Shelley Zalis has a message for women in today’s workplace: “Know your strengths, be confident, don’t apologize and redefine balance."
Zalis, the CEO of Ipsos Open Thinking Exchange, is out to change corporate culture, starting with offering you talented women a supportive place to network and mentor each other.
Her Ipsos Girls’ Lounge is fast becoming a must-attend destination for women.
We asked Zalis to share details of this new, high-powered networking nook, where women can put their feet up and let their hair down.
The next day I had 60 women [attend] and the need for a much bigger room. By day three, we were in the presidential suite with over 200 female executives connecting and sharing. What we discovered was the true power of a girl’s network. Women who had just met were now high-fiving each other on the trade floor at CES.
Since then, we’ve connected more than 2,500 women from all ranks of corporate life through The Ipsos Girls’ Lounge at conferences like CES, Cannes Lions, the ANA, Advertising Week, 4A's, ARF, and Thrive. Our mission is to energize confidence and transform corporate culture…together!
Q: You appeared recently at Arianna Huffington’s Thrive conference...what was that like for you?
A: Arianna’s philosophy of defining success beyond money and power is inspiring, necessary and infectious. We all need to internalize, reimagine and activate the concept of 'balance,' 'perfection' and 'doing it all.”
As women, we need to invest more in ourselves, our self-confidence and turning on our girl powers. I’d love to see more women move along the continuum from insecurity to confidence and incorporating Arianna’s "third metric" principles into corporate culture.
Taking time for reflection and self-development is crucial for this transformation and success today.
So we should not live to work – work is a dimension of life.
I have always made my choices by thinking forward and asking myself the question, will I feel bad if I miss that? If the answer is yes, I modify as necessary.
There is always a solution. So, for example, if your kid’s birthday party is coming up and you know you’re going to regret missing it for work, ask someone on your team to cover for you. You’ll have their back the next time!
Having great kids who always support and encourage me and a fabulous partner at home that shares in all responsibilities goes along way as well.
Many women are opting out of corporate leadership roles because we feel we can’t do it all and yet, the characteristics of the greatest leaders today are those who inspire, motivate, have empathy, nurture and care. We should not settle for a 50/50 quota of those available; we should work towards creating the changes needed in corporate culture to attract 50/50 of the best.
Be bold.
If you don’t try, you will never know. You might be wrong, but guess what? You might just be very right.
Don’t wait for permission. Go for it! It will pay off!
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