Category: ONLINE LEADERSHIP

No comments

Bringing Your Authentic Self to Work

  By

Talk is cheap when it comes to Silicon Valley companies stating that they want to make a difference in the work environment to become more inclusive and diverse, but#Intel is actually doing something. Intel will invest $125 million in businesses led by women and underrepresented minorities and last weekend I was fortunate to be invited to attend Intel’s Professional Development and Leadership seminar.

Time went by quickly as it was delightful and inspiring to chat and network with various groups; Society of Women engineers, #SHPE Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers Silicon Valley, #NBMBA National Black MBA Association , #NSBE  National Society Of Black Engineers were a few of the organizations and individuals that were in attendance. The crowd was diverse and unlike most Meet-Ups in the Valley I was fortunate to meet several small business women entrepreneurs like myself, a financial analyst, engineering product manager and engineers; I even made a new friend, a former Mayor of the City of Mountain View. The energy and vibe that came from networking with like-minded individuals was motivating in itself, but so was Tan’nay Jenkins, Intel’s spunky Sr. Global Business  & HR Partner acting as emcee for the event (she had the crowd cheering and on their feet laughing), it was fun!

Neil Green

Neil Green, Intel’s Director of Strategy & Market Intelligence, Data Center Group: “Bringing Your Authentic Self to Work”

My favorite speaker at the career and leadership seminar was Neil Green, Intel’s Director of Strategy & Market Intelligence, Data Center Group who spoke on “Bringing Your Authentic Self to Work”. Being an immigrant, growing up in the Bronx and being beaten up for his Jamaican accent as a child he quickly felt it was safer to hide or “cover” his roots with a perfect American accent. He spoke on how fear, self-awareness, and his culture acted as inhibitors to his journey of self acceptance. His advice was to unmask and learn to be comfortable with those difference that make you special. Learn to be proud of what you may be masking and figure out what your five strongest values are because it’s those values that you carry with you constantly, at work and  personal life, that will define who you are and set you apart from others.

Mr. Green recommended a book by Kenji Yoshino called, “Covering”; he explained how downplaying and conforming one’s culture for society’s views will include denying your own identity. This will limit your authentic self and your ability to lead. Covering is not mutually exclusive of race, but includes everything that makes each of us unique to offer in any community and work. Green’s candid discussion about how his personal psyche struggled with this concept moved me as it did the entire audience. His generous expression of vulnerability, struck a chord and reminded me of a powerful TED Talk by Brene Brown on how our ability to emphathize shared human experience expresses qualities which great leaders share.

"Get comfortable being uncomfortable!" - Tan'nya Jenkins

“Get comfortable being uncomfortable!” – Tan’nya Jenkins

Intel’s vision is to invest in a diverse employee base that will provide different perspectives and solutions with hope to inspire the rest of  Silicon Valley that diversity does matter.

Intel is hiring: http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/jobs/hiring.html

 

#Intel #IntelisHiring #Diversity #iPDCS_SC

So you wanna #LeanIn and be a board member, ladies? Good. Here’s the scoop!

Image

  By

On the topic of increasing diversity in the work place, let’s consider several points on the subject of gender diversity on the board of corporations (private/public).

  • Companies perform better: Companies that have women on their boards performed better than an all-male board, suggesting that mixing genders may temper risky investment moves and increase return on equity. – Bloomberg 2012
  • Companies behave better: Companies that invest in gender diversity at high levels are less likely to fall prey to fraud, corruption, and other scandalous episodes. – ThinkProgress 2014

Should quotas be mandated in the U.S. private boards as they are in other countries?

There seems to be the trend as we see the European Commission considering to impose quotas across the EU (Norway introduced a 40% quota, Germany is 30%, and in Southeast Asia, Malaysia is 30% female directors).

#ExecFocusCircle March 19

#ExecFocusCircle grp discussed Women on Boards of Directors with speaker Katarina Bonde on the legalities, the expectations and why more women need to #LeanIn #WomenLead #Entrepreneurs

 

Thank you to Petere Miner of MinerConnection for inviting me to join the #ExecFocusCircle #LeanIn grp.

Last night’s topic: Women on Boards of Directors.  Katarina Bonde was our speaker for the evening. Katarina pitched her startup, Glides, to the Forum of Women of Entrepreneurs, and has since founded several tech companies and has served on 15 Boards.  She also owns West Wines in Healdsburg.

Questions asked:

  • Did you find the Boards or did they find you?
  • How did you determine which Boards to serve on?
  • What is the typical remuneration for a role on a Board?
  • What are the educational requirements for being on the Board and what are the liabilities?

 

 

No comments

Wendy Wallbridge on a mission to re- pave the road to success for women.

Image

  By

Online digital thought leadership comes in many forms to express one’s area of expertise, but it works best when one connects online as well as a HIRL (Hang-Out In Real Life).

A good friend recommended that I attend Wendy Wallbridge‘s book launch for the book titled “Spiraling Upward”.  On a personal note: I’ve been going through several transitions in my life lately, and in truth, often not feeling good about myself which has lead me to deeper exploratory questions of how I want to redefine my professional and personal life. As Wendy spoke of her own personal struggles of health and not aligning her work with her personal values it made me think of Brené Brown’s talk on the power of vulnerability and how real and significant it is bring these (otherwise known as) feminine traits to light.

The “Spiraling Upward” Mini-workshop and book launch party was held March 12, 2015 at the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto. I’m really looking forward to sitting down and absorbing this book and working through the exercises. Below is her TEDx Talk on the topic #SpiralUp!

Wendy Wallbridge's new book, Spiraling Upward

Ready for @WendyWallbridge’s #SpiralingUpward: The 5 Co-Creative Powers For Women on the Rise. #womenLead #IAmEnough Work => Love

For women, our own road map to whole-hearted success, is rarely straight and narrow. We women are at a turning point and are ready to birth something new. We want to lead lives that make a difference and that are fulfilled. For many of us that means becoming an entrepreneur of our own life so that it becomes more authentic, meaningful and expansive.

Women are particularly well suited for re-invention. It’s no accident that our bodies are designed to create… Strengths like collaboration, empathy, humility, flexibility, compassion and connectivity are a new competitive advantage.

But the paradox is that after study after study that show greater employment and educational opportunities correspond to decreases of  overall life happiness for women compared to men.

 

 

Reluctant thought leader, fear not; This book is for you.

Video

  By ,

I often meet business leaders who are, more frequent than not, skeptical or weary of digital online media. They tell me their reason for not wanting to start a blog, a LinkedIn profile or a Twitter account; Why would they start one and why engage in forums or LinkedIn groups? In truth it seems more frequent than not they just don’t understand the purpose of having any web presence.

According to Denise Brosseau

Thought leaders are the informed opinion leaders and the go-to people in their field of expertise. They are trusted sources who move and inspire people with innovative ideas; turn ideas into reality, and know and show how to replicate their success.

 

There are many reasons why it’s important to become a thought leader. A really good start is her book titled: “How To Be A Thought Leader“.

Here’s a brief video I created for the SV Forum Tech Women when we hosted at our event

The Overview of Content Strategy: How Do I Add VALUE

Video

  By ,

Before I begin any project we have to think about the specific audience you wish to appeal to and what value will this new information bring. I ask these questions to my clients because your customers are being bombarded by online messages constantly (though email, snail mail, television, social media platforms) and if the content is not useful, or is not relevant to their current needs your message will be lost, ignored or worse, you’ll be placed in their spam folder.

When creating content marketing strategy consider the following:

  1. Who is your target audience? What position are the decision makers? Is it B2B or B2C?
  2. What do your customers/audience want? What are their needs in the near future?
  3. What are their goals?
  4. How can we help them? What information can we share to help them come up with a solution.

Once we answer these preliminary questions we can figure out how to add value to their business and focus the best medium to use. Many corporate companies have been using white papers and case studies as examples for their customers on their websites, but the growth of on demand video and mobile video views have been increasing and social platform viewing of videos (such as on Facebook pages) and YouTube channels have been giving SEO boosts to company websites. The strength of storytelling using video not only establishes the customer as a thought leader but it helps convey several intangible things such as the company culture, the attitude of the company crew & executives, and values. People skills will add warmth and familiarity to any potential customer or buyer of a product and service. When people buy a product, they buy a brand, a culture, a lifestyle and it’s that promise that you are offering to them that will be conveyed in video.

Here’s an example of a project which we created to help educate our customers about the installation process while also demonstrating who are our customers.

 [Click to play “Scope of Work” video]

Vlogging for Business

Video

  By ,

Help engage your audience into your active sales cycle by speaking directly to them and make them a fan, not a customer.

Vlogging helps create a personal direct connection with your customers and creates a point person to identify thought leadership and expertise in your given field.

Your customers will develop a personal connection and will be able to relate and feel comfortable if there are any questions about the product or service.

Consider vlogging for quicker communication prior to an event.

Show the product or service, invite, and encourage others to share their thoughts and your content with their customers.

Some things to think about before you start a business vlog: What is your goal?  Who is your target audience? How is it best to reach them? How will you distribute the content and how will you measure success?

Speak directly and naturally to the camera and be your authentic-self! Creating a script and storyboard before the shoot is helpful to all involved.

 

Do you have a question? Feel free to contact me here.

VFMM Conference Project

Image

  By , ,
Krill Systems, Krill Days Events

KrillSystems.com,  Krill Days Events

Krill Systems decided to host a conference focusing on our vendor partners and invite all our current customers as well as potential customers. I was responsible for scheduling, producing and editing video invites that were embedded in the above eNewsletter.

Why Choose Video Shorts?

Videos have tripled in the last year with the average CTR for mobile video is rising from 3.73 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012 to 13.64 percent in the third quarter of 2013. And with more companies such as Vine and Instagram gaining millions of users and shares, brands account for 40% of the 1,000 most shared Instagram videos last month according to an Unruly report. The short form video has arrived and there are social platforms which love to share your event.

video-short

Work

  • Event planner and event marketing including video interviews of all guest speakers.
  • Event coordinator role including budget planning,  conference room AV/food catering/guest check-ins/collateral of vendors.
  • Produced and edited the embedded videos (see below) for eNewsletter invites.
  • Pre-event, real-time social monitoring and post event follow up on all distribution platforms.
  • Monitoring channels.

Tools

  • Adobe suite: Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks.
  • WordPress
  • Google Analytics
  • Premiere

Promotional interview with vendor videos here.

Maritime Leaders in the Pacific Northwest: Predictions for 2014

Video

  By

Boat-600x315

I recently interviewed a few of the maritime leaders for Krill Systems asking their thoughts and predictions for the upcoming year (2014). We were able to interview David Moseley, Director of the Washington State Ferries, Ralph Duncan, VP Business Development for BMT Designers & Planners, Matt Nichols, CEO Nichols Bros. Boat Builders, Art Parker, Sales Manager for Kvichak Marine Industries, Trevor Machen of Radar Marine, and Grant Fosheim for Vigor Industries.

[Click to play “Maritime Leaders” video]

This video was also redistributed by Maritime Executive Magazine’s Facebook page, their twitter feed and Maritime Executive website (our shared demographic audience). It pays to create sharable content because even if the viewers aren’t clicking through to your website from the video it’s still impressions and our company name giving brand visibility, everyone wins.

Maritime Ex website demographics

Maritime Ex website demographics

 

 

Social Media Workshops

Image

  By ,

Over the past ten years I have leveraged my graduate degree in digital media I have advised many organizations and individuals with their social media strategy. I enjoy volunteering and have helped many non-profits over the years.

  • Situation: The executives on the Board were very apprehensive with social media  and the club’s use of having a digital online presence. They understood that they needed a way to disseminate information to their members yet they wanted to retain control. Many club members’ reason for joining was to network and to discuss industry news but there were no opportunities beyond the club’s monthly onsite luncheons and discussions were time limited.
  • Solution: I recommended LinkedIn as their platform for communications.  I established and managed a private club LinkedIn group and taught the board members the importance of having a profile. The club’s website was used for general information and blog for current events but the private LinkedIn group was only for club members where anyone could bring up discussions without non-members prying eyes. Below one of the presentations which I gave to the Board.

  • Result: It was the beginning of a new era for the maritime members to create a new profile! Using a laptop I demonstrated to them, step-by-step, with instructions on how to create a new member profile. They were grateful and then could participate and freely network within a closed/private platform yet still be open to have new contacts.

Leaders in the Maritime Industry

Video

  By

Gael-TarletonAndrew-Bennett

This is a short video I created for my class, Leadership in the Digital Age: Establishing Authenticity through Story (Crofts). “Leadership skills are not just traits you are born with, but competencies you learn and refine throughout your life. Today, with office structures flattening and transparency at a premium, authentic leadership is critical for success in the digital age.”

In this video I interviewed two leaders in the maritime industry and ask how they’ve overcome fear of risk taking, self-doubt & how to avoid burnout.