DALLAS -- Life-balance issues and what women need to do to rise above corporate glass ceilings were key topics for women attending the Network of Executive Women's (NEW's) leadership conference in Dallas this week.
I believe I balanced work and family well, said Cindy Davis, senior vice president of merchandising for Dallas-based 7-Eleven. But you need to think about planning.
Davis, along with Janel Haugarth, whose titles include executive vice president, and president and COO for supply chain services at SUPERVALU, Eden Prairie, [image-nocss] Minn., and Dede Priest, senior vice president GM food division for Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart Stores, were part of an afternoon retailer panel that emphasized the importance of life-balance issuesa platform they said crosses barriers of gender and race.
Davis discussed how she called her children Slurpee brats because the family did move with the demands of her rising career. Eventually, the family scaled back so her husband could be at home for their two children and pursue his personal passions in tennis, animal care and financial planning.
Emphasizing the importance of developing diversity within a corporation, Davis said the values of NEW in mentoring up-and-coming female executives, as well as people who reflected a corporation's customer base, were critical issues. In many companies, women and people of color do not receive the type of exposure to each other and to key decision-makers to aid in the promotion process. We need to facilitate that, she said to the general-session gathering of roughly 350 attendees.
When asked about her own career, Davis said that attaining a high-level corporate position at 7-Eleven was not a conscious decision. I'd think, I want that job,' so I pursued that job, she said.
As far as advice for up-and-coming executives, Davis said they must understand how their companies make money and the leadership needed to support that process. And most of all, she noted, Be prepared if the opportunity comes up.
The conference, which was held September 11-13, offered sessions and workshops on leadership, persuasion and inner strength, as well as providing networking opportunities for attendees who represented multiple trade channels and verticals.
In the morning general session, speakers Jan Hill, CEO, Hill Enterprises, Santa Barbara, Calif., and Dr. Vanessa Weaver-Coleman, CEO, Alignment Strategies Inc., Washington, D.C., spoke of challenges surrounding female executives. Taking what they called the PIE model, an acronym for performance, image and exposure, the two showed how in a survey of conference attendees, many women described having a permanent relationship with their companies, where the companies described the relationship as less concrete. Hill and Weaver-Coleman described these perspectives in terms of relationships, noting how many conference attendees felt they were girlfriends with regards to their companies, while the companies described themselves as dating.
With regards to the PIE model, Weaver-Coleman said that many women ignore the image and exposure element of their careers and focus on performance. In doing so, women churn out the budgets numbers but do not come across as leaders among their peers or to upper management.
Strengthening a person's image and exposure within a company requires work, Weaver-Coleman said. You have to have a network for you to have exposure to a network, she said, encouraging women to build a cadre of supporters within their organizations who will be supportive of future career advances. And for more established women, she laid down a challenge. This is a big opportunity, Weaver-Coleman said. How are you creating that exposure for women in the organization?
[Pictured (from left): NEW conference speakers Fawn Germer, author; Cindy Davis, 7-Eleven; Janel Haugarth, SUPERVALU; and DeDe Priest, Wal-Mart Stores.]
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