Who Run The World, WOMEN

Each year in our performance reviews we are tasked with finding opportunities for growth (last year I went through Dale Carnegie training course), in years past I've focused solely on internal training and have begun branching outside the company for education, and this year my focus is on Leadership.  

As a woman and "young" professional, I'm striving to toe the line -- pursuing my career aspirations (the railroad, as many companies are, is heavily dominated by men), while staying true to myself. I've begun attending women's networking events held by one of our outside counsel firms, and searching internally and externally for opportunities to create passion and growth in my career.  The past ten years here have pushed me -- (mostly) equally heavy on love, hate and everything in between.  Life begins outside your comfort zone, right?

Last month I had the opportunity to attend two fulfilling courses, these are my thoughts on each.

The Waterfall Effect: Six Principles for Productive Leadership -- The tenants to productive leadership are six fold, and his emphasis on how everything is time based really hit home, the time I may feel is idle could be spent being more productive -- working smarter, not harder so to speak.

Key take aways:

"Everything is time based, it all about how you leverage time."

"Engagement is the difference between coming to work to do your work and WANTING to come to work to do your job."

"Micromanaging: are you creating "drivers" or "passengers" -- this is a affinity of mine.  I loathe being micromanaged, yet find myself micromanaging loved others at times. As the speaker said, "that person woke up, got dressed, and drove to work without help and you hired them to do a job, let them".

Levels of Engagement: (3 receives the highest yield)

1) Self Involved 

2) Extractive - asking questions, but applying it to your world

3) Empathetic - speaker focused, its about them, not you

St. Louis Business Journal Women's Conference -- All the females in STL in management from my company (eight) joined together for a full day of speakers, networking and sage advice.

Keynote speaker Claire Shipman spoke on having "honest overconfidence" and the difference between competence vs. confidence. This video (under the heading "watch") highlights the book brilliantly.

A full day of sessions with the theme, "Confidence" stripped down seemingly simple topics, broke down the barriers of sexism, and was delivered in a raw, authentic way. I hope for the opportunity to attend for years to come.

Key take aways: (by session)

Brand 

"Know your strengths and who you are"

"Give yourself permission to fail, and fail often"

Startup

"Have the passion to solve the problem"

Creativity

"Be available for criticism as an outlet of feedback"

"Accept that you can't please everyone"

C-Suite

"People don't work for a company, they work for people'

"Force the world to say "no", then ask again"