NAWBO-Columbus Member Blog

Today was spent at the Reagan International Trade Center.  A HUGE building here in DC.

Devora Zack, Networking for People who Hate Networking — great BINGO intro game for groups — very interactive.

Karen Mills, Administrator, US SBA spoke on the SBA’s initiatives to make money available for small businesses and especially women owned businesses — to help reinvigorate the economy.  Did you know that the SBA has online small business contracting course especially for women?  www.sba.gov — then look up small business classroom — and then find the class for women.  Proposed rule changes will enlarge the categories of procurement that have 5% women goals from 5 to 83.

Virginia Littlejohn honored with Legacy Award — a past  National President of NAWBO and early advocate for women in business in DC reminded us that it was 1986 when women businesses were beginning to be “recognized” as not just a hobby — and not until 1988 till women could get their own loan.

Dr. Terry Neese honored for her work with NAWBO in the early years and as founder of WIPP.

Claire Shipman (ABC news) and Katty Kay (BBC) coauthored Womenomics:  Write your own rules for success.  Book sounds great — has numbers and studies to show that:  1.  Boards that have at least 3 women on them — the companies outperform other companies without women on their boards 2. Changes in the workplace that allow for balance improve productivity by 40%  3.  Catalyst and Goldman Sachs and Guardian Life studies back up power of women in the workplace and women business owners.

Favorite quote(s) of the day:

1. If you run a business and you are not involved with politics — then politics will run your business
2. There is a special place in hell reserved for women who don’t help other women — Madeline Albright

50 Ways to keep your head above water when life keeps dragging you down.

This was the 2nd time I had the opportunity to hear Deborah Collins Stephens speak.  I really like her message — there is wonderful stuff to learn even in the midst of challenging business conditions – and life.

Ms. Stephens had an opportunity early on to read some of Maslow’s notes on business and success — and she has published a number of books from those studies and interviews with successful people.  Yesterday she focused on “Courageous Leadership.”  She shared a quote about how tough times were, how much was changing and so quickly…….and then she shared that it was a quote from a 1800’s Atlantic Journal article.  Every time has its challenges.

Per Ms. Stephens, when Maslow talked about Leadership he called it not a gift, or a talent, but rather a human endeavor and encouraged leaders to inspire not control.  Some of the stories shared were really great — a sampling here is all I can share today:

• Love or Fear – leadership out of love can cause amazing results – Jan Carlzon and SAS Airlines turnaround
• It matters HOW you play the game.
• Learning to Love the Weird (the new, where we are headed into unknown)
• Become a Blue Haired Lady — Great story about her Grandmother and her ability to create a success self-fulfilling prophesy for Deborah.
• Never a right way to do a wrong thing.
• Stand for something even if you stand alone.
• Who among you will change the world?  — Maslow

Jackie Speier — US Congresswoman — and supporting author on the book dropped in also.  She was a survivor of a horrible shooting when she was a journalist.  She said that with all the negativity about Washington DC and politicians — she wasn’t surprised that more good people didn’t want to run.  Yet she challenged that she has one of the greatest jobs — where she can make a difference every day.

Next week Colleen Marshall, news anchor with Channel 4 and lawyer with Porter Wright, will be the speaker at our monthly meeting.  I got the chance to speak with Colleen recently and was impressed with how easy it was to speak with her.  She seems to manage all of the different facets of her life with ease.  Yet I know as a business owner, wife, active church member, mother, chamber board member, etc,  having balance in our lives can be an elusive concept.  As the owner of an executive coaching and leadership development practice, we see this same thing with our executives.  It comes down to Self Management.  Some of us call it Time Management, but in reality we all have the same number of hours in the day so it really has to do with how we manage ourselves.  Two areas where we help our clients focus are 1) on designing and implementing a Weekly Default Calendar, and 2) instituting a “Stop Doing” list.  I personally use these tools as well.

I work on my default calendar for about 30 minutes on Friday afternoons by gathering together the action items I have for the coming week and organizing them into blocks of time for related activities.  Then I print off my Outlook calendar and slot the “blocks” into 60-90 minutes blocks of time around my other meetings. By focusing on related items for a block of time, I find that I am able to concentrate and get a LOT more accomplished than when I tick things off of an uncategorized To-Do List.

My “Stop Doing” list consists of those items that I need to start letting go of and delegating, even if someone else might not do it my way, or as quickly, the first time they do it.  I’ve also learned how important it is to say “no” to items and requests that don’t fit in with my mission, vision and goals.  In some cases, there are even things that I’ve done forever but just aren’t as critical anymore to my main goals.

Any of my friends or relatives can tell you that even though I’m constantly working to improve my Self Management, I still have days when things fall through the cracks and life is crazy.  And I know that Colleen Marshall will share some of the same with us on June 3.  As a matter of fact, I experienced it with her first hand!  Come and hear me tell that story when I introduce her!