Building Our Future
Women in leadership in organizations of all shapes and sizes need a place to gather, exchange ideas, find information and tools, and improve their leadership practice. That's what this lens is all about. Whether you're in a Fortune 500, a start-up or out there on your own, whether you're on your way up, already there and looking for fresh ideas, or looking for a place to pass your wisdom along to others, this is the place to find what you need. What works for you? What do you want to know? Just chime in.
What's Your Vision?
If You Don't Know Where You're Going, You're Liable to End Up Somewhere Else
Your vision statement - personal or business - should describe what you ultimately envision your greater purpose to be, in terms of growth, values, contributions to society, etc. Self-reflection is a vital activity if you want to develop a meaningful vision. Once you have defined your vision, you can begin to develop strategies for moving toward that vision. Part of this includes the development of a mission statement. The best vision is no more than two sentences long.
What do you want your business to be all about? What do you want for the rest of your life? Take a few minutes to write down your personal vision. This will be based on your goals and values. For example:
My vision is to head a foundation for women who need help getting beyond childhood abuse and neglect.
Mission Statement
Vision statements and mission statements are very different. Your mission statement is the vision translated into written form. It is a concrete expression of how you will bring your vision to life. A mission statement should be a short and concise statement of goals and priorities. customers who purchase products and/or services from the business.
Your mission statement should be a concise statement of strategy and it should fit with your vision. The mission should answer three questions:
1. What will I do?
2. How will I do it?
3. For whom will I do it?
What will I do? This question should be answered in terms of what is the real and/or psychological needs that you want to fulfill.
How will I do it? This question captures the more technical elements.
For whom will I do it? The answer to this question is also vital, as it will help you focus your efforts.
What do you want your business to be all about? What do you want for the rest of your life? Take a few minutes to write down your personal vision. This will be based on your goals and values. For example:
My vision is to head a foundation for women who need help getting beyond childhood abuse and neglect.
Mission Statement
Vision statements and mission statements are very different. Your mission statement is the vision translated into written form. It is a concrete expression of how you will bring your vision to life. A mission statement should be a short and concise statement of goals and priorities. customers who purchase products and/or services from the business.
Your mission statement should be a concise statement of strategy and it should fit with your vision. The mission should answer three questions:
1. What will I do?
2. How will I do it?
3. For whom will I do it?
What will I do? This question should be answered in terms of what is the real and/or psychological needs that you want to fulfill.
How will I do it? This question captures the more technical elements.
For whom will I do it? The answer to this question is also vital, as it will help you focus your efforts.
Women Leaders
Musings on leadership and related topics.
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byWhere to find what you need to succeed
- National Association of Women Business Owners
- Are you a woman business owner? This is a prime resource for all kinds of information including how to get certified as a woman-owned business.
- Government Resources for Women
- Women business owners are critically important to the American economy. America's 9.1 million women-owned businesses employ 27.5 million people and contribute $3.6 trillion to the economy. However, women continue to face unique obstacles in the world of business.
The SBA is a very strong advocate for women entrepreneurs and offers many programs and services to help them succeed. The following resources offer unique opportunities and guidance for women entrepreneurs. This site includes:
Online Women's Business Center
Gateway for women-owned businesses selling to the government
Women Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century
Women's Network for Entrepreneurial Training
Women's Small Business Research - Marketing to Women
- The TrendSIght Group is a Chicago based consulting and training firm dedicated to helping companies recognize the full extent of the women's market. We use our proprietary GenderTrendsTM models to help our clients boost sales, share and profitability by revitalizing their communications, marketing and sales strategies and refocusing their efforts on their key customers - women!
- Center for Women's Business Research
- The premier source of information on women business owners and their enterprises worldwide.
- Catalyst
- Catalyst is the leading research and advisory organization working with businesses and the professions to build inclusive environments and expand opportunities for women at work. As an independent, nonprofit membership organization, Catalyst conducts research on all aspects of women's career advancement and provides strategic and web-based consulting services globally. With the support and confidence of member corporations and firms, Catalyst remains connected to business and its changing needs. In addition, Catalyst honors exemplary business initiatives that promote women's leadership with the annual Catalyst Award. With offices in New York, San Jose, and Toronto, Catalyst is consistently ranked No. 1 among U.S. nonprofits focused on women's issues by The American Institute of Philanthropy.
- e-Marketing Resources Daily
- Top-notch collection of resources for anyone trying to build a profitable presence on the web.
- Law of Attraction
- This lens contains great links that will help you tap into the most powerful source of energy that exists. Find out why gurus from Wayne Dyer to Barbara Stanny tell us how important intention is to accomplishment.
- Bernardo's List
- Serving the Schmoozing Classes is the tag line for this great collection of networking events, seminars, workshops, and social events, all designed to keep you in touch with other businesspeople. Available now in several major cities.
- SuperWoman Relief - From Super-Busy to SuperWoman... Without the Stress
- From busy mom to supermom? without the stress. A step-by-step solution to regain balance and easily juggle motherhood, work and life.
- Absolutely Creative Advertising
- Promotional products, advertising specialties and business gifts. Shop our mall of products that can be imprinted with your company name & logo! Enter to win our drawing!
- Business Networking in the New York Area
- Biba4network promotes the exchange of referrals, ideas, advice and introductions to small busines owners and entrepeneurs through small networking business in the New York area.
- Women's Leadership Exchange - Conferences, Events, Resources For Women Business Owners
- The Exchange features:
"Sound Solutions" - Get tips on everything from business planning to finance to human capital
"Building Your Business" - News about the fastest growing women owned businesses and how they got on the road to success.
"WLE Loop" - Never miss a beat when it comes to WLE news, highlights from WLE conferences and upcoming events.
"Fast Facts" - Be the first to know about the latest news and information from the Center of Women's Business Research and other trustworthy sources. - WomenCorp | Coaching - Community- Workshops
- This is a time when women are needed who will lead in large corporations and small businesses. Our network and experiential learning programs enable women who truely want to succeed as leaders in business. WomenCorp is an organization to help women become business leaders.
- Change This
- This is an archive, not an active blog, but an interesting read. ChangeThis was built in the summer of 2004 by Amit Gupta, Catherine Hickey, Noah Weiss, Phoebe Espiritu and Michelle Sriwongtong. You can read their bios in this blog entry. The original idea behind ChangeThis came from Seth Godin. You can read about him on his website.
In the summer of 2005, ChangeThis was turned over to 800-CEO-READ. In addition to selling business books, they keep ChangeThis up and running with their love and tender care. To learn more about 800-CEO-READ, read their daily blog. - Feminist Gateway
- Links to a variety of issues related to the equality of women.
- Professional Issues
- Advancing Women In Leadership represents the first on-line professional, refereed journal for women in leadership. The journal publishes manuscripts that report, synthesize, review, or analyze scholarly inquiry that focuses on women's issues. The Editors invite authors from all professional fields to submit manuscripts regarding women's professional issues for review for publication in the journal.
- Joan Stewart's Best of 2005 e-book
- Joan Stewart, the Publicity Hound, is one of the best sources out there for marketing tips. Read the e-book. Subscribe to her newsletter. And thank her for all her great ideas - and the hound jokes!
- ProSymposium for Entrepreneurial and Professional Excellence
- Here's an opportunity to meet other leaders - whether corporate, public sector or non-profit executives or business owners - to exchange ideas and experienceing group coaching workshops that will move you forward at lightening speed.
Life-Work Cafe
musings on life and work
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byIncidental Learning
exploring learning and technology
One consultant's journey into expanding her technological horizons.
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byThe Article Archives
We used to call these "subway bytes" - just enough to print out or transfer to your PDA and read during your commute.
- Mapping Your Future: Putting New Competencies to Work
- Experts suggest that the key to a successful career in the future is to align with the needs of organizations and their leaders to achieve business results. Thus, competency model can provide an important, and useful, tool to guide individual development. It is a foundation on which one can build career plans and do self-development on a chosen path.
- Study: Leaders Don't Listen or Manage
- The biggest mistakes business leaders make are not communicating, failing to provide feedback and just not listening to their workforce, new research has suggested.
Source: Workforce-Management - Lessons Not Learned about Innovation
- Why have decades of executives fumbled innovation? One reason: Existing corporate structures, controls, and incentives do work against out-of-the-box thinking.
Source: Working Knowledge - Distressing or De-Stressing
- Work-life conflict is one of the leading causes of daily stress for most people, and it directly impacts a company's bottom line in lost time and decreased productivity. But, employers can make the balancing a little easier on themselves and on employees by recognizing employee needs and taking steps to help meet them.
American City Business Journals
Inspired by Action
Best practices for women in law and business who inspire others through upward action
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byBeing Understood
Communications Guru Sue Johnston
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byClear Communication?
A few random quotes
I was searching for a Nixon-era quote that goes something like this: "I know you think you understand what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant!"
What I found appears to be a more recent version - I can't find the original anywhere - but I did find some food for thought about clear communication:
We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another - until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices. Richard Nixon
We think we understand each other, but we never really do.
- Luigi Pirandello,
Six Characters in Search of an Author
Women have the understanding of the heart, which is better than that of the head.
- Samuel Rogers
Where misunderstanding serves others as an advantage, one is helpless to make oneself understood.
- Lionel Trilling
How clear is your comunication?
What I found appears to be a more recent version - I can't find the original anywhere - but I did find some food for thought about clear communication:
We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another - until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices. Richard Nixon
We think we understand each other, but we never really do.
- Luigi Pirandello,
Six Characters in Search of an Author
Women have the understanding of the heart, which is better than that of the head.
- Samuel Rogers
Where misunderstanding serves others as an advantage, one is helpless to make oneself understood.
- Lionel Trilling
How clear is your comunication?
The Blog for Business Bloggers
Naked Conversations
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byGeorge's Employment Blawg
News, analysis and comments on labor & employment law, human resources and other work-related topics.
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byAbundant Networker
Want to build your network? Kim George is one of the best to learn from.
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byLeaders are Reading ...
Blogwild!: A Guide for Small Business Blogging
All the basics you need to get going presented in an interesting, easy to read format.
Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 09/07/2008)
Resonant Leadership: Renewing Yourself and Connecting with Others Through Mindfulness, Hope, and Compassion
What keeps great leaders going? Practical tools from years of research on Emotional Intelligence.
Amazon Price: $17.13 (as of 09/07/2008)
Leadership Can Be Taught: A Bold Approach for a Complex World
Amazon Price: $19.77 (as of 09/07/2008)
Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life One Conversation at a Time
This is the one book I recommend to anyone who doesn't know how to have a difficult conversation at work or at home. It's an invaluable tool.
Amazon Price: $10.20 (as of 09/07/2008)
The DNA Of Leadership: Leverage Your Instincts To Communicate, Differentiate, Innovate
Amazon Price: $24.95 (as of 09/07/2008)
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Treehuggers
Save the Planet!
Everything you need to know to run a green business.
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Interesting finds
Top Female Leaders
We all have our heros.
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