Meeting Highlights

Andrea McGimsey, held the audience spellbound during her very informal presentation at the Women’s Forum, March 5, 2008. The 20 women able to attend were impressed with the route that brought Andrea, now an elected Supervisor for Loudoun County through Wall Street, to Boston, to LA, and back to Virginia in a variety of positions with several name dropping organizations, from fashion to finance to technology.

Andrea’s extensive career experiences led Melanie Miles to exclaim, “When is your book coming out?!” Andrea is a very passionate, energetic and enthusiastic person, who will bring a dynamism to the county supervisors, like a real blast of fresh air!

We are expecting great things of Andrea, and she is expecting nothing less from each of us, as she closed with a plea for all of us to get involved in saving our planet, focus on the environment, and to learn how to be as “green” as possible both as individuals as well as role models for others. Andrea welcomed all of us to volunteer to work with her on improving our environment.

Sorry Andrea that we made you late for your Board Meeting, but we really thank you for enlightening our group!

On Wednesday, March 28, Dr. Liz Mullens spoke to the networking gathering of the Women’s Forum on the subject of Women in Leadership. Forty women representing a diverse mix of professions and backgrounds sat on the edge of their chairs as Liz illuminated “women in leadership”: statistics on successes to date, what it is, barriers to it and what individuals can do to set themselves on a path toward leadership.

Liz pointed out that leadership is a choice one makes, that it is important that men as well as women be educated on the diversity existing between the genders—and that leadership is all about mentoring. She quoted Muzette Hill: “When every first makes it her business that there will be a second.”

This was not a one-sided lecture. Liz involved her audience throughout, asking rhetorical questions, such as “Am I willing and able to prepare myself to lead?” “Am I creating a context in which others are willing and able to lead?” And Liz asked a couple of questions asking for audience input—“What changes in your organization could allow increased participation of women in leadership?” “How can I impact that change?” To all of the discussion there were no sure-fired answers found. But the 40 women in attendance certainly went away with lots to think about.

Dr. Liz Mullens is Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Pennsylvania College of Technology. Much of her career has been focused on women’s leadership initiatives.

Once in a while we decide to take a slight step to the side and present a program as part of our professional women’s networking forum that looks at some of the specific issues women may encounter as we look to the future and our retirement. Such was the case for our session on April 5 as our group gathered to hear a panel of professional women address life’s financial realities from the context of different age brackets. Regardless of where you are in your life’s journey, we felt there would be a strong message for attendees to take away.

Our three panelists joined us from Edward Jones Investments and represented three age groups. Each offered a perspective of what women in their age bracket could be doing with the ongoing development of their financial portfolios to prepare for the decades ahead. And with so many women cast into the single parenting role at some point, this was particularly poignant.

The panelists were: Helen M. Nichols, Marcie Finnell and Deborah J. Okim—all from the Leesburg offices of Edward Jones. They had the combined experience base of 17 years in the financial consulting industry. For those who might wonder, there were no sales pitches from our speakers. The thrust was to expand the horizons of the attendees.

Each of the women who attended the event received a complimentary copy of David Bach’s book, Smart Women Finish Rich – 9 Steps to Achieving Financial Security and Funding Your Dreams.

The Fall 2005 Women’s Forum networking event was held on October 5 and attended by 30 professional women from the greater Metropolitan Washington DC area. Our speaker was to have been Beth Hunt, Editor of the Washington Business Journal, but at the last minute, she had a medical emergency and sent her stand in. Amanda Long, Assistant Managing Editor of the Journal carried on admirably and addressed the ups and downs of being a woman in a senior management role in a highly visible professional publication. Amanda’s remarks were followed by a lively Q&A session, before the formal session adjourned to continue with refreshments and more networking.

On Wednesday, April 20, some 37 women listened intently and laughed heartily as nationally recognized speaker, Lois Walden, RN, BSN, presented her topic of Humor and Health: A Lesson in Laughter – about how laughter can enhance ones health.

She pointed out research that shows how laughter can raise pain thresholds, reduce stress and even boost immune-system function. Although a serious subject, Lois used humor and the human experience to teach stress management. The content focused on laughter and behaviors designed to get us through day to day life with fewer mental bruises.

One of the women attending, Suzanne Rickwall from Media Savvy summed up the evening this way:

“I so enjoyed Lois Walden’s wonderfully enriching presentation the other evening on what is clearly a mounting problem in our time starved, stress ridden, sleep deprived lives. Kudos to Miles LeHane for arranging such a joyous outing for the ladies, while redefining the gender barriers through the scrumptious culinary efforts catered by the men.”

The “culinary efforts” referred to by Suzanne, and a usual bonus to these events, was the incredible spread that David Miles prepared for the group in the Carriage House, the Miles’ residence on the back of the property.

The program began with an hour of networking as returning guests revisited friends made from previous events, and new guests met and made new friends.

The Women’s Forum session with novelist Tawni O’Dell was a grand success on Tuesday, October 27, 2004. Although the group was smaller than usual, the attendees – largely first timers to the program – had come to hear Tawni speak to the values of her characters and how she happened to choose Pennsylvania coal country as the settings for her first two novels, Back Roads and Coal Run.

After her brief presentation that addressed her launch into the writing field, Tawni opened the floor to questions. The questions—both profound and perceptive--kept coming and Melanie Miles finally had to step to move the evening on to the Carriage House for the informal reception and continuation of networking.

The 5th in the Women’s Forum series held on April 28 drew an audience of 40 women to a “Bodacious” event as keynote speaker, Mary Foley, shared strategies for career and personal success.

Many of you will know or know of Mary. She is a nationally recognized thought leader for women in business. At age 33, Mary retired from America Online, where she started 10 years earlier as an $8/hour customer service representative, and left as VP of Training and Development. Her books – Bodacious! Career: Outrageous Success and Bodacious! Woman: Outrageously in Charge of Your Life and Lovin’ It! – have helped women thrive in today’s world.

In her empowering message, Mary shared these 10 ways to achieve a bodacious style (i.e., bold, audacious, courageous = bodacious).
1. Don’t take it personally.
2. Create deliberate relationships.
3. Take the work out of networking.
4. Actively market your value.
5. Know how you want to be treated.
6. Take a stand.
7. Thrive on shift and change.
8. Know your worth.
9. Embrace office politics.
10. Think strategically, act bodaciously.

We are all more “fit” as a result of attending the fourth meeting of the Miles LeHane women’s Forum. Our October 15th event featured Mariah Burton Nelson, athlete and author of five books, including The Stronger Women Get the More Men Love Football and her newest book, We Are All Athletes: Bringing Courage, Confidence and Peak Performance Into Our Everyday Lives.

Mariah spoke about how society still expects women to be dainty, decorative, demure and deferential; many women are ambivalent about competing for what they want in the workplace. We don’t want to lose, or we don’t want anyone else to lose, or we’re afraid of male or female resistance if we win. That ambivalence can become a barrier to career advancement and effective leadership. In her presentation, Mariah redefined competition as “seeking excellence together” and encouraged women to define success for themselves, succumbing neither to the traditional male model (conquering) nor to the traditional female model (cheerleading). She showed participants how to handle opponents; how to cultivate teammates; how to “forgive yourself immediately for all mistakes,” and how to cultivate the heart of a champion: courageous, confident and compassionate.

Maria’s message to a capacity audience was not only inspiring but also supported the four themes upon which our Women’s Forum was founded:

Strengthening Leadership Behaviors
Building Influence in the Organization
Developing a Career Plan
Networking

Our Women’s Forum continued to gain momentum as we focused on making “great connections” at our third meeting, held April 9, 2003. Our dynamic keynote speaker was Lynne Waymon, co-author of Smart Networking. Lynne led all 32 attendees in a very enjoyable, interactive workshop designed to transform us into skilled networkers.

“Making the most of memberships and other opportunities to connect” was Lynne’s theme. We learned first to distinguish networking expectations from our acquaintances, associates, actors, advocates, and allies. Next, Lynne shared ways of interacting that result in growing acquaintances and associates into advocates and allies. Then the whole group enjoyed practicing making the most of three key moments in networking:
1. Name exchange
2. What do you do, and
3. How are you? What’s new?

Of course, the fun didn’t end with the meeting’s close. Once again, we adjourned to the Carriage House for fabulous food prepared by our hosts and chefs, Dr. David and Melanie Miles. Everyone ate their fill and made valued connections.

The second meeting of the Women’s Forum was held on Wednesday, October 23 at Miles LeHane’s Glenfiddich House in Leesburg, VA. Attending were 28 women executives from all over the Washington DC Metro area. Dr. David C. Miles spoke about his research findings as written in his newly completed and published doctoral dissertation, How Successful Executives Respond: A Phenomenological Study of Unplanned Career Transition. In particular, David focused his remarks on the women executives interviewed for this study. He explained that several key elements were present among the women executives he interviewed, enabling them to move rapidly through their difficult transitions and on toward their respective futures.

His concluding observation was that each of those executives “took control” of the termination situation and created a “positive event.”

On June 13, 2002, Miles LeHane sponsored and hosted the first in a new series of seminars for women executives. We call the series “Women Executives: Building Influence and Networks.” For our first meeting the turnout was exceptional. We had over 40 women executives from across the Washington Metropolitan Area and Pennsylvania representing almost as many different businesses. Dr. Cynthia Smith, a counseling psychologist and a senior consultant with Miles LeHane, gave the keynote presentation, exploring themes of women executives, including leadership competence, connecting, career development, and building influence and networks. With the stage set, a panel of executives and the audience had a very lively discussion on the issues raised.

Being a woman business owner, I have had the opportunity to be challenged in many areas, one in particular being a female business executive in a traditional male role. Using my network has helped me work through many issues. In our business of career management, we teach all of our clients how to maximize networks. We all know the power of networking and how it can impact critical areas throughout a career. The power of the network cannot be denied, whether for a man or a woman.

Our goal for this program is to provide an interactive environment where we can share, educate and learn from each other. Our focus will remain consistent, but each meeting will feature a fresh topic, presented from different executives’ perspectives that will provide new insights into the roles of Women Executives.

Following each meeting, we will summarize the discussions and post them on this site. Come visit our site often, or better yet come to the sessions and become an active participant.