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

Board Readiness Webinar Series
Board Readiness: Webinar that will help you speed up the path of getting on board! Who Should Attend: Anyone interested and targeting to join a public or private company board now or in the next two years! We encourage interaction and invite you to use the tools of the Webinar to take part in this valuable series. Leader and Speaker: Deb Nelms, Founder of Network Search, Inc. Board Readiness Part Three – Preparing for your Board Interview Join us for a Webinar on June 11 Space is limited. Reserve your Webinar seat now at:  https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/273369437 The questions to consider and to prepare for as a prospective board member will be covered with tools to guide you in the process. Attendees are encouraged to share their personal experiences in the board interview process. Title: Board Readiness Part Three – Preparing for your Board Interview Date: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 Time: 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM CDT System Requirements PC-based attendees Required: Window...
Author: Site Contributor

Webinar Series Presented by Cathy Greenberg & Marilyn McLeod
How the "new science of happiness" creates outstanding performers Cathy Greenberg and Marilyn McLeod have invited some outstanding thought leaders and current authors in the field of leadership to share their insights on the new science of happiness. Join us for this fun, free 2008 webinar series! 9:00 a.m. Pacific, 12 noon Eastern, the second Tuesday of the month. Seldom has the opportunity to learn directly from 'the leadership masters' been as readily available as is the new free webinar series, What Happy Coaches Know (WHCK). The second Tuesday of each month, some of the top thought leaders and authors in the field of leadership will share their best insights on how to be both happy and profitable. Indeed, the WHCK webinars are hosted by Cathy L. Greenberg and Marilyn McLeod, leading proponents of the "new science of happiness." Both Greenberg and McLeod regularly coach executives and companies on the financial improvements that can be achieved from a happy work life and happy...
Author: Site Contributor

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

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

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

The 3 D's of Leadership for Professional Women
As professional women take on the task of leading teams, mastering the 3 D's of team leadership: Decision-Making, Delegation and Diplomacy allows them to fulfill their roles in impressive fashion. For professional women, there is an emphasis on the Delegation "D," because they often believe they have to prove their value by doing it all themselves Decision-Making Decision-making is at the core of team leadership. The best skill team leaders can develop is that of helping a team build consensus to make decisions. This is both an art and a science. It is a skill that can be taught and improved with practice. Solely the executive women, as leader, must make some decisions, but when working with teams, it is important for morale and motivation to involve team members. In Alan Weiss’ "Best Practices Consulting Seminar," he identifies five approaches to decision-making. The skill is in knowing when to apply each of the five following approaches: 1) The leader makes the decision by hersel...
Author: Skip Weisman

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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3 Ways to Get the Credit You Deserve
How to view it: Men are really good at taking credit for everything. Women are not so good at taking credit for what they deserve. When I give workshops on secrets to getting ahead for women, one of the hardest exercises for participants is what I call "the owning your own worth exercise." It actually is very simple. The participants have a few minutes to write down their thoughts about what makes them great or valuable in a specific work context. Then she must stand in front of the group and tell the group in a first person declaration. "I am a great sales person because …" For many women, this task might as well be walking on hot coals. On the other hand, it is also very common that when a woman is given a compliment at work about her success, her immediate reaction is to say something like, "Well, I could not have done it without Jenny and the team." A common and pleasant ritual among women is the "No, it’s not me, it was you." Exchange. It goes like this: MANAGER: Great Job Be...
Author: Robert Schwarz

Be Heard in Meetings
Many women complain about the difficulties they have in being heard by men in meetings. When we learn to understand the gender differences in a positive and constructive light, we can learn new ways to increase the effectiveness of our communication that will increase our productivity and success. This four part series of articles is geared to helping professional women communicate more effectively during meetings so that they will be more successful in having her ideas accepted and utilized. Four skills will be discussed, starting with the art of interrupting for professional women. How to View It The first specific skill that professional women need to learn is the art of interrupting. This is hard for women, because as a group they are interested in sharing and listening. The custom for women is to listen with the understanding that after someone is done talking it will be your turn. This behavior pattern begins in very early childhood. When women talk with each other the custom ...
Author: Robert Schwarz

During Tough Times, Two-Way Improvement Plans Work Best
There are few feelings in the world as gratifying as celebrating a championship with teammates whom together you developed, persevered, broke through barriers, overcame obstacles and achieved the ultimate goal for which all were striving. The path to becoming a championship team in athletics is a life-transforming journey. Additionally, it is important to understand that there are many championship teams that due to luck, circumstances, the bounce of a ball or an inch or two, fall short of the ultimate goal. This doesn’t make them less of a championship team. Create a System of Two-Way Performance Improvement Feedback Professional women, desirous of creating a championship team, work on setting high expectations and accountability for their team members.  That strategy requires a corollary approach. This corollary is to consistently apply a process that involves evaluating the performance of team members as it relates to the goals and objectives of the department or company they lead...
Author: Skip Weisman

Is Networking Different for Women and Men?
The concept of networking can be deceptively simple. So simple, in fact, it would seem natural to assume that networking is pretty much the same for men and women. But is this really true? The correct answer to the question of whether networking is different for men and women is actually no and yes. It is true that many of the basic philosophies, strategies and tools of networking apply for both men and women, and that anyone can learn to be a successful networker, regardless of gender. But in reality, women face different opportunities and challenges in the workplace and in networking. Balancing career and motherhood, the glass ceiling, and sexual harassment are just a few examples of the unique trials women face. Our networking experiences can actually be quite different from men – even at the same event, within the same organization, or in the same industry or community. While there is no question that we girls have come a long way in the business world during the past thirty year...
Author: Marny Lifshen

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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The Risk of Heart Disease in Professional Women
Heart disease is the number one killer of women, and with the pressures that professional women face, heart disease is an especially important issue to that subgroup in particular.  To some of you this may come as a shock, but I assure you, this is nothing new. In fact, over the past decades while the death rate for heart disease in men has been declining, for women it is increasing.  There are many reasons for this discrepancy, including the fact that women have not been included in major studies looking at heart disease.  Even to this day, on average, only 25% of studies on heart disease include women.  Needless to say, women need to know their risk and how to do something about it, so they don’t become just another statistic in this epidemic that was once known as only a man’s disease. It was recently overheard that, "the more women live like men, the more they are going to die like them."  There are multiple risk factors that lead to heart disease besides age and family history, s...
Author: Suzanne Steinbaum

7 Strategies for Leading in Times of Change
As successful executives and business owners, we are "entrepreneuring" 24/7. We wake up with a full schedule of things to do and, as professional women, we juggle our personal and our family’s activities as well. Whether man-made or natural disaster, while unexpected events may be catastrophic in nature, it is the emotional intensity that may overwhelm our senses and good judgment. To best cope with the emotional intensity of crisis so that we may lead effectively and stay calm, here is a quick checklist.  It will enable you to set up a solid foundation on which to stand firmly grounded,  as well as to operate best when the pressure is on. Strategy #1: Assess the situation. If you are facing an unexpected event, whether it ranges from a catastrophic-like event to the loss of a significant family member or friend, ensure your own safety, your family’s safety and the safety of those who work with you. You cannot blink in choosing people first. Strategy #2: Concentrate on your "here an...
Author: Dr. Gabriela Cora

Tips on Building Customer Loyalty
Customer loyalty is an area about which professional women have a special understanding. Women being generally relationship oriented and social in nature have an inclination toward maintaining and building good relations.  For more information on relationships as a factor of importance to women in the workplace, see In the Company of Women, (Heim et al.,Tarcher, 2003). "The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer." Peter Drucker, Brainyquotes.com. Coffee shops, hair salons, and restaurants have long used the buy one or buy some number, get one free program to much success. Hallmark Card’s customer loyalty programs have become well known for successfully driving repeat customer business in times of fast emerging competition on the Internet. New ways to build customer loyalty develop with new ways to track it as well as with the development of new kinds of technologies for product. The best ways to create customer loyalty programs start with knowing your customer and know...
Author: Jean Lewis

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

w2wlink.com Founder/CEO Lisbeth McNabb in D Magazine’s D CEO
July 14, 2008 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  Dallas, Texas – Lisbeth McNabb, founder and CEO of w2wlink.com, is featured in the August issue of D Magazine in the "D CEO" section (www.dmagazine.com). "D CEO" introduces Dallas business leaders to one another. It celebrates the entrepreneurial tradition of Dallas, the men and women who take risks, who create jobs, who better the city. "D CEO" has become required reading for top executives who want to know more about their peers and to make a difference in our city. w2wlink.com is the premier community dedicated to professional women, helping them get to where they’re going – faster. w2wlink.com provides expert knowledge, tools to overcome obstacles, and connection with others in the online groups. McNabb leads a team of professionals to research and meet the needs of the professional woman in content and networking aspects through targeted content and online marketing and proprietary software for online networking. She has built on experience ...
Author: Site Contributor

How to Network Successfully in a Male-Dominated Environment
Finding the time, energy and confidence to network can be tough for anyone – even successful business women. But women who work in male-dominated environments can find networking even more challenging. It can be an intimidating and isolating situation, and is more common than many might think despite the approximately 70 million working female Americans (38 percent of whom are in professional occupations). For these women, and many others like them, building successful relationships with their peers can be more difficult. Women may be ostracized, patronized or simply overlooked by male colleagues who believe that their company or industry is no place for a woman. Some men may be overtly rude and confrontational, while others may just be uncomfortable having a woman in their workplace and avoid interaction altogether. Whether dealing with male bosses, employees or peers, being the only women (or one of a very few) can be very lonely indeed. If you do work in a primarily male environme...
Author: Marny Lifshen

Join by Nov 3rd and you'll be entered to win great prizes!
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.  Join us and be automatically entered to win valuable career building and life balancing tools:    CAREER BUILDING: Caliper Managerial or Executive Assessment Tools ($295 - $495 value – two awarded) These comprehensive tools are based on your personal profile and are designed to help you:  focus your career, reach senior leadership positions, breakthrough obstacles and maximize your leadership strengths.  LIFE BALANCING: Sittercity.com Annual membership ($100 value – five awarded) Sittercity.com is your online referral service for locating local, screened resources for Babysitters, Nannies, Senior Caregivers, Housesitters, Petsitters and even more. Already a member?  There's never been a better time to share w2wlink.com with colleagues or friends. ...
Author: Presented by: w2wlink.com