Emerging Leader Spotlight: Nicole Doebert, Marketing Strategist, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans

Name: Nicole Doebert
Title: Marketing Strategist
Company: Thrivent Financial for Lutherans
Location: Appleton, Wisconsin

Favorite quotes:
“You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try.”
—Beverly Sills

“Don’t block the blessings.”
—Patti LaBelle


What is your leadership style?
I lead very collaboratively. Relationship building is my number-one strength. I love people, and I try to acknowledge others as people first, professionals second. I believe in inspiring trust in others by always, always, always doing what I say I will do. And I also believe in trusting others to do the same. So I do my best to lead with trust, support, and a little fun thrown in. I love to laugh!

What tools or resources have you used that have been crucial to your success?
One thing that has really helped me in my career development is using tools to help me identify my “sweet spot” or unique ability. It means that I’ve taken a hard look at what I’m great at, what I love doing, and what my organization needs. And I try to find ways to work in that place, rather than doing things outside of that. It’s not always possible, of course, but by trying to work in that sweet spot it lets me succeed and helps the company.

I also find great value in tools like the Kolbe A Index and Strengthsfinder 2.0. Knowing your strengths, your innate style, yourself, really, helps you also know how to relate to others. By knowing who you are and what you need to work well, it’s easier to then be able to know how to work in ways that support the needs of others.

What steps are you taking to improve yourself professionally?
I’m the chair of our Thrivent Women’s Leadership Network. In that role, I am amazed, delighted, honored, and humbled to work with fantastically talented women throughout our organization. Being able to connect and network with these women helps me increase my business acumen, learn through their examples and share in a support system where we all help each other be better leaders—and people.

I also continually take on stretch assignments that will let me work cross-functionally in the organization and that will let me learn new skills and lead teams. There’s always that hint of fear taking on things like that—leaping into the unknown and pushing yourself beyond what you think you might be capable of. But I’m grateful that I’ve had good opportunities and leaders willing to coach me and help me learn. Sometimes I surprise even myself!

What is the next step you plan to take to develop your leadership skills?
I would like to find a mentor. I am blessed to have many informal mentors who help me when I have questions or need coaching and support. But I think creating a more formal mentorship with someone could help me advance to the next stage of leadership. I think having someone with a more external perspective could be a real benefit.

What are some top tips for other women who want to be recognized as a high-potential emerging leader?
Network, network, network. Make connections and build relationships with people inside your organization and within your community. Take leadership roles on divisional projects, organizational committees, or non-profit boards. Take advantage of opportunities to present your work to leadership teams—and put your name on any presentations of results for your projects. Be a resource for those looking to learn more about what you’re doing—and give them a reason to want to talk to you! You need to deliver results to be recognized as an emerging leader.

2012 Emerging Women Leaders Webinar Series starts February 14th.

Over the course of this six-part webinar series, nine senior-level women leaders will reveal their top tips on how to grow and develop as a leader while building a thriving and satisfying career.

The first webinar in the series, 'Being Strategic' is on Tuesday, February 14th with guest speaker Ellie Pidot, Medtronic's VP of Strategy. Ellie has a great talent for taking complex business concepts and breaking them down into simple steps. She will de-mystify what it means to be strategic and share the three components that every good strategy must have. She will address ways to communicate your strategy effectively to others and how to translate a strategy into action that delivers results.

Other topics in the series include:

• Sponsors: Advocates for Your Advancement , 4/24
  
  
• Building a Career Around Your Values and Strengths, 6/12
  
  
• Alternate Career Paths: Up is Not the Only Way Forward , 8/23
  
  
• Work-Life Integration, 10/30
  
  
• Working with Virtual and Global Teams, 11/27

Guest speakers include:

• Amanda Martinez, VP Manufacturing Operations - US Grocery at Safeway
  
  
• Jennifer Pope, VP, Member Interactions, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans
  
  
• Cindy Kent, Vice President & General Manager, Gastro/Urology Therapies at Medtronic
  
  
• … and six other outstanding women leaders from Medtronic, Siemens, Hewlett-Packard, eBay, Moss Adams, and JDSU.

Learn more or reserve your place now for $189

From the Article Archive: Mentoring

Question: There is a role model I admire. How do I engage them as a mentor?

Answer:

Just ask! It truly can be as simple as just asking if they will mentor you.

Check for chemistry

Start by requesting an informational meeting of twenty minutes (an amount of time most people can spare).

Engaging a mentor is like going on a first date – you would not ask for somebody’s hand in marriage on a first date! Don’t ask your role model to mentor you the first time you meet. It is a big commitment for both parties to make. Instead, test the water with the informational meeting, to see if there is a match. Before you meet, prepare three or four specific topics for discussion. If the meeting goes well, and you sense good chemistry, ask if they would like to meet on a regular basis. Negotiate the frequency and format that benefits both of you.

If your company has a formal mentoring program, sign up for it. They are generally well-designed, and include a list of potential mentors who have volunteered and are awaiting assignments. Your role model may already have volunteered. The program will give you guidance and protocols for getting started, but be aware that the most successful mentoring relationships continue beyond the initial term and become more informal.

Why stop at one?

In her keynote at the National Association of Women MBAs conference, Kim Brown, VP of Finance at Walmart noted the crucial role that mentors have in a person's career growth, saying “You might only need one mentor, but I have five.” She mentors five to eight individuals herself.
What many employees don’t realize is how very much mentors gain from the experience.

Pay it forward: mentor others

One senior-level woman, a leader in telecommunications, said “Do I have a mentor? I do. I believe it’s very important that you not only have a mentor but that you also are a mentor to others. I learn as much through mentoring as I do by being a mentee. It keeps me on my toes because usually they are younger people who are going through some of the challenges that I went through earlier in my career.” As a mentor, she gains new perspectives on what’s going on in the world, and keeps in better touch with her own organization and the challenges that are there today.

Question: I had a man tell me he would feel uncomfortable mentoring a woman. If you are a woman engineer and all the potential mentors are male how should you proceed?

Answer:

One approach is to know that there simply will not be chemistry between everyone you wish to have as your mentor. Schedule the informational meetings and do so until you find a match.

A second approach, if you are somewhat courageous, is to position this as a learning opportunity for both of you. You could say something like this: “To be honest, I was a bit uncomfortable approaching you too. I have not had a male mentor before. Since we are both new to this, there might be things we can both learn. I could answer any questions you have about working with and mentoring women, while you teach me about a… b… c…. Why don’t we set up an initial meeting, and see how it goes; if we decide to continue then great, and if not, that is fine.”


Jo Miller is CEO of Women’s Leadership Coaching Inc. which offers women’s leadership seminars and coaching programs.

From the Article Archive: Selling Your Technical Idea to Management, with Sophie Vandebroek, CTO, Xerox

Question: I have a great technical idea. How should I go about influencing it, and selling it to senior leaders?

Jo Miller answers:

I had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Sophie Vandebroek, Xerox’s Chief Technology Officer, at the Grace Hopper Celebration. As we discussed the skills that technical women need to be successful, Sophie seized on the importance of influencing, and explained her philosophy of what it really takes to influence a technical idea and gain buy-in from management.

Her philosophy: if you have a great technical idea that you want to bring to your leaders, don’t just try to explain it to them! You first need to do your homework.

In Sophie’s experience, “it is not good enough to have a bright technical idea”. As a researcher or a technical person, you alone won’t have the necessary credibility to influence all aspects of the business plan that you must produce for management that would ultimately get your technology into the hands of a satisfied customer:

Step 1. Prove your technology will work
“Number one, you have to prove that the idea will work, by building a little prototype or building your code and showing what you can do”, she explained.

Step 2. Partner with people who have credibility
The next critical step is to use your network to accomplish what you can’t do alone.

Sophie said “I have seen too many projects led by great, passionate people fail because they tried to be a lone influence. You have to get all the right people in the boat with you.

There are many technical researchers and engineers who will write their own business plan. But when it comes to areas like financial, marketing, and understanding what the customer really wants, the plan will lack credibility.
“You might be right, but the most important thing is to get those people who have credibility around the business plan and the market, from all the divisions, to say that your idea is really great and set it to your management.”

“You need to bring together the entire human fabric”.

Sophie Vandebroek was interviewed on this topic by Ed Donahue & Ashley Myers at the Grace Hopper Celebration. Watch the interview on YouTube.


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.

In our latest newsletter: A key to senior-level career advancement

In the latest issue:

A Key to Senior-Level Career Advancement

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Poised For Leadership workshop in Minneapolis

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Article Archive: How do I recession-proof my career?

Favorite Quote: The nerve for failure

Read it here . . .

From the Article Archive: How Do I Find My Niche

Question: Eleven years after entering the workforce, I still haven’t figured out what I want to become “when I grow up.” How can I know the best career direction to take?

Jo Miller answers:
One of the tactics I covered in my “Recession-Proof Your Career” session at the 2008 Grace Hopper Celebration is to know your personal brand.

One senior executive in charge of a multi-million dollar technology business unit that I interviewed recently shared that one of the best pieces of career advice she had received from a mentor was to know her career niche. Her mentor had advised her to “be famous for something” and to know her claim to fame. For this senior-level woman, it meant focusing her career around her greatest strength – sales – which led to an outstanding career.

In Jim Collins’ book “Good to Great,” he describes the parable of the fox and the hedgehog. A fox is a true multi-tasker with many talents. It is fast, stealthy, clever, and an excellent hunter. In contrast, a hedgehog has only one skill: it curls into a ball and pokes out its spines. Yet, the hedgehog does this one thing so well that the fox can’t beat it.

Collins discovered companies that consistently outperform competitors know what their “hedgehog” concept is and focus with laser-like clarity on being great at it. A similar principle works when identifying your niche and creating a powerful personal brand. It begins with giving up the temptation to be good at many things, but being famous for none of them.

But how do you choose what your focus should be?

Building from Collins’ concept, when considering what you want to carve a reputation for in your career, start by drawing a Venn diagram with three overlapping circles.

Name each circle for one of the three essential elements of a great personal brand:

Step 1. Talents
What are your greatest strengths, skills, and talents? (Or, which new ones could you easily learn?)

Step 2. Passions
What are your passions? (For example, what subject matter areas could you remain endlessly fascinated with for the rest of your life?)

Step 3. Market
What does your company, industry or market need, want, and reward? (Something for which you can be paid handsomely.)

Your challenge is to identify a niche where all three elements overlap for you – and one for which you could become synonymous with in your career.

Too many women try focus on their talents and passions without first investigating whether there is a market that will reward them. It is vital that all three conditions are met, but when they are, you can build an outstanding brand and a rewarding career.

What will you be famous for?

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.

From the Article Archive: How Do I Recession-Proof My Career?

Question: I am concerned about the economic downturn affecting my industry. What are steps I can take now to minimize the effects on my career?

Jo Miller answers:
Take the three following steps:

Step 1: Identify your personal brand.
Women who have outstanding careers are known for doing something well. They have found a career niche that combines their talents and passions. This is something that their company or industry needs and wants badly enough that they are sought after and highly valued.

One career-threatening mistake many women make is choosing a niche that fulfills their passions and uses their talents, but does not have the highest relevance to the marketplace.

Identify what you want your name to be synonymous with and aim to carve out a reputation for yourself as the go-to person in that area of focus. Select projects and roles that reinforce the brand and make your accomplishments visible.

Step 2: Analyze your network.
You can learn to navigate your profession or industry with savvy by understanding the dynamics of the network that surrounds you. Start by listing or mapping out your existing professional network by identifying all the different groups of which you are a part.

Make sure to include:

• Your workplace team, department, and organization.
• Your industry-wide network from school and past jobs.
• Experts and others you have met through conferences industry events and miscellaneous networking.
• And anyone else who could be considered part of your professional network.

Now identify the gaps: who are the key people you would like to include in your network? Who can connect you with opportunities, resources, and information, and to whom you can provide the same?

Step 3: Create your strategic networking plan.
After reviewing your existing network, and noticing the gaps, create a plan to build a broad network of authentic relationships.

The best networkers take time on a weekly, or even daily, basis to reach out and connect with new and old contacts with the goal of building and strengthening life-long relationships. I recommend setting a quota for lunches, coffee meetings, calls or email re-connects, and sticking to it.

As you do, educate others about your brand and learn about theirs so that you can connect each other with the right people and opportunities in future. Over time, as those relationships mature, you will be able to leverage these to gain access to hidden knowledge and opportunities and contribute the same in return.

Masterful net-workers do this with the knowledge that they will never need to seek out a job again: it will find them. This is the recession proof career.

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.

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.

3 Tips to Becoming a Visionary Leader

By Jo Miller, CEO, Women’s Leadership Coaching Inc., Cedar Rapids

Are you a visionary? Most people wouldn’t answer yes.

Being visionary sounds like a lofty designation reserved for the rarest of business gurus. To anyone tending to the day-to-day running of a business, being a visionary can seem like an indulgence for which there simply is not time.

Though she would not refer to herself a visionary, Elizabeth Iversen, a vice president and general manager for Northrop Grumman Corp., was referred to me by employees who nominated her as an authority on this topic.

Read the full article at Business 380 Magazine . . .

From the Article Archive: Five Key People You Need in Your Network

Question: As a program manager, I rely heavily on influencing without authority to get my job done. As part of my development plan, my manager suggested I expand my network among our internal business partners so I can be more influential; however, I don’t want to be seen spending too much time unnecessarily schmoozing. Where should I start?

Jo Miller answers:

Wise advice from your manager! Having a network of strong working relationships across your organization can connect you with hidden information, resources, and opportunities. Having a great network makes it easier to get your job done, influence outcomes, and gain buy-in more easily.

If you spend a lot of time building relationships with an agenda, people will be used to seeing you only when you need something from them. This trains them not to look forward to seeing you. My recommendation is to set aside a couple hours per week, to build relationships with people at times when you don’t need anything from them.

To maximize your time while you expand your network, consider starting first with these five key types of people:

Step 1. The Connector

The connector is a true “people person” who knows — and has great relationships with — everyone. They put others at ease. This person loves to open doors and make introductions. Watch them and learn!

Step 2. The Informational Powerhouse

This person is like a human grapevine. They love to keep a finger on the pulse and stay current on organizational issues. They filter useful information from gossip or noise and know about changes before they occur. Seek them out when you need to know about new trends, ideas, projects, opportunities, and so on, before they become official.

Step 3. The Influencer

The influencer is not necessarily a high-level or high profile leader, but they have a natural ability to make things happen. They get people on board with ideas and initiatives, gain agreement and collaboration from teams, and they have a voice with senior leadership. Their early support can guarantee the success of your initiatives and their advocacy can get you noticed.

Step 4. The Senior Leader Sponsor

These are your manager’s peers (and those ranked above them) and they have the power to dramatically accelerate your career. Interacting with them frequently can help you align your work effort with your organization’s strategic goals. They have the ability to single you out for recognition and connect you to special projects, task forces and committees, and new opportunities for growth

Step 5. The Mentor

Need I say more?

Many of the senior-level women I coach can trace their career advancement back to a turning point, where a mentor advised them on something they needed to be doing differently.

I often observe men using their mentors differently than women do — they are more proactive about asking their mentor to sponsor them. Consider asking your mentor to actively open doors and connect you with opportunities.

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.