Jennifer Colosimo on Leadership and Achievement

April 15th, 2011

Jennifer Colosimo of FranklinCovey

Jennifer Colosimo is an executive vice president at FranklinCovey and an acclaimed coach, speaker, and author. An expert in organizational transformation and leadership development, Jennifer will be the keynote speaker at the May 4 ATHENA Kick-Off Luncheon. She recently took time to give us some insight into her upcoming presentation and her perspective on how business women can reach their goals.

Q. Can you give us a preview of what you’re going to talk about on May 4?
A. “There are two big ideas that I’m going to be talking about, and they’re really gender-neutral: one is that the most important thing you can do to build a great career is, in the face of any type of setback or barrier, to be able to say, ‘What can I do based on where I am, what’s happened and what’s come my way?’ Building resiliency is the number one thing you can do to build your career. Dr. Stephen Covey has called that everything from using your resourcefulness and initiative to being proactive, but I would suggest anyone from first out of college to mid-level professionals to those going into a second career, the number one thing is just to say, ‘Okay, this is what’s happened, so what can I do?’

“The second is the discussion around finding your voice in your workplace. We define voice as the intersection of your talents, your passions, your conscience and a need. There has to be a need in the workplace for you to utilize those talents and that passion. That will help you bring your highest and best contributions to the workplace.”

Q. Are there certain things more challenging for women than men in terms of these things?
A. “I hate to stereotype, even though we know there are some differences. I think women tend to be quicker to take a difficult situation and spiral down, either ‘It’s my fault and there’s nothing I can do and I was never going to be good at that,’ they tend to get very stuck. Whereas men, perhaps because they played more organized sports or having had these experiences before, tend to externalize it and say, ‘Yeah, that was a bad situation, here’s what we’re going to do.’ Women often have a more difficult time with that concept.”

Q. Everyone who attends the event will receive a copy of your book, Great Work, Great Career. What can they expect to find in your book?
A. “The book has a couple of sections that really elaborate on the big ideas (‘What can I do based on where I am?’ and finding your voice) and then there are some very practical components. Whether you’re looking for a job outside your current organization or if you want to represent yourself well within your current organization and be promotable, it's about how to represent that voice, talent, passion, conscience and need. It's about how to write that well, how to speak that well and how to have what we call ‘solution conversations’ with people, which help individuals and teams move beyond problem thinking to solution thinking."

Q. Mentoring is a key part of the ATHENA spirit. How important do you think that is for women in business?
A. “From my standpoint, I think just based on where we are and where we’ve come in the workplace in the last 10-20 years, I think you have not just an opportunity to mentor, you have a responsibility. If you’re able to achieve certain things in your career, undoubtedly on the shoulders of other women and people who helped pull you up, you have a moral imperative to look out to where you can help build that capability in others. To me, that’s the biggest payoff you can get in building a career.”