By Dawn Crutchfield Board
Wow! Where do I start. I’m not a blogger, but now, after attending Nancy Ridge’s webinar on “Being High Powered,” all I want to do is follow her around with pen and paper (oops sorry showing my age) or rather a recording app on my smartphone (wink) and blog about everything that comes out of her mouth.
Trust me, with five pages of typed notes, it was so hard to find the best quote to use as a title of this blog. If you haven’t met Nancy or heard her speak, then I can only hope that this blog does her justice. I don’t “know” Nancy, but I had the opportunity to meet her at the 2019 Interop Conference in Las Vegas. And she saw the light in me, and I was blinded by the light radiating from her. She’s the one that connected me to the wonderful Alliance of Channel Women (ACW) organization. She connected me to this awesome group of women, whose energy just filled me up and delivered me from mediocrity.
Nancy’s webinar on “Being High Powered” reminded me of why I joined ACW in the first place. Initially, when I read the title of the webinar, I imagined myself in a dark blue power suit (you know the one I’m talking about) standing in front of a group of men in a conference room with one foot on a chair, both hands on my hips and my head cocked slightly up, chin sticking out. You know, the Captain Morgan stance, where confidence is just oozing out of my pores. “Yeah, I’m the sh*t and these men know it.”
And then Nancy opened up the webinar talking about “gratitude.” What the bleep! Power and gratitude — never the two shall meet. Or so I thought. She immediately captured my attention, destroying all of my preconceptions about what it means to be high powered. What I learned is being High Powered is being your authentic self.
Nancy shared two sets of domains that have to be practiced in the right order to get the desired results.
- Defining Domains
- Being encompasses the inner things you are, that make you whole, complete and able.
- Doing includes the actions you take to be accountable
- Having are outcomes of Being and Doing
- Influencing Domains
- Narrative is basically your story.
- Experiences make up your story
- Conversations reflect your story and experiences
These domains together in the right order are what “Being High Powered” is really about. Being authentic. Listening or being encouraging. Having purpose, community, growth. These examples help you shape your narrative, share your experiences and change the conversation to something positive with no attachments to the outcome. This is where the true power comes from and it starts from within, not with the blue power suit and Captain Morgan stance.
Nancy reminded me to honor myself, to be kind to myself and have purpose while I do it. When the work is done and accountability is present, that inner power will shine outward into the universe and hopefully spread like a little kid who catches the giggles and can’t stop.
I’m encouraged and empowered to change my narrative if the current one isn’t working for me. I’m encouraged and empowered to perceive things differently in the most gracious way. If my attitude is that I don’t feel like writing that executive summary, I’ll change that mindset to, “I’m grateful for the opportunity to share my understanding of that technology project to help enlighten others.”
The final takeaway is, “Be new every day. Write a new story every day.” If I can throw out my power suit, then you can, too. Start your new story by being engaged with ACW. Join a committee, mentor or be mentored. Whatever you do, commit to yourself and be accountable.
About the Author
Dawn Crutchfield Board is a former Human Resources Director who changed careers after 19 years to join the technology field. She started out learning basic languages such as SQL, C#, CSS, HTML, PHP and Ruby on the Rails, and landed a job as an IT Business Analyst and Project Manager. Currently, she serves as a contractor with large companies as she builds her own franchise technology business as an IT Business Consultant under Technology Source. She is a mom to a 7-year-old girl who is also taking coding classes and a 28-year-old son who is a chef in Seattle. Dawn loves life, nature, animals and is a foodie. Her passion is giving back to the community and helping the world through creativity and technology.
