With over 1000 women joining us for the Women in the Cloud event at IBM Interconnect, we heard Ted Talks from:
- Lisa Seacat DeLuca – IBM’s Most Prolific Woman Inventor
- Maria Winans – IBM’s VP of Marketing
- Marie Wieck – IBM’s GM of Software
- Laurie McCabe – CEO / Founder SMB Group
- Frances West – IBM’s Executvie for Accessibility
- me!
Here’s my Top 10.5 Top Aways!
- Learn how to say No! Not every opportunity is a good one so don’t say yes to everything. Pick and choose those with the highest Return on Investment or Most Joy!
- You Can have it ALL but you have to define what your ALL is. What brings you joy and excitement should be your bar, not what others desire.
- Exercise! Almost all of the TED talks valued working out to de stress and stay healthy!
- Prioritize yourself. The analogy I used was on a flight and in life, put your safety mask on first. Then you can help others. Sometimes it is ok to make you a priority.
- Have a support structure. All of us need help and so when your daughter comes home with that last minute tea and you have a big presentation, have a support team who can sub in when needed. You’ll need a strong support network for your personal life to meet the challenges of integrating work and life. Ask help of those around you – friends, family, and neighbors
- Take risks. Stretch opportunities, coaching and placement in roles outside of your “comfort zone” is critical to building leadership attributes
- Have fun. Many examples of where women excel more when they loved what they were doing. Do what brings you joy!
- Move from “can it be done” to “how can I get it done”. Attitude and tone is really important but for your teams and you!
- Believe in yourself. Make sure you have confidence in you and your abilities and those crazy ideas.
- Give yourself permission. Don’t feel guiltly about decisions Make a decision and stand behind it. As one executive put it, “Don’t spend your time feeling guilty afterwards because you may be putting unnecessary pressure on yourself.”
10.5 Get a massage weekly!
