Women in Leadership & Networking Is Invaluable In Business

As an empty nester with a guest room in San Francisco, I enjoy hosting my friends as they come into town. When I was in the thick of parenting my teenage daughters after my husband died I would have this fantasy that when they grew up I would live in a hotel like Coco Chanel.

I was attracted to the simplicity of that lifestyle. My hotel would always be clean and calm and I wouldn’t have to plan and cook dinner I would just order room service. When the time came for me to find my own nest for one I set out for San Francisco.

At the time the dream of living in a hotel was far from my thoughts, but when I walked into my building, met the concierge, and saw the lobby I realized that it was actually a possibility. I viewed several apartments that day and decided on a two-bedroom, two-bath with city views and floor-to-ceiling windows. It was better than I could have imagined and more like a hotel suite. There isn’t exactly room service, but I can order anything I want and have it delivered. The city for all of its drawbacks still has some of the best restaurants in the world and most of them deliver. Enough said.

My two sets of guests were women who had an enormous impact on my life. One was an early boss of mine when I started at Bank of America as a Systems Analyst. I admired her for her intelligence and kindness. We have stayed in touch all of these years and she has been a great friend and confidant. The second guest was my sorority big sister at Oregon State University in the Alpha Phi house. Larger than life as an undergrad and even more so in business later she has had an enormous impact on my life. Not just as a successful businesswoman that I wanted to model, but in how humble and down to earth she remained no matter her success. She has been a consistent loving friend and sounding board all along the way.

As Women, the importance of networks can’t be undervalued. Having women friends who inspire us and provide guidance and support are invaluable in business.

When I spoke at the Women of Silicon Valley conference in May, I knew I wanted to start a networking group of women leaders. Covid and the situation here in San Francisco with crime and homelessness that keeps workers remote has undermined the ability of young women to build networks and for professional women to meet like-minded peers.

I want to invite women in leadership to join me at an informal mixer. Whether you are in sales, marketing, or engineering it is important to band together and create a network of contacts, especially women contacts. From this group, I want to create a smaller group of future women leaders that can meet regularly.

Please send me a message on my website oceansf.co if this is something you would be interested in.