll in Princeton University for her undergraduate education. Initially Whitman aspired to become a doctor, however, she had difficulty with chemistry and physics as well as other classes. Whitman took up an interest in business when she began working for a student magazine in an advertising sales role. Whitman switched her major and graduated Princeton with a bachelor’s degree in economics. After Princeton, Whitman joined the MBA program at Harvard Business School and graduated from the program in 1979. She now resides in California with her husband and her two sons.

First, she ran Hewlett-Packard (Mullany). In fact, she only spent six years at the company, meaning that it only took Carly six years to go from rock bottom to CEO (Reston). In her time at the company, she brought it up to be ranked as the 11th largest company in the United States ("Meet Carly | Carly Fiorina for President 2016."). Carly’s leadership brought the company leaps and bounds under her, and brought her to the top in a short time. A strong leader is needed to go from the bottom to the top in less than six years. A strong leader is needed to get a company to be the 11th largest company in the United States. Thus, because she could do all of these things, Carly Fiorina is a strong leader, and demonstrates the leadership qualities. Besides Carly showing her leadership at HP, Carly “has served in a large number of advisory and policy-making positions for national and state governments,” as stated by her campaign website ("Meet Carly | Carly Fiorina for President 2016."). By placing her on these committees, people show their confidence in Carly’s decision-making skills and her decisions themselves. An important ability of a great leader is the ability to make good decisions, which Carly Fiorina demonstrates by being on and staying on these committees. People trust her decisions because they believe she makes the right ones, even if they are

Tyra also talked about how women need money in order to take their ideas to the next level, “every woman needs “f-you” money to be able to do things independent,” she said. She encouraged more men to invest in women led businesses and to challenge their preconceived notions about women. Tyra emphasized the importance of finding a mentor to help take your business to the next level, when launching her beauty start-up, Tyra called top ceos like Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh, for advice on how to run her

Carly struggled with her jobs and education for a while, but managed to break through it. In 1980 when Carly was 25, she went to join AT&T as a management trainee in Virginia. In 1999, Hewlett took note in Fiorina’s abilities to manage growth in technology and replaced Lewis Platt, a retiring president and CEO, to make space for Carly, then switched from Lucent to HP. Then

A strong voice of women’s initiatives, Rometty has been instrumental in IBM’s Women in Technology Council and the Women’s Leadership Council. She has been named to Fortune Magazine’s annual “Most Powerful Women in Business” list for eight consecutive years and is also a regular on the presentation circuit speaking at industry and business conferences. She continues to serve on the Board of Trustees of Northwestern University and the Board of Overseers and Managers of the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (Daily Finance, 2012).