Leaders Offer Advice on How to be Successful

I very much enjoyed the panel yesterday morning at the 2011 INFORMS Charlotte Conference on "Leaders Offer Professional Advice to Both Women and Men."

The panel was sponsored by WORMS (Women in Operations Research and the Management Sciences).

Joining me on the panel: Dr. Eric Wolman, Dr. Radhika Kulkarni, Dr. Les Servi, and Dr. Mark Daskin.

Below I highlight some of the advice offered that resonated:

1. Find your passion and stick with it -- have fun and make your life worth living.

2. Your character, credibility, and integrity matter -- be fair and others will respect and trust you. Also, realize the importance of your organization's culture and that culture is local.

3. Hire the best people that you can for your team and believe in your plan. Understand the big picture.

4. Celebrate accomplishments and make sure that you give "pats on the back" for great performance.

5. Communications are key -- how can your ideas be used by the organization? Innovation happens when you put great ideas into action. Also, remember the human element.

6. You, as an individual, should define success for yourself so know yourself.

7. Find a great mentor and also mentor others.

8. Take advantage of opportunities and engage in networking. Be open to opportunities and new responsibilities.

9. Realize that you are a member of different communities and gain support from them and solace, if need be.

10. Look at the trajectory that you are on and imagine yourself 5 years from now.

Many thanks to WORMS for sponsoring this great session which also had a terrific discussion!

Thanks to all the panelists -- We all learned alot from them and from one another.