Press Information for w2wlink.com
w2wlink.com is the premier community dedicated to professional women, helping you get to where you’re going – faster. We provide you expert knowledge, tools to overcome obstacles, and connection with others in our online groups.    Hot Topics: women business, women networking, women entrepreneurs, executive women and women mentoring.   Click here to download the w2wlink Media Kit. The w2wlink Team publicrelations@w2wlink.com o: 214.866.0299 f: 214.889.8001
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Travelocity Business' Lesley Harris Wins Ascendancy Award
SOUTHLAKE, Texas, Jun 08, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- w2wlink, the premier professional online community for women, honored Travelocity Business President Lesley Harris with an Ascendancy Award on May 28 in Dallas. Presented in seven other locations nationwide, the Ascendancy Awards honor women for their professional achievements, as well as their role as mentors to other women. Candidates for the awards were nominated for achievement in corporate, entrepreneurial and career transition settings. Now beginning her third year as president of Travelocity Business, Lesley Harris leads one of the fastest growing travel management companies in North America. From its origin in 2003 serving unmanaged business travelers, the agency now has more than $800 million in travel spend under management. Travelocity Business offers corporations a compelling combination of best-in-class automation with a complete array of traditional travel management services. "It is an honor to receive the w2wlink Ascen...
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w2wlink Announces Ascendancy Award Winners
Twenty-Seven Award Winners in Corporate, Entrepreneur, and Career Transition Settings across the nation DALLAS (5/29/2009 11:46 AM Eastern Time) – w2wlink.com, the premier professional online community for women, is pleased to announce its first ever Ascendancy Award recipients. Along with sponsors ClubCorp, The World Leader in Private ClubsSM, and American Airlines, w2wlink initiated the Ascendancy Awards to recognize, reward and inspire women to maximize their potential in their careers. Candidates were nominated from eight cities and at-large locales across the nation for achievement in Corporate, Entrepreneurial and Career Transition settings. Three national winners were selected among the total 27 award winners who were recognized May 28. This year’s three national award recipients are: Corporate national winner Ambassador Frances Cook has established many firsts in her long-term career as ambassador to various global efforts. Since she began her career as a Special Assistant to...
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Getting on the Same Page
As a professional women in leadership, it is especially important to be able to communicate effectively with your assistant.  Being able to avoid and to manage the event of a communication break down is critical. When communicating with your assistant, it can sometimes seem like the two of you are speaking different languages. But the importance of clear communication can’t be overstated. You must be able to provide your employee with direction and feedback, and he or she must alert you to challenges or concerns to avoid missed meetings, forgotten deadlines and similar problems. One of the best ways to prevent communication breakdowns is to understand how they occur in the first place. Here are some principal causes to watch out for: Frequency: How often is too often? Your assistant is helping you plan for an important meeting, but she doesn’t tell you that everything is on track until after you’ve sent her half a dozen e-mails requesting status updates. If you and your employee hav...
Author: Dave Willmer

C-Link Suite Interview: Nina Vaca
Nina Vaca, CEO of Pinnacle Technical Resources, Inc., one of the 27 winners of the w2wlink 2009 Ascendancy Awards for Business Women, two-time winner of Hispanic Business Magazine’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award as well as Ernst & Young’s 2005 Entrepreneur of the Year award for Technology and Communications for the Southwest Region, founded Pinnacle in 1996. Pinnacle is an information technology services provider to the Fortune 500. The company’s client base includes industry leaders from the telecommunications, financial services, health care, technology, consumer products and business process outsourcing sectors. Pinnacle’s services include enterprise data warehousing, custom application development and architecture, system/network integration and installation, and call center technologies. Under Vaca’s leadership, Pinnacle has become the second fastest growing firm in a $20 billion dollar industry, and now includes approximately 1,500 consultants across 38 states. She is a gradua...
Author: Jean Lewis

Cashing Out! Preparing Your Business for Sale
Savvy women business owners know that to run a successful company you need to be a great marketer, able to control costs and deliver unbelievable customer service. However, when it comes time to sell your business, it’s important to plan a strategy that will leave you and your company in a great position. Creating and implementing an exit strategy for your business can provide you with less stress and greater peace of mind knowing that when the time comes to sell, you’ll be ready.   The sale of your business should be a planned process to yield you the highest possible price for the company—not a knee-jerk sale based on uncontrollable circumstances like health problems, financial issues or an untimely death.    Developing a successful exit plan should begin well ahead of your targeted exit date. (I recommend at least three years). Here are some things to consider as you get started: Get your personal financial picture in order.  As a future seller, be sure that you have adequ...
Author: Julie Gordon White

C-Link Suite Interview with Lesley Harris
One of our 27 recipients of the 2009 Ascendancy Awards for Business Women, as president of Travelocity Business, Lesley Harris leads one of the fastest growing travel management companies in North America. From its origin in 2003 serving unmanaged business travelers, Travelocity Business now has more than $800 million in travel spend under management. Prior to Travelocity Business, Harris was vice president of sales and customer care for Travelocity, responsible for leading Travelocity's offline global call center enterprise in support of consumer sales and service. Before that, she was vice president of the small business division for Sabre Travel Network where she transitioned the small business division from direct account management to a service center structure. Prior to her experience in sales, Harris was vice president of North America operations services for Sabre Travel Network. Harris started her career with Sabre in 1995 and held various positions in finance, operations an...
Author: Jean Lewis

Make Networking a Way of Life
In this economy in which large companies are growing at a slower pace than in the past and given the highly transactional marketplace, workers are changing jobs more frequently either by choice or by necessity. People who previously have targeted only large corporations are looking elsewhere, often to smaller companies. This job climate makes networking even more important. Now, more than ever, it is a necessity, not an option. But because time is truly a precious commodity for many professional women, networking, unfortunately, has often been put on the back burner. The busier the woman, the more networking has lagged behind in priorities. Often it has been done only sporadically for a pointed purpose. Or it has been done in an ad hoc way when convenient. In both cases, women have missed tremendous opportunities to grow their careers exponentially. Professional women can no longer afford to neglect this critical, strategic career builder. There are many preconceived notions about ...
Author: Marny Lifshen

Business Travel Made Easy
Cancelled flights …  lost luggage …  presentation programs that won't run …  the list of potential business trip challenges is virtually endless. In fact, when it comes to business travel, it seems that problems and delays are the norm, not the exception. The key is to be prepared for anything that comes your way. Only then will arriving at your destination be as simple as your morning drive into the office. Unfortunately, most business travelers are unprepared for even the smallest of travel glitches. And although they may have made numerous business trips in the past, each with its own problem or two, people still don't plan for setbacks when the next trip rolls around. As a result, they get frustrated when traveling and view business trips as a hassle they wish they could avoid. If you have to travel for business, take the approach that everything will go wrong. That way you're prepared to handle whatever comes your way and no challenge will derail your business plans. Following a...
Author: Christi Youd

Damned or Doomed - The Double-Bind Dilemma for Women
Gender stereotyping, one of the key barriers to women’s advancement in corporate leadership, leaves women with limited, conflicting and often unfavorable options no matter how they choose to lead, according to a recent study. "The Double-Bind Dilemma for Women in Leadership: Damned if You Do, Doomed if You Don’t" was  released  by Catalyst, a nonprofit organization working to advance opportunities for women and business. This report, the third in Catalyst’s in-depth series examining the pervasive and damaging effects of gender stereotyping in the workplace, focuses on the consequences of gender bias and three specific “double-bind dilemmas” frequently experienced by women business leaders. The study also suggests organizational solutions to counter the persistent effects of gender stereotyping. Catalyst findings strongly suggest that gender stereotypes lead organizations to routinely underestimate and underutilize women’s leadership talent. The 2006 Catalyst Census shows that, even th...
Author: Site Contributor

Special Book Offer from Dr. Cathy Greenberg
Born between 1980 and 2000, millennials make up a generation nearly as large as the Baby Boom, and they’re full of potential. In an interview with Elisabeth (Lis) Steklis, 26-year-old executive at a full-service residential interior design firm and graduate of Drexel School of Design, features of the best millennials compared to other generations, as well as other millennials become clear. Traits of millennial overlap with those of other generations when they are going through similar life stages. For example, early career seekers usually look for positions offering opportunities for career advancement. They require strong leadership, and wish to be believed in and given a chance. Differentiating characteristics of millennials include cohort experiences such as greater technical savvy from more Web exposure. The shared 9-11 experience invokes patriotism. They tend to find comfort in networks and team experience. Since they have the benefit of a large network and vast opportunity at ...
Author: Dr. Cathy Greenberg

Creating an Exit Plan for Your Business
It is estimated that somewhere between 7 and 20 trillion dollars of value in businesses will change hands in the next 10 - 20 years. All business owners will exit their businesses at some time. The question is not if but when and on whose terms? Now is a good time to review your "exit plan." There are several good books for business owners and leaders seeking more information on exit plans.  Consider John H. Brown’s  How to Run Your Business so You Can Leave it In Style or Richard Jackim’s  The 10 Trillion Dollar Opportunity. Each gives the business owner or leader an overview of how to plan for the opportunity to "monetize" the investment they have spent their life’s work on. Brown now heads the Business Enterprise Institute (BEI), a network of professionals who practice exit planning. Likewise, Jackim heads the Exit Planning Institute (EPI.) Much more information is available from their Web sites; BEI’s www.exitplanning.com and EPI’s, www.Exit-Planning-Institute.org. A High Level L...
Author: Simone Velasquez-Hoover

w2wlink.com Announces Ascendancy Awards for Business Women
w2wlink.com Announces First Ascendancy Awards for Business Women in Eight Cities and an "At-Large Any City" Category Dallas, TX. (January 13, 2009) -- w2wlink.com, the premier professional women community announces its first Ascendancy Awards for Business Women. The awards will go to outstanding women who have "ascended" to achieve and innovate in Corporate, in Entrepreneurial and in Career Transition settings. w2wlink.com initiated the Ascendancy Awards to recognize, reward and inspire women to maximize their potential in their careers. Lisbeth McNabb, Founder and CEO w2wlink said "Our vision is to inspire and recognize women who are ascending professionally and mentoring other women around them--as these key steps will link to driving higher levels of women in the executive ranks, more entrepreneurs with growing businesses and more female directors on boards in the next decade." w2wlink.com is accepting nominations for candidates from eight cities: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas...
Author: Site Contributor

Share your Success Story or Nominate Others Around You
w2wlink.com's 2010 Ascendancy Awards for Business Women will go to outstanding women who have "ascended" to achieve and innovate in Corporate, in Entrepreneurial and in Career Transition settings. w2wlink.com initiated the Ascendancy Awards to recognize, reward and inspire women to maximize their potential in their careers. "Our vision is to inspire and recognize women who are ascending professionally and mentoring other women around them--as these key steps will link to driving higher levels of women in the executive ranks, more entrepreneurs with growing businesses and more female directors on boards in the next decade," stated Lisbeth McNabb, Founder and CEO w2wlink. w2wlink.com is accepting nominations for candidates from eight cities: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Houston, New York, San Francisco and Washington D.C. They are also accepting nominations for at-large candidates from any other city. Three winners from each category--Corporate, Entrepreneur, and Career ...
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You Nominated - Here are the Award Winners!
Breaking the glass ceiling and bringing other women around it, the winners, divided among Corporate, Entrepreneurial and Career in Transition settings, are leaders within and outside the workplace, where they strive to provide resources and support for working women and tighten the professional gender gap. w2wlink.com has announced its 27 award winners and three national winners of its first ever Ascendancy Awards implemented to recognize, reward and inspire women to maximize their potential within their careers. The following marks the first in a series of articles that expand upon the successes of the women who have ascended to the role of mentors within and outside of the workplace, helping to enhance the careers and lives of other women. The three national winners are: Ambassador Frances Cook City: Washington D.C Corporate Director and Consultant The Ballard Group, LLC.   The fact that we are standing on the shoulders of pioneering businesswomen, who came before us, means w...
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Share Success Stories on Achievement and Mentoring
At w2wlink.com you can participate now in the first ever Ascendancy Awards for Business Women. Awards go to outstanding women who have "ascended" to achieve and innovate in Corporate, Entrepreneurial and Transition to Transformation settings.  National and category winners will be recognized for their accomplishments and win valuable prizes. Click the related article link below to view our 2009 winners! Look for more information here on winners and their inspirational quotes in the coming months. Nominations are being accepted through January 2010 for winners in eight cities and an additional “anyone from anywhere” category.  Cities:  Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Houston,  New York City, San Francisco, Washington D.C.  Three National winners from the 27 winners will be selected by an executive women advisory board.   Click the related article link below to find out more about the Ascendancy Awards, or for more information, email womenawards@w2wlink.com.
Author: Presented by: w2wlink.com

What an Exit Strategy Isn't
Let’s get this out of the way right now. A severance package is not an exit strategy. A severance package, which is basically the terms of disengagement, may be the culmination of an effective exit strategy, but that will be determined only after the rest of your strategy is firmly in place. In addition, an exit strategy is not just a plan to leave your current company, and it doesn’t have to be a terminal farewell. So what is it? An exit strategy is simply a long-term plan that sets a course for your career. It answers the question, “What’s next?” What all executives must realize is that you aren’t limited to asking that question only after you get downsized or something else happens to you. It is often best to ask, “What’s next?” when your career is moving forward successfully. Let’s say, for example, that you were part of a team that just finished turning around a failing division, and, in the process, you realized that you have a passion for that kind of work. It provides the kind...
Author: Elaine Eisenman

Career Resolution Tip
Often professional women focus on re-evaluating  professional aspirations at the beginning of the year.  To keep the momentum, one key tip is to make a detailed plan to achieve resolutions.  Developing detailed plans is a proven way to help keep committed. The detail provides a path to reach the goal, and creating the plan puts the goal and how you are going to meet it more prominantly in your mind. You may have already made career resolutions.  To make sure you get results, ensure there is enough detail.  It’s not too late to reassess or refine your career goals and make changes that will benefit your career or overall job satisfaction. Here are a few examples of career resolutions and how to refine them to be specific: Learn something new. Skills enhancement is a top professional priority for many professionals as it’s one of the most effective ways to position yourself for a new job or a move up the corporate ladder. And acquiring a new skill doesn’t have to be difficult; many pr...
Author: Diane Domeyer

Cash Flow is King in a Business Plan
Of the many ways to tell if an entrepreneur has a good idea, one of the best is its ability to generate cash flow. Although profit is the difference between income and expenses, cash flow is the difference between incoming and outgoing cash. A cash flow forecast or analysis shows when cash goes out and when cash comes in, on a regular basis. Why is cash flow king in a business plan? Dr. James Stancill, professor of entrepreneurial studies at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California, compares it to gasoline for a car.   Stephen Spinelli Jr., vice provost for entrepreneurship and global management at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass. who advises small and medium-size companies, recommends having at least enough cash to cover one purchasing cycle. "Then if a key customer has to cut back on orders," says Spinelli, "or another unexpected disruption occurs, there is time to recover." Knowing cash flow helps prevent running out of cash while waiting to be a...
Author: Jean Lewis

Professional Women: Starting a New Assistant
As a professional woman, presenting objective, clear information about your new assistant's job both helps your assistant start, and builds the impression that you can be relied on as a solid boss with strong and sensible guidelines. How your assistant perceives you is reflected in even the subleties how they communicate to others about you, and as a professional woman, building your reputation as a diligent and appropriately detached professional is ever important. Creating and executing a good start plan is critical to starting off right, and avoiding bumpy beginnings. Since your assistant interacts with you on a daily basis, makes certain your professional life is organized and takes care of work that allows you to be even more productive, the start plan has to enable your assistant to feel confident helping you. You’ll want to have the most constructive relationship possible with this person. Getting off to a rough start can set a precedent that may not ever resolve itself. Three ...
Author: Dave Willmer

7 Steps to Make the Most of Networking Events
When you think about a networking event, what do you envision? Perhaps a crowd milling around a hotel banquet room with cocktails in one hand and business cards in the other? In fact, there are many types of networking events, ranging from breakfast meetings with a dozen people, to speaker luncheons with 100 attendees, to black tie dinners with more than 1,000. Each can be a valuable experience if you make the most of the opportunity. Attending events is only an effective use of your time and money if you do so with a plan. Ask yourself: What do I hope to gain from attending? It may be to learn from the speaker, meet prospective customers, increase your visibility or network with your peers.  The key is to think about your goals ahead of time, as the more tangible your plan is, the more likely you are to see results.  If you are not sure why you are going to an event or if your heart just isn’t in it, your time is better spent elsewhere. Many people show up to events late, sit b...
Author: Marny Lifshen