Since 1928 Business and Professional Women/USA has sponsored National Business Women’s Week®. Each year during the third week of October, BPW/USA’s members across the country take the opportunity to celebrate and acknowledge the accomplishments of working women everywhere. (And there are certainly a lot of us to honor and even more accomplishments to consider!)

The objectives of National Business Women’s Week® are:

• To promote full participation and equity for women in the workplace;
• To publicize the achievements of business and professional women on the local, state and national level;
• To publicize the objectives and programs of BPW/USA as they relate to the millions of business and professional women across the country.

I have been a working ‘woman’ since the age of 14. My first job was as a server at Grandma’s Biscuits (not the most upscale restaurant) located just outside of Atlanta. If only I knew then what I know now! Perhaps, I could have helped the leader of Grandma’s Biscuits figure out exactly what business they were in and why, which markets to serve, how to do it well and how to hire and keep the best employees to make it all work. Instead, I showed up, did what I was told and was often confused by the changing rules and priorities. As you might imagine, Grandma’s Biscuits did not end up making it as a business.

Over the next few years, I went on to hold many different roles in numerous organizations. For a long time, my parents assumed that I could not keep a job. And although that was partly accurate, I have truly enjoyed all of my work adventures and I’ve learned something of value from all of them. Conversely, I’ve also learned a lot about the challenges of being a woman at work.

At first, I proudly wore my man-woman suits. You know, the grey box cut with small silk bow tied around the neck? I carried a man-woman briefcase and hung out with the guys. Eventually, as my career began to take shape, I grew to be more comfortable being a woman at work – actually wearing colors and more feminine attire. Now, I even use cooking metaphors sometimes when making a point – in addition to all those sports ones I have managed to compile over the years. A sort of equilibrium between being a woman and being a professional with the ability to assert myself with my male counterparts was eventually achieved. Through the course of my professional journey, I’ve learned a few lessons about being a woman at work and thought now would be the appropriate time to share them with you:

· Speak Up – More importantly, don’t be afraid to be heard. Just know that sometimes women have to do it louder and more often to truly make an impact.

· Be a Mentor to Other Women – Early in life we are taught to constantly compete against other girls but as women we simply need to push past those limiting beliefs and learn to share our knowledge with others. By teaching other women, we grow stronger as a force in the business world.

· Learn From Those Who’ve Come Before You – choose a female Role Model in your field or profession (they are out there) and learn from them. Ask questions, find out about the challenges and successes they’ve experienced on their own path to success.

· Participate – Get in the game because you’ll never advance by sitting and cheering from the sidelines. And don’t worry; you can join in without being ‘one of the guys’.

· Confidence is Key! – Make sure that you take the time to get comfortable with yourself, your role, your expertise and your value. This way, you can identify any weaknesses or areas where you might need to improve.

· Don’t Stop –We all face challenges but it’s important that you never blame failures or setbacks on being a woman in a man’s world. Instead, look for the things you can address and take it from there!

It is my sincere hope (whether you happen to be a man or a woman) that you’ll take a moment during this National Business Women’s Week to acknowledge some of the important women in your life! We’ve come a long way and the road ahead looks good!

For those of you who don’t know, National Boss’ Day is tomorrow, October 16^th. As an employee, I always thought boss’ day was every day and then I became one! Quickly I realized that the dream of propping your feet up and telling people what to do was exactly that – a dream! Being a boss is extremely hard work usually fraught with disappointment especially if you really are a ‘boss’.

Much has certainly changed over the past 25 years for not only how bosses manage but also for the path workers take on the road towards becoming a boss. Take for example the specifics at FORTUNE 100 companies as early as a few years back- there were clear guidelines in place that dictated exactly how and when someone could become a boss. It required a certain number of years in the job but no real leadership or management skills were necessarily mandatory – just tenure. Once an employee got the title though, they were required to go thru 120 hours of leadership training each year. However, today it is rare to find an organization that even has new manager training, much less an entire curriculum devoted to developing excellence in leadership. And your boss is just as likely to be younger than you versus older. These days, bosses are likely to have management and leadership skills but not necessarily deep technical expertise. In fact, they may not even have intimate knowledge of how each job in their own department gets done on a daily basis.

Quite honestly, almost every aspect of being a boss has shifted dramatically in the past 25 years. The environment of the past was about stability – slow and steady progress towards the 10 year plan. Today it is about constant change – staying focused even during tumultuous times. Previously, bosses planned details and told employees what to do. These days, leaders and managers are required to set direction (including defining excellence), measure the right things and get out of the way. In the past, your boss used to make all the decisions but now, a great manager or leader helps to facilitate others making decisions.

On a personal note, the best example of a terrible boss in my past once wrote on my performance report that I “was doing too much good work and making others on the team look bad”. Excuse me? I also had one coach me by saying, “It’s all about internal relationships. Business results can wait since we are already so successful.” Wow! It’s no wonder that today that company is in the midst of unexpected layoffs and scaling operations back by more than 25%…I’m slightly curious as to what other pearls of wisdom he could offer now?

I’m also curious about what’s going on in your own workplaces. What examples can you share of bosses who need to read and practice the actions I’ve outlined in More Than a Minute? Send me some feedback and let me know how your bosses are stacking up!

This past weekend we held the official More Than a Minute book launch party. It was extremely exciting for me to have such an incredible group of people there, demonstrating their support not only for the book but also for the actions I outline in it for leaders and managers today. As you can imagine, many of the discussions at the event focused on these turbulent economic times. In my last two blog posts, I have delved into this topic but since it continues to dominate the headlines and many of our thoughts, I wanted to share a few more tips to help support you.

I am sure you’ve spent many hours thinking about the possible outcomes and what you believe might happen in your industry or specific sector in the coming months. Whether you are one of the lucky ones in a somewhat recession proof business like healthcare or in an industry that has been dramatically impacted like financial planning – you’re likely see many changes on different levels.

I suggest that you pause and do some research. While it is important to pay attention to the opinions of various experts- you should primarily be focusing on the actual data from those trusted sources. Read your industry publications and subscribe to pertinent online newsletters to see what predictions are being made. Now is the time to stay as informed as you can but arm yourself with facts and don’t succumb to the mindset that assuming every opinion offered is accurate or even informed.

Consider all the significant initiatives for your company and/or team. Determine what will drive the highest results in the short term and identify the resources necessary to make immediate progress. You may have to shift some resources or even energy from other areas for the short term but this may be necessary to ensure long term success.

Go ahead, sit down and take a good look at your calendar for next week. Cancel or postpone any meetings that are not critical or not linked to the most significant initiatives. Honestly evaluate whether that weekly meeting is really necessary. This does not mean less communication is a good thing. It means the right communication through the appropriate channel about what is truly important is where you should be focused. Don’t hold and/or attend any meetings simply because you have always had them. Try standing meetings (where all participants remain standing the entire meeting) for quick updates. Use email for one way information sharing. Call meetings when you need insight, opinions or need to communicate significant changes including ‘why’ things are changing.

Decide what you can influence this week, block the time, turn off your pda and do something about it.

In my last blog I mentioned how critical it is for leaders to stay focused during tough times but of course, this is much easier said than done. I suggest that you all take a moment to think back on this past week. Where did you spend a majority of your time? What were the distractions that derailed you? What things got in the way of you getting done what you know needs to be done? Could you sense employees were distracted? What about your customers or clients? Did you pause to think through and communicate why certain decisions are being made or why changes are occurring?

Right now, the question from many of my clients is: How do you stay focused when everything around you is utterly chaotic? I remind them that as leaders and managers, it is their responsibility to create a sense of calm confidence to convey that no matter the current state, it too will pass and success is still possible and probable.

One technique is to communicate in smaller chunks. Always consider your key messages. I suggest organizing your thoughts around the following:

· Employee Energy- Ask yourself what is most important for employees to stay focused on this week and next? Identify what is currently draining energy and how can you as a manager influence it? Chances are there may be informal thought leaders in the organization that you can depend on to help spread positive messages so make sure to utilize them. Ignoring problems is a big mistake so determine the biggest worries employees have and address them even if it is just acknowledging there is nothing you can do.

· Customers- It’s important for leaders and managers to prioritize and establish which customers must be retained. Is there an executive sponsor assigned to each critical one? Determine ways to allocate or re-allocate current resources to these important customer relationships. Taking it one step further, make sure you know what your customers are concerned about. Perhaps it would be worthwhile to spend time just listening to them even if it is about something other than your own organization. You might be able to identify a hidden value that you can do or say to meet a particular need when others might be ignoring them.

· Products and/or Services – Determine the products that require immediate attention. What development can be sped up to produce revenue sooner? Can you give away a free product or extend a service to build loyalty? Conversely, this is also a time to re-evaluate whether there are some products or upgrades that might need to go into a holding pattern for the time being.

· Costs – Are there costs that can be delayed or cut? Perhaps there are investments that can be postponed? Now it’s important to remember that you do now want to make random cuts equally across the organization. Cutting equally is a silly exercise when you consider how important some initiatives or efforts are as compared to others. Tough economic conditions can provide us the opportunity to correct excesses and bad habits gained when the going was good. Remind employees to think more about cost savings. Reducing headcount should be a last resort especially during tough times. Building back your talent takes much more time than anyone ever anticipates and is a sure ‘jump ship’ signal to the rest of the organization.

As you take the necessary steps to strengthen your organization always make sure that you provide insight on both ‘what’ and ‘why’. Distill your messages into bite size pieces so your employees can grasp them, apply them and move on. Disseminate the information in every channel you have – intranet, memos, breakrooms, meetings, etc. Lack of this communication will only breed negativity and create additional problems.

As a leader, demonstrate a quiet confidence through your own body language (including tone and inflection) in meetings and other public areas. Remember that your actions often speak so loudly that people cannot hear what you are actually saying! Have faith that you can navigate through this period of instability and turmoil, but remember the importance of shifting your behaviors just like you must shift strategies when market forces demand.