I attended Broad Advantage in New York
this week, an exciting week-long Finance Boot Camp for more than 100 undergraduate
women from colleges as near and far as Barnard and the University of Hong Kong.
Many inspiring presenters spoke, from Fred Eckert III, Chairman and CEO of GSC
Group (http://www.gsc.com/),
to Katie Orenstein, author and founder of The Op-Ed project (http://www.catherineorenstein.com).
Throughout the week, I found four recurring themes to describe the attributes
required for a woman’s success in finance or any kind of career.

Believe in Yourself. Nagging self-doubt
holds many of us back, from patenting a novel idea to writing an opinion piece
on a topic we feel strongly about. It’s key to focus not on what you are missing,
but on what you have accomplished. Before an interview or an upcoming tricky
business meeting, review your talents to yourself again and again. Keep in mind
who you are and all that you have done to prepare yourself through education
and experience. Think about the value you offer to others.

Leverage your voice! Katie
Orenstein spoke of the need for more women to join public debate in order to
affect the white male-dominated airwaves and shape history. Whether it’s speaking
up in class or on a team or writing a blog on a subject you feel passionate
about, women need to exert their leadership vocally in everyday life and the
larger public arena. Practice communicating your potential value to others so
you become comfortable broadcasting in a persuasive way the expertise you offer.
Women often make less money than men or receive slimmer packages because they
fail to negotiate during the interview process. For more on the Op-Ed project,
go to http://www.theopedproject.org
.

Be a Lifelong Learner.
Even a job where you are miserable can provide a learning experience. Every
activity we engage in adds to our portfolio of skills and personal attributes.
Dealing with a very difficult boss prepares us for the next one (or causes us
to break through and become entrepreneurs!) We all need to put in the time on
jobs or aspects of jobs that might not completely excite us…these are building
blocks to develop our longer-term careers. Lifelong learning is such an important
trait to short- and long-term career success that employers today often ask
prospective candidates specific questions to assess it during the interview
process.

If in everyday life you are facing a challenge,
spend time finding the causes of the situation to unearth the deep-seated source.
Spend as much time on the problem and its causes as on determining the right
solution. Consider each mistake you make as a learning opportunity. And don’t
be afraid of what you don’t know. Entrepreneurs Monica Fergus Murphy and Becca
Brown, Co-Founders of SoleMates LLC (http://www.thesolemates.com),
spoke of reaching out to experts on an issue they knew nothing about. They knew
they were not experts on plastics design so they “Googled” and networked to
find the best designer to meet their needs. And they also spoke of never giving
up. If something doesn’t work out the first time you try it, find a new way
to approach it or ask someone else to review the situation to see what you can’t
see. Surround yourself at work with smart people to learn from. And ask for
feedback from others on the job on how you are doing. For more on life-long
learning, read Charles D. Hayes book , Beyond the American Dream: Lifelong
Learning and the Search for Meaning in a Postmodern World. http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-American-Dream-LifelongPostmodern/dp/0962197920/ref=si3_rdr_bb_product

Resilience and Stamina.
Find ways to take care of yourself so that you have the strength to get through
the hard times. This can be in the form of taking a walk, going for a jog, doing
yoga, or reading fiction on the beach, having a Starbucks , or whatever relaxes
your mind. Getting too obsessed with a job, a situation, a problem can undermine
your judgment and inhibit your objective thinking and perspective. When the
website for their new company went live, Becca Brown spoke of a 24/7 obsession
where she counted hits to the website and experienced moment by moment excitement
followed by despair, then excitement. Occasional breaks from work can provide
the opportunity for greater perspective, and lead you to creative, new approaches
to problems. When working on a lengthy or discouraging project, celebrate small
successes to reward yourself and others to keep yourself motivated. Write a
list of all the positive aspects of the job or project. Think about your longer-term
career goals and how what you are doing fits in to the whole. For more
on executive stamina, read Marty and Joshua Seldman’s book, Executive Stamina:
How to Optimize Time, Energy, and Productivity to Achieve Peak Performance.
http://www.amazon.com/Executive-Stamina-Optimize-Productivity-Performance/dp/0470222905/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218298382&sr=1-1

Before you consider off-ramping, discuss
the long-term effects of leaving the work force with a variety of women, those
who have off-ramped, on-ramped, and stayed in the workforce in some way for
the long haul. Reflect on issues of psychological and financial independence
going forward as these are serious considerations in life. As a woman who off-ramped,
then on-ramped into my own consulting business, I personally advise young women
to keep their foot partly or squarely in the work “door” during the child-rearing
years.

Leverage your Network.
Janet likes to describe “the business case for networking” because networking
isn’t just a casual, goal-free process—we can use networking to add value to
our customers, gain customers, cement customer relationships, find experts to
help us on projects, discover mentors to guide us, and, to coin Janet’s phrase,
“co mentors,” those we give to and gain from. When seeking a mentor, look for
individuals with some common bond—a school, a hobby, an interest.

Use 85 Broads to reach out to others
when you need help. Learn how other women have succeeded by watching
their behaviors and learning from their stories. Try to make networking a top
priority in life, not a sidebar, by attending conferences, going to alumni events,
and setting up lunches between interesting people who might learn from or benefit
each other. Harvard Business School uses a case study on Heidi Roizen (http://roizen.com/heidi/)
to display the importance of networking; Roizen, a highly successful entrepreneur
and former corporate technology executive, maintains an extensive broad and deep
personal and professional network to benefit both herself and others. To purchase
this case on line, go to: http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b02/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=800228