Shelley Zalis: The Champion of Equality

The Sydcast

Episode Summary:

Shelley Zalis is an entrepreneur, provocateur, connector, CEO, champion of women and equality, and (as some have called her) “chief troublemaker.” What makes Shelley so fascinating is that she simply refuses to accept the status quo when it’s broken, and what’s broken is the experience – both on the job and at home – of so many working women. The platform she has created and continues to nurture and innovate is The Female Quotient: “We Are in the Business of Equality.” On this episode of The Sydcast, the never-ending campaign to close the gender gap, with Shelley Zalis.

Sydney Finkelstein:

Syd Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He holds a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Finkelstein has published 25 books and 90 articles, including the bestsellers Why Smart Executives Fail and Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, which LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman calls the “leadership guide for the Networked Age.” He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Management, a consultant and speaker to leading companies around the world, and a top 25 on the Global Thinkers 50 list of top management gurus. Professor Finkelstein’s research and consulting work often relies on in-depth and personal interviews with hundreds of people, an experience that led him to create and host his own podcast, The Sydcast, to uncover and share the stories of all sorts of fascinating people in business, sports, entertainment, politics, academia, and everyday life.

Shelley Zalis:

Shelley Zalis, known as the “chief troublemaker,” is a pioneer for online research, movement leader, and champion of gender equality. She is an internationally renowned entrepreneur, speaker, mentor, mother, and founder and CEO of The Female Quotient. Zalis rewrites the rules and innovates solutions to impact real change. In 2000, she left the corporate world to found OTX (Online Testing Exchange), which became one of the fastest-growing research companies in the world. She sold OTX to Ipsos in 2010 and then led global innovation in more than 80 countries at Ipsos OTX. Today, as CEO of The Female Quotient, Zalis works with Fortune 500 companies to advance gender equality across industries. The FQ’s signature pop-up experience, the FQ Lounge (formerly the Girls’ Lounge), brings a Home of Equality to major conferences, companies, and college campuses around the world. The FQ Lounge is the gathering place for leaders of all levels at events such as the World Economic Forum, Cannes Lions, Consumer Electronics Show, and the Milken Institute Global Conference. Through the destination-turned-movement, Zalis has connected more than 18,000 women in business and created the largest female-led community to transform workplace culture.

Insights from this Episode

• What gave Shelley the idea to start OTX
• What Shelley learned as founder and CEO
• What problems Shelley faced when launching her business about online research?
• Where did she get her “the defying status quo” mindset
• What it’s like being a female CEO
• The role of gender barriers in the business environment
• What competition really is for women in business
• How is competition a bad thing?
• What have successful women learned that young people – men and women – in their 20’s or early 30’s haven’t learned?

Quotes from the Show:

• “[About online research business idea] I didn’t have the money to do it, I didn’t I would be writing, it was so ahead of its time, I had to make it the right time ” - Shelley Zalis [13:42]
• “As we started, I hated titles, I never wanted anyone to talk to someone because of their title or because of the company. I want people to discover people…because I believe you learn something from everyone not because of the title that you wear” - Shelley Zalis [18:39]
• “As a CEO, gender aside, I want to talk about being a conscious leader and I would like to take gender out of the equation and say: as a conscious leader we need to make decisions in our organizations that are good for caregivers” - Shelley Zalis [24:24]
• “Historically women in business have been trained to be competitive because there’s been such a scarcity of jobs at the top so few women get to the top” - Shelley Zalis [31:41]
• “Once women were proud to be women and be collaborative and be feminine and own their strength and not hide it, not try to act like a man and bring their emotive powers to the table, it was game-changing” - Shelley Zalis [36:06]
• “I don’t believe in one mentor, one mentor doesn’t have all the knowledge, you learn bits and bites of advice from different people who have been there, done that” - Shelley Zalis [39:29]
• “I’ve been working on the power of connectivity which its been our global exchange talking to women over hundred countries listening to hear of what they all need to close the gaps” - Shelley Zalis [45:27]

Stay Connected:

Sydney Finkelstein

Website: http://thesydcast.com

LinkedIn: Sydney Finkelstein

Twitter: @sydfinkelstein

Facebook: The Sydcast

Instagram: The Sydcast

Shelley Zalis

Website: The Female Quotient

LinkedIn: Shelley Zalis

Twitter: Shelley Zalis

Facebook: Shelley Zalis

Instagram: Shelley Zalis

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This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry.