Atlanta Women Leaders Association Chapter Meeting: High Achieving Women

Thank you so much for having me. Uh my name is Anna Dayne and I am currently the HR director for AMVSE which stands for Arthur and Blink Sports and Entertainment. Um so I recently moved over um to that organization over the last couple of months. I was previously with Canon and as an HR director um and have taken on kind of an expanded role um with um Arthur and Blank's uh organization.
Well, Anna, we are excited you're with us today. I have your cover slide pulled up, so take it away. Okay, perfect. I'm just logging in one more time to see if I can get it on my end, but um all right, here we go. Um perfect. So um what I wanted to talk about today uh were kind of some driving and motivating uh factors um for myself and and key uh points of view. Um in order to you know be a successful woman in business, you really have to kind of have your priorities straight. Um I recently read a book called Subtract. Um and it was by a professor with um UVA and you know the concept is um we we don't need as much as we think we do.
Um and simplification um of our lives and our work lives is very important. Um so what I'm going to do today is have a very you know simple presentation of just kind of you know the the guiding forces um behind what I believe has allowed me to be successful um throughout my career. Next slide please.
So these were the five themes um that I think are really important um for for me uh perseverance, mentorship, balance, goal oriented and leadership. These all really resonate with with my my personal story and you know how how I continue to be motivated. Next slide.
So when I think about perseverance, um I think of running. Um it is something that requires a lot of discipline to get up and train for a half marathon, a marathon, um an obstacle course race, um whatever the case may be. Uh even if it's just one mile, you need to get up every day and do one mile. Um it's something that requires persistence um because you're not going to see success overnight. Um it is something that you have to train for and be very diligent in. And um I think this story of in this visual of running really represents the the perseverance that's needed to kind of continue in your career and the passion that you have um within that.
Next slide. So I also think uh mentorship is really critical especially as you're younger in your career looking for mentors inside your organization outside your organization within your functional discipline or outside. Um it is is very important um early in your career to um you know identify a path that really fits with you and your your personal brand, your passion and what you're going to really want to excel in day in and day out. Um the previous um panelist mentioned about the people that she finds most successful, the ones who are really truly good at what they do. And it's important to to find that opportunity that is going to showcase those strengths and find someone who can help help grow you, give you stretch assignments, offer a different perspective so so that you're not stuck in a silo.
Um it really does help. Um, and if you have the opportunity to raise your hand and participate in a mentorship program, whether it's at a mentee level or a mentor level, it's really great um, if you can do that within your organization because you're also going to build your own personal story and your personal brand within the organization. And so that networking is really critical when you're thinking about elevating yourself. Next slide.
um balance um you know this is um integral to um every woman it is is very challenging to juggle multiple priorities um you go through different life stages as a woman um early in your career you're you're focused in in work um and perhaps you know mid-career you're juggling more uh life demands personal demands whether that's kids parents parents, grandparents. Um there are so many different things that come up as as you grow um and in your career that you have to be able to prioritize. Um and it's really important that you take time for yourself. Um and and reflect on the things that that you can do and take burden off of maybe yourself, maybe delegate to other people.
Um, I just find that this is really critical um to not be overwhelmed by when new challenges arise um and that balance that you create within your life. creating a support network um is is really going to be critical to you continuing to elevate yourself upwards. Um as as the job changes and the job becomes more stressful um and requires more time, you have to be able to have that support network for the other areas of your life that you may not be able to address. And the other thing to to consider um if you're not in a position where you want to lean into your career um as much and and work for a promotion, but you know just focus on you know that that specialization that you have.
That's also that's also great. It's a personal choice um what you're passionate about and and what you would like to accomplish um in your career. Um, and there are certain times in your life where you can lean into your career and certain times when you may need to to take a step back. Um, and um, that's okay. Everyone has a personal journey that they have to go on. Next slide,
please. So, this one is has always been really critical to me. Um I think in order to be a really high achieving um individual you have to understand from a strategic standpoint what goals need to be established whether it's for your personal life. Yeah. So personal goals um professional goals um department goals um the goals just keep getting broader and broader the higher you go in in your career. And you have to be able to, you know, set the framework um if you're going to be in a in a high level role uh within an organization because those goals motivate other people. Um and being able to motivate other people and employees on your team directly is really how you become successful and the organization become successful.
Um there is no leader within this organi within any organization who is successful without the people underneath um driving towards a goal. Um and if you want to be the one kind of more at the top leading that organizational strategy then um it is important that you have a a larger bigger picture point of view um that you can offer to to your team members. But I do think it's important to also take off um take goals into bite-sized chunks. Um I always like to think about uh goals in terms of quarters. What can I accomplish in a quarter? What's reasonable? Um and and and going from there. Getting feedback from your leader, from your direct reports, um on on what's a reasonable goal.
That's also important. Um, and I think that's just really something that, you know, high achieving women really or any individual is really looking to do. They h they have that goal orientation about them. Next slide. So the final one is is leadership. Uh leadership is a very broad um area of of focus. Just think about how many leadership development books there are out there. Um, so many different topics related to leadership. Um, but I like this um picture. Um, you know, the leading by example. Um, when when you think about um what you're trying to accomplish in an organization and your team, your department, yourself, you want you have to set that stage um in order for your employees to be successful.
If you want everyone to come in at on time, um maybe you need to be there a little bit early. Um you know, you need to be the one um who if if um creating an atmosphere of you know, collegial um cordial behavior is really important to you. um you know, trying to make sure that you put in um service anniversaries into your calendar, birthday um notifications in your calendar about your team members. Um if that's important to you, I it's important um to really lead the way. Um whether you're in a leadership role or at an individual contributor level, um there should be leadership shown without within the entire organization. Um there are many ways where individual contributors can take a leadership role um you know whether it's interfacing with a customer um you know and showing true leadership and understanding the brand of the organization that they work in but really somebody who cares about the role and responsibility that they have.
That's really the definition of of being a good leader is is really taking ownership um of that responsibility and demonstrating that day in and day out. Um so I think that that's really really important that you lead by example. show your your colleagues and team members what you expect and um you know they they will hopefully mirror those similar um actions that you're taking place and that way it align the team together to create u more synergy and and more efficiency within that organiz within that team structure as well.
I believe that those are my five um prongs um to high achievement. Um and I'm you know very excited to be able to share kind of you know my story um my perspective with everyone on the call today. Um again you know this the themes for me have been around perseverance, mentorship, balance, goal orientation and leadership. Well, thank you so much for that fabulous presentation, Anna. And just a reminder, if anyone would like to ask Anna a live question and you dialed into our conference, you can hit five star and I can unmute you, but also keep those questions coming into the chat. So, I'll start with this question. Um, this question said, um, you mentioned that you just recently changed positions.
any advice on asking an interviewer about the work life balance in a company? Um, you know, it's a difficult question to get a real answer. Um, you know, I mean, there's a couple of of things there. Yes, you can certainly ask, you know, what what is the what is the schedule? What what is, you know, the schedule for the this position in the organization? And so many companies are moving toward hybrid models and more flexibility. Um you know and you kind of want to want to get clear expectations on what that looks like. It is very difficult I think to ask a um your soontobe boss you know how much work demand there might be um for you going into that role if you have some you know personal life challenges that you need to meet.
But it is important that if you do have those responsibilities that you make it very clear before you accept an offer um of what those priorities are for you to see if there could be alignment. Um I know that I have had to do that in certain cases. Um and you know it could be as simple as writing you know a a proposal of what that might be for you. um you know a a a soontobe boss who comes back at you and says no there's no flexibility that might be kind of cause for concern and and you may want to reconsider and re-evaluate but I don't think um a soon to be boss will be able to give you kind of an appropriate level of um you know just how busy you will be um you can ask um about the organizational um pace um of which you know change happens And I think that's a good question to ask um because some organizations are very slow to change.
Other organizations are very quick and agile organizations requiring a much faster rate um of of pace and decision-m and productivity. So that is something that you can definitely ask. Oh, thank you for sharing that. Um so for our next question, we'll go with um this question. This one came from Mary and she said, 'How do you ask someone that you respect to mentor you? I know this person is very busy.'
Um, great question. Um, I think you know anyone who um that you know well, it's an easier ask. um where you know you can give them kind of the the justification of why you feel that they would be a good mentor to you and make them understand what you're looking to get out of the relationship as well. Um and say something like you know it would be a real privilege or an honor to have you be my mentor. Um I'm so excited to work with you on X Y and Z or get your perspective and thoughts on X Y and Z. Um, I think just simply making them aware that they have a skill set or a knowledge area that that you're really interested in learning more about and and you know being able to bounce ideas off of them and you you respect their um their thoughts and decision- making it becomes an easier conversation.
Oh, very well said. Thank you. So, um here's another question. This one says, 'I just recently picked up my first mentee. How can I help them set goals and how specific should I be?' Um, good question. Um, and depending on the organization that you work in, they may have a more formal program, they may not. If it's a looser program and there's not a lot of guidance, um, you know, my recommendation is starting with the the mentee itself, having a dialogue with that individual and ascertaining what are they looking to accomplish through the relationship um, of the mentee mentor um, and and help kind of steer the conversation in that way. I do firmly believe that the mentee should be the one actually setting the goals and objectives.
They should be reaching out to um the mentor to set up times for discussions and really kind of set the agenda. Um because if if it's a mentor to mentee goal, um it's not going to be as widely as well received. Um, and so I think a little bit more difficult for them to accomplish. I think the mentee should be the one kind of studying setting the goals and and you kind of helping them with here's what I can offer for you. Oh, that's very well said. Well, I think this is going to be our final question for the afternoon and then we'll ask you for some final thoughts. And this question is this question says, 'What is your advice for someone looking to build confidence in their leadership abilities?
Um, you know, building confidence takes experience. Um, and you you don't get that experience overnight. I think, you know, being really great in your your current role um gives you that confidence. Building relationships within the organization that you're working in really helps build um your confidence because when you can help other individuals solve problems or you're working on a task and you find a solution um that's when you're going to have a win for yourself um and and when you have relationships with others that's when you can share hey I've won and this is what we can accomplish together. So, it's just it's it's building blocks, you know, starting from an entry level position and moving up into leadership.
It just it requires time, it requires um you know, experience and knowledge. And like I said, you you can't get that overnight. Um as much as you can build relationships, it's going to help you get your presentations in front of important folks. Um, you know, make sure that you're selling yourself um to your your leaders and the business um functional areas that you work with, the partners that you have. Um, you know, and all that takes time and everyone has a different role. Some people are great with numbers and are running reports on a regular basis. So those individuals are making sure that they're consistently reporting and have quality reporting every single time. Um and that's when it that repeatable success builds that confidence.
For other people it's maybe in sales those people are trying to get a yes from their potential customer. And the more yeses you get the more wins you have and that builds confidence. So, it's important just to be in a role where you are passionate um you have energy and excitement around um and and can build wins for yourself in order to build that confidence. Well, thank you for sharing that. So, well, so as we end for the afternoon, do you have any final thoughts or words of wisdom to share with our audience today?
Um you know, it was such a pleasure to uh participate on the call. um and and share my thoughts. Um you know, there are many of you on the call who are already successful leaders um and know what it takes to, you know, continue to persevere and and get to the next level. Um I think staying focused um on those goals are really going to um you know, kind of make it more clear what your path should be. Um, and I think for anyone who is in that search mode of what should I do and where's my next step, find that mentor who's going to help, you know, get you there and have that dialogue with you to get there.
Um, it's really important um to build networks within organizations and that's is kind of critical to success. So, thank you very much. Well, thank you Anna. We really appreciate your time. So, thank you to all our speakers today, both our panel members and our keynote speakers. And thank you to all our listeners as well. Without all of you, these events would not be possible. So, let's continue to support women's leadership and learn from one another. So, be safe, be kind to yourselves, and be well. So, until next time, this is Ginger Watley signing off.