Learning from other women - WIT WOTY winners

Today I had the pleasure of attending a panel discussion with the winners of WIT's Woman of the Year Awards. What amazing women and so inspirational.

I loved the camaraderie in the room... the humor... the feeling that we are all in this together.

Sue Ellen Reager, the CEO and founder of @international Services, who told us about her career choices presented to her in high school. She could be either a secretary or a school teacher... but she had a bad attitude. She then went on to travel the world, learn 11 languages, teach herself to program. She has received an innovation award for her inventions. And now she oversees a virtual company with people in 70 countries.  but best of all? she met William Shatner. WOW. very memorable.

Barbara Carkenord, chief curriculum and strategist at B2T Training... who is getting married soon. Sharing the need to have direct conversations - YAY. Right after my own heart.

Sallie Graves, head of IT at ING, who loves college football, fantasy football, and all sports. Good thing she has boys!

Lisa McVey, VP, CIO at McKesson, who told us her big a-ha was when she found out that the executives didn't know all the answers and that their meetings weren't much different from the ones she had been going to.

Julie Untener, Director of Enterprise Applications at NCR, who grew up with seven sisters learning the power of girls and also how to navigate and get along.

I loved the themes that came out from all these women and the open, candid conversation. The way they shared funny and personal stories. The way they played off each other...

Here are some of the things I took away today.

When were you passed over and how did you handle it?

What struck me was 1) no one said - I haven't ever been passed over and 2) the answers were all about finding innovative and creative ways to deal with this situation.

Sue Ellen said that her bubbly personality was seen as cute but no one was buying from her. So she went on-line, signed her name as S. E. and ended up being very successful. Then by the time they met her, she already had the credibility.

What gets in our way?

The confidence theme kept coming up. We are good planners and we want it all planned out before we will raise our hand to take on risk. We are uncomfortable leaping without knowing we can do it. We see there are other experts out there who know more and can do it better... and we let them. As these successful women all stated... we need to get MUCH better at raising our hand and taking on the challenge even when we don't know if we can do it, we don't know how to do it, and we haven't ever done it before. We are smart and we can figure it out.

What do you do when you don't get supported by other women?

Have a direct conversation about it. Wow. This is something really hard for us to do. But what a great idea. It is so much easier to complain about it, gossip about the person who isn't supporting us, but wouldn't it be fantastic to have an open conversation about it? I think we need to hold each other accountable for having these conversations and not let one another get away with this behavior.

These are amazing women. These are women who want to help others. They are all actively supporting other women. LOVE IT!! What great role models for all of us.