But this year, the 6th annual conference held in Lagos for the first time on Thursday November 22, and yesterday. The theme of the conference was “Women in Leadership; Playing to win,” with sub-themes like “In position or power?,” “Play like a man, win like a woman”; “Playing to win.”
In the interview below, she answers questions on the conference and successful women in management and business.
Our vision Wimbiz is a Nigerian-based non-governmental organisation created by fourteen individuals; one man and thirteen women who have identified a serious issue concerning women in the workplace and in business. Our over-riding vision! is to be the catalyst that elevates the profile and influence of women in management and business.
We have been in existence for six years and have always held our annual conferences in Abuja for five years. This year’s conference which held in Lagos for the first time sought to examine and articulate what women in business and management need to understand about corporate and business leadership and how to succeed in the game of corporate and business survival and success, how women can use their current positions of leadership to influence the agenda of getting more women to top positions in organisations.
On Patricia Etteh That one woman in leadership position made a mistake does not mean that all women are prone to mistakes. We have seen women who are prostitutes but that does not qualify every woman as a prostitute. One woman was in office.
I don’t know if she got to the position because she is a woman or because she is competent, by m! erit or political calculations. What happened in the Etteh sag! a is not about being a woman. There are men in positions that have messed up. All the governors who have different issues pending about them are men. And many men who are presidents have failed. What happened in the House of Reps is not about being a woman. It’s about making sure that we put the right people in the right places.
Women in rural areas We are about women in management positions and business. We have members who run core businesses and women in management and leadership positions in corporate organisations. We are not all about women but all women can learn to grow through our conferences. There are all types of women societies who reach out to women in different areas of life but we are about successful women in management and business.
Successful women and home front
What is important is that when women ‘arrive’ in their career or business, they have to find the time for the home. They should plan their time on how to cope with bein! g successful in business and being successful at the home front. You have to draw your priority list and make sure you give your right time to your right priority.
We also counsel career women who are not married to be very wise when they choose husbands. It’s not every man they see that they should accept for marriage but a man who understands her and where she is coming from to avoid problems in the home at the end of the day. This is very important for a woman in a management position and in successful businesses.
In our conferences, we always choose on a sub-theme that is aimed at balancing the home and the career. In this year’s conference, we talked about women in positions of power and we obtain the male perspective because the best way to judge a successful woman is through the eyes of the men. Women also have responsibilities not only at work, business or home but also in their communities and it is important to put things in their proper ! perspectives and draw lines between being a career woman and a! mother.
Women as change agents
We said it earlier when we talked women issue. That we are about women in management and business does not mean we are for the top only. In our conferences, you see the old, the young and the middle-aged. We have people from the public sector; women from institutions, the multinationals; women from the private sector; and this year, we are having women from the local governments, Nigeria Labour Congress; and even men come to the conference.
Men have judged us aright after seeing we are focused in what we do. The issues we have tackled have been issues to help the women and the nation to move forward. We also talked to women that have political aspirations. Some women have the resources to go into politics but not the will power. Some have the will power and not the resources.
We try to balance these because we look out for values; integrity, character and we don’t deal with women with questionable character. We want to c! reate a support base for the right kind of women; those that are actually qualified and have the right tools to make the difference. We want to help them get there without compromise by supporting them financially and materially. If you want nomination, you don’t have to sleep with the chairman of any party to do it or your boss in the office to get to the top.
Dealing with male surbodinates
There is nothing as good as being competent and being able to deliver. When a woman is good at what she is doing, sooner or later, she will get the respect of the male folk, whether in a corporate organization or in business. Competence is very important in a work environment or elsewhere.
Achievements
We are committed to elevating the profile of women in management and business. This vision was borne out of a desire to assist women manage the challenges they face in the workplace and in so doing, enable them to fulfil their potentials and be meaningful contr! ibutors to economic development. There are challenges particul! ar to wo men which prevent them from attaining leadership positions. We give women support, encouragement and most importantly, a network to rise up to the task and overcome these challenges in order to be successful whether as career women in corporate organisations or as entrepreneurs.
You cannot come to our conference and remain the same. There are a lot of women who are afraid of going into private businesses and they get stuck in the corporate world. But some women take the bull by the horns. A member of our Board of Trustees was in Ecobank for thirteen and half years. She was the company secretary and later was moved on to be head of corporate banking.
At a point, she needed the boldness to move out and start a business in events management and she has been very successful in it. A lot of women see her and draw inspiration from her to go ahead and do it.
One of our members, Mrs Adesola, is an executive director in First bank. She is married and has two you! ng twin daughters. She travels a lot and yet she is at home to ensure her two lovely daughters are growing up right. Another is Mrs Ifeyinwa Ighodalo who is in partnership with another woman to set up Design Options for almost twenty years.
A woman who feel she cannot do it alone can find a partner. People think two women can’t work together but it’s a lie. Here we have two women doing it together for twenty years and they are both married and still married. And they have children and have about 120 employees. When you come to our conference, you find all kinds of women and with a lot of interaction and networking, they get it right.
We help women in top positions in corporate organisations to remain on top, bearing in mind that after a company trains a woman and she leaves without realizing her potentials for the company, the company loses. Corporate organizations lose billions annually when they train female personnel and then such a personnel le! aves the organisation without being encouraged to maximize her! potenti als to stay at home to become a house wife.
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Jane Holoway is owner of Tap-InProfit.com and writes on business opportunites, including working at home. If you'd like to learn more about this topic, Jane recommends you visit: Tap-InProfit.com
Source: http://www.vanguardngr.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2077&Itemid=0
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