On 28 July, I had the pleasure to attend the EnterpriseWOMEN workshop “What are the winners doing?” led by Katy Tuncer, Director of Coaching and Products at Horizon37. The training session, based on Katy’s research into crisis leadership, engaged us to self-reflect on how to embrace the uncertainty of leading during a pandemic. During the invaluable two hours, Katy gave an overview of how to take control of what we can control. She explained the importance of setting a specific time for decision-making, and highlighted the significance of tuning our decision-making criteria based on where we want to be in the future. As an emerging leader, I enjoyed the session’s deep-dive exercises into our own leadership styles and priorities, which allowed us to reflect on our habits, mind-sets, interactions and decision-making strategies and to exchange best practices.
I found the workshop engaging and full of takeaways on how to proactively act during these times, including the importance of changing our mind-set to achieve both personal and business goals, and of figuring out which decisions will make a difference in the years to come.
I appreciated how the learnings and ideas shared were applicable to early stage entrepreneurs and those ready for the scaling-up, but also highly deployable for personal goals, including how to communicate about our decision-making principles to our team and stakeholders.
The fireside chat hosted successful business leaders Peju Adebajo, CEO at Lumos Nigeria and Paula Dowdy, Senior Vice President and General Manager at Illumina was also rich in takeaways from senior leaders. In a period where we have had to adapt to teleworking, we have also had to develop a new leadership style to cope with managing our team remotely while still being empathic and effective leaders. Among the most powerful thoughts shared in the discussion that resonated with me was that as female leaders and founders it is important “to allow ourselves to fail” and to be confident in our own capabilities in a moment of crisis.
One of the key learnings I am taking away from the workshops is to start thinking about myself as a valuable resource to be deployed with greater focus. As an “intrapreneur” in my work place and also an early stage entrepreneur, the workshop made me reflect on my priorities. I will implement the learnings for my career with the so-called Pareto principle (20/80), focusing on the 20% of activities that achieve 80% of the results, while making sure I ultimately connect my habits and mind-set to my business goals.
As such, the event offered me the opportunity to meet different women from a variety of backgrounds at different entrepreneurial stages. I enjoyed discussing with other participants how we see ourselves as leaders and having the opportunity to empower others – a key component of effective networking for entrepreneurs and fostering a supporting community that thrives on innovation.
Dr Ghina Halabi and the EnterpriseWOMEN team have created an awe-inspiring network and safe space for female founders, supporting them in their entrepreneurship journey and helping them to claim ownership of their own success. I am infinitely grateful to have found this much needed community in the entrepreneurship space that uses creativity to propel female entrepreneurs and their businesses forward in their business journey.
EnterpriseWOMEN is an outcome-driven and highly-focused programme tailored for early-stage women entrepreneurs who are starting or scaling their businesses. You can learn more about EnterpriseWOMEN upcoming events on the CJBS website >
Giulia Marzetti
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- EnterpriseWOMEN success story: I am a valuable resource - 19 August 2020
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