If you have worked or trained or even played tennis with me, you know I’m not shy about what I want. Just the opposite. Really, what’s the point of wanting something and NOT going after it?

Here’s what I want today. I want each of you to follow the two links below and read these articles. It’ll take you 10-15 minutes, maybe less if no one interrupts you. I guarantee you will learn something and at one point you will laugh out loud.

I’ll tell you briefly about each one, or you can skip the intros and jump into reading.

LIvely and outspoken TV producer and writer Shonda Rhimes

The first is an article from Saturday’s Wall Street Journal.  Its author writes, “I set out to discover what frustrates and perplexes professional men about the women they work with… And then I went in search of solutions. I sought out male executives who are getting it right.”

In the interests of full disclosure (and because I’m bursting with pride), I need to “confess” that two of the executives interviewed, Mike Kaufmann and Paul Gotti of Cardinal Health, have been working with IWL for several years to bring Gender Partnership to life in their Fortune 50 company. Their courage and heart are truly inspirational!

The second piece is short and to the point. It’s visionary TV producer and writer Shonda Rhimes’s acceptance speech for the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award sponsored by the The Hollywood Reporter. (If you aren’t familiar with her name, you probably know her shows: Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and How to Get Away With Murder, to name a few.)

Here’s a teaser from her “inspiring, badass” speech: ” ‘Do they know I haven’t broken through any glass ceilings?’ I ask my publicist. He assures me that I have. I assure him that I have not… If I had broken through any glass ceilings, I would know… I would have felt some cuts, I would have some bruises. There’d be shards of glass in my hair. I’d be bleeding….”  

Now get busy reading.