A few personal reflections from Women's History Month

As Women’s History Month draws to a close, I thought back to a panel I had been invited to speak on last year on women in business leadership. While the panel unfortunately had to be canceled last minute, I revisited some of the points I planned to raise and wanted to share a few of these personal experiences and perspectives with this community.

What skills or values have influenced my leadership style: Authenticity and self-awareness – it’s important to first, know what your unique and natural strengths and talents are, and second, be able to communicate or publicize them. I revisit this question regularly because it tends to change with time and circumstances. Currently, a skill that I am proud of is my ability to facilitate a highly productive meeting – from getting the right people in the room, setting a clear objective, steering the conversation so everyone feels heard (especially important in hybrid settings), and reaching a consensus at the end. What is one of yours??

What factors can impact women in leadership: There are many external factors that women have to navigate, but I have found the self-inflicted pressure and false expectations we put on ourselves to be the most crippling. In truth, it’s highly unlikely that women can have it all, in every aspect of their lives, at all times. I have learned to give myself grace and get comfortable asking myself ‘what can give’ when I have a new goal or challenge in front of me. In some seasons, ‘what can give’ has been the late night work hours or hyper-responsive expectations that I’ve set because I’ve wanted to prioritize showing up at home for my husband and young kids or take time to care for my own physical or mental health. It’s forced me to learn to prioritize my time and energy better during the work day and to set clear expectations of what can feasibly be done in a required time frame. ?

What advice do you have for aspiring leaders: In addition to knowing and vocalizing your strengths, know what motivates you and makes you feel satisfied in your daily work, and make sure your peers, managers, and stakeholders know it too. Opportunities can arise when people know what you’re after. I’ll never forget when I was a relatively junior manager and our CEO at the time showed up at my office door to tell me that he’d been hearing about my work and how valuable it had been to the partners I supported. From that moment, I knew recognition and acknowledgment were important to me, and I always try to amplify my team’s wins and successes with leadership.

What role have mentors played in your development: While I haven’t had formal mentor relationships per se, I have had many champions who continue to teach, push, and support me. This has been one of the most critical aspects of my career progression to date. Think beyond your direct manager or immediate team - who else do you bring value to in your daily work and how can you utilize their support to progress and develop? As my role has expanded, I’ve purposely sought out opportunities to develop champions in new areas, sometimes intentionally seeking out areas where I had the least experience and most to learn or where I knew there were skeptics I could work to convert into believers of the value that my team and I can provide.

As someone who has benefited and learned from strong women leaders throughout my career, and continues to do so, I’m always happy to be a resource and champion for women in my professional community. Let’s make April the month where the rubber meets the road and we implement all of the great ideas and make use of the connections that surfaced from the women-led conversations of the past month.

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