Edition No 96. Challenge to Change.
The WIE Suite
A membership community for women leaders and culture creators (we're hiring)
Dear Women Who Do,
We're all too experienced to not have faced challenges in our lives and careers: financial, health, emotional. And, while we cannot prevent catastrophes, we can choose how to respond to them.
This week we introduce you to Kaitlin Christine who overcame cancer and started Gabbi and to Devika Mathrani who has helped brands overcome moments of reputation crisis. And, in each case, these leaders spoke to the need for community: strong people who have been through what you've been through. That's why we are also sharing ideas on mentorship and sponsorship.
Together we can overcome anything and learn to take our challenges and make them into moments of change.
WIE Suite Woman
KAITLIN CHRISTINE, CEO OF GABBI, ON HAVING CANCER AND SURVIVING
Kaitlin Christine is a breast cancer survivor, ovarian cancer previvor and the CEO & Founder at Gabbi .?
How does running a business fueled by your own challenges and experiences impact you? Is it harder or easier?
It makes it easier because you so passionately believe in the problem you are solving and most intimately understand why you are uniquely equipped to solve it. Which means no one will have passion like you, and that attracts everything from employees to investors. It also means when the shit hits the fan, you constantly come back to your “why.”
And the shit hits the fan… a lot, but at the end of the day, I am not doing this to make money or for notoriety, what keeps me going is my mom. Your sister who was diagnosed with late stage breast cancer. My employee’s grandmother who was diagnosed with late stage breast cancer.
It is harder because you are so passionate about the problem that you work harder and longer than anyone else and get burnt out frequently. And when you fail or make mistakes, it can hit harder than just a “job.”
Move the Needle
FEMALE MENTORSHIP: HOW TO MENTOR OTHER WOMEN
While nearly every professional we spoke with was most enthusiastic about what they described as “organic” mentor relationships, they also acknowledged the value of formalized mentor programs and connections. Particularly in these cases of more structured mentorships, it can be useful to structure your interactions.
Mentors also have the opportunity to act as sponsors, yet this is more rare in female mentor relationships than male. While 59% of women sponsors believe in their protege’s leadership potential (as compared to 50% of male sponsors), only 24% advocate for their protege’s promotion, compared to 30% of men.
领英推荐
Masterclass Moment
DEVIKA MATHRANI ON THE NEW RULES OF REPUTATION MANAGEMENT
Devika Mathrani is the Chief Marketing & Communications Officer for NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, where she is responsible for the development and implementation of advertising, marketing, public relations, print, broadcast, media and social media strategies.??
It takes years, truly years, to build and maintain a strong and healthy and purposeful reputation, but you can truly destroy it in just a moment. That creates a loss of trust. Without trust, there is no transaction.
There is the modern generation of consumers today that are saying, if I don't trust a brand, I am just not going to buy something from them. I might love the product that they're offering, but I am not giving them my money.
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