Four Decades of Windstorms: What Lisa Davis's Leadership Journey Teaches Us About Power, Grit, and AI

11 May

There is a line in the introduction to Lisa Davis's book The Only Woman in the Room that stops you in your tracks.

She describes what it felt like to be the only woman in so many rooms across a four-decade career: "Sometimes it felt like an honour, but more often it felt like standing on a cliff during a windstorm."

What Lisa did with those windstorms, in the US Department of Defense, in academia, in technology, is the subject of her book, and it was the subject of a conversation with our Founder and CEO, Dr Julia Stamm. Together they sat down for a book talk ahead of Lisa’s opening keynote at the She Shapes AI Global Awards Ceremony, and what unfolded was a deeply honest, practical conversation about what leadership actually requires.

Here are some of the themes that stayed with us.

Grit is not the same as passion.

Lisa's first chapter is on grit, and her distinction between grit and passion is one worth sitting with. Passion ebbs and flows. There are days when even the most committed leader wakes up exhausted, wondering whether to continue. What carries you through is not passion. It is conviction. Conviction, Lisa explains, means that no matter how tired you are, no matter how frustrating the environment, you will take one more step forward. That is what navigating male-dominated industries has required of women, and continues to require. It is not a comfortable truth, but it is an honest one.

Own your power. Never shrink.

The power chapter is Lisa's favourite, and it is easy to understand why. Women are rarely taught how to read power in a room — who has it, how it shifts, where decisions are actually being made. Lisa is direct: influence without title or status will only take you so far. If you want to shape decisions, you need a seat at the table where those decisions happen.

Her advice to women who feel the pull to make themselves smaller: resist it. "Own your power. Never shrink to accommodate someone else's label, assumption, or perception of who they think you are." That is not arrogance. It is the prerequisite for impact.

Discomfort means you are growing.

On imposter syndrome, Lisa is clear-eyed. It does not go away. The most senior leaders still feel it. What changes is how you respond to it. When you are sitting in a room that feels intimidating, that discomfort is not a signal to retreat. It is a signal that you are at the edge of your comfort zone, which is exactly where growth happens. The reframe: you may not know everything you need to know to be in this room, but you bring a perspective no one else in that room has.

Small shifts, real impact.

One of Lisa's most practical observations is about language. Women habitually soften their contributions before they have even made them. "I'm sorry, but..." or "I think this might be..." The shift from "I think" to "I believe" is small. The change in energy it creates in a room is not.

Body language matters too. Posture signals something to everyone around you before you have said a word. These are not performance tricks. They are ways of aligning how you present yourself with what you actually know and what you are genuinely there to contribute.

You can have it all. Just not all at once.

On the question of whether women can have a full career and a full life, Lisa does not offer false comfort. Something always has to give. What makes it possible is an equal partner, a support network, and the willingness to be honest with yourself about what each season of your life requires. The systems designed to support working families in many countries — particularly the US — are still failing women. That is a structural problem, not a personal one. But until those systems change, the practical tools matter.

Leadership is still the missing variable in AI.

Lisa's book is about navigating rooms where the rules were written by and for someone else. That challenge has not disappeared in the age of AI. It has taken on new dimensions.

The leaders shaping AI strategy today are often working in environments where the culture, the decision-making structures, and the assumptions baked into the technology itself were not designed with them in mind. The skills Lisa describes — reading power, building conviction, advocating clearly, knowing when to stay and when to move — are not soft skills. They are the strategic capabilities that determine whether AI is deployed responsibly or not.

That is precisely why we built the Executive AI Intensive.

Lead the AI conversation with clarity and confidence.

The Executive AI Intensive is a five-day live virtual programme for senior leaders — board members, C-suite executives, directors of policy, strategy, innovation, and operations. No prior AI or technical knowledge required.

Over five 120-minute sessions, you will build the strategic fluency to engage meaningfully in the AI conversation, evaluate AI initiatives with rigour, and lead with confidence in a landscape that is still being defined.

100% of our inaugural cohort reported an increase in confidence, clarity, or strategic capability around AI. 80% strongly recommend the programme.

2026 cohorts are now open, with start dates running from June through December. Cohorts are intentionally small to ensure depth and quality of exchange.

Rachel Gutierrez