Women Leaders Must Support Each Other - Transforming Your STEM Career Through Leadership and Innovation - page 150

in The Difference “Difference” Makes , edited by Deborah Rhode. We must
move beyond traditional fields that we're accustomed to identifying women
for, such as obstetrics, personal services, and child care, and open the door for
women to gain access to other areas of opportunity in our world [7] .
Uncover and Share Information
It's not enough to be an expert in your area alone. As we progress to higher lev-
els of leadership we must have a broader understanding of areas outside of our
departments, technical areas, and organization. Leaders and innovators require
a sphere of knowledge, although you don't have to be an expert in other areas.
The level of confidence in you will increase when you're able to converse about
other areas outside of your expertise. To do this in an organization means you
will need to establish relationships with women outside of your department and
agree to the need and willingness to share information. Talk about work when
you're together, mix personal and business conversations, and most importantly
ask questions. This also means that you should share information and recognize
that it's being shared for a purpose, so don't share anything that should be kept
confidential.
Get comfortable talking to women in other business settings, while travel-
ing on public transportation to the office, and even on airplanes. Some of the
nicest flights I've ever had were when I engaged in conversation with people
on the flight. Although we're often so glad to sit down and turn on our music
or DVD, flying can be a great way to establish new business relationships. I
recall a long flight from Boston to Orlando when I was commuting from MIT
to home. This flight led to a delightful conversation, continued communication,
and a concept for a new topic. Seated next to me was a pleasant woman who
appeared to be close to my age and as I sat down we exchanged pleasantries -
that seemed almost like greetings from real friends. In the course of the flight,
I learned that she was a photographer and lived not far from me in Florida.
When we talked about my writing goals we quickly moved to discussing how
we might collaborate in a photograph and motivational project. We drafted out
a concept on our notebooks and added areas for further evaluation once we
were at our computers on the ground. After additional dialog our concept for
a topic of photos that captures the similarities, fears, ambitions, dreams, and
hopes of women worldwide was born. We will travel to at least 10 countries and
Katherine will capture candid photographs of women. We will talk to them and
I will capture the “essence” and universal meaning and impact of the situation
such that women worldwide can appreciate and to some degree “experience”
the environment. The objective is to connect women globally and encourage
us to value each other, our communities, and our passions as we move women
forward worldwide. We agreed we would donate the proceeds to a woman's
organization once we find a publisher smart enough to see the value of this
concept. As of today, we've written the concept paper and plan to submit it to