Always Be Willing to Learn

Five women business owners talk about what inspired them to start their business, lessons they thought would have been beneficial at that time, and maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

A common theme among their answers and advice for up-and-coming entrepreneurs is to never stop learning.  Always be willing to learn.

We Just Aren't Cracking the Glass Ceiling

The good news is that there are more women in top-level positions at U.S. businesses than at any other point in history. But a study has found that many women face the biggest obstacle to reaching the top of the corporate ladder early in their careers, with fewer women than men getting the opportunity to take their first step into management.  [I believe that is why a lot of women start a business, to avoid being held back.]

There are still big problems getting there, and the biggest, according to a new report from McKinsey & Co. and Lean In, isn’t even breaking through the final “glass ceiling.”

Making Time Management Your Organization's Priority

To stop wasting a finite resource, companies should tackle time problems systematically rather than leave them to individuals.  That's according to Frankki Bevins, a consultant in McKinsey’s Washington, DC, office, and Aaron De Smet, a principal in the Houston office.

They go on to say:

While executives cannot easily combat the external forces at work, they can treat time as a precious and increasingly scarce resource and tackle the institutional barriers to managing it well. The starting point is to get clear on organizational priorities—and to approach the challenge of aligning them with the way executives spend their time as a systemic organizational problem, not merely a personal one.

Read the entire time management article here.

New Board of Directors for the Women Presidents' Organization

The Women Presidents' Organization (WPO), a peer advisory group for leaders of multimillion-dollar companies, has announced new members to its Board of Directors and Advisory Board, each for a two-year term.

Board of Directors

• Kerrie R. Heslin, Esq., Partner, Nukk-Freeman & Cerra, P.C. Employment Attorneys, Chatham, New Jersey
• Cardiologist Dr. Barbara Hutchinson, M.D., Ph.D., FACC, President of Chesapeake Cardiac Care, Annapolis, Maryland
• Sandy Marsico, Founder and CEO of Sandstorm Design®, Greater Chicago area
• Hetal Parikh, President, Rangam Consultants, Inc., Greater New York City area
• Nicolette A. Jacobs, Director/Partner – Financial Services Assurance, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Cape Town, South Africa

Advisory Board

• Dawn O'Connor, Master Productivity Ninja for Think Productive North America, and Facilitator WPO Canada, Calgary I and II
• Mindy C. Meads, LPC Holdings LLC, and Facilitator WPO Zenith I Group (average annual revenue $246 million, aggregate annual revenue $4.4 billion)
• Jayne H. Huston, MBA, LPBC, Business Coach/Vice President, ThistleSea Business Development, LLC, Facilitator WPO Harrisburg and Lancaster Chapters
• Linda Graebner, Managing Partner, LSG Associates, Oakland CA, and Facilitator WPO East Bay

Congratulations to all!