Use the 10-letter “F” word – formidable – to succeed in business if you’re female, recommends Steffie Allen, founder of the Colorado- based Women’sVision Foundation.
Being called a “powerful woman” can take on a negative cast, but it’s good to get a reputation as being tough but fair, said Allen, who spread her message at the eighth annual Women’s Success Forum at the Adam’s Mark Hotel in Denver on Thursday. Her corporate-training group put on the motivational and networking event for about 1,000 people, most of them women.
“You have to be tough-minded and act assertively, but you don’t need to be mean or be nasty,” said Allen.
Turn business relationships to your advantage by collaborating with others, Allen said. It’s OK to be affectionate and to care about your colleagues.
“People who are connected to you will do things for you,” Allen said. “You don’t have to ask for authority to make things happen.”
Female leaders who know the secrets of how to share power with others in the corporate world make their employees stronger, said Christie Doherty, a former Qwest vice president of wholesale operations who oversaw 1,500 workers at one point.
“I call it ‘power with’ rather than ‘power over,”‘ said Doherty, president of the Wom en’s Vision Foundation. “I was sharing power, information and support and making sure my people over time had what they needed to be great.”
When men network with one another, studies show their first priority is to establish a pecking order, said Julia Hubbel, president of the Hubbel Group, a conference attendee. When women talk to people they’ve just met, they’re much more likely to have “relational” conversations in which they share compliments about each other’s clothing or shoes, Hubbel said.
“Women say ‘Do I trust you?’ first, then say ‘Let’s do business,”‘ said Hubbel, who added that she often speaks publicly on the topic. “Men transact business first, then develop trust over time.”
When business decisions need to be made quickly, collaborative methods work best, said Christine White, manager of corporate quality at Coors Brewing Co., who recently created a global technical compliance plan with six other Coors employees from Brazil, the United States and the United Kingdom.
“Everybody had the same agenda; we were checking our egos at the door,” White said of the three-day meeting that led to the new plan. “I’m not going to say egos weren’t in play at the beginning, but collaboration was a much more efficient way of working together.”
Staff writer Beth Potter can be reached at 303-820-1503 or bpotter@denverpost.com.
