Be selfish!
This week I was lucky enough to be able to sit in on a two day female leadership programme called Femmes Forward.
Femmes Forward is a comprehensive learning program working to advance women’s roles within the Havas & Vivendi networks. Taking place over six months, the program offers a mix of skills-based training modules, professional leadership assessments, experience-based learning sessions, inspiration from internal and external thought leaders, group coaching and networking with senior level sponsors. I had the chance to help manage the London program with my mentor Anne in January and April, and now during my Lofts experience I’ve seen how it’s run here in New York.
The running theme throughout the programme seemed to be that the women in the room…
1. Were ready for the next step in their careers and needed help navigating their way there
2. Didn’t have enough hours in the day to do their job and have their own life outside of work
Majority of the discussions were very similar to the London programme, similar challenges, concerns, questions and answers! Something that striked me as different was the overwhelming need to constantly be ON. Out of the office doesn’t seem to be a thing here? Being unavailable for a couple of hours in the evening while you’re busy with the kids, family or just life, was unheard of. I find it strange, and feel worn out just thinking about it. I run a health & well-being programme in London called Havas Equalise, a lot of the sessions we run talk about finding balance, being selfish, taking time out to re-charge, so to see the pressure the women in the room were putting on themselves was scary.
The programme included two speakers who addressed this problem and re-assured everyone it is OK to be selfish and take time out for yourself sometimes. The first speaker was Sonia Martin, an entrepreneur and fashion design leader and the second was Theresa Chieuh, design innovation director at PepsiCo — they were both very impressive and extremely inspirational!
So long story short, it’s been another great week in NYC :) Here’s me eating a giant pizza at my desk…
