Archive for the ‘Giving back’ Category
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
I get frustrated every time I hear stories of women who are unwilling to help other women. In fact, I’ve heard hushed confessions from successful women who have realized that they are actually harder on other women than on men in the same role, such as competitors or potential partners – even customers. Why is that? I think I’ve figured it out.
Success Scarcity.
Although it isn’t limited to women, success scarcity is an inherent and subconscious belief that someone else’s achievement will somehow limit our ability to be successful.
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Tags: Business, Leadership, Scarcity, Society and Culture
Posted in Giving back, business success secrets | 12 Comments »
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
 Bill George Bill George, former CEO of Medtronics and now Harvard professor, was a great choice to open the World Business Forum 2009. Having attended a reception he threw for the Blogger’s last night (where he gave us a signed copy of this book, 7 Lessons for Leading in a Crisis), I was able to catch a glimpse into his philosophies and ideas. I have to admit, I liked what I heard.
He came right out with an unfortunately very male analogy, saying that being a leader us like being a great athlete. Sometimes your throw touchdowns and other times its interceptions. The parallel was drawn to both the leader and that athlete doing the best they can under the circumstances they had. Obviously he’s not a Dallas Cowboys fan, but I digress. The point he was making is that failure comes with the territory and it doesn’t necessarily mean the end of a career.
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Tags: #wbf09, Business, Small business, Startup company, world business forum
Posted in #wbf09, Entrepreneurship, Giving back, business success secrets | 40 Comments »
Monday, July 27th, 2009
 This morning, I was asked to provide “final words” to the two groups of women in South Africa that I have helped train over the past 18 months. First of all, I never consider anything I do as “final” and certainly not where words are involved. But I did want to share with them my insight and observations on the time we spent together as well as my advice for their moving forward. I believe there is universal advice in my message, so I’m sharing it here.
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Posted in Entrepreneurship, Giving back, business success secrets | 14 Comments »
Friday, April 24th, 2009
I get loads of e-mails every day – in the hundreds – and once in a while a message comes across that makes my day. Last week I received a note from a woman I had been mentoring in Iraq through the US Iraqi Businesswomen’s Partnership (USIBP) initiative, a program I helped create some 18 months ago working with various organizations including the US State Department.
I had not heard from her in over a year but I knew she had just recently given birth to her third child so I figured life just got in the way. In our correspondences last year, she was busy operating her pharmacy (she is a licensed pharmacist) and was trying to grow it. We talked about her challenges in finding good people to manage the daily operations and came up with some ideas on how she might be able to do that.
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Posted in Being a ParentPreneur, Business Growth, Entrepreneurship, Giving back, business success secrets | 17 Comments »
Tuesday, April 7th, 2009
Our actions and words have so much more impact on others than we could ever realize. If you happen to not believe this, just read “The Five People You Meet In Heaven” by Mitch Albom or watch one of my favorite movies, “It’s a Wonderful Life”. As a mother, I know I have an influence on my children although I sometimes don’t see it (or realize they’re even LISTENING TO ME) until way after the fact. When I do hear them repeating something I said or making a good decision based on something I’ve harped on, I feel an incredible sense of satisfaction. I recently was able to feel that same level of gratification in my professional career as well.
When I was in South Africa last year, I was part of a team that spoke at seminars across the region. One of the specific exercises that I led the groups in was in perfecting your elevator pitch. They seemed to really embrace the process while I encouraged people to really think outside the box and work to make their visions a reality.
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Posted in Being a ParentPreneur, Giving back, Work/Life Balance | 8 Comments »
Friday, November 7th, 2008
This past week, I had the privilege of being a Corporate Ambassador at a conference in Bahrain hosted by the Bahrain Businesswomen’s Society (BBS), supported financially from the U.S. by the State Department’s MEPI program and facilitated by Vital Voices. I was invited to talk about women’s leadership but ended up learning more from the exchange than I taught.
 First, I was humbled by the gracious welcome and hospitality given to us by the women leaders of the BBS. We were given the opportunity to experience the culture through food and dance, not to mention shopping in the market and haggling in Arabic. Just a note: I wasn’t speaking Arabic, but our driver accompanied us into the Souk (shopping district) to shop and helped make sure we got the best deals. We even had dinner at a palace, Shaikha Mariam’s house (INCREDIBLE!). I had heard of the graciousness and generosity of the Arabic people but this trip exceeded my expectations.
Second, I was impressed by the strength and fortitude of the women we met. Granted, we were working with the top-tier of women in the country, but their intense desire to help elevate the stature of not only themselves but the rest of the women in their respective countries was incredible. They have some high walls to climb, but their ability to be forceful yet respectful without being confrontational holds great hope that they will succeed in affecting real change in the region.
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Posted in Entrepreneurship, Giving back, business success secrets | 21 Comments »
Wednesday, August 20th, 2008
Part of the plan for our two-week trip to South Africa was to get out into the community to see the real country. The premise was that it is hard to advise women entrepreneurs when you don’t have an understanding of the environment in which they operate. I completely agree. When I found out that one of our field trips was to a high school, I wasn’t sure I got the connection. After being there, I get it now.
The school we visited was Matthew Goniwe Memorial High School in Khayelitsha, a large township in Cape Town. If you want to see it for yourself, go to YouTube as there are many touching videos there.
The first thing I learned is that the word “township” refers to an informal settlement comprising houses made out of cardboard scraps and whatever building materials can be found. Being there made coming home to my 5 bedroom, 2-story house feel…well…gluttonous.
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Posted in Entrepreneurship, Giving back | 38 Comments »
Tuesday, July 8th, 2008
Please welcome Paula Constantino, my guest blogger this week, to talk about a special (and worthy) project she’s launching that she could use your help with!
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Remember how good you felt when you went out of your way to help someone without even thinking about getting anything in return? Felt really good didn’t it?
In our running here, there and everywhere – often with our cell phones in hand – we sometimes lose sight of how truly wonderful it feels when we reach out and help others, giving back to our community or even more globally. How we give back is a purely individual choice, but we all should give serious consideration to giving back in some way or another.
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Posted in Giving back, Work/Life Balance | 7 Comments »
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