She Runs It: Mastering Leadership, April 6th

What does it take to become a leader? Who do you turn to when you want advice? How do you keep up to speed on leadership skills? Do you have inspiring leaders around you to learn from?

I have been a member of She Runs It (formerly Advertising Women of New York) for the past 6 years. They have been an incredible guiding path for my career being surrounded by passionate, brilliant minds empowering women to become confident leaders. It is a supportive community I turn to for learning leadership skills through various opportunities including attending events, mentorship program, and getting involved in committees.

Recently, I attended their first Mastering Leadership event and absolutely loved it to learn from leaders sharing their stories, discussing topics on accelerating the path to leadership for women and enhancing your personal brand as well as intensive workshops to improve leadership skills.

Here are takeaways to share from my tweets during the half-day workshop below.

• Own who you are and be authentic. It will drive your confidence to be yourself. @lindayacc
• If you feel like you are not your whole self, you are probably not in the right place. @KimKelleher2
• @Derella shares that @Twitter has 5-month maternity and paternity leave. And achieved their D&I goals with continued progress.
• Great reminders from @KimKelleher2: Compromise, Keep Moving Forward, Keep Prioritizing, Take Time to Reflect
• @lindayacc says Empowerment, Curiosity & Education will help you accelerate and be brave.
• @lindayacc says to embrace the progress we have now and pay it forward to help others and make the future better.
• @KimKelleher2 says everyone should be more accountable to make changes for the future when it comes to female leadership

After the C-Suite panel, we dived into a 'Share & Compare' workshop with great questions that I want to keep and repeat with others in the near future. Take a shot at trying it out yourself with friends or colleagues for the below questions.

• Introduction: Where did you grow up, and where do you live now? Share 1 thing that is pure joy for you in your work or personal life.
• Turning Point: Describe a turning point that was meaningful to you in your career. What helped you turn this corner?
• Improvements: What is 1 thing you would like to change about your workplace OR 1 thing you have already changed - to make things better/more rewarding for yourself and other women?
• Synthesize: Choose 1 NEEDED workplace change and 1 ACHIEVED workplace change to describe

When you write your Twitter bio, be concise and creative. @mishkin shared great @Twitter profile examples ft creative @ThamKhaiMeng marketer @ajlucio5 & designer @jojobickley (I tweeted this live to them and they thanked me for sharing. They did not know they were featured in this presentation. Gotta love Twitter to be able to share so fast in real time)

These are great examples of how to use Twitter. I did not even realize that I was doing all this already through Twitter. This was a reminder for being more intentional about it as my Twitter profile reflects my personal brand.

In addition to Nina Mishkin at Twitter, Ife Babatunde at LinkedIn shared best practices for how to use LinkedIn to improve your personal brand. Below is showcasing Cindy Gallop with a rock star profile (absolutely agree!) and she has a professional headshot, creative headline, and compelling summary.

LinkedIn Key Takeaways:

1. Upload your profile to best represent your professional brand
2. Take 10 minutes to review and update your privacy settings
3. Grow your network and connect with everyone you meet today
4. Follow clients, companies, and competitors to stay informed
5. Write and position yourself as a thought leader on LinkedIn

The reason I am sharing this experience with you is to pass on the valuable learnings from this fantastic event. I hope whoever reading this will take action to pay it forward by empowering yourself and others to become better leaders. We need more authentic leaders in the world we live in to truly create positive impacts and changes for our future.

"Leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others." -John Maxwell