ABSTRACT
Actually, the words were “charming,” “assertive,” and “compelling,” but I was stuck at “charming.” I was not flattered. In my mind, charming seemed to be a gender-biased descriptor, and I was pissed. I doubted he would have described any of his other direct reports, who were all men, as charming. I was a C-suite executive. Why couldn’t he have found a more leadership-admired word to describe my effectiveness?
