Advice for Tomorrow’s Women Leaders

From the WCA Progress of Women Committee:

These WCA members and leaders in business, education, and nonprofit organizations offer advice from their leadership experiences.

 

Enlarge your world.  I try to surround myself with people who inspire me and with work that challenges my mind. It’s so easy to get comfortable in a routine, but when I explore those things that make me uncomfortable and uncertain, I find the most growth.  I so appreciate the approach to life taken by Eleanor Roosevelt, who said, “Do one thing every day that scares you.”

Susan Jahns

Principal, West End Marketing & Communications

 

Respect the gifts, accommodate the challenges. As the mother of a child with autism, a business owner, and an activist and advocate for the rights of individuals with disabilities, I have found that every person I encounter brings to our relationships profound gifts and significant challenges. In my work life, I spent years doing a slow-burn over employees and contractors who had brilliant creative minds but could not stick to a schedule, or clients who agonized over every excruciating detail before making what seemed to me a simple decision.  This same scenario played out with my own child as I mounted epic battles over 20 simple minutes of school-required reading, while he tore through advanced math worksheets the way other kids plow through coloring books. When I learned to meet people—colleagues, employees, adversaries, even my own child—in their comfort zone, to nurture their natural talents and to find creative pathways around or through their challenges, the quality of both my work and home lives vastly improved.

Cynthia Burrow

Owner, Strategic Education Solutions

www.strategicedsolutions.com

 

Be more than your job title. In every position I have had, my title didn’t come close to describing what I did in that role. I took on more and more, allowing me to learn more and contribute more. As I delved into new areas, I discovered what I liked to do and what I didn’t like to do and had some great successes and a few failures along the way. It also kept my job interesting. If I had only done what was stated in the job description on the day I was hired, I would not have nearly the amount of experience I do now, and I don’t think I would have received the promotions I did. People may tell you to “stay in your own lane” when it comes to your position, but in my experience, it is good to veer a bit.

Erin Huddleston

Assistant Director, Business Honors Program

The University of Texas McCombs School of Business

http://www.mccombs.utexas.edu/

 

Stretch your boundaries every once in a while. When she was in her 80s, my friend, mentor, and longtime WCA member Anne Durrum Robinson asked me to teach her how to use email. What bravery she exhibited in wanting to learn a new technical skill! She believed that trying new things created new possibilities, and her example showed me the importance of continuing to learn and grow throughout one’s career.  Consequently, whenever I doubt my ability to take on a big project or question whether to make a change in my business, I ask myself if Anne would encourage me to do it.  In fact, I wouldn’t have my own business designing web sites if I hadn’t volunteered to create WCA’s first web site back in the mid-90s.  To get started, I took a free two-hour coding class that Austin360.com offered to non-profits like WCA.  The rest of my knowledge has been mostly self-taught, so I’ve had to overcome fear of the unknown many times.

Amy Hufford

Owner, Stellar Communications

http://stellarplanet.com

 

Look beyond yourself.  It is not about you!  Seek God’s purpose for your life.  Then go until He tells you to stop.  Caution:  Keep your hands and feet in the vehicle at all times – it is going to be an exciting ride!

Kelli Kelley

Founder and Executive Director, Hand to Hold

 

Don’t let fear stand in the way. I was one month past college graduation when an internship director told me to get involved with WCA. I found out there was a happy hour and forced myself out the door. There were five young ladies there, including me. We talked about what types of jobs we were looking for. The next morning, I got a call (this was in ’97 before everyone had email and home computers!) from one of the WCA members at the happy hour, telling me about a job she thought I’d be a fit for. Long story short, I applied, was interviewed, got the job and worked there for seven years until I resigned to launch my own business. If I had let fear stand in the way that evening, who knows where I’d be.

Marika Flatt

Owner, PR by the Book, LLC

 

Keep laughing. Retaining a sense of humor–and not taking yourself too seriously–is an important safety mechanism in business and in motherhood. I’ve been in several situations over the years in which the ability to laugh at myself and at the situation I found myself in was the only thing that kept me from crying. The most memorable one: One week into a brand-new job and three months into new motherhood, the CEO of my company barged into an office where I was pumping breast milk. As the teenage secretary was scrambling down the hallway to tell him that he and his vice president shouldn’t open the door, he barreled past her and flung it open.  As I was saying, “Hellooo, this office is OCCUPIED!”, he suddenly figured out what was going on. He slammed the door, and he and the other man vacated the premises. I finished pumping and decided that I needed to go out and grab a sandwich and regain my composure. The secretary was nearly in tears and told me she had no idea who the men were. She escorted me to the elevator and I got on it. At the last minute, two men came barreling into the elevator.  And, as the doors slid shut, she stood outside and mouthed the words, “That’s THEM.” As we rode the nine stories to the ground floor, they said…absolutely nothing.  And I said…absolutely nothing.  At the time, it was funny.  It’s even funnier now.  Remember to laugh.  It’s okay.

Tela Mange

Vice President of Communications, Special Olympics Texas

http://www.sotx.org/

 

Be bold.  Well-behaved women seldom make history.

Pamela Baggett (after Laurel Thatcher Ulrich)

Owner, Persuasion Communication

http://pamelabaggett.com

 

Own it.  One of my favorite quotes comes from Margaret Atwood’s book Cat’s Eye:  “I did not know how to paint or even what to paint, but I knew I had to begin.” Sometimes we don’t have a plan but we have an idea, one that won’t go away.  It can be hard to find a way to give your idea life, but if it is something that burns brightly enough and permeates many hours of your day, then you should own it. It takes courage to acknowledge and act upon an idea – especially if it’s one that could give others pause or incite a passionate response, or even no response at all. To own an idea is not to seek the spotlight – even though that’s where you may end up – but simply to believe in it, to give it breath and voice, to embrace it and act on it. When you own it, you are accountable for your actions and you’re able to back up your beliefs in an educated fashion. Once you decide to own it, you’ve taken your first step in standing up for what you believe and pushing open the door to a new way of thinking, a new way of living, and hopefully even to making a difference for the better.

Rachel Jordan-Shuss

Communications Specialist , Texas Department of Public Safety, Division of Emergency Management

http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/dem/index.htm

Put yourself in the other person’s shoes (i.e. have empathy). As a writer I have to think what the reader is going to find interesting enough to click or turn the page. As an interviewer I have to think about the personality of the person across the table or on the other end of the phone. What is the best approach to get the heart of their story from them? In WCA many of us are volunteers. How do we motivate our fellow volunteers? What is going on in their lives, what can we tell them that will make them want to spend some of their spare time with WCA?
(The same goes for potential members.) When we meet someone at a networking event it is tempting to launch into our elevator speech. Instead of thinking how the other person might help you, consider putting yourself in their shoes and thinking what kind of help they might need
(connections, resources, old-fashioned friendship).

Julie Tereshchuk

Owner, Julie Tereshchuk Word

http://www.jtword.com/