Promote! Her Place at the Table - A Woman’s Guide to Negotiating Five Key Challenges to Leadership Success
Patty Shea, Avista Utilities

In “Her Place at the Table”, authors Deborah M. Kolb, PhD, Judith Williams, PhD, and Carol Frohlinger, J.D. discuss how women need to negotiate five key challenges in order to become successful leaders.

These three researchers contend that all new leaders face tests. They go on to say that many women, in particular, also face intense scrutiny. Even if women have proven track records, they still experience “proving up” in some aspect of their career. Successful women leaders’ “place at the table” had to be earned, many times with each new assignment.

Their research demonstrated that as women went about their new assignments or projects, they had to successfully negotiate five key challenges critical to their ability to lead:

• Intelligence: Like so many of us have learned, good information leads to informed decisions. A major responsibility in my current job requires negotiating electric and natural gas franchise agreements with local municipalities, many times directly with their legal counsel. I agree with the authors that exploring expectations and any possible points of resistance adds to this “intelligence.” Taking the time up front to research and plan pays off in the long run.
• Backing of Key Players: Being accepted comes easier when you have the backing of key individuals. Sometimes it’s not obvious who those individuals are, so again, “due diligence” is a key planning strategy. Having someone of “importance” in your corner eases introductions, helps pave the way for strategic agendas, and ultimately helps being accepted.
• Resources: The authors describe resources as the “currency of business.” Resources take many forms, and the authors found that successful women leaders’ credibility depended on them and so they negotiated allocation issues hard. Not “demanding” for these resources proved “fatal” in the budgeting process in my first year as Manager of Distribution Dispatch.
• Buy-in: Leaders need to create momentum behind their agendas—showing peers and reports alike that they, too, have a stake in those agendas. Leaders need to also demonstrate that taking risk is safe. Listening and responding to the team’s concerns as they work to solve problems, helps to enlist support for their efforts.
• Making a Difference: Their research demonstrated over and over again the importance of women leaders wanting to make a difference in their organizations. In order to make a difference, these women leaders first had to be recognized for their contributions. Once the value they created was visible to others, it provided a platform to build upon.

The structure of this book devotes a chapter to each of the five challenges. “Traps” of each challenge are explored along with a strategy successful leaders use to respond to the challenge.

In looking back over my 31+ years in the electric and natural gas utility industry, I rated myself on my ability to successfully lead in the field of operations/construction by negotiating these five key challenges. My results are a “mixed bag”. What I do know for sure, is that to be a successful leader and negotiate these five key challenges means always being open to new and different ideas and thoughts; constantly reading, observing, mentoring and being mentored; and raising the bar each and every time. “Her Place at the Table” is a great resource for that continued learning!

Support! ROI Workbook Helps Attendees Prove Value

We here it all the time, travel and training budgets have been cut to zero! The Energetic Women ROI Workbook is available for download and contains worksheets to share with your supervisors, managers and team members. It outlines specific steps to help you get more out of attending this conference. REASONS TO ATTEND ENERGETIC WOMEN

• Access to unparalleled learning opportunities focused on key issues facing women leaders.
• Walk away with actionable strategies and ideas that can be applied to your organization immediately.
• Participation and recognition in the community of leading thinkers and practitioners.
• Develop strategies for effective leadership development and add more value to your organization.
• Align your development with organizational needs & priorities and deliver measureable results.
• Develop key relationships for personal and professional growth.

Support! Multiple Registration Discounts!

Once again we’ll be offering multiple registration discounts for companies wanting to send multiple attendees. Below is an outline of the savings available for your organization:

• Early Bird Discount – register by April 3 and save $25 per person
• Take Five Discount – register 5 or more from the same organization, save an additional 5% per person
• Perfect Ten Discount – register 10 or more from the same organization, save an additional 10% per person
• NEW! 20/20 Vision Discount – register 20 or more from the same organization, save an additional 20%!

Mark your calendars now for the 3rd Annual Energetic Women’s Conference, June 15-17, 2010 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Registration is open! Visit us on-line at www.energeticwomen.org for more information. If you have registration questions, need to set up an administrative contact to access the multiple registrations, or need the codes for the above discounts, please contact Larissa Presho, Database Administrator, larissap@midwestenergy.org.

Connect! Glass Ceiling Webinar Feedback

Another highly successful webinar with over 130 participants, “Glass Ceilings-Perception or Reality?” was held on February 26th. As always, we like to share the feedback for those who weren’t able to attend and to generate ideas for future webinars. Our response rate was 25% - thank you! 94% percent of you stated this was worth your time.

Suggestions for future topics:

• 1) More tips on how to break the Glass Ceiling; 2) More suggestions as to how to move beyond it

Tips from the webinar included:

• Determine what your worth and stop taking less than that.
• Apply for jobs, even if you don’t think you’re ready – you are!
• Network in your industry: LinkedIn, Facebook, Energetic Women.
• READ! See recommended books by Dr. Shoars and Energetic Women.
• Become the ultimate version of you, know your strengths.
• Assemble a personal board of directors – a 6-person team including a Clarifier, Challenger, Connector and Sage.
• Get a mentor! Female is better, but any good mentor can help.

(Share your tips on the Energetic Women web forum, Twitter or LinkedIn group!)

• Strategies for self-development.
• How to advance within your company.
  • See Energetic Women website Successful Practice: Get Out of Your Silo!
• See Energetic Women website Successful Practice: Being True to Yourself
• See Energetic Women website Successful Practice: No Single Path to Promotion
• It isn’t always about you
  • Energetic Women hosted a webinar titled “It’s Not About You” in August, 2009. If you’d like to receive the recording of the webinar, contact Stephanie Menning.
• 1) Mentoring; 2) Mentoring and developing weaknesses to turn into strengths.
  • See Energetic Women website Network Teams for mentoring guidelines or to sign up!
• Office Politics
• Why you have to negotiate raises and how to go about it.
  • Energetic Women’s April 2010 Webinar: “Show Me the Money” stay tuned for details!

If you missed the Glass Ceiling webinar, the recording is available here.

Connect! EW Now on Twitter and LinkedIn

Announcing Energetic Women on Twitter! http://twitter.com/EnergeticWomen Share your successes, follow your community, and connect with your peers!

Special Offer! Last year’s Energetic Women keynote speaker, Rayona Sharpnack is offering a $500 discount to her next Women Leading Change at the Institute for Women’s Leadership in May. Mention “Energetic Women” to receive the discount.

Coming soon: Energetic Women on Facebook!

Recognize! Calling All Mavericks

The 3rd Annual Energetic Women’s Conference will feature the 2nd Maverick Award presentation. This special recognition will be awarded to any leader (male or female) who has set the standard in promoting, connecting and strengthening female leaders in energy operations and engineering. To nominate your candidate, submit a 500 word document outlining their contributions in leadership, mentoring and advocacy on behalf of women specifically in energy operations and engineering. Complete details on how to submit your candidate can be found on the Energetic Women website. I've got someone to nominate!