Conference Overview - Lead From Where You Are

Gloria Feldt of Take the Lead presenting a keynote at the conference

I am incredibly lucky to work for a company that has an awesome women's network that holds a conference every year! The 2014 conference was this past Friday, and it was inspirational and informative, as always. There were 1000 attendees - amazing! The theme was "lead from where you are," and there were four keynote talks, one breakout session, and a panel discussion.

Some of my favorite quotes from the conference:

• "We're all leaders every day in the various interactions that we have" Doug Davis
• "Drive actions that result in an important reaction" Doug Davis
• "Make up your mind, continue to learn, practice, seek inputs from other people and take them seriously" CC Liong
• "You have to get out of your comfort zone to really grow" Kelly Benak
• "Lead yourself well first"Kelly Benak
• "Power unused is power useless" Gloria Feldt
• "Don't follow your dream - lead it" Gloria Feldt

The first keynote was by Doug Davis, and it focused on the role of leadership and growing careers. There were several key traits of leadership that were brought up through a panel of women Doug has sponsored, influenced, and been influenced by. From the discussion, good leaders:

• Provide opportunities for others and help them succeed in their challenges
• Clear the path
• Provide support in work and in life
• Are open to other viewpoints
• Stick to their convictions and follow their expertise
• Empower, don't rescue
• Enable, support, adapt, and empower others

The second keynote was by Pat McDonald, who covered many bright spots in human resources and diversity and emphasized accountability, candor, and velocity. One of the ways she suggested creating accountability is clear ownership across the board. She also highlighted the need to step out of your comfort zone when you see an issue and ask for help/expertise as you need it. 

I went to a breakout session about storytelling by Brian Carson. His talk was really interactive and full of great tips for developing talks and presentations! He first pointed out that we are all natural born storytellers, we just have to practice and look for the story in our work. He gave us a few exercises - tell the story of your name to the person next to you and Ignite karaoke (Ignite Phoenix is an event where passionate people share their stories and ideas through 5 minute, 20 slide talks) - to practice telling stories and prove that we're all storytellers. Carson pointed out that stories are important in presentations because they engage both the left (analytical) and right (emotional) sides of the brain and help you connect better with your audience. He suggests using stories when you need someone "to believe something is true, take action or make a decision, or remember something". He also presented "four ideas worth sharing" about presenting: the talk is about the idea, not you or your work; use your unique point of view and authenticity in a presentation; share intimate stories from your perspective - tell the audience what happened, not what you think they want to hear; remember that you are not the hero, the audience is the hero. There are also ten TED Commandments that are excellent guidelines for speaking. Carson next went over tips for giving a strategy talk: be realistic about the current landscape, be candid about the problem, explain what the response will be to the problem and how the response is going, and end with a vote of confidence - why do you believe that this is the right strategy? Finally, Carson presented four measures of a successful talk: a successful talk is provocative, candid and authentic, clear to the audience, and inspires confidence.

We then had a great networking lunch where I met some awesome colleagues, and after that there was a panel discussion where we got to hear from four talented fellow employees: Kelly Benak, CC Liong, Indira Negi, and CJ Boston, facilitated by the equally talented Heather Mattisson. Some of the main themes from the discussion were:

• When working with or leading a team, allow people to have their own scope and creativity
• For your own career development, make a goal in advance (possibly years ahead), let people (managers, sponsors, mentors) know what your goal is, start building the skills you'll need, observe people currently in the position you want to be in and learn from them, and practice what you learn
• When trying to influence others, clearly articulate your problem statement (and have data to support it), align the benefits of your proposal to their interests, think through the negative impacts and come up with mitigation strategies, put in the time, work hard, and be persistent 
• Best Advice: get a mentor that you can freely express your goals and desires to and receive feedback from; find a sponsor who can speak for you and position you for the future; take care of people, continue to learn, and be sincere; bring a genuine person rather than a mouthpiece to tough discussions; stay true to who you are and what you believe in

Next, Gloria Feldt gave a thought-provoking talk about women in the workplace. She pointed out some stark statistics, including: women make up 49% of the workforce but only 18% of the top leadership positions and women value their own work 19% less than they value the work of others. She pointed out that the structures we have in the workplace were designed by men, for men, so we need to work on redefining some of those structures in order to create a more equal environment. Feldt also emphasized the fact that there are both internal and external barriers to overcome in the quest for leadership parity. She encouraged us to embrace the power we already have and highlighted the difference between power over and power to. Feldt ended her talk by telling us what we can do with our power to: mentor, sponsor, refer others; lift other women to leadership positions; speak up, raise your hand, ask. 

The final talk was by Rani Borkar, who presented three life lessons through compelling stories in both individual and organizational frameworks. The first life lesson is "don't get stuck in the victim mentality." This mentality causes you to blame everyone else and doesn't enable you to do anything, so it's better to take responsibility and take control of the situation so that you can move forward. The second life lesson is "be true to yourself and stand up for it" - take a stand and be persistent. The third life lesson is "continuously learn and improve to stay relevant and grow" - get out of your comfort zone and continuously adapt. Borkar ended her talk by passing on the power to the audience, she told us that we have the power - we should make our own reflections, write down our own life lessons, and refer to them often, especially when we're having a tough time. 

The leadership conference was a wonderful experience, and I am really thankful for the advice I received and lessons I learned by attending it. 

Review: Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi

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Never Eat Alone and Other Secrets to Success One Relationship at a Time by Keith Ferrazzi with Tahl Raz is all about networking and how to successfully build relationships and maintain connections. It contains a ton of great information and tips and was another great recommendation from one of my mentors. 

The book is divided into four sections and details techniques on how to find people to meet, how to connect with them, and how to build relationships. Each section contains profiles of some very successful connectors who demonstrate the techniques in action - Bill Clinton, Paul Revere, the Dalai Lama, and Eleanor Roosevelt, to name a few. Throughout the book, Ferrazzi inserts anecdotes and examples from his own life on how the presented techniques have made him successful and a master relationship builder.

The first section provides an overview of the importance of relationships to your success and details the initial steps to building your network. Ferrazzi emphasizes that generosity is key and that you should ask what you can do for others and give before you receive in order to create meaningful relationships in which you have mutually beneficial connections. He also lays out a system of goal setting in order to provide a direction and differentiate yourself from others. The system involves finding your passions and your dream; creating a "Relationship Action Plan" (Page 30); and forming a group of people who can support you, provide guidance, and keep you accountable. Finally, he says, "you're only as good as what your give away" (Page 59), and stresses that you should be respectful to everyone, transparent, and not too efficient in your quest to build a network.

The second, and largest, section of the book dives into the skills you need to be a successful networker. First, you need to know who you want to meet. Once you have established your action plan and goals, you can find people that align with your aspirations and put them on your list of people to meet. Ferrazzi recommends looking at rankings of people in magazines and newspapers to find people to add to your list. You can also make a list of "aspirational contacts" (Page 77): high-level, successful, and interesting people you would like to meet someday. Now that you have your list, it's time to research those people and find out their interests, accomplishments, and passions so that you have something to talk about with them and maybe some ideas of ways you could help them. Ferrazzi dedicates a whole chapter to how to make a successful cold call to a person you want to meet but don't yet know; it includes some really useful tips about bringing value and how to suggest a potential meeting. Another chapter details how to become a "conference commando" (Page 110): help the organizer, be a speaker, know where to find a good restaurant, make deep connections and secure follow-ups, and make sure you actually follow-up and do so quickly, to name a few of the tips in this information-filled chapter. Once you've established some connections with people, you need to maintain those relationships, and Ferrazzi emphasizes the importance of following-up within 12 to 24 hours of meeting someone and then keeping up that communication every month by providing relevant and helpful information to the members of your network. Another way of meeting people that Ferrazzi suggests is to connect with "super-connectors" (Page 128), these are people who know a lot of other people: restauranteurs, lobbyists, headhunters, politicians, PR people, and journalists. If you have a positive, supportive, and mutually beneficial relationship with these "super-connectors," then you will have access to their extensive networks as well. You can also connect your network with someone else's by jointly hosting events, such as a dinner party. In doing so, you are expanding everyone's circle; however, Ferrazzi notes that mutual benefit and trust are key in hosting joint events and sharing networks. The second section closes with a chapter on how to master small talk with tips such as making positive nonverbal cues, being sincere and having something interesting to talk about, making the other person feel special and valuable, listening and seeking to understand, and securing another meeting before making a graceful exit.

The third section covers techniques on how to gain loyalty and deepen your connections. Overall, Ferrazzi says that loyal and deep connections come from helping others realize their desires, recognizing their importance, making others successful, and helping to solve a problem related to someone's health, wealth, or children. He suggests that when someone mentions a problem, you should start thinking of a solution - don't wait to be asked, connect them with someone who can help or share knowledge or a book that provides insight. You should know people from as many different areas as possible and then connect them to one another and share your knowledge, connections, and generosity (sounds familiar, no? A lot like Love is the Killer App). Ferrazzi reminds us to  to deepen and maintain our connections by regularly contacting and sending relevant articles and information to the people in our network. The final chapter in this section covers the art of a good dinner party and how to bring people from within and outside your network together over a meal - it's incredibly useful and has many good suggestions on how to set the stage and who to invite.

The last section of Never Eat Alone provides guidance for developing and broadcasting your personal brand as well as suggestions on how to gain visibility and expertise. Ferrazzi lays out tips for becoming an expert, including staying on the cutting edge of information and technology and developing a niche for yourself and your knowledge. He also suggests becoming a "content creator" (Page 212) by developing your own unique views and ideas and spreading them to others through speaking, writing, and teaching. From there, he highlights ways to create and share your brand: what is it that you do that adds value? What is your distinct identity, compelling message, and attraction for others? You can develop your personal branding message by identifying your uniqueness, words you want people to associate with you, and your passions and skills. Ferrazzi recommends you think about how you want to be seen by others. He then provides tips on how to broadcast your brand through local papers and alumni publications and by building relationships with journalists. The last few chapters of this section cover more ways to gain visibility and support your network. First, Ferrazzi suggests writing articles, which will also broadcast your expertise and expand your network. Second, he recommends joining organizations related to your interests and goals and becoming a leader in those organizations. If an organization that aligns with your desires doesn't exist, start one - then you will automatically be a leader and can expand your network and visibility by growing the organization. Finally, he places great emphasis on mentoring, both finding mentors at all levels and looking for mentees. 

Never Eat Alone is a powerful guide to networking, filled with valuable tips and techniques on all aspects of building, developing, and maintaining a vast network that will lead you and others to success. The book emphasizes the importance of getting involved, putting your entire self into networking, being generous and vulnerable in your relationships, and developing yourself and others through your connections. It contains relatable personal stories from Ferrazzi's own experience that highlight the value of the techniques suggested throughout the sections. Although many of Ferrazzi's stories and suggestions are quite bold, I would highly recommend Never Eat Alone to anyone who is interested in learning more about how to network and how to successfully develop mutually beneficial, long-term relationships. 

Have you read Never Eat Alone? What are your thoughts on networking?

Ferrazzi, Keith, and Tahl Raz. Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Succes, One Relationship at a Time. New York: Currency Doubleday, 2005. Print.

The Take the Lead Circle takes on Networking

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Take the Lead is a unique organization that is bringing together women from all industries to support one another and make the push for equal pay and equal leadership positions. From the Take the Lead website, the organization's mission statement is:

"TAKE THE LEAD prepares, develops, inspires and propels women to take their fair and equal share of leadership positions across all sectors by 2025. It’s today’s women’s movement — a unique catalyst for women to embrace power and reach leadership parity."

After the Take the Lead Launch Event on February 19 of this year, a Take the Lead Circle developed on Mightybell as a place for women to connect and support one another in the Take the Lead mission. 

Kaitlin Rattigan is a Community Builder for Take the Lead and the facilitator of the Take the Lead Circle. She and I recently led a Circle Chat on networking, and we had a dynamic discussion that I'd love to share. We posed four different question on networking throughout the chat and elaborated on each as a group. 

For the first question we discussed the things that make us uncomfortable about networking and how we can overcome those feelings. Several discomforts came up including, finding it hard to talk about your expertise, feeling like you don't qualify, dealing with people who are aloof, not knowing the subject area or how to initiate or insert yourself into a conversation, and being unsure of how to end a conversation and connect later. 

To initiate an interaction, we discussed a few tips:

• Wear a statement item like a brooch or jewelry to make yourself stand out and give others a conversation starter
• Ask for help - ask someone where to find something or for helping picking up something you dropped and then initiate a conversation after getting assistance
• If the event has a theme, use it as part of your introduction or as a conversation starter with someone 

To become involved in an ongoing conversation, we had some great ideas:

• Positive body language - smile, lean in, nod your head, make eye contact, keep your body open and engaged (don't cross your arms)
• Stand on the periphery of the conversation and get the gist of it and then jump in and say "are you all talking about [blank]" along with a comment about the topic
• Know that nearly everyone feels awkward networking and joining in on conversations –just embrace the awkward

To extract yourself from a conversation gracefully, we came up with some techniques:

• Bring someone else into the conversation and make the introduction, then let the conversation start up again and slowly make your way out
• Say "It's so good to meet you, but since this is a networking event, I'd like to talk to some more people" and make a plan to follow-up with them after the event
• Ask "What's the best way to keep in touch with you?" and jot it down on the back of their business card then make a commitment to get in touch
• If all else fails, you can always use the restroom excuse

Our second question was about building your network, and we asked where people go to meet others and network. We found that there are a huge number and variety of places to network: meetup groups, panel discussions, eventbrite, conferences (better yet, volunteering at conferences), community organizations, volunteer events, and professional associations. We also discussed happy hours and had a mixed reaction about whether these were good or bad places to network. Generally we agreed that happy hours are positive for networking if you know the community attending or if it's with colleagues or a small group of professionals. 

The third question involved maintaining your network. How do you keep up with your connections and where do you store all of their contact information? We all use different ways to store information about the people in our network: Outlook, Evernote, Google Docs, LinkedIn, plastic file folders for business cards. There are also many ways to keep in touch with people, especially with social media. We discussed using Twitter to retweet or mention someone, Facebook to send a quick hello or like, and LinkedIn to keep up with professional updates and congratulate on job changes/promotions. In keeping in touch, we emphasized the importance of adding value to our contacts - sending a useful article, passing on a book that might help them, inviting to an event, and connecting them to other people in our network. The key is making it about your contact and what they need or what might help them rather than making it all about you. We also learned about a free app called CamCard, which you can use to scan business cards and import contact information without having to type it in yourself! 

For our final question, we discussed preparing for conferences and networking events. We got a ton of great tips from this question, and I plan to use them all in preparing for an upcoming conference I'm attending:

• Prepare your elevator speech and your answer to "What do you do?"
• Look up the speakers and find out their organization, business needs, and what they care about so you’re prepared to engage with them
• Figure out who else might be attending so you can prepare for conversations
• Ask the organizer for a list of attendees
• Ask people you already know if they are attending and if they can connect you with others at the event; organize a "mixer" style event within the conference
• Reach out to people before the event with a message that says "I'm looking forward to meeting you" 
• Get in a good mood and pump yourself up; make a decision to connect with others
• Set goals…
• To meet a certain number of people or specific individuals
• To network with a purpose
• Prepare an outfit that includes something interesting or a statement piece

Overall, for networking, it’s important to keep a positive attitude and enjoy the event, find mutual interest so that you’re actually networking and making good connections, and be open to talking to anyone.

So there you have it! Our key learnings and discussion points from our Circle Chat on networking. What are your thoughts on networking and our discussion?

Want to get involved? Join the Take the Lead Circle and connect with us!

Life as a Young Professional in the Supply Chain

Jennifer Schilling, Operations Research Engineer. Eternal Optimist. Data and Analytics Lover. Happiness Hoarder. People Connector. Knowledge Collector.

As I worked towards my Bachelor's degree in Applied Math with a minor in Computer Science and even as I completed my Master's in Computational Operations Research, I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do when I graduated. Every summer I held a different internship position, and through those experiences I had the opportunity to explore work in a variety of environments and fields - at a university-affiliated research lab, a large government agency, and a large multi-national corporation; in the areas of space science, computer and network security, defense department research, food security, and supply chain. Last week marked the completion of my first year of full-time employment at the company with which I had my final internship, and I'm happy to say I've found work that is fulfilling, challenging, and interesting.

I work as an Operations Research Engineer in the supply chain. Every day I get to help others in my organization better understand and use their data by providing them with models and analytics to make the supply chain run more optimally and efficiently. Supply chain is a field that I'd never even thought about before I had my internship in summer 2012, but it's now a field that I find fascinating. The supply chain is an absolutely vital part of any business, and I love learning about logistics, transportation, procurement, and manufacturing. In my early career, I have developed a great interest in business, supply chain, and analytics.

As a woman in the business world and the engineering world, I am excited for the many opportunities that lie ahead. It is inspiring to see such a focus on women in business with movements such as Lean In, Take the Lead, and Levo League. There are so many tools out there specifically for young women professionals to help with career development and guidance! Especially since I fell into the business world after experiencing university and government funded research work, I feel very fortunate to have so many easily accessible resources for guidance in navigating the business environment. In addition to online communities and resources, I've also actively sought out female mentors at my company, both formally and informally. As a young professional, I make everyone I meet a "mentor" in the sense that I try to learn from them and gain something from their experience. Every person I meet has something to teach me, and I try to keep that in mind during my day-to-day tasks and routines. Constantly learning from those around me is something I plan to keep in mind even as I move beyond the "young professional" status.

Are you a young professional? What has your experience been like? What tips do you have for others?

Review: Love is the Killer App by Tim Sanders

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Love is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends by Tim Sanders was recommended to me by a friend and mentor as a resource on networking. In this book, Sanders lays out a detailed guide on how to become a "lovecat". A lovecat is someone who freely shares his or her knowledge, network, and compassion with others. In each section of the book, Sanders clearly explains how to develop, convey, and dispense each of these three intangibles that are he argues are the keys to business relationships and success. 

By knowledge, Sanders means "everything you have learned and everything you continue to learn" (Page 13). In the book, Sanders mentions over 25 different books that he's read and shared with others. He advocates reading as much as you can and really internalizing the messages of the books you read. He provides several tips for finding books to read (ask people, look for key words that apply to your job or interests, look at book lists in business magazines, try different topics every now and then), processing the message (be an active reader and make notes as you read, review previous sections as you go, summarize the overall message, take the time to look back over your notes), and applying your knowledge (share it with others, listen for people's problems and think about what book you might be able to "prescribe" (Page 102) that could help them, think about specific people who might benefit from a book you've read, think back to situations in which a book you've read could have been applied, send someone a copy of a book you've recommended and ask for their feedback/opinion). "The ability to transfer knowledge is a huge advantage...to succeed in the new economy" (Page 110).

Your network is "your entire web of relationships" (Page 15), and Sanders lays out a systematic way to build and connect your network. Before you start collecting names, you must devise a system to organize and store your contacts. Sanders recommends a few different software solutions for storing contact information and also suggests adding a notes section to each contact in which you can store previous discussion topics and key bits of information. He recommends creating categories of different people within your organized system. To maintain this system Sanders reminds us that you must diligently add in the information of people you meet and keep up with them (follow-up). After collecting your contacts and putting them into an easily accessible system, you can start to connect them to each other - this is the sharing part. To share you contacts and connect them to one another Sanders lays out three steps. First, you should listen for what people need and what they have to offer, then you can align your contacts. Second, be an active participant in the connection, set up the introduction and sell your contact to the person you're connecting them with. Finally, only remain active in the relationship until it can survive alone - don't ask for anything in return for setting up the connection; simply set it up, make sure everyone has what they need and then bow out. Sanders closes his section on networking by reminding the reader of "Metcalf's Law: The value of a network grows in proportion to the square of the number of users, which means that once a network achieves a certain size, it becomes almost irresistibly attractive" (Page 143). 

The final focus of Sanders book is compassion: "the human ability to reach out with warmth" (Page 17). In this section, Sanders first lays out the many benefits of compassion in business: you can make a difference, it leads to better experiences, people will remember you, it creates commitment and can buy forgiveness, and it creates long relationships. He then details a two-part process for building and sharing your compassion: sensing and expressing. Sensing involves observing others' behavior and being aware of when it's appropriate to bring in compassion. Expressing is sharing your compassion through eye contact, smiling, encouragement and warm words, and hugging (which Sanders does impress takes time and great attention to get right - he definitely doesn't advocate hugging everyone right away). Sanders' final part of the compassion section details the insertion points for compassion, specifically in salutations, conversations and short encounters. In all of these, he recommends sharing your desire to help the other person in their success and focusing on and committing to the happiness of and benefits to the other person. He also suggests saying the other person's name and really listening to what they have to say. Sanders highlights the fact that rejection will occur when extending your compassion but that the most important thing is to self-evaluate those situations and learn from them for next time. "When you show compassion, you help others become more compassionate; your help them be the best they can be" (Page 193).

Sanders' book has given me great insight into developing my own business presence and value. His guidance and practical tips are easily applicable and something you can act on immediately. It takes time to build up a knowledge library, but Sanders provides an extensive list of books to read and explore along with practical advice on how to get the most from your study. I appreciated his networking suggestions, and linked with compassion and knowledge, they provide a powerful set of principles from which anyone can become a "lovecat" and reap the rewards of sharing with others and developing professionally along the way. Through implementation of Sanders' "lovecat" principles, you can become a valued source of information, gain influence and add value to those around you, and share your generosity with others.  In the afterword, Sanders mentions a phrase he responds with when asked about success: "Nice, smart people succeed" (Page 195); this message definitely resonated with me as I read the book.

Have you read Love is the Killer App? What did you think?

Sanders, Tim. Love Is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends. New York: Crown Business, 2002. Print.