It is a well that is deep and I can keep drinking!  These GWALS pre-summit sessions are great tasters – an amuse-bouche that makes you want to sign up for the full session and engage more fully with the speakers!

For a short time, GWALS summit ticket buyers can become givers too.  For every ticket bought at early-bird rates before 11pm Friday Oct 9, GWALS will gift a matching Scholarship ticket for UN Empower Women.

Some feedback from some of my readers:

• You cannot dial into the session on the day.  YOU HAVE TO PRE-REGISTER on the website for the pre-summit sessions.  You will then be emailed a personalized webinar invitation.  You can always choose not to attend, but now you have your options open.
• The same will be true for the full summit, so heads up.
• The Early Bird pricing is in effect until Thursday Oct 15.  I would take advantage!  Your ticket entitles you to the recordings of all the pre-summit sessions and a number of host give-aways.

Midlife Matters:  How to Thrive as a woman, leader & change-maker in your forties, fifties and beyond

Dion Johnson, UK

This is where my engagement with GWALS started!  Here was a title that spoke to me the minute I saw it:

 ‘How do I THRIVE’,

“Can I still be a change-leader?”

Thriving matters to me.  It  references growth, improvement, evolution.  Coming from a long line of women who lived well into their 80s and 90s in eras without the benefits of modern science, I can only imagine I have many years ahead.  I have no intention of sitting on a bench, on the sidelines of life.  I still have much to offer.  “Be deliberate and intentional about thriving”

Dion was amusing and engaging and authentic and offered much advice.  Here are some of my notes, and I could not scribble fast enough:

1. Close the Authenticity Gap between what we truly care about, what motivates us AND How we are showing up, are we just surviving?
2. Show UP, Speak UP, Step UP:  find, face & embrace who you really are (don’t wear a mask)  Do not play small.  We need women who will speak up and make changes that matter
3. MEANINGFUL MISSIONS:  Do not ignore the real issues.  If you need things to change, be courageous in embracing the issues that are the problem.  This applies to your client base as well.  What issues are they glossing over and ignoring?
4. Be supported and led (forward).  This is not the same as be driven!.  We as women are designed for SISTERHOOD!  Share our vulnerabilities and our weaknesses.

Takeaways, Notes & Quotes:

• When Women lead as Women, there is ‘Radical Authenticity’.
• 5Ts: Trails Tribulations Tests Troubles T??
• If you are a midlife woman with a senior leadership position, you are a woman positioned to change the world

Dion will be speaking at the full summit on Friday Oct 30 at 9:30am.

Confidence vs. Competence

Bruce Kasanoff, USA

This presentation has already been re-purposed with my teenagers!

When Bruce described how he – as accomplished and prolific a writer as he is – was dealing a confidence issue at having to speak on the webinar, he engaged me immediately!

He IS a very insightful and engaging presenter.  He recognizes the need to encourage us to step forward into visible and leadership positions

A self confidence is a RESTRICTIVE BELIEF – success correlates as much with confidence as it does with competence.

• Fake confidence until it begins to feel more natural and comfortable.
• ‘Pretend’ to be amazing – related to your self awareness
• Practice the right thing – not negativity and doubt

Takeaways, Notes & Quotes:

• Katty Kay and Claire Shipman article in the Atlantic on the Confidence Gap
• NYT article on VC and diversity
• Women are beginning to open more small businesses.  But they do not grow and thrive at the same rate as male-dominated small businesses.  Why?
• “it is easier to act your way into a new way of thinking than to think your way into a new way of acting”

Three Generations of Gender-conscious Men

Ray Arata, Dale Thomas Vaughn, Ed Gurowitz

Want to talk to another group of men who are engaging in the discussion about inclusionary leadership, but affecting change by taking it directly to the men?  These are the gentlemen you need to be aware of.

• As women, we lap up books such as ‘Men are from Mars and Women from Venus’.  It explains how each sex typically re-interprets an event based on their own filters.

As founding partners of the Gender leadership Group, they focus on presenting to men a business case for inclusionary leadership that converts the joy of bringing more women to the top into a balance sheet equation that is more opportunity, and discusses the real economic risk to eschewing that same opportunity.

I really enjoyed the discussion on the need to Engage Men, the growing economic case for including more women in the leadership teams (in positions of power) and the driving forces behind these gentlemen’s need to dance in this space.

As you read more about them, be sure to watch Dale Thomas Vaughn’s TedX presentation on  Great Men Think Alike, and read Ray’s book Wake Up Men.

Takeaways, Notes & Quotes:

• There are a lot of good men out there, ready to help support us women.

The Renegade Factor – Evolving “Pretty” to “Pretty Rad” 

Amy Jo Martin, USA

Innovation as a Strategic and Cultural Lever 

Jane Sernack, Australia

‘}…{‘

Over to you:

} .. Did you get to implement one thing from this day’s summit?  What was it?

INSPIRATION AND RESEARCH MATERIAL FOR THIS BLOG:

• Got to www.gwals.com for the rest of the  pre-summit and full summit programs, and for the full presenter bios
• Register for the program here
• Link to GWALS facebook page