 REAL CONNECTING HAPPENS AT ALL ACCESS
Put this date on your calendar for our next All Access event: Thursday, February 5 at noon at the Terminal City Club.
Here’s what people said about the last amazing All Access event:
- “Best networking event I have ever been to.” —Carol Carter, CRG International
- "Great environment to foster relationships in a way that women feel comfortable!" —Gloria Tsang, HealthCastle.com
- Very innovative way to meet people.” —Kelly Ho, DLD Financial Group Ltd.
- "The energy in the room was amazing." —Amanda Burgart, Fairmont Vancouver Airport
- "Loved the variety of activities that were organized for us to help us connect."—Esther Sarlo, My Concierge Vancouver Inc.
If you'd like to introduce other women to this great WLC network, why not bring them to this event? Remember, non-Board of Trade members are welcome. Register now.
At the end of 2008, we sent out a short online WLC survey. In addition to great ideas for speakers, events and the newsletter, what else did we learn? Women don’t have time to do everything that lands on their plate. And a bigger plate is not the answer! To help you out, we thought we would use this newsletter to share some great tips on how to handle the daily stress, tackle email overload and make you more efficient. Read on…
 THIS YEAR I AM GOING TO LET MYSELF GO
Seriously, who has this for a New Year’s resolution? So let’s not even bother with those ‘lose weight’ and ‘work out more’ resolutions. Instead, what can we do to give ourselves more time to do what we need and want to do? The Globe and Mail business columnist Harvey Schachter put together some of the best tips from experts. Here are a few of our favourites and the sources for them:
Do you need to reduce the pressure from others when you are facing a deadline day? Writer Marci Alboher makes sure not to send e-mail so she will receive less, doesn't respond to queries on LinkedIn, and doesn't make or take phone calls until finished. — Sideroad.com/Steve Pavlina's blog
Think about your "white space." It's a new term to describe a place where you actually get your work done, be it a Starbucks or empty boardroom. But Ray Ozzie, who succeeded Bill Gates as Microsoft's chief software architect, gives it another twist, calling "white space" the two periods a year he locks himself up without anything other than the proverbial blank sheet of paper, to dream. — The New York Times/The Marketing Minute
If you need to engage more fully with your family after work, instead of focusing on work, and what you are trying to push away from, focus on what you are moving toward. Consultant Patricia Katz points to one individual who stashes his BlackBerry on his desk when he arrives home - out of sight and out of mind, putting a distance on distractions that might divert his attention from his family. He then delivers a warm greeting to his family, and finds out about the events of their day, before jumping into family projects and activities. — Yahoo! Health
Train others to write you better e-mails. Ask them to put the reasons they are writing in the subject line, and what they want and when they need it in the message's first three lines. — 43 Folders blog
Our note: Make sure to follow this rule yourself!
Harvey Schachter has a worthwhile blog. To read more:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/blogs/wschachter
EMAIL TIPS FROM THE WLC ADVISORY BOARD
Email overload is a big challenge so we asked our own experts, the WLC Advisory Board, to share some of their best email tips. Here’s what they had to say:
 For Maureen Daschuk, general manager at TELUS, the subject line determines whether and when she opens an email. Her advice is to make it as compelling as possible by using action words in the subject line. For example: Your Support Requested: Opportunities to get involved in committees. People are more likely to open them because they may have to take action based on the information they see.
- Separate out emails that require action from those that are information sharing.
- Respond first to emails that focus on customer issues that require action.
- Respond second to emails that focus on employee issues that require action.
- Set up rules that forward emails into separate folders based on the type of email. For example, daily performance reports are automatically filed into a sub folder that I can review at a time that is convenient for me.
 WLC founding chair Sue Paish, CEO Pharmasave Drugs (National) admits its tough to stay on top of all the emails but tries to do the following:
- Only touch an email once. Once I open the email I deal with it, unless it is a purely ‘social’ email in which case I deal with it ‘when I have time.’
- Delete anything that isn’t relevant.
- Only use ‘reply to all’ in the most exceptional circumstances. The ‘reply to all’ button is an invitation for an exponential increase in email.
- Start with the most recent email. This way if emails have built up over the day and you start with the most recent you may find that issues that arose earlier have been resolved.
 Evi Mustel, president, Mustel Group offers this advice:
- Check your emails only once every hour or two at the most so you don’t lose focus on your non-email tasks.
- In courtesy to others, keep your emails brief. If they take more than three lines, pick up the phone instead. A telephone conversation can save several email transactions between people.
- Don’t feel compelled to respond to every email unless you believe acknowledgement is needed by the sender.
 HALF DAY WITH DR. PETER SENGE
You have an opportunity to participate in a session with Dr. Peter Senge. The Journal of Business Strategy named Dr. Senge a "Strategist of the Century," one of 24 men and women who have "had the greatest impact on the way we conduct business today."
In addition to being a senior lecturer at MIT, Dr. Senge has spoken extensively around the world. His areas of special interest focus on decentralizing the role of leadership in organizations so as to enhance the capacity of all people to work productively toward common goals. It was his 1990 book The Fifth Discipline that brought him firmly into the limelight and popularized the concept of the ‘learning organization.'
This Board of Trade event features his latest teachings: The Necessary Revolution: How Individuals And Organizations Are Working Together to Create a Sustainable World. This book is considered the essential guidebook for all of us who recognize the need to act and work together—now—to create a sustainable world, both for ourselves and for the generations to follow. All attendees will receive a copy of it at this session.
The event is a breakfast, keynote and workshop — a very unique opportunity to spend time with this global thought leader. Register now.
 CONCEPT OF ‘FLOW’
In a recent McKinsey study on Centered Leadership, researchers talk about "flow." It's a term that psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi uses to describe the feeling of people who are so engaged in the work at hand that they don’t notice the passage of time. These people, when in a state of "flow" were more productive and derived greater satisfaction from their work. Better yet, these people were energized, rather than drained, from their workday stresses.
The key to creating flow is to avoid multi-tasking and staying focused on the project at hand. The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal, by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz, (our new ‘bible’ on managing time and energy) offers some simple techniques to follow.
For example, block out time in 1.5 hour segments and put 100 per cent concentration into the work at hand. Absolutely no distractions! Do not touch your Blackberry, beeping mail alerts or phone calls. After the hour and half, take a break. Get up, walk around, eat something, check important mail. The point is to do something completely different—preferably physical. The authors even suggest 15 minutes of yoga stretches (I guess that’s if you have an office door that locks!).
 DID YOU KNOW?
There are over 18 committees and task forces at The Vancouver Board of Trade working to solve a variety of issues in our community. Over 500 members volunteer their time to tackle homelessness, the Downtown Eastside, small business concerns, sustainability, early childhood development, education and skills development, just to name a few.
Over the next few newsletters, we will be featuring one of these committees to give you an idea of who is involved and the great work they are doing.
Many of you have indicated that you would like to be more involved with the Women’s Leadership Circle or The Board. A great way to do this is to join a committee. On average, women make up 30 per cent of the membership of The Board’s committees so your voice can make an extra difference.
If you decide to join a committee, you will need to make a one-year commitment and attend at least 50 per cent of the meetings. The great thing is that most committees will invite you as a guest first, so you can decide if the committee is right for you, before you commit to your one-year term.
If you have a passion about something affecting our community, or special expertise that you want to share, why not make this the year you get involved. Some committees/task forces require particular skills or have size limitations. But don’t let that hold you back. Send your brief bio along with your expression of interest to join a particular committee/task force to Joyce Fulford: jfulford@boardoftrade.com
CELEBRATE THE WOMEN IN OUR LIVES
Ovarian Cancer Canada is holding a terrific fundraising event on Wednesday, March 4, 2009 from 5 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. at the Birks Vancouver store at 698 West Hastings Street. Attendees will be treated to a fashion show by JC Studio, have an opportunity to bid on great items in the silent and live auctions and win one of 20 necklaces generously donated by Birks. Early bird tickets are available for $100 per person until January 31, 2009 at which time tickets will be available at the regular ticket price of $125. Check out: www.ovariancanada.org
YOUR FEEDBACK
We would love to hear from you. Send your comments, ideas for this newsletter, for speakers, for content to: info@wlcircle.com
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Jan 27, 2009 
