Lessons Learned at This Year’s WPO Conference

April 27th, 2010 by Elizabeth Beskin | Share Blog

Once a year I have the privilege of going to the Women Presidents Organization’s annual conference, and it’s usually one of the highlights of my year.  This year’s conference in Ft. Lauderdale was no exception.

It’s not just the keynote speakers and the workshops that make the experience so valuable; it is mostly being a part of the collective energy of 500 smart, successful, honest, hardworking and philanthropic women.   Each woman there has dealt with struggles and successes, and they have such incredible compassion and warmth, I am always astonished at the almost superhuman quality I feel when I return.  Like nothing is impossible!

Here are a few of the pearls I took away from some of the sessions:

PROFESSOR NEELI BENDAPUDI, Ph. D., Professor of Marketing and Director, Initiative for Managing Services Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University
•    Whenever you have a problem with a client, try to extend the conversation about it: listen, apologize, solve the problem and then thank them for vocalizing.
•    Try to figure out what your customers really want.  Try to see your product or service through their eyes, and figure out how to make them apostles of your brand.

PROFESSOR REBECCA HENDERSON, Senator John Heinz Professor of Environmental Management, Harvard Business School
•    Sometimes we overload our organization with projects and spread out our energy, depleting our effectiveness.
•    Learn to get rid of project #26 – especially if everyone knows it will never get done, but no one wants to say it!
•    To get unstuck, manage to your capacity.
•    Act on it!
•    Pick up the projects that have the most bang for their buck, and that will bring you the greatest revenue.
•    Build trust within your organization.  Ask for the feedback that will allow project #26 to get squashed.

MARSHALL GOLDSMITH, best-selling author and Executive Coach
•    Learn to say “great idea” to your team, rather than commenting and putting your mark on the idea.  You don’t need to prove you’re smarter.
•    The mark of true leadership: help more, judge less.
•    Start at home and ask the question: how can I be a better wife, mother or daughter?  Then say thank you for the feedback without trying to excuse the behavior.  This is the key to effective employee feedback, so once you can do this at home, you can move to the office.
•    We don’t need to know much about people to coach them.

FRANCES HESSELBEIN, President and CEO of the Leader to Leader Institute / formerly the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management, former CEO, the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. (1976-1990)
•    Total respect is necessary for true leadership.
•    You must be passionate about the mission.
•    Know why you do what you do.
•    Innovate or die – you’re either part of the past or part of the future.
•    See everything that happens as an opportunity, otherwise you waste energy that you could be using for good.

As you can see, I came away from the conference with lots of solid information to digest and new ideas to discuss with my team.  If you were at the WPO conference, or if you’ve attended a similar conference that inspired you, I’d love to hear your highlights.