Poised and effective businesswomen who want to move ahead in their careers faster should consider both traditional and counterintuitive guidance, from getting involved in the community and seeking mentors, to planning regular time away from work and being willing to take detours from the planned path in order to grow.
Successful professional women in metro Atlanta have a wealth of experience to share, and some of them do that through events like the Women’s Leadership Forum sponsored by Atlanta Business Chronicle in partnership with Pathbuilders Inc. and the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University.
Last year’s forum helped women learn how to “own their power” to position themselves for growth. The theme of the 2017 Women’s Leadership Forum is “Accelerating Your Climb,” focused on helping women develop skills and ideas to thrive.
Monetha Cobb, CREW Atlanta Chapter president and managing director at Franklin Street, believes focusing on the needs of the team has helped her advance.
“I try not to think or say ‘I.’ I diligently strive to always think and say ‘we’,” she said. “Ultimately, I have leadership responsibilities that can neither be shared or delegated, but I only have this authority because I have earned the trust of the people who work with me. This means that I have to constantly think of the needs of my team and the mission of our organization before I think of my own.”
As Cobb has matured in the workplace, she takes a regular inventory of what is important to her personally and professionally.
“I make sure I align my activities to accomplish those goals,” Cobb said. “Just because I created a plan in my 20s, 30s, or last year for myself, doesn’t mean that the path that was created then leads to the same place I want to be at today. I’ve learned to give myself permission to alter the plan in order to improve the outcome for my current perspective on life, family, career, etc.”
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