Sample Report On Ladies Who Lunch Seminar

Section 1

In an effort to better understand, respect and value women’s leadership style I attended a monthly seminar designed for women who own or manage their own small business. Prior to attending the workshop I did additional research on women’s leadership so I would have more insight than what I had gleaned from the interview I did with a family friend who is a woman in a leadership position. After I read several peer-reviewed journal articles I had a better understanding of the types of things that impact female leaders. Women in leadership value collaboration, embrace empowerment, have a disdain for office politics and often out perform their male counterparts in college.
Female traits seem to be more effective in leading in contemporary society than male traits. More and more businesses are turning to a more compassionate, nurturing and supportive style of leadership. This style is inherently more feminine whereas in previous time periods leaders embraced assertive, ruthless and ego-driven characteristics, traits that are traditionally masculine. Women leaders who participated in a study about leadership in sports confirmed this trend: “The strongest theme to emerge was the emphasis placed on collaborative decision-making with the majority of participants prioritizing consultation and seeking consensus in decision-making. They felt it was vital to consult with others by seeking their ideas, views and feedback before reaching their own conclusions. Most emphasized listening to others to gather information in regard to the problem at hand.” (Brown & Light 2012, p. 5) While women leaders embrace their feminine traits while acting in leadership roles, it is very important to them to feel empowered. After centuries of oppression due to a patriarchal structure, women are just now starting to really come into their own. Leadership in the business world is one way today’s women can empower themselves: “For some, the empowerment of women is an active multi-dimensional process which enables women to realize their full identity and powers in all spheres of life. For others, empowerment represents the ability of women to handle responsibilities, to envision a better future and to work to overcome the obstacles that confront them.” (Mehta & Sharma 2014, p. 2) Many women leaders see a need for power in all spheres of life to truly feel empowered and that desire is what drives them into leadership in the business world. That being said, there are parts of leadership that don’t appeal to women as much.
It is well known that in most businesses getting ahead has less to do with talent or hard work and more to do with playing the game. Office politics is unavoidable and while men often seem to thrive in the give and take of manipulation women are turned off by it: “Although aware of the importance of politics in securing power, these women remained conflicted between wanting to have more power and rejecting the political games necessary to obtain it.” (Doldor & Vinnicombe 2013, p. 3) Women want power but they don’t necessarily want the game playing that comes with it. One of the reasons women leaders seem to prefer getting ahead based on their talent and hard work may be their tendency to outperform men in college: “Given the increasing number of women in college who are outperforming their male counter-parts, it is suggested that the next generation of talent in this nation will be found in greater numbers among the female population.” (McEldowney, Bobrowski & Gramberg 2009, p. 3) Modern day women seem to work harder and put more effort into cultivating their abilities and it makes sense they would want these traits to be of higher consideration for promotions than the traits of brown nosing or developing friendships with the right people. With the new perspective on women’s leadership I gained from my research I felt prepared to attend the monthly seminar for women who own or manage their own small business.

Section 2

The seminar was held in a community room at a Holiday Inn. I sent an email to the woman who ran the seminar prior to the meeting to make sure it was OK for me to be in attendance, I figured I would be the only man there and I didn’t want it to be awkward. The woman in charge said it was fine for me to attend and seemed excited that I wanted to learn more about women in leadership. When I arrived the room was set up with chairs in several rows, one table on the side with snacks and drinks and a section up front cleared away for the guest speaker to stand. I grabbed some fruit and a bottle of water, picked up a copy of the agenda and sat down in the back row. The schedule had 30 minutes of networking, 20 minutes of introductions and a 40 minute talk by a featured speaker whose topic was Emotional Intelligence.

Section 3

It turned out that I was the only male in attendance so the first 30 minutes were a little awkward. I didn’t feel comfortable joining in with the networking portion of the event so I stayed in my chair. After a few minutes two women came over to introduce themselves; one owned her own business making jewelry and one had started a business as a “night nanny”. I explained that I was there to immerse myself in a culture different from my own. I told them a little about my research and asked them if they valued collaboration. “Jess”, the jewelry maker, told me she thinks collaboration is really important and that she often brings designs to others before she actually makes her work. “Nicole”, the night nanny agreed. She said she collaborated with a lot of people when she created her business plan. They also shared with me that the reason they started they businesses was to feel empowered by being in charge of their own destinies. “Jess” told me she had tried to work in corporate America but she felt like she was going into a viper’s nest every day because of all the backstabbing and she hated it. “Nicole” had worked as a waitress but knew her true passion was working with kids so she took the training she needed to become a night nanny. Her business was making so much money that her husband had quit his job and was now managing the business for her – all she does is the nanny work. I spoke with these women for 15 minutes and then the introductions began.
There were 13 women in attendance. The businesses they owned ranged from franchises to boutiques to real estate. Some of them had employees, some just worked on their own. Some of them were just starting out, some had been running their business for years. Some had businesses that were doing really well, some were struggling and thinking about quitting. All were leaders.
The guest speaker began her talk on Emotional Intelligence. She discussed the 4 parts of Emotional Intelligence and gave us exercises to better understand the different parts. We learned about perceiving emotions, reasoning with emotions, understanding emotions and managing emotions. We also learned about how EQ will be one of the most in demand leadership traits by 2020. She ended with a short Q&A session and the questions were about how to manage emotions better, several of the women said that their strong emotions made it difficult for them to be consistent and wanted to know how to manage them better. The guest speaker recommended mindfulness, exercise to manage stress and seeing a doctor in case medication might be in order. After the Q&A session ended the seminar was over.

Section 4

What I experienced was very consistent with the research I had done before the seminar. In the conversations I had with the two women during the networking portion of the seminar I confirmed that some women leaders do value collaboration, work to feel empowered and don’t enjoy office politics. I didn’t get a chance to talk to them about their experience in college to see if they had done better than the men they knew but it was clear these women were very hard workers and talented. I also learned during the introductions that these women really enjoyed learning from one another, many of them made a point of talking about how helpful seminars like this are to their business. The guest speaker section reconfirmed how important collaboration is to women leaders, there was a huge emphasis on interacting with people by better understanding their emotions and empathizing – the speaker said EQ is one of the most important aspects of collaboration. She also talked about how empowering it is to manage emotions and not let them get the best of you.

Section 5

In an earlier section I described how I interacted with the group when I shared my conversation with “Jess” and “Nicole” during the networking portion of the seminar. I introduced myself during the introductions and explained this project. While I did the exercises to learn more about EQ I did not ask any questions during the Q&A. I was pretty reserved, I think I was a little intimidated by being the only man in the room.

Section 6

I was well received by the group. “Jess” and “Nicole” made me feel very welcome, they sensed my discomfort and made it easier on me by introducing themselves to me. When I explained why I was there in my introduction the group applauded me and one woman said “It is so good to have a man who is evolved enough to understand he has A LOT to learn from us women!”

Section 7

It was pretty uncomfortable for me to be outside of my comfort zone. I enjoyed the experience, it was useful to get better insight into women in leadership, but I felt uncomfortable the whole time I was there. I am thankful the women went out of their way to be nice to me and I didn’t feel threatened but I felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb.

Section 8

I learned that I am not comfortable being a minority. I feel much more secure when I am in a group filled with people more like me. That being said, it was interesting to be a fly on the wall in a group of women leaders. I learned that they really aren’t that different than me. Women leaders care about the same things I do – they want to do work that matters, they enjoy and makes enough money to give them the quality of life they want. I think that women leaders who value collaboration are on to something – work that comes from shared ideas is better than work that comes from just one person. This experience really helped me understand women in leadership better. I have a lot more respect for women leaders than I did before I immersed myself in their world and I value their contributions to today’s business world.
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References

Brown, S., & Light, R. L. (2012). Women's sport leadership styles as the result of interaction between feminine and masculine approaches. Asia-Pacific Journal Of Health, Sport & Physical Education, 3(3), 185-198.
Doldor, E., Anderson, D., & Vinnicombe, S. (2013). Refining the Concept of Political Will: A Gender Perspective. British Journal Of Management, 24(3), 414-427. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8551.2012.00812.x
Mehta, P., & Sharma, K. (2014). Leadership: Determinant of Women Empowerment. SCMS Journal Of Indian Management, 11(2), 5-10.
McEldowney, R. P., Bobrowski, P., & Gramberg, A. (2009). Factors affecting the next generation of women leaders: Mapping the challenges, antecedents, and consequences of effective leadership. Journal Of Leadership Studies, 3(2), 24-30. doi:10.1002/jls.20105