Carving A Future with Core Values & Goal Setting

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young-women-in-business-vancouver

Last night, 50 YWiB’ers joined Lululemon’s VP of Global Brand Deanne Schweitzer and Skoah’s Andrea Scott for an evening of exploring the future possibilities when you have a number of established core values and set goals.

Core values, defined as a set of moral guidelines to which you base your decision making on, rather than on societal pressures or perceived expectations. By creating a set of core values, ideas or behaviors that guide your life, you bring purpose, direction and happiness to yourself and to those around you. Skoah’s Andrea Scott so beautifully described her personal core values and how they have helped her shape her very successful business. They have also given way to another set of professional core values that Skoah operates upon:

  1. Listen to Understand – Everyone has a right to be heard. Naturally, people talk more about themselves when they are uncomfortable, to compensate by showing others they know what they are doing.  However, in most situations the best thing to do is to stop talking and listen.
  2. Give Your Energy to Others – It’s impossible to have positive energy all the time, but it is possible to be honest to those around you at all times. Ask for help and get support if you’re having a difficult day.  Just because you’re having a hard time, doesn’t mean everyone else has to either.
  3. Create a New Experience – Certain jobs can start to be repetitious, so make an effort to create a new experience with everyone you meet, rather than just a scripted response. By saying something that is unexpected allows others to really think and communicate what they really want or need.
  4. Pursue your goals passionately.
  5. Be Indispensible – No matter what your role is, you’ve committed to it, so be the best you can be so it can elevate you to the next step.

How much time have you spent thinking about what guides your decision making process? When you set goals for yourself, are you coming from a place of kindness, or are you making them for the sole purpose of “looking good?”

Lululemon’s Deanne Schweitzer spoke on how to create core values and goals with this simple illustration:

goal-setting-process

Make decisions based on “above the line thinking," rather than “below the line."  Come from a place of kindness and virtue rather than superficiality. She suggested 6 points to consider when making goals:

  1. Possibility – The ability to stand in nothing and create.  Let go of the past because it’s impossible to create a future if you let your past hold you back.
  2. Vision – Where do you envision yourself in 10 years? If you were on your death bed, what would you want to be remembered as? Set your goals and core values based on where you see yourself at this time.
  3. Balance – Set goals for Personal, Health and Career. If you are too heavy in any one of those, you will feel out of balance.
  4. Have BIG, HAIRY AUDACIOUS GOALS.  When you think of them, you should get goosebumps.
  5. Format – Goals should trickle down from your vision and should be quantifiable. How will you measure their success?
  6. Integrity – How will you incorporate your goals into your daily life in order to achieve them? Set a completion date, tell someone, be accountable to your goals.

Fortunately for me, I have defined what my core values are, but I have never written them down before to truly articulate what they mean to me:

  1. Honesty – Be true to yourself and be true to others, will you be proud of it tomorrow morning?
  2. Be Present – Give someone your time by truly listening to them, rather than just nod politely as you make lists in your head. Appreciate what you’ve been given in that moment.
  3. Egoless – Be humble, be kind to yourself. Accept that something may be unreachable today, but not necessarily tomorrow.
  4. Be Indispensible – Give it all you got and people will truly see your worth, but only if you see it for yourself, first.
  5. Show Compassion & Be Mindful – We all have a different reality, and experience situations independently. Put yourself in someone else’s shoes.

I encourage everyone to take the time to define what is important to them, and live by their core values.  If you have clearly defined them for yourself, finding the path to success isn’t too far behind! Let your core values help in your every day decision and goal-making.

There were many GREAT quotes from the night, but here are just a few:

“… find someone that you can empty your filing cabinet with”

“… when you find the right fit and core values in the company you are in, you will love what you do… find the right seat on the bus.”

“balance is different for everyone, define it for yourself” - Deanne

"when I was in my 20s, I wish I had spent more time thinking about what gets me going in the morning"- Deanne

"Possibility - the ability to stand in nothing and create"   - Deanne

"Be indispensable - take everything u can from your role & give everything you can. That will elevate you to your next role" - Andrea

There were also a few book recommendations by our speakers.  If you want to read up more about core values and goal setting, check these out:

Strength Finder by Tom Rath http://strengths.gallup.com/110440/About-StrengthsFinder-2.aspx

LinchPin – Are You Indispensible?  by Seth Godin

The Psychology of Achievement by Brian Tracey

Good to Great  by Jim Collins

Last but not least, a great big THANK YOU to Deanne Schweitzer and Andrea Scott for the time they took to inspire so many of us!

 

 

 

 

HIRING: The Master Money Guru

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YWiB is on the look-out for energetic & ambitious team players who are full of heart & excitement to further the goals of our organization.  if financial reporting is your game, make YWiB your name!! we want YOU to join our team of amazing, inspiring, passionate and professional ladies as our Master Money Guru, or treasurer, the title is negotiable!

to be selected you must dream about financial statements and talk in numerical coding! (kidding!)

what we do look for are ladies who are constantly willing to learn, awesome to work with and thrive in a passionate and creative team dynamic.  specifically for the YWiB treasurer you need to have prior experience with book-keeping and basic accounting as well as a desire to learn more about not-for-profit finance, accounting and financial reporting.

if this sounds like you (or a friend!) please let us (or them!) know!

full posting can be found on our website under "involvement opportunities"

chatting with...michelle rupp

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Michelle Rupp is an entrepreneur and founder of her own business, a certified Executive Coach, and an active member of the non-profit community in Vancouver.  As Principal and founder of Lighthouse Leadership, Michelle Rupp brings over 20 years of diverse business experience to her work as an Executive Coach.  Prior to her professional transition into leadership development, Michelle was a communications and marketing specialist in her role as Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications with a leading North American investment firm.   During this time, she was recognized as an innovative and results-oriented leader with excellent presentation and interpersonal skills.  Michelle was also a speaker at YWiB’s Beyond Pink Conference in 2010, and is a huge cheerleader and supporter of the YWiB philosophy.  We chatted with her in between the end of a workday and what she believes to be one of the most important parts of her life – dinner time with her family.  Read on and you’ll see why. name three people you'd like to have a dinner party with. normally with a question like this, i would name what i call “the usual suspects,” like mother teresa – pivotal change agents who’ve had a profound impact on humankind.  but because i am a working mother with an equally busy husband and two very athletic teenage boys who i’ll soon be launching out into the world, i’m going to bestow this honour on my family: my husband and two sons.  Sometimes dinner is a movable feast – we’ll eat at 6 pm one night or 9 pm the next, but it’s very important to me to have that time with everyone.  We check in with each other and spend time together.  It’s important.

what's the harder job: executive coach and founder of your own company, or mom/wife in a house full of boys? it’s really a constant balance between the two.  I couldn’t choose, and i wouldn’t want to, because i love what i do, and i wouldn’t be who i am without my professional life.  Conversely, I wouldn’t be who i am if i weren’t a mother.  i do know that my family is a priority, and that juggling that and my work is the best adventure i’ve ever embarked on.

who do you admire most and why? I would have to say my mother, who raised my sister and i on her own from when i was 13 years old.  We lost our father in an accident, and after that my mom took on the roles of both parents.  She was and is a fantastic role model, someone i have tremendous respect for and who taught me the importance of family and is a shining example of what a person is capable of in the face of adversity and tragedy.  Even now, at 83, she’s still running around like she’s twenty years younger!  She’s an inspiration.

advice you would give to someone wanting to start her own business? Surround yourself with great people.  Know yourself – find out what you’re good at, and perhaps more importantly, what you’re not that great at, or what you don’t like.  From there, build a community of people who can help you out with that stuff!  For example, I’m not a financial guru, so one of the first things i did was get myself a good bookkeeper.  I’m also not incredibly detail-oriented at times, so I found an excellent administrative assistant.  Don’t be afraid to ask for help, because it can be lonely when you’re trying to start a business.  Find mentors – people love to be asked for advice and feedback.

as chair of the minerva foundation and a speaker at YWiB’s Beyond Pink Conference in 2010, what is the greatest success you’ve witnessed working with young women in the community? i think the greatest gift i’ve been given as someone who is part of the YWiB community is seeing the profound level of confidence in the young women who get involved.  Everyone is so talented, and has so much energy and passion for contributing to the world around them.  When i spoke at Beyond Pink, I thought maybe the excitement was there because it was a conference, and that kind of environment breeds ideas and dreams – not necessarily execution.  However, after the event was over, I saw – and continue to see – follow through.  I see action and results.  It’s amazing.  That’s probably the greatest success I’ve witnessed.

why do you think YWiB and the YwiB philosophy is important for females in Vancouver (and beyond)? I think YWiB and all those involved really do have the potential to change the face of leadership in BC – not just in getting women in more leadership roles, but changing the way that leadership is done.  There is tremendous value in the way women lead.  The loads we carry and how we do that transfers from our personal to professional lives all the time, and I think that can change our communities and our places of work.  it already has.  YWiB celebrates what women can achieve together, and it’s an incredible model for all females to pattern themselves after.

Easy as 1-2-3? Sheryl Sandberg thinks so.

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Sheryl Sandberg is Mark Zuckerberg’s second-in-command.  Yes, that Mark Zuckerberg.  Sheryl is Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer, and since joining the social network giant in 2008, has forged a strong partnership with its elusive founder and made a name for herself both online and off amongst techies and businesspeople alike.  Sheryl is also a strong advocate for women empowerment, particularly in the workplace.  Her talk at TED in 2010 about why we have too few women leaders comes up as one of the first three results on Google when you search for her. The clip is about 15 minutes long, and in it you’ll see a polished, well-spoken, commanding woman who is obviously the envy of the crowd she’s addressing.  When Sheryl Sandberg talks, people listen.  At TED, Sheryl discusses a problem – women are not at the top of any career sector, from technology to non-profit, and haven’t been for a while.  How do we change this?  She breaks it down to three pieces of advice:

1)     Sit at the table.  Women systematically underestimate themselves and their abilities, and tend to attribute success to external factors for which they are not responsible.  This translates to women standing off to the side and purposely not joining the guys at the table, even though they probably belong there, discussing deals, proposing ideas and taking credit for results.  “No one gets to the corner office by sitting on the side,” Sheryl says.  So, own your success – sit at the table!

2)     Make your partner your real partner.  In couples where both partners have full-time jobs, women tend to perform a disproportionate amount of housework and child care.  Basically, we’re trying to equalize things in the workplace, but we haven’t yet equalized things at home.  Home life duties need to fall to both partners, and it has to be valued – no matter who is doing the work.

3)     Don’t leave before you leave.  Women who are thinking about the next big thing in their lives get trapped in a mindset that makes them forget about the present.  Sheryl advises to keep your foot on the gas pedal all the time.  Keep engaging, keep learning, and keep challenging yourself – up until you move on to the next chapter.

What I loved about Sheryl’s talk at TED is that she addresses a very real, very big issue – but offers us small, doable chunks of guidance that, when done one at a time, or in baby steps, can have significant, sizeable impact.  Not enough women in leadership positions?  How can I – one woman – affect any kind of change to shift this statistic?  Well, I personally can start by saying a simple “thank you” at my department meetings when I’m complimented on the success of a major project.  I always say “it was a team effort and I just worked with some great people.”  I can also quit beginning some of my sentences with “This may have been done before, and it might sound kind of dumb, but here’s my idea.”

Do you, dear YWiB-ers, agree with Sheryl’s tips and tricks?  Is it that easy?  Can we change the way things are by employing her three tactics outlined at TED?  What’s something you can do to help move women onward and upward?

And for your viewing pleasure...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18uDutylDa4&w=500&h=284

happy #IWD!

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Today is International Women’s Day.  When I started thinking about this post, I knew that whatever we wrote had to be crazy profound, informative, celebratory, and engaging.  So I did what every curious, thirsty-for-knowledge YWiB-er would do: I went to Google.  And it actually turned out to be a great place to start, since whenever I search for something on Google I’m reminded of the power and impact of women today, and I’m always, always amazed.  Know why?  Because that blessedly simple homepage, those fun-tastic Google Doodle logos, that perfect list of links I get after hitting enter – and my Gmail account, for goodness sake – those elements are the work of Marissa Mayer, a personal hero of mine and Google’s former vice president, search and user experience.  Mayer is now the search giant’s vice president, location and local services (that’s Google Maps and Google Earth to us common-folk).  She’s a cupcake-loving, thirtysomething fashionista who has a Masters in Computer Science from Stanford and was Google’s first female engineer.  Happy International Women’s Day, indeed. Anyways, back to my Google search (thanks, Marissa!).  International Women’s Day is more than a century old, having begun in 1909.  It honours the achievements women have made on a political, economic and social scale all over the world.

What’s happening on this day of celebration?

YWiB is proud to be a part of such a great international community.  We’ve got a rich history, and we’re only just starting out!  Here are some highlights of our contributions to the young women in our own backyard:

  • Beyond Pink is a unique, high-impact, two-day conference aimed at providing real world skills that are applicable to girls from all walks of life.  What started in 2009 became YWiB’s signature event, bringing delegates mentor dinners, insightful workshops, the Entre-Carnival tradeshow, inspirational keynote speakers and panels, and a conference experience like no other.  Watch for Beyond Pink 2012 – it’s back and it’s going to be better than ever!
  • Miss Representation Screening and Panel
    • Miss Representation is the documentary film that’s taken the world by storm, exploring women's under-representation in positions of power and influence in America and challenges the limited portrayal of women in mainstream media.  YWiB, of course, got our hands on it and in partnership with the YWCA Metro Vancouver, Networking in Vancouver, PeaceGeeks, and Vancouver's Women Business Networks, held not one but TWO screenings of the film as well as a panel discussion with some of the city’s biggest names in PR and media,
    • For #IWD, Miss Rep & Lovesocial have partnered to create this great video, check it out!
  • Cross-Generational Salons
    • We bridge that gap they call generational by bringing an accomplished group of Vancouver’s women leaders together with the next crop of girls who want to follow in their footsteps for questions, answers and everything in between.  The next cross-generational salon is coming up soon – you’ll find the details here so keep watching this space!

Of course, we at YWiB wouldn't be where we are today without the amazing women who have paved the way for us and helped us along in this incredible movement.  We’re so lucky to have such wonderful members, advisors, partners, and supporters – THANK YOU!  Our mission is to connect young women with the skills and support to achieve success on their own terms and to become engaged members within their communities.  We can do this because of the women who have set the stage before us in years past, and we hope to equip all of YOU with the tools to do the same for the future.

Happy International Women’s Day!

“ I love quotes. I’ve collected quotes since the beginning of Google.  There was one that really stuck with me that was on the cover of the Stanford admissions letter the year that I got in: ‘The world is before you, and you need not take or leave it as it was when you came in.’” – Marissa Mayer

chatting with...anne giardini

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Anne is what people have called a “petite powerhouse.”  A lawyer called to the bars of both Ontario and British Columbia, much of her career has been spent as in-house counsel and, more recently, as a corporate executive.  Since 2008, Anne has been President of Weyerhaeuser Company Limited, a subsidiary of Weyerhaeuser Company, an integrated forest products company with a head office in Federal Way, Washington, and a presence in 13 countries.  She works closely with senior management on both sides of the border on corporate, legal, policy and strategic issues. Anne is active as a volunteer in the community.  She is also an author, journalist, and frequent public speaker on a range of topics, in addition to being a great supporter of YWiB.  We were lucky enough to get inside her busy mind for a quick chat.

name three people you'd like to have a dinner party with. Limiting myself to people who are alive, and people I don't normally have dinner with, I'd chose the writers Malcolm Gladwell, David Mitchell and Hilary Mantel. We would talk about writing, naturally, as well as creativity, the way our minds work, and how to positively affect human behaviours in order to change the world.

as a novelist, do you ever get writer’s block?  how do you push through it? I was a non-fiction writer years ago, but have been a fiction writer since I started to write novels. I do get writer’s block. It is an odd affliction because the cause and the symptom are both the same - not writing.  The cure is to write. You need to write fluently and vigorously, regardless of quality. Over time, the quality and quantity do return.

how do you balance life as the CEO of Weyerhaeuser and a mother? I am fortunate to have healthy, independent children, a healthy independent spouse, and reliable household help. Also, I have abundant energy and a positive spirit. I am constantly astonished at how many people who are young and in the peak of health comment that they have too little time to read, create, exercise, see friends, do volunteer work, etc. Assuming you work, as I do, 7 to 5, that leaves five or six hours every evening free, as well as many weekend hours.  Use these hours to do something you love.

advice you would give to someone wanting to go to law school? There are two kinds of people who do well in law. First, people who are very good at details. Second, people who are very good at higher level strategic thinking.  The best lawyers are both. If you are only one or the other, you may struggle from time to time, in law school and in practice, but once you learn to play to your strengths you can do fine, especially if you work with people who have the opposite skill set.  You must in any case be very hard working and you should relish hard work, in fact take delight in it.

why do you think YWiB and the YWiB philosophy is important for young women in the community? Women in particular do seem to benefit from role models. It gives us a sense of what life could be like, so we can visualize it, effectively try it on for size to see if it suits us.  Organizations like YWiB provide a wide range of examples of the path forward, and show young women what can be possible. We tend to doubt ourselves, so it is important to have a forum in which to air both certainties and uncertainties so we can share the former and address the latter.

 

 

 

Congratulations Stephanie Wong

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We love to see our ladies succeed and gain recognition for their achievements! Congratulations to YWiB SFU's last president, Stephanie Wong for winning the HSBC Women in Business Leadership Award!

Stephanie was selected for her outstanding academic achievement and record of student leadership. At SFU, she helped establish SFU’s Young Women in Business (YWiB) chapter. Additionally, she founded programs such as the Supporting Our University Leaders (SOUL) Mentorship Program and GIVE (Generating Innovative Visions of Entrepreneurship) for Social Entrepreneurs.

Over the next five years, this prestigious award will be granted to four female SFU students and our very own Stephanie Wong is the first to receive it!  As a recipient, Stephanie will receive $10,000 per year for her final two years of her Bachelor of Business Administration degree. Way to go!

“It is an incredible honour to be the first SFU recipient of the HSBC Women in Business Leadership Awards,” said Stephanie Wong. “This generous award will enable me to further my education and dedicate my time to making a positive impact on the issues I am most passionate about, including building a more diverse workplace for myself and my peers.”

Well Stephanie, we can't tell you how proud we are to have you on our side! We have no doubt that you will make your mark, inspire difference and create a better workplace for all ladies out there. Congratulations again and we wish you luck with the rest of your studies! :)

Read the full article here