Women's Leadership Conference, Day 2

A sequel is never as good as the original. Fortunately, that was not the case with Day 2 of the Women's Leadership Conference.

We started the morning off with Gail Evans, former Executive Vice President of CNN and author of Play Like a Man, Win Like a Woman. Gail spoke with us about creating our own rules and playing by them - golf not required! Women do not have to change anything at all; women need only use a different language about ourselves and others. Leadership is connected to power and power is in words.

After a very engaging and inspiring speech, Gail left us with three thoughts:

Network. Networking is not work. Make it a part of what you do every day with each interaction. Great networking is putting other people together. And it is fun. Consider a woman. Put forward the name(s) of qualified women for opportunities. Don't give a woman a job because she's a woman, give her an opportunity to compete. Be a little quieter about each other. Women, seek harmony with other women and stop talking about each other. Be nice.

In the next session, Stephanie Trotter and Stacy Lindley presented GlaxoSmithKline's Accelerated Leadership Development Program. Stephanie shared how two women, one idea and a cocktail napkin developed into a leadership program that truly creates inspired leaders. Stacy, a truly inspiring leader, shared her personal experiences as an member of the first cohort. Promoted into a position that others felt was a good career move for her, she was miserable. The program (and her coach) provided her with the tools and the strength to make a change. Her heartfelt and honest presentation spoke volumes about the strength of a commitment and a network.

Now, because I scheduled my departing flight without considering the lengthy bus/shuttle time back to the airport, I did not attend the closing session of the day and missed my opportunity to listen to Barry Salzberg, CEO, Deloitte LLP. That was definitely my loss and will not happen again next year - guaranteed.

This was an amazing conference. I provided an overview of each day, but I am not finished yet. I am a ponderer by nature and have a few thoughts bouncing around in my head right now. I'll be working through them over the next few days and will post a follow up soon.  

Note: I attended the Women's Leadership Conference as a guest of The Conference Board. They covered my travel accommodations to New York so that I could bring you my honest insights of some of challenges and opportunties facing women leaders today.