Female CEOs Reveal Their Secrets to Success

If you want to be the best, you need to learn from the best.

That’s why it’s so valuable to take the time to find out what advice the people who are already in your field of work might say about how to make your life easier. And, to be honest, many of these pieces of advice are helpful no matter what line of work you’re in. High-ranking women have all had to figure out how to become and stay successful over the years. In doing so, they’ve learned quite a few helpful tidbits for those following in their footsteps.

From business executives to entrepreneurs to multi-million dollar for-profit business execs or world-changing non-profits leaders, all of these impressive women have shared their helpful guidance so we all can learn from their personal ups and downs. Prepare your notebooks, young business leaders. There is plenty of learning to be had.

Do you have what it takes to go from waitressing at a Hooters to running a multi-million dollar company like Kat Cole?

Cole, the former president of Focus Company, the parent company of Cinnabon and today’s president and COO of the direct-to-consumer nutrition company Athletic Greens, is willing to hustle and do whatever it takes to learn the job. Her advice is to keep your ego in check when you’re getting feedback on the job.

As she told Business Insider, “A piece of career advice I received when I was incredibly young was that anytime you get criticized, take a moment and assume the criticism is accurate. Assume the person criticizing you is right, just for a moment.”

Cole’s reasoning for assuming the other party’s accurateness has everything to do with keeping your own power. She explained that if you assume they’re correct, you get to consider the criticism with deliberateness like you would any other feedback.

A Favorite Kat Cole Quote:

“When we get our sense of self from only one place, when something goes wrong and the inevitable happens, it can crush you emotionally, spiritually and physically. So it’s important not to believe you are defined by one place, one relationship or one thing, and to find ways to keep your sense of self strong.”

Jessica Alba, the actress-turned-businesswoman, founded The Honest Company in 2011. Since then, the company has grown into a net worth of over a billion dollars. For Alba, it’s all about being willing and able to withstand rejection. No matter what is thrown at you, you’ve got to learn from it and move on.

She said, “You’ll never know that something is going to succeed if you don’t try and put yourself out there.”

A Favorite Jessica Alba Quote:

“The only way you can measure your success is by reflecting and seeing what you want out of the experience. And the journey is just as much a part of the success you seek out.”

Meg Whitman, formerly of Hewlett-Packard and now U.S. Ambassador to Kenya under President Biden, has a name that is practically synonymous with powerful women in the business world. While she’s given some really wonderful advice on all sorts of subjects over the years, her most helpful is applicable to both business and life. She thinks it’s more valuable to focus on the positive and enhance that rather than obsessing over the negative things that may be going wrong.

Whitman said, “My advice, having done this a number of times, is to go into an organization and figure out what that company’s doing right and do more of it. You’ll eventually get to your to-do list and to your fix-it list, but if you come in and just talk about what’s going wrong, you will lose hearts and minds.”

A Favorite Meg Whitman Quote:

“Problems are good, as long as you solve them quickly.”

Former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg has no problem giving all sorts of sage advice, especially for women in the business world. In fact, she wrote the book on it. Or, at least, she wrote a book on it.

Her best advice also centers around the ability to hear and accept feedback. She explained that she looks for that specific quality in an employee, hoping to find, “Someone who takes feedback well. Because people who can take feedback well are people who can learn and grow quickly.”

A Favorite Sheryl Sandberg Quote:

“Being confident and believing in your own self-worth is necessary to achieving your potential.”