When women (and men) talk leadership, the focus is often at the top: CEOs, COOs, vice presidents and managers. That’s why it’s easy to find leadership conferences aimed at women in senior-level positions. It’s much harder to find one targeted at all businesswomen, from entry level to the corner office.
Leaders can and should be groomed from the first day on the job. That’s why I founded the Women’s Leadership Conference of Northeast Ohio, a conference meant to educate, inspire and empower all women in business.
The goal is to help women who are just entering the workforce — as well as top executives — build their network and grow both personally and professionally. It can feel overwhelming and lonely to be new — or at the top — especially in a male-dominated field. I hope this conference will allow women to share similar stories and challenges.
Covering the trends
On Oct. 29, our conference will present a dozen successful business leaders from Northeast Ohio. They’ll share their expertise in fields ranging from medicine to manufacturing to law and talk about some of the hottest trends in business.
Some of these topics include emotional intelligence and opportunities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers. More companies are looking to improve their diversity and employ more women. Our experts will talk about finding them. For example:
- Speaker Kristin Tull, Ph.D., president of PRADCO, is an expert in emotional intelligence. Her Chagrin Falls company educates businesses on the importance of emotional intelligence in their leaders. Studies show that women typically have a stronger emotional intelligence and companies led by these women outperform companies with only men in leadership.
- Jill Marcotte, partner and chief supply chain officer at Dealer Tire, will talk about women in STEM careers. Men dominate these fields, but Marcotte and others are seeing more women selecting these nontraditional but lucrative careers.
- Ariane Kirkpatrick, president of the AKA Team, will discuss separating yourself from the acronyms. Identifying yourself as a women or minority owned business can open up doors but you don’t want to be defined by that alone.
Women’s potential
We know women’s potential in the workplace is a hot topic. Some of the largest employers in Northeast Ohio have internal women’s leadership groups. A few are even creating women’s conferences and summits themselves because of the importance of women’s role in the workplace.
When I moved to Cleveland years ago, everyone suggested that I find a mentor. But I didn’t know how to do that or what to say once I found one. I couldn’t find other businesswomen to whom I could connect.
Looking back on that time, I have to laugh at myself. I realize “finding” a mentor isn’t done by searching Craig’s List or match.com. It’s more organic and natural than that.
The key is finding the right setting. My hope is that the WLCNEO can create that setting.
Robin Doerschuk is founder of the Women’s Leadership Conference of Northeast Ohio and the director of Solutions for Alliance Solutions Group in Independence. Learn more about the Women’s Leadership Conference of Northeast Ohio, visit www.facebook.com/WLCNEO. To register for the Oct. 29 event, visit http://bit.ly/1Q9lvY7.
