Oct 26, 2015 | Uncategorized
It was a busy and very rewarding September for dtkResources and we’re extremely gratified to have been able to deeply serve our niche markets. On September 17, we hosted a table of ten women — Table 44 — at the Crain’s 50 Most Powerful Women luncheon at Cipriano in New York City. Each woman at our table is powerful in her own right and, because of the diversity of professional and personal interests, we’ve formed the core of a powerful mastermind group. If each was individually powerful, you can only imagine what we can do together. On September 21, I taught a workshop on Effective Communication for the ‘NextGen’ affinity group at JPMorganChase in New York City. Effective communication is one of the three tentpole skills I feel must be mastered to perform and flourish in the current business environment. Working in this space is a passion of mine, as I created and hosted a series of conferences — see bubble2boardroom.com — dedicated to helping college grads navigate out of their ‘bubble’ to become contributing and successful professionals…almost from Day 1. Then on September 29, I ran a full day of professional development for Operation Reinvent, teaching women soldiers some of the critical skills they’ll need to succeed in the civilian workplace ( a niche for dtkResources since 2011 when vets were first invited to attend a bubble2boardroom conference). The event, which took place on the Fort Bragg, KY army base, was attended by 40 soon-to-be vets hungry for help not only in navigating their transition but also in demystifying the world of civilian work. The fascinating — and frankly, distinguishing — aspect of the...
Feb 13, 2015 | Uncategorized
Perfectionism is the enemy of progress, and it’s a girl trap that I am constantly arming my female clients to defeat. Leadership is tough, especially when stepping into it for the first time, driving an unpopular — but necessary — initiative or when speaking against the conventional. A desire for perfection, if she lets it, will sabotage a woman’s ambition, credibility, ability to lead and paralyze her ability to act. Striving for perfection is such a common girl trap as, unlike men, we mistakenly feel we need all the answers before we speak or act. As rising leaders in a time of constant change — demanding innovative, creative solutions — we have to tolerate uncertainty, accept risk and make the best, reasoned decisions given the information we have. As a result, we may not always get it right but if we can’t risk sometimes getting it wrong, we aren’t leading from the front. So, the dtkMindset — in addition to being a cornerstone of evolved leadership —creates the space for the critical thinking that enables us to contextualize both risk and opportunity by insisting we see what’s happening on the ground as well as the landscape from 10,000 feet. The 21st Century global marketplace demands we do both: if we’re blinded by the need to be perfect, we’ll miss the view! If we work and wait for perfect, we’ll stay put a long time. Bottom line: pulling the plug on perfectionism isn’t easy. I’ve been there. But, with awareness, help and practice, it is possible. Your...
May 14, 2014 | coaching, critical thinking, networking, Uncategorized
I’m often asked to train leaders, board members, and teams on the topic of personal branding and networking, subjects I’m happy to simplify for my clients. However, in order to make an impact in this particular arena of professional development, I must first reveal a sometimes unwelcome truth: The art of creating a personal brand and building sphere of influence offers no legitimate short cuts. Even considering the speed at which business moves today, incremental and deliberate is still the way to go when developing a compelling brand and a powerful network. A strong personal brand isn’t something academic or hypothetical you fabricate in a closed room with your resume, a notebook and personal coach. It’s built over time, from the inside-out, and is the culmination of how you choose to conduct yourself in the boardroom, in client meetings, and when representing the firm at your industry meetings. And it’s the strong, authentic personal brand lived consistently that is the key to building a meaningful and influential network. Of course, there will always be those who promote the quick, far and wide method of building your network, amassing names of “contacts” and reducing your personal brand to a 30 second elevator pitch. But this does little to foster deep connections and a curated network, the stuff of influence. And, because influence is the currency of business, I’ll continue to bypass the shortcut in favor of the longer but more scenic...
Apr 7, 2014 | Uncategorized
Congratulations to all the women— in 40 different markets —participating today in Mentoring Monday sponsored by the Business Journals. As a professional development expert who teaches and has consulted on mentoring strategies and programs, I will attest that mentoring relationships can shorten a learning curve, accelerate growth and provide the know-how necessary to successfully navigate the vagaries and complexities of our new global workplace. While there’s no doubt this initiative is fantastic, its real value today — given the one-off, quick fix mentoring minutes — is in the connections it can foster between and among the women attending. Ideally, there’s an arc to a mentoring relationship that starts with solidifying trust and rapport and then continues to build over time, increasingly addressing career issues of strategy, logistics and performance. Implicit in and essential to this arrangement are high levels of commitment (mentor and protege have to be equally committed) and the acknowledgment of accountability: mentoring is truly a two-way street, with the protege assuming at least as much responsibility as the mentor. So, with continuity, commitment and accountability, a well-managed mentoring relationship challenges thinking, inspires action and allows for course correction in real time. In the not too distant past, there’s been pushback in the research suggesting that women don’t benefit as much as men do from mentoring. Perhaps this event and other wide scale ones like it can bring new traction and breathe a vital spark into an age-old...
Aug 14, 2013 | coaching, critical thinking, leadership, Uncategorized
For my entire career, I have known that one of the most critical values I offer organizations is being able to marry the 10,000 foot, future-facing view with a boots on the ground approach. In a business world that works quarter to quarter, the larger, more contextual view is often lost, and with it — an organization’s ability to plan deliberately, work lean and succeed in the short and long term. So, I was relieved when I read Elaine Varelas’ article in Chief Learning Officer on June 3, 2013. She titled the article “How to Keep the Next Generation of Leaders“ and while I encourage you to read it at your leisure, her most applicable point — simplified — was the need for leaders who take a long-term view. I agree that this 10,000 foot view is critical for retaining talent, but it is equally critical for navigating change, shifting a culture, and maintaining (or building) profitability. I’ve included a snippet of my original comment to the author below, and would love your thoughts. What do you think businesses miss when they lead and manage by the quarter vs. taking this long-term approach? “We live in a time where the only thing that’s certain is uncertainty. Evolved leaders must know how to maintain and communicate vision and also be agile (and hubris-less) enough to course correct in real time, all while creating an engaged workforce.”–...
Jan 15, 2013 | Uncategorized
Timing, as they say, is everything. My last column — “And now a word from her sponsor” — discussed the appalling and persistent paucity of women in top leadership positions and questioned how, after all this time, we still can’t break through to gender parity in business (and academia and politics and science, etc, etc). Lots of time, resources and intellectual capital have been expended on all manner of interventions and yet we’re left with an ironic state of affairs: women are still struggling to attain professional critical mass, despite the facts that 1. more women are attending and graduating from college than men, and 2. their beneficial effect on business results (i.e. shareholder value, profitability, stability) is undeniable and well-documented. Clearly, significant roadblocks — some real, some imagined, some personal, some institutional and some sociological — still remain. Granted, and this is no small factor, professional women often leave a lot on the table themselves by not just taking their seat already instead of waiting for the invitation or worse, for permission. Contriving safety in numbers to fortify our resolve, we’ve created women’s networking groups, women’s empowerment groups, women’s leadership groups, women’s support groups — all great but, necessary (hopefully not in perpetuity) just not entirely sufficient. Why? First, because they’re stopgap measures, interventions of a sort, that occur at a way late juncture and therefore qualify as remediation, not real change. The women who continue to fight these battles in real time understand the need for legacy, that something needs to be better or at least different for the next generation of women, our daughters, from the...
Dani Ticktin Koplik —
Leadership consultant, executive coach, change agent and passionate professional development expert and speaker. You can learn more about Dani and her clients by visiting dtkBio page. 