Bri Crow, a Senior Technology Recruiter for The Intersect Group, welcomed attendees and interviewed special guest Debbie Allred, Senior IT Director at JC Penny, in a fireside chat format. Debbie took a circuitous route to her director position and gave great advice to women pursuing leadership roles, work-life balance, the rewards of mentoring, and more. Attendees also got the opportunity to ask Debbie questions directly. Afterwards, a large percentage of the group stayed to mingle and connect with one another. It was really inspiring to have such a diverse group and meet a lot of new people! Click below to view a few photos from the event.
On Tuesday, November 18, 2015, Dallas SWE met at Olive Garden in Addison, TX and had the opportunity to here from Audrey Selden, Board President of Leadership Women, on a topic very near to our hearts: A3 – Leadership Communication Formulas for Aspiring, Advancing and Achieving. Specifically, she spent time leading us through a listening assessment, explained micro-messaging and its effects on productivity, and ended with speed networking.
Audrey Selden, our wonderful guest speaker!
After filling out the listening assessment Audrey made a point to highlight that having effective listening skills can lead us to achieving our leadership aspirations. A few key points to becoming an effective listener were to listen with intention, for understanding and with heart. A good way to practice this, Audrey says, is to paraphrase back the information communicated.
Audrey opened our eyes to the effects of labeling, even the good labels. Five volunteers were given two minutes to write down ideas on what they would like SWE Dallas to do in 2015….the result, a sheet full of ideas! They then were each given a label that they were unaware of but the each other and the rest of us could see. They were asked to repeat the task. Not a single idea was put on paper in the two minutes. They even had a “labeled” Leader but the leader felt so much pressure and had no affirmations to her ideas, so she failed to write down her ideas as well. This showed that focusing on labels removes the focus from the goal and is extremely detrimental to productivity.
(left to right) Britney Caldwell, Zaineb Ahmad, Morgen Schroder, Haley Vingsness, and Shelley Stracener participating in the labeling demonstration.
She also talked about positive affirmations and how the small things matter to those who you are working with and for and to those who work for you. A little note or public praise can go a long way to boosting moral and productivity.
Audrey promotes reading out of your comfort zone to get fun ideas to incorporate into our daily jobs. She says, “Read everything from Sports Illustrated to National Geographic”. She uses what’s going on in our daily lives (i.e. The Grammy’s) and incorporates into her job duties (i.e employee recognition and team building activities) to make work fun.
Audrey also brought information about Leadership Women programs, and Nandika D’Souza (Dallas SWE’s VP of Outreach) gave a short summary of her experience with Leadership Texas. Their programs are highly recommended for facilitating interactive learning opportunities in our state and meeting other women in leadership from areas you might not otherwise encounter them. Check it out!
Also scroll down to our earlier post highlighting upcoming events through the end of the year and in early 2015. We hope to see you at another event soon!
This is a special announcement for an exciting program sponsored by our friends at AT&T Women in Technology!
AT&T Women in Tech Hackathon brings together women and men developers to work on teams to create cool and innovative apps. This Hackathon will also focus on home automation apps. There will be special prizes for all women and women-led teams. We will also have career experts on hand to talk about careers at AT&T. This event also includes an option one-day coding camp on Thursday prior to the start of the Hackathon. The coding camp is a great way for people to brush up on their developer skills. There are tickets for developers, UX designers, and students alike: check it out!
We have posted a complete summary and review of our November 1, 2014 Design Your World – STEM Conference for Girls event at the University of Texas Dallas Campus on the Design Your World website here! It was a truly inspirational day! We are so grateful to our sponsors, our wonderful volunteers, and all the parents and students who joined us. Stay tuned to the Design Your World website and social media for announcements about our Spring 2015 event!
Are you feeling the holiday spirit? We are at Dallas SWE! Join us for an evening of networking and fun presented by WITI Dallas, AT&T, Dallas SWE, and Slalom!
Cost: There is no cost to RSVP for this event, and food & drink will be available for purchase by the individual. RSVP here to attend!
Save the date for these other upcoming events:
December 13, 2014: Dallas SWE Younger Members Brunch: location and time TBD. Email Morgen Schroeder to join the listserv!
January 20, 2015: Professional Development Meeting at Olive Garden in Addison
January 31, 2014: Dallas ISD “Stem Day” Stay tuned for details and your opportunity to volunteer!
February 6-8, 2015: SWE Region C Conference in Austin, TX. Join SWE members from Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas for a weekend of fun, learning, and inspiration! Registration is NOW OPEN! Visit the Region C page to learn more, register, and reserve your hotel room.
Note from the Webmaster: This is our 100th blog post! I’m so proud to be a part of sharing information with all of you on this site. ~Shelley Stracener
Below are more experiences from Dallas SWE members who attended WE14 in Los Angeles, CA October 22-25, 2014. Enjoy!
Laura Geiger, SWE Region C Membership Chair
I really enjoyed reconnecting with past leadership who I worked with as a Senator and seeing them now as higher ups in SWE. All the sessions I attended were very well done. I learned some interesting tidbits from these sessions such as :
1. 16%= typical engineering grad rate of females (highest was 24%)
2. After attending a SWE conference, one GUY was a better father and husband b/c he saw life thru a different lens. He also thought it helped him communicate with his son.
3. Quiet your inner self doubt by looking at yourself from the 3rd person
4. Lead with your heart!
Neha Dobhal, SWE Dallas Vice President of Membership
I had a wonderful experience at the international SWE conference this year. My time was divided into attending a couple of immensely motivating speaker sessions and recruiting for Abbott Labs, the company I work for, at the career fair.
Session Highlights – One of the sessions I attended was for the corporate council members and was based on ‘communication at work’. My biggest takeaway from this session that most people can be divided into being action, process, idea and people oriented. As such communication styles can vary across the board. It is important, as a professional, to be aware of personality types around you and suitably adapt your communication style. Hearing this message again at the SWE conference, really embedded this concept in my brain and since I have been back, I have had fun exploring its applications. Another very informational session I attended was the advancement of STEM and women in STEM in emerging economies, such as India. This has always been a topic close to my heart and it was so inspiring to hear that this was a topic discussed at the national conference. The advancement made in this field so far is commendable and I left the session feeling very hopeful and resolved to do my bit for this cause!
Recruiting Fair – As always, recruiting at the regional and national SWE conferences, has been a fun experience and this time turned out to be even better. A few companies had exciting product exhibits out, while most others gave away fun promotional items.Before the career fair started, I took a walk around the exhibit hall, talking to fellow recruiters and looking at booths, I was amazed at the camaraderie between women from different companies who were at the SWE conference. We were all there to motivate women to embrace challenging careers and provide resources to help them along the way. As the fair started, I had the opportunity to speak to a lot of attendees about Abbott and discuss their passion for healthcare/medical devices and their motivation to work at Abbott. While it is always tough to narrow down candidates for interviews and eventual job offers, I was really pleased to see the level of motivation and talent these women possess. Through the process, I learned a lot about the different schools people were attending and the different academic/professional projects in which they were involved. Almost everyone at the Abbott Booth was a current engineer or had been an engineer at some point in his/her past life and as such set an motivating example before these women. The overall turnout at the career fair was great and it was incredibly tough choosing between so many talented women for the position we were hiring.I congratulate all the attendees who took the first step of attending the conference for various reasons, be it attending the sessions, getting motivated or furthering their career. At the same time, for those who have never attended a conference or are planning to attend the next one at Nashville, I would highly recommend it ! It is absolutely thrilling to be in the company of dynamic, motivated and hard working women who have high aspirations to change this world for the better!
