Its a tough one. What’s the one, single big word that best describes what you are doing and why? Is everything that you say and do, the action that you take, the message you are sharing aligned to this big word?
I like to think of our word as change-maker.
Change-makers are everywhere. You know the ones – those individuals that are prepared to take risks, put themselves and their messages on the line, zig while others zag to fundamentally make change.
It can be a risky business to buck the norm. It takes a level of courage to do things differently, to challenge the traditional or the “it’s always been like that”. It takes an inner confidence and belief to be a non conformist, to have a viewpoint contradictory to the expected. It also takes a supportive network to encourage change.
Steve Jobs changed the way we interact with computers, Mark Zuckerberg changed the way we communicate with our ‘friends’, Amazon changed the way we buy books, Richard Branson changed our service expectations for air travel and Janine Ellis changed the way we juice juices. Examples are everywhere from high profile, media hyped stories of change to those everyday heroes in our own backyards.
Change is exactly what needs to happen in business. The poor statistics around numbers of senior women in the workforce and female CEOs, inequity of pay, poor family friendly working environments etc are ongoing. These discussion have been on the table for over 70 years. Whilst we think things are improving (and they are albeit slowly), the reality is that every day educated, qualified and experienced women are leaving their careers and personal dreams of success and achieving goals due to inflexible working conditions, limited career progression opportunities, lack of quality child care and corporate bullying. Whilst as always there’s a lot of chatter going on, change is happening far too slowly.
LBD members are committed to building a collaborative community of dynamic, empowered businesswomen who share knowledge and insight. Successful women who choose to work together to drive continued success for each other. We support each other in the changes we are making in our own organisations and encourage each other to challenge the cultural norms of how business should be done and organisations run.
Each and every one of us has the potential to be a change-maker.
Find your big word.
Live it, breathe it and be it.
Its more than just a word. You have to walk the talk for others to see, hear and believe.