The greatest opportunity one can receive is being given the honor of service to your community. I am proud to be in the role of Chief Executive Officer of the National Women’s Council (NWC), a non-profit organization, dedicated to developing and empowering women of all backgrounds, classes, and ages. The NWC was founded with a vision to be the premier organization for women’s equality. It is my goal to promote economic, political, and workplace equality. The NWC serves to advocate, empower and educate with an eye towards future viability. The workplace environment today is constantly changing.
When was the last time you learned something new about yourself? For me, it's almost every day. A little thing or two, here and there. But a big thing happened recently. You see, I’m no cook. Being single most of my life — and not really having a keen interest to learn how to cook — I primarily make simple meals. This past summer, a friend offered to teach me to cook a whole chicken. I readily took her up on her offer. I like to be shown things, by a live person, when I’m learning something new. Well, we set up a day that got rescheduled – and got rescheduled again….. and again. So, the chicken went into the freezer. Recently, a different friend and I decided to cook a meal together and I offered for us to have that chicken. She offered to help me and I readily said yes.
No, thank you. You're not a fit for our current needs. Thank you for applying, but we have no position available. I received probably a hundred or so of these responses in the fall of my second year of law school. I selected a few markets for my employment search and those markets weren’t particularly interested in having me. After traveling to the Dallas/Fort Worth area, I earned a clerkship at a firm I didn’t know in a city I had never lived. It was one of the first times professional failure set me up for extraordinary opportunity. In the four and a half years at that law firm, I tried numerous small cases my first year of practice, found a new specialty practice area in my second year, and was elected to lead the young lawyers association in my third year. I met with another “failure” on a professional and personal level, but it opened a door to a tremendous career opportunity in Houston, Texas where I met the love of my life with whom I now have four year old triplets. These days, because I’ve written a book, I find myself speaking about leadership and often have women come up to me and say, “You’re amazing, I don’t know how you do it all.” That’s because they’ve only heard my one minute autobiography.
March 27, 2015 Ohio Women in Leadership Symposium (Cleveland)
March 26, 2015 Ohio Women in Leadership Symposium (Toledo)
March 26, 2015 National Women's Council Quarterly Breakfast
March 26, 2015 Quarterly Women's Breakfast (Houston, Texas)
March 26, 2015 Washington Most Powerful and Influential Women Breakfast (Seattle)
March 26, 2015 Alabama Women in Leadership Symposium
March 24, 2015 Greater Boston Women in Leadership Symposium
March 19, 2015 Ohio Women in Leadership Symposium (Dayton)
March 18, 2015 CA Women in Leadership Symposium (San Diego)
March 12, 2015 CA Women in Leadership Symposium (Los Angeles)
March 11, 2015 CA Women in Leadership Symposium (Silicon Valley)
March 10, 2015 CA Women in Leadership Symposium (San Francisco)
March 10, 2015 CA Women in Leadership Symposium (Orange County)
March 4, 2015 AZ Women in Leadership Symposium (Phoenix)
Half-truths, misconceptions, and missteps. When it comes to leading, managers often succumb to them and companies perpetuate them. The half-truths are that leadership is about getting things done and delivering results. The misconception is that like the great athletic coaches, the leader devises the game plan, drills it into the team, and holds people accountable for execution. The full truth is that leadership is about getting things done and delivering results by enabling others to be their best. A more appropriate image of coaching may come not from the ball field but from the classroom – those great teachers we’ve all had in grade school: they see the promise in each student, envision the oak that acorn could become, convey and uphold those high expectations, and figure out how to engage each student to grow – to figure things out on his/her own.
Have you heard the myth of the “supermom”? She can leap tall buildings in a single bound, with her child strapped to her body in a baby carrier, her briefcase in one hand, and her smartphone in the other — she can bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan, all while sending emails, checking homework, and washing dishes! Who has that much time?! Yet, as working parents, we expect to be able to accomplish all this and so much more. Instead of trying to be superheroes, working parents should implement effective time management techniques, so we can maximize our time both at work and at home. Here are some tips to help us effectively manage our time as working parents.
Given that it’s Women’s History Month and coming off the heels of Black History Month, we have been blessed to read, watch, learn and hear about the stories of how diverse people have made significant differences in our country – often creating a better world in which others are able to benefit. We might have heard about Toni Morrison, the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature – inspiring other women to tell their and others’ stories; or Dr. Antonia Novello, the first woman Surgeon General (and the first Hispanic to hold this title), encouraging some girls to pursue a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) career; or Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman Justice in the Supreme Court, motivating a young woman to join her debate team at school. These women’s accomplishments and many others like them, demonstrate that the glass ceiling is just that, glass – a permeable barrier that can not only be shattered, but one day, completely obliterated.
