Poised for Leadership workshop on October 27 in Germantown, MD

Poised for Leadership is a workshop for women who want to create a roadmap into positions of responsibility, influence and leadership in corporations.

In this one-day workshop led by Jo Miller, CEO of Women’s Leadership Coaching, Inc, you will discover what it really takes to advance into leadership, including how to:

-Project a seasoned, credible leadership presence
-Gain visibility and reward for your accomplishments
-Build a reputation as a leader, expert or go-to person
-Understand the dynamics of power in your organization -Navigate organizational politics with savvy
-Build your sphere of influence
-Leverage your network to gain access to hidden resources, information and opportunities -Cultivate influence and get buy-in for ideas and initiatives
-Create, envision and lead high-profile projects.

Companies that have utilized Poised for Leadership to develop women employees include Apple, eBay, Bank of America, Intel, JDSU, Medtronic, Microsoft, Salesforce.com, Siemens, Symantec, and numerous others.

Poised for Leadership has received rave reviews from women across the US and Canada. Past participants have said:

"This was the best, most beneficial training I've attended in years."

"This seminar is one of the best I've ever attended. You'll walk away with a new inspiration and determination."

"Every point Jo made was relevant. We walked out with strategies for being a leader-not just in our workplace but in our daily lives."

Cost: $289 per person (or $269 per person for groups of three or more).
Date: October 27, 2011, 9:00 am to 4:45 pm
Location: JDSU, One Milestone Center Court, Germantown, MD 20876

Sponsored by: JDSU

Register now or learn more, at www.womensleadershipcoaching.com/pfl.htm

Kim Zilliox brings the Leadership Academy to the Network of Executive Women (NEW) annual Leadership Summit

Following her success delivering a year-long Leadership Academy webinar series for the Network of Executive Women (NEW), Kim Zilliox, Vice President of Leadership Development with Women’s Leadership Coaching, Inc. was invited to bring the Leadership Academy to conference participants at NEW's annual Leadership Summit.

Kim's sessions on Negotiating and Influencing were enjoyed by over 300 women in the consumer packaged goods and retail sectors, who learned how to expand their professional networks, strengthen their negotiation and influencing skills, and gain new inspiration to be an effective leader.

From the Article Archive: Building a Presence in a Global Virtual Workplace

Question: I read your recent column on self-promotion, however since I work remotely from most of my group and cannot present in meetings or catch people in the hallway, it is harder for me to be visible to management. Can you help?

Jo Miller answers:
I recently coached a woman with a similar issue. Perhaps her story can help you.

Ingrid was senior manager of a marketing communications team. She and her team had been well-known as the “go-to people” for the support services they provided to other groups within her company.

After a re-org, Ingrid’s team was moved into a different business unit, reporting in to a new leader. As a result, nobody knew who she was, or what she was responsible for. Ingrid’s new manager quickly recognized her as a star performer, worthy of a promotion, but this required selling the idea to a general manager who had no knowledge of Ingrid or her track record.
To make things even more complicated, Ingrid worked from home, managed a small global team, and rarely traveled to corporate headquarters.

Ingrid’s goal was to become visible to her team’s internal stakeholders and senior leaders, even though she worked remotely from them. Here are the five steps she took:

Step 1. Work less.
Too many women make the mistake of thinking that if they just worked harder, they would get recognized. Unfortunately, their reputation gets buried under a thankless pile of work. To remedy this, Ingrid allocated a couple hours per week, not to work, but to activities that made her more visible.

Step 2. Know your personal brand.
Ingrid thought deeply about what she wanted her name to be synonymous with, and created a 30-second introduction: “My name is Ingrid, and I am the Senior Manager of Marketing Communications. I am responsible for a, b, and c. You should come directly to me if you need x, y, or z.” She used this to reinforce her brand every time she was introduced to a new person or group.

Step 3. Know who’s who in the organization.
With help from her mentor, Ingrid reviewed her business unit’s org chart and identified the key players and teams that she needed to get to know.

Step 4. Create a strategic networking plan.
For every key person on her list, Ingrid identified a way to connect with them and build an authentic relationship. To do this, she arrived to teleconferences early to have time to small talk, made sure to prepare talking points and speak up during every teleconference, set up 20 minute phone calls with people she needed to get to know, scheduled ongoing check-in calls to strengthen working relationships, invited other managers to present in her staff conference calls (and vice versa), and created a team newsletter to update their stakeholders on monthly milestones. On the rare occasion that she visited HQ, Ingrid leveraged that time by using every available meal or coffee break to meet with key people.

Step 5. Make your accomplishments visible.
Ingrid did not want to overdo the self-promotion and make it seem like she was always bragging. As her coach, I pointed out that many women use this excuse to hold back from self-promoting at all and that it was time to strike an appropriate balance. To achieve that balance, Ingrid prepared short “soundbytes” describing her recent accomplishments and included those soundbytes in conversations at every appropriate opportunity: she publicly acknowledged her team (using both “we” and “I” statements), forwarded kudos emails from stakeholders to her leaders to read, showcased team accomplishments in a monthly newsletter, and proactively asked her manager and mentors to champion her accomplishments to senior leaders.

Five months after embarking on her plan to become more visible, every stakeholder in the department knew who Ingrid was and came directly to her for her expertise. The GM commented on how lucky they were to have gained Ingrid in the re-org and approved her promotion.

Jo Miller is CEO of Women’s Leadership Coaching Inc. Through leadership workshops, coaching programs and webinars, Jo helps women create their roadmap into leadership positions in business.