by Amanda Christine, CALC Safe Routes Advocate
Requested by popular demand, the Regional Institute for Health & Environmental Leadership (RIHEL) hosted a wildly informative and empowering event focused on women in leadership on December 9th, 2019. This all-day event was chock full of inspiration and facts, leaving the attendee with both tangible practices to implement into everyday life, as well as new, esoteric thought patterns.
The three main components of this conference focused on the themes of confidence, voice, and presence, presented respectively by Dr. Marti Schulte, Dr. Kathy Kennedy, and Deb Center. Located at the Mile High United Way Building in Denver, the conference focused on the essential importance of women in leadership, current challenges that women in leadership experience, and ways to navigate these blocks and move on towards success.
In the first workshop, we identified factors that have personally helped us grow our own confidence as well as barriers to confidence. We were then given a framework for moving through those barriers and building confidence in the future. We explored the vast differences that having a growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset makes and how to further improve our lives and our world by implementing the growth mindset as much as possible.
The second theme of the conference, voice, helped us dig into the ways in which women’s voices are heard (or not heard) in professional settings and society in general. The speaker, Dr. Kathy Kennedy, illustrated different tactics to successfully communicate in a variety of settings to maintain both authenticity and effectiveness.
The third workshop shined a spotlight on presence - what this means as a skillset and how to harness its power for the greater good of the individual and collective. We learned about leveraging emotional intelligence, tackling imposter syndrome, and discovering the power of vulnerability.
Each workshop was valuable in its own right and the day overall provided a sense of fun and determination to the women present. This inspirational conference is highly beneficial to anyone who can attend - so stay tuned for next year’s event openings!
Commentaires