Anne Ravanona: How being a club leader in EuropeanPWN can boost your career.

« The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances that they want, and if they can’t find them, make them » George Bernard Shaw

Helping others develop can really help your career. A key tip to to being a member of any organisation is to remember that « what you give is what you get ». Since joining the EuropeanPWN Paris network in 2003, I have moved from having ‘an active interest’ to ‘active participant’ to ‘active Club Leader’. In this article, I share a few steps on the journey, lessons learned and insights into how helping women at EuropeanPWN progress professionally and personally helped my career and how it can help yours too.

From idea to Kick-off
It all started over a coffee in 2005 when Véronique Mortessagne, then in charge of Executive Education at EuropeanPWN, asked me to help with an innovative idea : organise 3-hour workshops where a professional trainer/expert comes to share expertise and give practical tools/takeaways at the end of the session. Coffee and brainstorming got the ideas flowing and I suggested we call this new initiative « Career Booster », given that each workshop would provide practical tools/insights that our members could quickly use in the workplace to help boost their confidence and career.

We built a programme of key themes, presented the idea and programme to the EuropeanPWN Board and got the big thumbs-up. For a good few months, the programme lay dormant in my computer as I settled into a demanding new job. Finally, an encouraging word from then President Margaret Milan, whom I greatly admire for her formidable entrepreneurial flair and stamina, made the difference. She simply said « Anne, you have a great programme, members want this, now just start posting events up onto the calendar and get the ball rolling ». Lesson 1 : Once you’ve built your programme and got the Board’s OK, don’t wait for the perfect event (perfect topic, speaker, venue… or to have everything super organised, start the ball rolling and just move forward without fear.

Building a Team and momentum

Isabelle Roux-Buisson became overall Leader for the Career booster programme (Hard skills, Soft skills (which I led) and Reinvention skills). Isabelle is a fantastic, organised, energetic and inspiring lady and together with support from EuropeanPWN Board member Chris Jaccon, we had many inspiring working lunches and suppers to get this programme truly off the ground. Lesson 2 Choose your Team : surround yourself with like-minded, energetic and focused people. Soon the hours melt by like seconds and things happen effortlessly, because you are all in this together, each person knows what they need to do and we all trust each other implicitly to get things done. This is true for any role where you lead a team. Being a Club Leader allows you to flex teamwork, influence and organisational skills that you can bring to your workplace too.

Impact on the network, seeing results

During 2006, 13 Career Booster events were organised with an average of 22 people attending, including many ‘loyal followers’. Themes covered Knowing yourself and others, Smart Negotiation Techniques, Women and Leadership, Getting on Boards, Emotional Intelligence and improving your Networking Skills. Being a Club Leader is an exhilarating experience. Reviews of events were great (thank-you to all of you who filled in the feedback forms), but for me the biggest buzz was seeing so many happy faces at the end of an event, observing women networking comfortably among themselves and helping each other by sharing contacts and ideas, genuinely supporting each other. That’s really what we as a network are about, helping other internationally minded women to develop and promote our professional progress. So was it easy, combining a challenging job, motherhood and being an active Club Leader in a fantastic women’s network? The simple and honest answer is no, but as with everything in life, perseverance, hard work and a strong belief that what you are doing will truly benefit your fellow members makes the effort really worthwhile. I have found that the energy you get from helping others can become ‘addictive’ and make you want to do even more! Lesson 3 : persevere and build on the energy from others to continuously strive for ongoing improvement.

How being a Club Leader at EuropeanPWN « boosted my career »…

So how has this experience boosted my career? Well, recommended by two EuropeanPWN members (you know who you are ..), I moved to an Anglo-Saxon international company specialised in Management and Leadership consulting and training, where I will be playing an even bigger Leadership role in the future. The skills I further developed as Club Leader are certainly transferable and helped make the difference during the recruitment process. In order to focus on this new role I have stepped down and wish Hilary Ellis and the entire new Career Booster team continued success. I’ll be supporting from the sidelines.

…and can « boost » yours!

Since joining EuropeanPWN, I have made many new friends, networked at Last Thursday cocktails, learned a lot by listening to inspiring women leaders at Speaker lunches and at our Career Booster programme. Becoming a Club leader was the natural step to ‘give back’. Do it when you feel you are ready and when you know you can devote a certain amount of your time to the network. What you will get in return can include transferable skills such as managing teams, marketing, organising, influencing, building and communicating a strategy and vision. On a more personal note, I found friendship, teamwork, inspiration, new ideas and constant learning and increased confidence that it is possible to make a difference : Lesson 4 : all you need to do is « just do it ! ».