AWL Alumni Spotlight

Describe the six months you spent in the Bloombase experience for Advanced Women Leaders.
I’ve really enjoyed getting to know others from a variety of industries as part of this experience. It is nice to recognize although we come from different places, we are all facing similar challenges. We covered several topics outside of our comfort zones, and honestly, not knowing anyone from the start of the session really allowed me to open up and embrace the experience through my initial hesitation.

Describe the benefits of the AWL Experience.
I really appreciated the emphasis on showing up as your authentic self. I am not one to typically take notice to being the only female in the room, but this course made me reflect more situationally, and at times I caught myself realizing, “Hey, it’s just little ol’ me here sitting in a room full of guys!” – which isn’t something unusual to me coming from an engineering background. It helped me recognize some people may be uncomfortable in these situations, so when I do see others who may be struggling with this, I like to take an extra effort to be present for them and make sure they are comfortable just being themselves.

What did you get out of the Executive Coaching sessions?
The Executive Coaching sessions were helpful for me to reflect on how to best utilize time for other 1:1s and coaching sessions. They were most effective when I had a clear idea of what I wanted to get perspectives on or problems I was currently facing to get the most out of my time with the person I was meeting with. The more specific I was, the more I got out of them.

What would you say to someone else considering this experience?
When I was nominated to join the program, I was hesitant to join an exclusive group as I am an advocate of not letting gender titles define a person (i.e., I am not a Female Engineer nor a Woman Leader, I am an Engineer and a Leader who happens to be a woman). After joining, I found the content was very insightful and reflective on different styles to drive positive outcomes on my leadership journey, regardless of gender. I would highly recommend this program to anyone looking to strengthen their leadership skills.

What is the greatest ROI for this investment you made in yourself?
AWL has made me realize how important it is to give myself permission to stop, reflect, and recognize I am emotional about a topic (i.e., frustration, exhaustion) – once I recognize how this may be impacting my thought process, I can step back and look at the challenge I’m facing objectively.

My favorite way to spend an afternoon by myself is… sketching pictures of my dogs while sitting in a hammock in the woods and eating a bowl of Chocolate Cookie Dough Brownie Batter ice cream!

The kind of work I’m most passionate about is… where I get to help other people realize their full potential because I feel like I’m contributing to the greater good of society (as cheesy as that sounds!).

To me, leadership is… doing the right thing even if it is hard or not popular.

The values/behaviors that are most important to me are… integrity and work ethic.

Something that makes my life ridiculously fun is… being able to influence and teach the next generation of problem solvers!