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What Makes a Leader? Raised by a single mother in a New York City housing project, Ursula Burns credits education and hard work for her rise from summer engineering intern to CEO of Xerox Corporation (Bettex, 2010). Forbes now rates Burns among the most powerful women in the world. Burns includes being authentic as one of her key recommendations for successful leadership. She is known for speaking her mind, whether that means questioning a company’s culture or advocating her “pragmatic” approach to work-life balance (Peck, 2011).
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