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7 Reasons Your Network May Be Keeping Your Business Small, Even When Everybody Knows Your Name. "You can have thousands of contacts, a respected reputation and a diary full of networking events, yet still be three introductions away from the money, contracts and decision-makers that could change the trajectory of your business." There is a business problem we rarely name.

We have spent decades asking how we get more women into senior leadership, but perhaps we have been asking only half the question. What happens when women finally reach the stage where experience, networks, judgement and institutional knowledge should give them their greatest professional leverage, only to encounter workplaces poorly designed for one of the most predictable transitions of their working lives? This is why California's AB 1940 deserves attention.

Men are frequently told two contradictory things. Speak more about what is happening in your life, but remain strong enough not to burden anybody with it; be ambitious without appearing insecure, provide for others while somehow having all the answers yourself. Build the career, protect the family, manage the money, maintain the relationship and preferably look as though none of it is particularly difficult.

The next impressive email does not require paranoia. It requires a process. Start by verifying the sender independently rather than relying solely on the biography, links and logos supplied in the approach. Move towards clarifying exactly what is being proposed before surrendering an hour to a meeting. Evaluate the complete exchange of value, including your time, expertise, intellectual capital, reputation, content, introductions, audience and community access.

Only 39% of Black entrepreneurs receive loan approval, compared with 67% of White entrepreneurs. The applications are going in. The decisions are coming back differently based on who sent them. So when someone describes Black women founders as lacking confidence, what they are actually describing is a group of people who have correctly predicted the answer before submitting the question. That is not a confidence gap it is accurate forecasting.