“You’re too accessible.”
That’s what Susan Zirinsky, the new head of CBS News, was told early in her career — because she was seemingly everywhere at once.
Eighteen years later, Ms. Zirinsky — known to many as “Z” — ispresident of CBS News, brought in to run the news division following a massive company crisis over sexual misconduct that included the firing of the company’s chief executive, Les Moonves, and Mr. Rose. She is the first woman to hold that job. Ms. Yang is a business executive at The New York Times, who said she now makes a point of making herself accessible, too.
For a long time, women were taught to “act like men” to get ahead at work. They donned shoulder pads and boxy suits, played by the rules, and acted out qualities that seemed to make for successful leaders — authority, decisiveness, not being “too accessible.”