{"id":156998,"date":"2021-12-27T17:45:49","date_gmt":"2021-12-27T14:45:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/9-tips-every-woman-should-heed-from-successful-businessperson-deborah-liu"},"modified":"2026-10-12T05:45:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T02:45:00","slug":"9-tips-every-woman-should-heed-from-successful-businessperson-deborah-liu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/9-tips-every-woman-should-heed-from-successful-businessperson-deborah-liu","title":{"rendered":"9 Tips Every Woman Should Heed from Deborah Liu: Which Ones Were Verified? (2026)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>TL;DR.<\/strong> The 2021 version of this post attributed 9 tips to Deborah Liu. The primary record is Liu&rsquo;s own 10-point essay, published under her byline on July 19, 2018. The comparison shows that 6 of the 9 tips were verified, 3 were partly verified and none turned out to be entirely unfounded; however, one tip had been passed on with its meaning reversed, and the tenth point (impostor syndrome) had not been carried over at all. One of the three statistics Liu used in her essay could not be found as printed in the primary paper. The global picture shows why this kind of advice is still in demand: in the World Economic Forum&rsquo;s 2025 report, 68.8% of the global gender gap is closed and women hold 28.1% of senior leadership roles; according to Women in the Workplace 2025, 31% of entry-level women and 45% of entry-level men at US companies have a sponsor. The CEO move: manage the evidence and your own quarterly decisions, not the advice. The student move: read every attribution at its source and test one single skill each quarter.<\/p>\n<p>This post can be read alongside the <a href=\"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/optionality-as-a-career-strategy\">optionality strategy<\/a>, which treats a career as a portfolio that generates options, and <a href=\"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/direction-setting-without-a-map-navigate-career-change\">direction setting without a map<\/a>, written for periods when the map itself changes. The quarterly checklist below is designed as the three-month little sibling of the <a href=\"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/annual-personal-review-ceo-style-operating-rhythm-template\">CEO-style annual personal review template<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/9-tips-every-woman-should-heed-from-successful-businessperson-deborah-liu\/#Do-these-tips-really-belong-to-Deborah-Liu\" >Do these tips really belong to Deborah Liu?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/9-tips-every-woman-should-heed-from-successful-businessperson-deborah-liu\/#Which-of-the-nine-tips-were-verified\" >Which of the nine tips were verified?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/9-tips-every-woman-should-heed-from-successful-businessperson-deborah-liu\/#What-is-Deborah-Liu-doing-today\" >What is Deborah Liu doing today?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/9-tips-every-woman-should-heed-from-successful-businessperson-deborah-liu\/#What-does-the-data-show-about-womens-careers-in-2025-2026\" >What does the data show about women&rsquo;s careers in 2025-2026?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/9-tips-every-woman-should-heed-from-successful-businessperson-deborah-liu\/#Does-independent-research-support-these-lessons\" >Does independent research support these lessons?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/9-tips-every-woman-should-heed-from-successful-businessperson-deborah-liu\/#How-do-these-lessons-become-a-quarterly-career-operating-system\" >How do these lessons become a quarterly career operating system?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/9-tips-every-woman-should-heed-from-successful-businessperson-deborah-liu\/#Practical-tool-how-does-the-90-day-direct-ask-protocol-work\" >Practical tool: how does the 90-day direct-ask protocol work?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/9-tips-every-woman-should-heed-from-successful-businessperson-deborah-liu\/#What-does-this-post-not-mean\" >What does this post not mean?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-9\" href=\"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/9-tips-every-woman-should-heed-from-successful-businessperson-deborah-liu\/#Why-was-this-post-rewritten\" >Why was this post rewritten?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-10\" href=\"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/9-tips-every-woman-should-heed-from-successful-businessperson-deborah-liu\/#Frequently-asked-questions\" >Frequently asked questions<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-11\" href=\"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/9-tips-every-woman-should-heed-from-successful-businessperson-deborah-liu\/#Sources\" >Sources<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2 id=\"do-these-tips-really-belong-to-deborah-liu\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Do-these-tips-really-belong-to-Deborah-Liu\"><\/span>Do these tips really belong to Deborah Liu?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Yes, but the picture changes when the source is read without an intermediary. The tips come from Liu&rsquo;s essay published under her own byline in Entrepreneur magazine on July 19, 2018. The essay contains 10 points, and at that date the author is introduced as vice president of Marketplace at Facebook. The same headline also appears in the media list on Liu&rsquo;s own site, which means the text is a record she claims as her own.<\/p>\n<p>The 2021 version of this post, by contrast, counted 9 points and cited no source. The comparison revealed three differences:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>One point was dropped.<\/strong> The fourth point of the original essay is about impostor syndrome. It is absent from the 2021 version.<\/li>\n<li><strong>One point was reversed.<\/strong> The original second point says that a harsh piece of feedback may have been delivered because of gender, but that this does not make the feedback any less true. The 2021 version rendered this as &ldquo;that does not make any of it true&rdquo;. The meaning is the exact opposite.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Two statistics were generalized.<\/strong> A ratio Liu wrote about the technology sector was presented in the 2021 version as if it applied to all women.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For that reason, the table below presents the tips by their point number in the primary record and as explanation (paraphrase); the only short quotation is the phrase that determines the meaning of the second point.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"which-of-the-nine-tips-were-verified\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Which-of-the-nine-tips-were-verified\"><\/span>Which of the nine tips were verified?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>#<\/th>\n<th>Tip in the 2021 version of this post<\/th>\n<th>Primary record (Liu, July 19, 2018)<\/th>\n<th>Status<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>1<\/td>\n<td>Confidence is the best thing you can give yourself<\/td>\n<td>Point 1: confidence is a gift a person gives to herself; assignments are handed out because people see potential<\/td>\n<td>Verified<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>2<\/td>\n<td>They may be saying it because you are a woman, but that does not make any of it true<\/td>\n<td>Point 2: that this does not make the feedback any less accurate (&ldquo;doesn&rsquo;t make it any less true&rdquo;); Liu writes that she chose to adapt rather than ignore it<\/td>\n<td>Partly verified (meaning reversed)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>3<\/td>\n<td>Listen to feedback but make the choice yourself<\/td>\n<td>Point 3: listening to feedback and choosing what to change; these choices may shift over time depending on position<\/td>\n<td>Verified<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>4<\/td>\n<td>Guilt and worry drag you down<\/td>\n<td>Point 5: guilt and worry are burdens that pull well-being down; deciding what to do differently next time instead of regretting<\/td>\n<td>Verified<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>5<\/td>\n<td>Seek collaboration, not approval<\/td>\n<td>Point 6: seeking alignment, not approval; the worry about being liked makes impact harder<\/td>\n<td>Verified (translation note: the original concept is &ldquo;alignment&rdquo;)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>6<\/td>\n<td>Stand up to sexist attitudes and change them<\/td>\n<td>Point 7: stereotypes run deep; maternal bias and the decision to share her family openly<\/td>\n<td>Partly verified (the heading and one sentence are not in the original text; statistic discussed below)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>7<\/td>\n<td>You must not give up<\/td>\n<td>Point 8: not giving up; her own attempt to resign and a sponsor stepping in<\/td>\n<td>Partly verified (the ratio was specific to the technology sector and was generalized)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>8<\/td>\n<td>Learn to ask directly<\/td>\n<td>Point 9: asking directly; the question of what the gap is between the current position and the next level<\/td>\n<td>Verified<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>9<\/td>\n<td>Find your own community<\/td>\n<td>Point 10: finding a community; Laszlo Bock&rsquo;s remark on psychological safety<\/td>\n<td>Verified (the Bock remark was verified separately)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><em>CEOtudent analysis: a point-by-point comparison of the 2021 version of this post with Deb Liu&rsquo;s bylined essay of July 19, 2018. Result: 6 verified, 3 partly verified, 0 unverifiable. Point 4 of the original essay (impostor syndrome) was absent from the 2021 version.<\/em><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"what-was-different-in-the-three-partly-verified-points\">What was different in the three partly verified points?<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Point 2 (feedback and gender).<\/strong> In the original text, Liu writes that her first reaction was to set aside anything that would not have been said to a man in the same position, that for years she was told she was not warm and approachable, that she saw two options in front of her (ignore it or adapt), and that she learned to adapt because this perception was holding her back. In other words, the lesson is not &ldquo;label the criticism sexist and reject it&rdquo;; it is &ldquo;even an unfair perception produces consequences, so choose your response&rdquo;. Not everyone has to make the same choice; but if it is going to be attributed to Liu, it has to be conveyed accurately.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Point 6 (stereotypes).<\/strong> The original heading speaks of how deep stereotypes run; the call to &ldquo;change sexist attitudes&rdquo; and the sentence claiming that &ldquo;the myths about women with children are behind us&rdquo; do not appear in the original text. On the contrary, Liu writes that she knows how strong maternal bias is and chose not to hide her family anyway. The two figures she gives here are traced below.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Point 7 (not giving up).<\/strong> Liu writes that women leave technology at twice the rate of men and that only 20 percent of engineering and computer science degrees go to women; she names no source. The 2021 version stretched this across all of working life as &ldquo;women resign more than men&rdquo;. These two ratios could not be found in the sources opened for this post: they are <strong>unverifiable<\/strong> and are not used as data in the new version. The personal part of the point, however, is clear in the primary record: Liu recounts that roughly ten years before 2018, about a year after her son was born, she handed her resignation to a vice president, that a sponsor reached out to her, and that she moved into a part-time role on that sponsor&rsquo;s team.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"where-does-the-79-percent-figure-in-the-essay-come-from\">Where does the &ldquo;79 percent&rdquo; figure in the essay come from?<\/h3>\n<p>Liu writes that signals of motherhood on a resume, such as parent-teacher association membership, reduce the likelihood of being hired by 79 percent and lead to a salary offer that is $11,000 lower. The study behind these figures is most likely the paper by Shelley Correll, Stephen Benard and In Paik published in the American Journal of Sociology in 2007, because the parent-teacher association coordinator wording and the $11,000 figure both appear in that paper. The full text of the paper was opened:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>$11,000 verified.<\/strong> In the laboratory experiment, the starting salary recommended for mothers was $11,000 (7.4%) lower than that recommended for non-mothers.<\/li>\n<li><strong>79 percent not found as printed.<\/strong> The paper reports that participants recommended 84% of non-mother women and 47% of mothers for hire. From these two numbers, non-mothers were recommended roughly 78.7% more often; the likelihood of mothers being recommended, by contrast, is 44.0% lower. The phrase &ldquo;79 percent less&rdquo; reverses the direction of the ratio.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Real employer test.<\/strong> In the second study of the same paper, 1,276 resumes were sent to 638 employers. Childless women received 2.1 times as many callbacks as equally qualified mothers (6.6% versus 3.1%).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The participants in the laboratory experiment were undergraduate students and the study is based on US data; it cannot be carried over directly to today&rsquo;s hiring market.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"what-is-deborah-liu-doing-today\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What-is-Deborah-Liu-doing-today\"><\/span>What is Deborah Liu doing today?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The 2021 version introduced Liu as &ldquo;currently the CEO of Ancestry&rdquo;. That information is out of date. The primary records that could be opened say the following, with their dates:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>July 19, 2018:<\/strong> The byline on the Entrepreneur essay reads vice president of Marketplace at Facebook.<\/li>\n<li><strong>January 15, 2026:<\/strong> In the year-in-review published in her own newsletter, Perspectives, she wrote that at the start of the year she stepped down as CEO of Ancestry after 4 years, spent the year on a break, joined the board of Poshmark, advised founders, worked on her new book and, after an AI coding class, became a founder herself.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Pages opened on October 11, 2026:<\/strong> Her own site introduces her as the former president and CEO of Ancestry, the founder of Women In Product and the author of the book &ldquo;Take Back Your Power&rdquo;; her name is listed as a director on Intuit&rsquo;s board of directors page.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The name of the company she founded and her start date at Ancestry do not appear in the primary records opened for this post, so they are not included here. The claim in the old version that she &ldquo;worked at Facebook for 12 years&rdquo; could not be found in the primary records either and has been removed.<\/p>\n<p>In her January 2026 piece, Liu describes how she had never left a gap between roles and how, for the first time, she stopped tying her identity to a job. This is the hardest application of the CEO lens: managing what remains when the title is gone.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"what-does-the-data-show-about-womens-careers-in-2025-2026\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What-does-the-data-show-about-womens-careers-in-2025-2026\"><\/span>What does the data show about women&rsquo;s careers in 2025-2026?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>To understand why this advice is still sought out, it helps to look at the numbers. The figures below are as printed in the sources.<\/p>\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Indicator<\/th>\n<th>Value<\/th>\n<th>Scope<\/th>\n<th>Source<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Share of the global gender gap closed<\/td>\n<td>68.8%<\/td>\n<td>148 economies, 2025<\/td>\n<td>WEF Global Gender Gap Report 2025<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Share of the economic participation and opportunity gap closed<\/td>\n<td>61.0%<\/td>\n<td>148 economies<\/td>\n<td>WEF 2025<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Share of the political empowerment gap closed<\/td>\n<td>22.9%<\/td>\n<td>148 economies<\/td>\n<td>WEF 2025<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Share of the educational attainment gap closed<\/td>\n<td>95.1%<\/td>\n<td>148 economies<\/td>\n<td>WEF 2025<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Time to full parity at the current pace<\/td>\n<td>123 years<\/td>\n<td>100 economies tracked since 2006<\/td>\n<td>WEF 2025<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Women&rsquo;s share of the workforce<\/td>\n<td>41.2%<\/td>\n<td>LinkedIn dataset, 2024<\/td>\n<td>WEF 2025<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Women&rsquo;s share of senior leadership<\/td>\n<td>25.7% (2015), 28.1% (2024)<\/td>\n<td>LinkedIn dataset<\/td>\n<td>WEF 2025<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Women&rsquo;s share of C-suite roles<\/td>\n<td>29%<\/td>\n<td>US, participating companies, 2025<\/td>\n<td>Women in the Workplace 2025<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Women promoted to manager for every 100 men<\/td>\n<td>93<\/td>\n<td>US, participating companies<\/td>\n<td>Women in the Workplace 2025<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Entry-level employees with a sponsor<\/td>\n<td>Women 31%, men 45%<\/td>\n<td>US, employee survey<\/td>\n<td>Women in the Workplace 2025<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Those who want to be promoted to the next level<\/td>\n<td>Women 80%, men 86%<\/td>\n<td>US, employee survey<\/td>\n<td>Women in the Workplace 2025<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Women&rsquo;s legal rights relative to men&rsquo;s<\/td>\n<td>67%<\/td>\n<td>190 economies<\/td>\n<td>World Bank, Women, Business and the Law 2026<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Presence of the policies and institutions that make laws effective<\/td>\n<td>47%<\/td>\n<td>190 economies<\/td>\n<td>World Bank, WBL 2026<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><em>Sources: World Economic Forum, Global Gender Gap Report 2025; LeanIn.Org and McKinsey &amp; Company, Women in the Workplace 2025 (124 organizations, 9,500 employees; US corporate sector only, based on company participation); World Bank, Women, Business and the Law 2026 summary page. Figures are as printed.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Three gaps calculated from these figures (CEOtudent analysis, calculations reproducible with calc.py):<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Narrowing toward the top.<\/strong> In the same dataset, women&rsquo;s share of the workforce is 41.2% and their share of senior leadership is 28.1%. The difference is 13.1 points. The share in senior leadership rose by only 2.4 points from 2015 to 2024.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The sponsor gap.<\/strong> At entry level there is a 14-point sponsorship difference between men and women in the US. The personal story in Liu&rsquo;s point 8 turns on exactly this: a sponsor who stepped in just as she was about to leave her career.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The distance between law and practice.<\/strong> According to the World Bank, women&rsquo;s legal rights stand at 67% of men&rsquo;s, while the frameworks that would enforce those laws stand at 47%. There are 20 points in between.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The striking finding of Women in the Workplace 2025 is that the 6-point difference in the desire for promotion disappears when women receive the same career support as men. The report reads this not as an individual lack of confidence but as a support gap. That is a good reason not to treat Liu&rsquo;s first point (confidence) as sufficient on its own.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"does-independent-research-support-these-lessons\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Does-independent-research-support-these-lessons\"><\/span>Does independent research support these lessons?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>One executive&rsquo;s experience is not data; set beside peer-reviewed research, it becomes clear which lesson holds up.<\/p>\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Liu&rsquo;s lesson (2018)<\/th>\n<th>Independent research<\/th>\n<th>Finding<\/th>\n<th>Assessment<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Ask directly (point 9)<\/td>\n<td>Kugler et al., 2018, Psychological Bulletin (meta-analysis: 55 effect sizes, 17,504 people)<\/td>\n<td>Women are less likely to initiate negotiations, but the difference is small (g = 0.20) and context-dependent; the difference shrinks as ambiguity decreases<\/td>\n<td>Supports, conditionally<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Ask directly (point 9)<\/td>\n<td>Artz, Goodall and Oswald, 2018, Industrial Relations<\/td>\n<td>Women and men ask for promotions and raises equally often; women receive them less often<\/td>\n<td>Limits the lesson: asking may not be enough<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Ask directly (point 9)<\/td>\n<td>Bowles, Babcock and Lai, 2007<\/td>\n<td>Four experiments: female candidates who initiated negotiations were penalized more than men<\/td>\n<td>Shows the risk: how the ask is made matters<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Everyone experiences impostor syndrome (point 4)<\/td>\n<td>Bravata et al., 2020, Journal of General Internal Medicine (62 studies, 14,161 participants)<\/td>\n<td>Prevalence ranges from 9% to 82% depending on the screening tool; common in both women and men<\/td>\n<td>&ldquo;Common&rdquo; is supported, &ldquo;everyone&rdquo; is not<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Find your community (point 10)<\/td>\n<td>Edmondson, 1999, Administrative Science Quarterly (51 work teams)<\/td>\n<td>Team psychological safety is associated with learning behavior<\/td>\n<td>Supports<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Find your community (point 10)<\/td>\n<td>Frazier et al., 2017, Personnel Psychology (136 independent samples)<\/td>\n<td>Meta-analysis of the antecedents and outcomes of psychological safety<\/td>\n<td>Supports<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Stereotypes run deep (point 7)<\/td>\n<td>Correll, Benard and Paik, 2007, American Journal of Sociology<\/td>\n<td>Salary recommended for mothers $11,000 lower; callback rate 3.1% versus 6.6%<\/td>\n<td>Supports (US, 2007)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Confidence (point 1)<\/td>\n<td>Exley and Kessler, NBER working paper (more than 4,000 participants)<\/td>\n<td>Equally performing women describe themselves less favorably to potential employers<\/td>\n<td>Confirms the problem, does not show the solution<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><em>CEOtudent analysis: a matching of Deb Liu&rsquo;s 2018 points with the abstracts and (for Correll 2007 and for Exley and Kessler) the full texts of the publications named above. The &ldquo;Assessment&rdquo; column is editorial commentary; the studies rest on different countries, periods and samples.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The most important row of the table is the second. The &ldquo;ask directly&rdquo; advice assumes an environment in which asking is rewarded. The finding by Artz and colleagues shows that part of the problem lies not with the person asking but with the one answering. That is why the CEO lens asks two questions together: was the ask made clearly, and does this organization answer clear asks fairly? If the answer to the second is consistently no, the lesson is not &ldquo;ask for more&rdquo; but &ldquo;widen your options&rdquo;. <a href=\"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/reposition-career-ai-era-guide\">Repositioning a career<\/a> offers a decision framework for exactly this situation.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"how-do-these-lessons-become-a-quarterly-career-operating-system\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How-do-these-lessons-become-a-quarterly-career-operating-system\"><\/span>How do these lessons become a quarterly career operating system?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>A company is run on a quarterly rhythm: target, measurement, review. The framework below ties the verified lessons to checkpoints over four quarters. Each row has one CEO decision (ownership) and one student experiment (learning).<\/p>\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Block<\/th>\n<th>Underlying lesson (Liu, 2018)<\/th>\n<th>CEO decision (once per quarter)<\/th>\n<th>Student experiment (throughout the quarter)<\/th>\n<th>End-of-quarter evidence<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>1. Direction<\/td>\n<td>Point 3: you choose what changes<\/td>\n<td>Write a one-sentence answer to &ldquo;What should this quarter make you known for?&rdquo;<\/td>\n<td>Label every piece of feedback received as &ldquo;apply, defer, reject&rdquo;<\/td>\n<td>A labeled feedback list<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>2. The open ask<\/td>\n<td>Point 9: ask directly<\/td>\n<td>Put the question &ldquo;what are the gaps to the next level&rdquo; on the calendar with your manager<\/td>\n<td>Pick one single gap from the answer and run a small project to close it<\/td>\n<td>A written gap list and one closed item<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>3. Relationship capital<\/td>\n<td>Points 8 and 10: sponsor and community<\/td>\n<td>Identify at least one senior person who will advocate for you by name; if there is none, make that an explicit goal<\/td>\n<td>Once a month, share an output that makes your work visible<\/td>\n<td>A sponsor&rsquo;s name, or notes from a conversation with a prospective sponsor<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>4. Signal filtering<\/td>\n<td>Point 2: an unfair perception also produces consequences<\/td>\n<td>Decide on a recurring perception: adapt, change the context or document it<\/td>\n<td>Have the same feedback confirmed by two different people<\/td>\n<td>A decision note and its rationale<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>5. Energy budget<\/td>\n<td>Point 5: let go of guilt and worry<\/td>\n<td>Turn the quarter&rsquo;s one regret into a &ldquo;next time, this is what will be done&rdquo; sentence<\/td>\n<td>Keep a weekly 10-minute &ldquo;lessons learned&rdquo; note<\/td>\n<td>A thirteen-week series of notes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><em>CEOtudent editorial framework. It is not a research finding; it is a working routine derived from Deb Liu&rsquo;s 2018 points and the data above. Deborah Liu did not propose this framework.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The logic of the framework is this: three of the five blocks (the open ask, relationship capital, signal filtering) map to three gaps in the data: the 93-to-100 ratio on the promotion rung, the 14-point sponsor gap and the language differences in performance reviews. The study by Correll and colleagues published in the American Sociological Review in 2020 examines 88 language features in one technology company&rsquo;s review texts and finds that &ldquo;taking charge&rdquo; behavior was associated with the highest ratings for men but not for women. This is why the signal-filtering block exists: not every piece of feedback is data of equal weight.<\/p>\n<p>An example for the student side also comes from Liu: in her January 2026 piece she describes saying yes to learning AI and how a coding class led her to becoming a founder. The student lens does not end with seniority.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"practical-tool-how-does-the-90-day-direct-ask-protocol-work\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Practical-tool-how-does-the-90-day-direct-ask-protocol-work\"><\/span>Practical tool: how does the 90-day direct-ask protocol work?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The scene in Liu&rsquo;s ninth point is instructive: a woman on her team spends 20 minutes without getting to the real question; Liu finally asks whether she is asking if she will be promoted, and suggests that she instead ask about the gaps between her current position and the next level and what it would take to get there. The protocol below structures that question while accounting for the risks the research points to.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Week 1: Preparation<\/strong><br \/>\n&#8211; [ ] Write down the next level you are targeting in a single sentence.<br \/>\n&#8211; [ ] List three concrete outputs from the last two quarters, with their numbers.<br \/>\n&#8211; [ ] Check whether promotion criteria are written down at your organization. If they are, ambiguity is low; according to the meta-analysis by Kugler and colleagues, the gender difference shrinks as ambiguity decreases.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Week 2: The ask<\/strong><br \/>\n&#8211; [ ] Put the meeting on the calendar and announce the topic in advance.<br \/>\n&#8211; [ ] Frame the question as a gap question rather than &ldquo;yes or no&rdquo;: what are the differences between the current position and the target level, and what would it take to close them?<br \/>\n&#8211; [ ] After the meeting, summarize the answer in writing and send it to the other person.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Weeks 3-10: The experiment<\/strong><br \/>\n&#8211; [ ] Pick one single gap from the list.<br \/>\n&#8211; [ ] Take on a visible, measurable piece of work that closes this gap. Pause before volunteering for tasks that contribute little to promotion: the 2017 study by Babcock and colleagues finds that women volunteer for such tasks more often and are asked to do them more often.<br \/>\n&#8211; [ ] Record progress every two weeks in a single paragraph.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Weeks 11-13: Review<\/strong><br \/>\n&#8211; [ ] Go back to the same person: has the gap been closed?<br \/>\n&#8211; [ ] If the answer is negative or unclear, put the same question to a second senior person.<br \/>\n&#8211; [ ] If two quarters in a row bring no clear answer, record that not as a personal shortcoming but as a data point about the organization, and review your options.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Quick self-check (5 questions, each yes or no):<\/strong><br \/>\n1. In the last 90 days, have you seen your promotion criteria in writing?<br \/>\n2. In the last 90 days, have you asked a direct question about the next level?<br \/>\n3. Is there a senior person other than your manager who will speak on your behalf?<br \/>\n4. Of the last three pieces of feedback you received, did you consciously choose which to act on?<br \/>\n5. Do you see yourself in a team or community where it is safe to make mistakes?<\/p>\n<p>Three or more &ldquo;no&rdquo; answers show which block of the quarterly checklist has been left empty. This threshold is an editorial choice; it is not a measured norm.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"what-does-this-post-not-mean\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What-does-this-post-not-mean\"><\/span>What does this post not mean?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The solution does not lie with the individual.<\/strong> Women in the Workplace 2025 defines the gap in sponsorship and manager support as an organizational problem. The World Bank data shows the distance between law and practice. Individual tactics do not remove structural barriers; they only widen a person&rsquo;s own sphere of control.<\/li>\n<li><strong>US figures are not global.<\/strong> Women in the Workplace covers only the US corporate sector, and the report itself notes that the picture at companies that share data may look more positive than reality. The Correll study dates from 2007.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Adapting is not the only right answer.<\/strong> The choice in the second point is Liu&rsquo;s own. In the same situation, changing the environment or documenting what happened are also legitimate decisions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 id=\"why-was-this-post-rewritten\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Why-was-this-post-rewritten\"><\/span>Why was this post rewritten?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The 2021 version was a short translated summary that listed 9 tips without citing a source. The rewrite did the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The primary record was found and opened.<\/strong> The tips were compared point by point with Liu&rsquo;s bylined essay of July 19, 2018. The fact that 8 years have passed means the text has to be read together with its date.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The reversed point was corrected.<\/strong> The second tip was restored to its original meaning.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The missing point was added.<\/strong> The impostor syndrome point is now part of the assessment.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Unverifiable figures were removed.<\/strong> The generalization that &ldquo;women resign more than men&rdquo;, the twice-the-rate departure from technology and the 20 percent share of degrees were not used as data because no source could be found. The &ldquo;79 percent&rdquo; figure was explained by recalculating it from the primary paper.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The Laszlo Bock remark was tied to its source.<\/strong> The remark was found in the transcript of episode 243 of Freakonomics Radio, dated April 20, 2016. The old version had shortened the remark and presented Bock as working at Google at that date; Liu&rsquo;s 2018 text refers to him as Google&rsquo;s former head of people operations.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Her current status was added.<\/strong> The phrase &ldquo;currently the CEO of Ancestry&rdquo; was replaced with dated primary records.<\/li>\n<li><strong>2025-2026 data and the quarterly framework were added;<\/strong> the clickable external link was removed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 id=\"frequently-asked-questions\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Frequently-asked-questions\"><\/span>Frequently asked questions<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><strong>Who is Deborah Liu?<\/strong><br \/>\nAccording to the profile on her own site, she is an executive who has been building products in the technology sector for more than twenty years: she led the PayPal and eBay product integration, created Facebook Marketplace and served as president and CEO of Ancestry. She is the founder of Women In Product and the author of the book &ldquo;Take Back Your Power&rdquo;.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Is Deborah Liu still the CEO of Ancestry?<\/strong><br \/>\nNo. In her own piece dated January 15, 2026, she states that she stepped down as CEO at the start of the year after 4 years. Her own site also introduces her as the former president and CEO.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How many of the nine tips really belong to her?<\/strong><br \/>\nAll nine have a counterpart in her 2018 essay. Six were conveyed faithfully and three were partly verified: one had been passed on with its meaning reversed, and two with additions or generalizations that are not in the original text. The original essay also contains a tenth point that did not appear in the 2021 version.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Is the claim that &ldquo;women resign more than men&rdquo; true?<\/strong><br \/>\nThis generalization is not in the primary record. Liu gives a ratio only for the technology sector and names no source. Because the ratio could not be verified in the sources opened for this post, it was not used.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Does asking directly really work?<\/strong><br \/>\nThe research paints a mixed picture. One meta-analysis finds that women are slightly less likely to initiate negotiations, but that the difference is small and context-dependent. Another study shows that women ask equally often but receive less. Asking is necessary, but not sufficient on its own.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Who made the remark about psychological safety?<\/strong><br \/>\nLaszlo Bock. In episode 243 of Freakonomics Radio, Bock says that the most important attribute of a high-performing team is not who leads it or who is on it, but psychological safety. The academic definition of the concept rests on Amy Edmondson&rsquo;s 1999 paper.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"sources\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Sources\"><\/span>Sources<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li>Deb Liu, &ldquo;10 Pieces of Advice I Wish Every Woman Could Hear&rdquo;, Entrepreneur, July 19, 2018 (the author&rsquo;s own bylined text; primary record).<\/li>\n<li>Deb Liu, &ldquo;Lessons from My Year of Yes&rdquo;, Perspectives newsletter, January 15, 2026 (the author&rsquo;s own text).<\/li>\n<li>Deb Liu official site, home page and profile text, opened on October 11, 2026.<\/li>\n<li>Perspectives newsletter, &ldquo;About&rdquo; page, opened on October 11, 2026.<\/li>\n<li>Intuit, leadership team and board of directors page, opened on October 11, 2026.<\/li>\n<li>Freakonomics Radio, Episode 243, &ldquo;How to Be More Productive&rdquo;, April 20, 2016, episode transcript.<\/li>\n<li>World Economic Forum, Global Gender Gap Report 2025.<\/li>\n<li>LeanIn.Org and McKinsey &amp; Company, Women in the Workplace 2025 (report and key findings page; US corporate sector, industry organization data).<\/li>\n<li>World Bank Group, Women, Business and the Law 2026, project summary page.<\/li>\n<li>Shelley J. Correll, Stephen Benard, In Paik, &ldquo;Getting a Job: Is There a Motherhood Penalty?&rdquo;, American Journal of Sociology, 112(5), 2007 (full text).<\/li>\n<li>Shelley J. Correll et al., &ldquo;Inside the Black Box of Organizational Life: The Gendered Language of Performance Assessment&rdquo;, American Sociological Review, 85(6), 2020 (abstract only).<\/li>\n<li>Katharina G. Kugler et al., &ldquo;Gender Differences in the Initiation of Negotiations: A Meta-Analysis&rdquo;, Psychological Bulletin, 144(2), 2018 (abstract only).<\/li>\n<li>Benjamin Artz, Amanda H. Goodall, Andrew J. Oswald, &ldquo;Do Women Ask?&rdquo;, Industrial Relations, 57(4), 2018 (abstract only).<\/li>\n<li>Hannah Riley Bowles, Linda Babcock, Lei Lai, &ldquo;Social Incentives for Gender Differences in the Propensity to Initiate Negotiations&rdquo;, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 103(1), 2007 (abstract only).<\/li>\n<li>Dena M. Bravata et al., &ldquo;Prevalence, Predictors, and Treatment of Impostor Syndrome: a Systematic Review&rdquo;, Journal of General Internal Medicine, 35(4), 2020 (abstract only).<\/li>\n<li>Amy C. Edmondson, &ldquo;Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams&rdquo;, Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 1999 (abstract only).<\/li>\n<li>M. Lance Frazier et al., &ldquo;Psychological Safety: A Meta-Analytic Review and Extension&rdquo;, Personnel Psychology, 70(1), 2017 (abstract only).<\/li>\n<li>Christine L. Exley, Judd B. Kessler, &ldquo;The Gender Gap in Self-Promotion&rdquo;, NBER Working Paper No. 26345 (full text).<\/li>\n<li>Linda Babcock et al., &ldquo;Gender Differences in Accepting and Receiving Requests for Tasks with Low Promotability&rdquo;, American Economic Review, 107(3), 2017 (abstract only).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><em>Note: The nine-row verification table, the independent research matching table and the three-gap calculation beneath the data table are CEOtudent analysis; the quarterly career operating checklist and the 90-day protocol are the CEOtudent editorial framework. Claims removed from the old version or mentioned only with an &ldquo;unverifiable&rdquo; note: the generalization that &ldquo;women resign more than men&rdquo;, the ratios stating that women leave technology at twice the rate and that 20 percent of degrees go to women, the statement that a motherhood signal reduces hiring by 79 percent (not in the primary paper as printed), the sentence that &ldquo;the myths about women with children are behind us&rdquo;, the claim that Liu worked at Facebook for 12 years and the phrase &ldquo;currently the CEO of Ancestry&rdquo;. Encyclopedia entries were not used as sources.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><em>This content was compiled with the support of AI following in-depth research, then written and prepared for publication by the CEOtudent editorial team.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 9 career tips attributed to Deborah Liu were checked one by one against the 10-point essay published under her own byline on July 19, 2018: 6 were verified, 3 were partly verified, and one point was missing from the 2021 version altogether. According to the World Economic Forum, 68.8% of the global gender gap has been closed, while women&#8217;s share of senior leadership sits at 28.1%. This post turns the verified lessons into a quarterly career operating checklist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":135871,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17214],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-156998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-success"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}