President Shawn opened the meeting by mentioning he had only a few more weeks to have the honor of serving as Rotary Des Moines President. “Then I’m done.” APPLAUSE! (interpret that as you will.)
Shawn responded with aplomb, “I’ve sought applause before. This is all I had to say to get it?”
Colleen Rogers-Messenger invoked author Gretchen Rubin’s blog which brought to her mind the Rotary Four Way Test. Rubin asks about decision making:
1. Is this decision likely to strengthen my relationships with other people?
2. Will this decision provide me with novelty and challenge?
3. What is the opportunity cost of this decision? And finally,
4. When I consider a particular course of action, do I feel energized or drained?
Mark Jacobs then introduced speaker Tiffany O’Donnell, CEO of Women Lead Change
(wlcglobal.org) developing, advancing and promoting women and their organizations to impact the regional economy
Tiffany is a fellow Rotarian, a member of the Cedar Rapids Club.
Enjoying a very successful career as an accomplished news anchor, Tiffany was inspired by a conversation with Martha Stewart and segued (or in her words “re-careered”) into the leadership of Women Lead Change.
In Tiffany’s words, Women Lead Change “is workforce development through a gender lens” helping mid-level, high potential women prepare for, seek out, and secure positions of leadership in their fields.
She emphasized not only the value of having women in leadership positions because of perceived differences in how they see the world but also the fact that corporations with larger percentages of women in the “boardroom” have stronger financial performance – higher return on equity, higher return on sales, and higher return on invested capital.
Tiffany promoted the EPIC Corporate Challenge, a Women Lead Change initiative that already has more than 100 Iowa companies participating.
Companies that sign on to be EPIC Corporate Challenge partners commit to set voluntary measurable goals in at least one of the following areas:
…Recruitment of women
…Retention of women
…Women in senior leadership
…Women on board
…Pay equity
Participating companies commit, and Women Lead Change commits in return to providing needed support to help achieve goals set.