No Time To Waste for Women To Shape a Better World
After she had her first child and came back to work, my then-colleague Amy Orr (now of Boston Common), shared with me an interesting observation: she was getting more done at work, and with more impact. The urgent need to get home at the end of the day had sparked within her a new sharpness and focus to her workdays.
Amy's experience proved part of a pattern that I've since observed across the financial industry: Many women seem to behave as though they don't have time to waste, and this leads to better relationships, greater excellence at work, and ultimately, greater positive impact on real humans.
Take Kelly Baldoni of Impax Asset Management, who moderated the opening panel of a Pensions & Investments event honoring influential women last year. Kelly led by confessing that the previous year's event had left her feeling insufficient – not a CEO, pressured by working motherhood with littles, wondering what kind of success was even available to her. Her vulnerability shaped the opening discussion into a raw and applicable discussion on leading from the middle.
The panel also eschewed introductions, in order to get into the real meat of the conversation, with a wave of the hand, a casual, 'Our bios are in the app.' I thought of countless panels I've attended wherein 'introductions' took the first 30-plus minutes, leaving little time for panelists to say anything more than skin-deep, and leaving attendees like myself left with scant new information, soon forgetting even the names of the speakers. By contrast, the entire P&I event was designed to push ego aside and focus on genuine relationships and actionable information – implicitly challenging us all to do the same.
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