Honorees Dr. Michele Y. Halyard, Sharon Lechter, Pamela Lam, Pastor Sheriolyn Curry Lasley, Jane Spicer and Bettie Spruill CMEC

“We all have the capacity to be positively powerful. The magnitude of the contributions of this year’s award recipients is truly amazing. They, along with each of our previous 16 Award Recipients, prove that everyone has the opportunity to make dreams a reality.” Author and renowned international trainer, speaker and coach Dr. Joel Martin, creator of the Annual Positively Powerful Woman Awards program.

This year’s Fifth Annual Positively Powerful Woman Awards will be presented to the honorees at the Phoenix Ritz-Carlton on June 22, 2012. Gala luncheon from 11:30AM to 2PM to continue with the Conversation On Leadership Summit (COL) from 2:30PM to 6PM. The program will include an intimate panel with the Award Recipients, speakers and transformational action learning focused on enhancing personal, professional and business development. The public is invited to attend. Additional information about the fifth annual celebration follows.

Dr. Michele Y. Halyard, The 2012 Positively Powerful Woman Award For Global Leadership.  Dr Michele Halyard is a consultant in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Mayo Clinic in Arizona and an Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology. Her clinical areas of interest include the treatment of breast cancer and head and neck cancer patients. Her research interests involve the treatment of breast cancer with radiation therapy including interactions with systemic therapies, quality of life of in oncology patients and cancer symptom control. Administratively, Dr Halyard has played a variety of administrative roles within Mayo Clinic. She is a past Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology in Arizona. She served 8 years on the Board of Governors of Mayo Clinic in Arizona, including serving as Vice Chair. She also served 8 years as a member of the Mayo Clinic Executive Committee and Board of Trustees. She serves as the Links, Incorporated Health and Human Services Facet Chair, Western Area. She is a co-founder of the Coalition of Blacks Against Breast Cancer.

Sharon Lechter, The 2012 Positively Powerful Woman Award For Philanthropic Leadership. Sharon Lechter gives back to world communities as both a volunteer and benefactor. She is the founder of Pay Your Family First, a financial education organization and YOUTHpreneur, which sparks the entrepreneurial spirit in children.  Dedicating her life’s work to financial literacy, Ms. Lechter has authored Think and Grow Rich – Three Feet From Gold in cooperation with the Napoleon Hill Foundation, updated Outwitting the Devil by Napoleon Hill-a manuscript hidden for over 70 years and is known world-wide as the co-author of the international best-selling book Rich Dad, Poor Dad and the Rich Dad series of books. Sharon has served on the Dean’s Council 100 of the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University and as a member of the advisory Board of the Spirit of Enterprise at the W.P. Carey School of Business. She serves on the national board of the Women Presidents’ Organization and on the national board of Childhelp, a national organization founded to prevent and treat child abuse. Sharon helps shape the state of financial literacy in our nation through her appointment to the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy.

Pamela Lam, The 2012 Positively Powerful Woman Award For Corporate Leadership.

Pamela Lam is the vice president of Research and Development for Henkel Laundry and Home Care in North American, reporting directly to the president of Henkel. Ms. Lam has numerous patents and a track record in delivering innovations. Her experience crosses all disciplines within R&D including an overseas assignment in China. She is a founding advisory member of the Asian American Professional Association at Henkel, an active member serving on the Scottsdale Workforce Development and an advocate for young talent development. She has personally, formally and informally, mentored dozens of young professionals. Ms. Lam holds an MS degree in Chemistry from Steven Institute of Technology. She received her Supply Chain Professional Certification at ASU in 2010. Pam was born in Vietnam and has had the pleasure of living in five cities and four countries so far. She is also a Corporate Advisory Council member of the Phoenix Chapter of the National Association of Asian America Professionals (NAAAP).

Jane Spicer, The 2012 Positively Powerful Woman Award For Entrepreneurial Leadership. Jane is the Owner and President of Daphne’s Head Covers, a family-owned, labor of love that manufactures just about every sort of animal head cover that can be imagined for golf clubs. Jane has offices located in Phoenix and internationally. In growing her business to the global status it has become, she had two goals: One was to remain solvent. The other one was, as her mother always said, “We must do good while we’re doing well.” That was hugely important to her. In that regard, Jane has created a fund raising head cover for Gabriel’s Angels an organization that delivers healing pet therapy to at-risk children. Jane’s entrepreneurial ambitions were awakened when she was a pre-teen and wanted a sailboat. Her mother said if she wanted one, she had to think of a business and make her own money. So she started making and selling toys and those morphed into puppets and ultimately to Daphne’s Head Covers, the firm named for her mother. Today approximately 200 PGA men and women have Daphne’s Head Covers. And, yes, Jane got the sailboat.

Pastor Sheriolyn Curry Lasley, The 2012 Positively Powerful Woman Award For Spiritual Leadership. Reverend Curry Lasley is the founding pastor of Mt. Moriah A.M.E. Church in Maricopa, AZ. Mt. Moriah was voted into the Desert Mountain Annual Conference in August 2007 and will celebrate 5 years of serving the community on October, 14, 2012. Reverend Curry Lasley is an Itinerant Elder and has earned a Masters of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary. She is also the founder of several businesses, which spiritually align with her ministry. They include Comfort Keepers, which for the last ten years has provided home care services for the elderly and Covenant Family Services, a behavioral health agency that hires and trains caregivers who provide services to seniors so that they may safely stay in their homes. Previously Reverend Currey Lasley was Senior Adult Minister for Tanner Chapel A.M.E. Church and fulfilled many leadership roles at this historical church including Director of Young People and Children’s Division (YPD) and Youth Minister.

Bettie Spruill, CMEC, The 2012 Positively Powerful Woman Award For Educational Leadership. Bettie Spruill, CMEC. is an international coach, management consultant, entrepreneur, public speaker and writer with 30 years’ experience in the field of transformational technology, and sacred commerce. She is also a certified Master NLP practitioner and member of the Transformational Leadership Council. Her retreat, The Feminine Face of Leadership, Power and Sex is an innovative approach to dynamic living. Her company, Ideal Coaching certifies coaches both here in the USA and Mexico. Bettie has led experiential effectiveness seminars and workshops in leadership, purpose and vision, and high performance for more than 20,000 people in Russia, Malaysia, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Chili, Mexico, England, Hong Kong, Canada, Ghana and the U.S. as well as multi-national and American companies and educational institutions. In 2000, Bettie adopted the village of Begora, Ghana. Since then, she has raised thousands of dollars to bring the people of Begoro coaching and training and helped develop vision, leadership, strategies and practices of sustainability. Her mentoring and coaching work with women in prison is having a positive impact on the lives of families and communities. Previously Bettie was Senior Vice President for Lifespring, Inc., one of the largest training and seminar companies in the world. Bettie is a student of the practices of Buddhism, deep ecology and global harmony, Universal Law, Egyptian and Christian mysticism.

2012 Positively Powerful Nonprofit Organization: Diana Gregory Outreach Services.  

This year, donations gathered at the 2012 Awards will be earmarked for Diana Gregory Outreach Services, a non-profit organization that provides programs in health, nutrition, education and housing. Every donation will go towards providing senior citizens with bags filled with free fresh produce (fruits and vegetables). These bags will be hand delivered to their facility/home by Gregory’s Fresh Market Place (GFMP) after the Awards.

Event Information: The public is invited to attend this year’s Fifth Annual Positively Powerful Woman Awards at the Phoenix Ritz-Carlton on June 22, 2012. Gala luncheon from 11:30AM to 2PM. It will continue with the Conversation On Leadership Summit (COL) from 2:30PM to 6PM. The all-inclusive Awards Presentation, Luncheon and COL Summit registration is $75. Register online or by mail.

Thank you Sponsors!

When the spotlight shines on the Positively Powerful Woman, we get to shine a light on her and the causes that matter to her to empower all others to follow her lead. Dr. Joel P. Martin

Corporate Sponsors include Southwest Gas Corporation Community & Consumer Affairs, Arizona State University Diversity and Small Business Program, the National Bank of Arizona founders of the Women’s Financial Group and Henkel where excellence is their passion.  If you are not able to attend, consider sponsoring a seat for a relative or community member.

Dr. Joel P. Martin, Awards Creator and Producer, Positively Powerful Woman Awards. Dr. Joel P. Martin is considered “a genuine genius in her approach to personal transformation.” She is a training designer, facilitator and executive coach, speaker and author. She has worked with hundreds of individuals in Fortune 500 companies, nonprofit and entrepreneurial organizations across many industries in the U.S, South Africa, France, the U.K., Latvia, Finland, Malaysia, Russia and China. Through her company, Triad West Inc., she provides corporate services specializing in diversity and inclusion, leadership development, organizational alignment and executive coaching in breakthrough performance. Dr. Martin serves as a Commissioner on the Human Relations Commission, City of Scottsdale, a board member of ABHOW - a pioneer in senior living,  and she is the Director of Education and Training for the annual FraserNet PowerNetworking Conference, where urban professionals grow and prosper.

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Some of the largest companies in the world have found themselves in hot water because the nature of their business has changed and their predominant Leadership Style has restricted them from altering their direction.  How the people in leadership, consciously and unknowingly shape the organizational culture,  form and engage multi-generational teams, create agreements, and react now is radically different from how it used to be. Companies like, Paper Jam, Amazon.com, Google, Apple, Premier Payment Sytems, and Woot were giving hints about the changes that were coming. In the past, it was known that large companies had difficulty in changing strategies in mid stream, but at Internet speed changing course has become nearly impossible albeing vitally important for them. Leadership Styles are evolving to fit the changes.

Leadership development programs created as recently as five years ago need to be reaccessed and radically changed. The cost of entry into business has come down and there is plenty of talent available for hire, be it as consultants or staff.

Positively Powerful is creating a new set of Leadership Development Programs specifically for Entrepreneurs and Women.  Our objective is to prepare people for the new Leadership Styles that are paramount today.

I created the Positively Powerful Woman Awards as a way to empower others and support women who are making a positively powerful impact on significant numbers of people. This is my fifth year in doing so. In my past I was one of the first women to own and operate a full service advertising agency. Today I am a transformational training designer, trainer, speaker and coach. This commitment has taken me around the world and before audiences of all ages. One of my favorite expressions is “Everybody can’t do everything but everybody can do something if everybody does their thing everything will get done.” This Awards Program is “my thing”, my way of bringing my love of marketing, promotion, drama and transformation together to benefit others and organizations that I believe in.

How is it transformational? Intentionally so from the speakers, experiential education in personal and professional development to the diversity and inclusion that I include. From the Awards Presentations to the Conversation On Leadership Summit that happens right after. We’re making a global impact through social media also. We’re getting good news out! And that’s something that benefits everybody whether you attend or not. (And I hope you do.)

I have a small business, Triad West Inc. Each year I am joined by people who passionately believe in a mission of empowerment and education as I do, they are my sponsors and friends. Thus far the Sponsors are National Bank of Arizona, Southwest Gas, Henkel and Arizona State University. Join me and support a different kind of Awards Program.

Nelson Mandela

Their non-negotiable values are their moral compasses residing deep within affecting their emotions and directing their actions. These ideals are firmly in place as they pursue their lofty aspirations. Integrity, authenticity, abundance, love, passion, humility, excellence, joy, creativity…these are a few of their values. With these strengths of character great leaders spur themselves, their teams, families, companies, even those that they don’t know on to greater heights. For example, think about Susan Taylor and mentoring, Steven Jobs and technology, Nelson Mandela and freedom, this is what I mean.

It is the great leader’s energy and willingness to be awake and aware of self and others that gives them the ability to unite people. They believe so passionately about changing the world, solving a problem or making a difference that regardless of their style (abrupt, quiet or some other) they will speak their truth one person at a time or millions together from their hearts with transparency and consistency.

A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better… Jim Rohn

While their laser-like focus outward on what matters to them may make others uncomfortable, while their willingness to step out on faith may be risky for others, while their commitment to something bigger than themselves may seem like an impossible dream, great leaders walk their talk.

They know that life is precious and not to be squandered, that a vision is something that doesn’t exist but could with commitment, that nothing great is ever accomplished alone, that every human being has a special purpose and gifts, that they can change lives regardless of history or her-story and that everything is just an interpretation. In truth, being a great leader is something that everyone is capable of.

Written by Dr. Joel P. Martin for Cheryl Ragland, CEO, The MarketPlace Firm.

Related

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• What Makes Great Leaders Great: Management Lessons from Icons Who Changed the World
• The Ant Philosophy by Jim Rohn (innerpowerdojo.wordpress.com)
• Steve Jobs  by Walter Isaacson
• Conversations with Myself by Nelson Mandela

What if we determined that leaderships’ role is not to solve everything (the world) but rather to open a door to another’s possibility.  What if the fact that we don’t realize the difference we make with people is simply because we are reluctant to say, sincerely to one another, “Thank You, You’ve been a Powerful Presence in My Life at This Moment”. It is a simple thing to do, acknowledging the contribution of others in your own special way and words and actions. It’s free and it’s powerful. 

Most of our readers know how much we appreciate TED talks, and when possible we attend the local TEDx events in our town. Here is a recent video release from TED that we feel illustrates what we believe about leaders. One of the tenets of true leadership is being about something larger than self and being focused on something other than self. It is our authentic joy, love and willingness to be awake and aware that has the ability to change the world, one person at a time. This is just one example of how it’s done.

With the rise of social media a “monkey wrench” has been tossed into what was once a stealth process. Two recent and very public demonstrations of how social media has been a catalyst in having corporations reverse decisions not seen to be in the best interest of customer/constituents are Bank of America and Susan G. Komen Foundation. The motivation behind policy changes can quickly become public and in these two cases the public voted quickly and decisively to the extent that these policies were reversed.

All institutions are tussling with the concept of engagement, a term often used when talking about social media (and also regards employee engagement). The need for engagement recognizes that the public has enormous power and wants to be consulted on decisions impacting their professional and personal life. Through Twitter, Facebook, Smartphones and more than two dozen other social media outlets and tools, people are now able to air their concerns about, grievances for and challenges to decisions they believe to be unfair or harmful. Conversely they will also share what they approve of whether corporate policy or performances on youtube.

For corporations and institutions, the social media business model displaces compliance, a term which in essence meant the acceptance of decisions made without consultation. Social media is moving us towards engagement, ownership and the sharing of information, ideas and in some situations co-authorship. Telling ones story via social media is still the key point. However, the actions taken must be consistent with the story told, otherwise we must expect to get called on it.

Related articles

• Social Media and How it Can Help Your Business (positivelypowerful.com)

“Harriet Beecher Stowe.” Ohio Historical Center Archives Library. Call Number MSS0116 Box 106.

POSITIVELY POWERFUL: When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.

1. The world, this planet, is divided up between the haves and the have-nots. “We” are the haves.
2. People must earn the right to live. Breathing is not an inalienable right.
3. Scarcity and fear, are motivation for reaching ones higher self.
4. Money determines true value and worth.
5. We are care takers for the planet and we are doing a good job.
6. Love your neighbors, when you see them or are related to them or they agree with you.
7. We are never responsible for what someone else does.
8. Where you were born determines the contributions you can make.
9. Your past determines your future.

We have envisioned ourselves as enlightened and benevolent, yet we avoid responsibility for the poor, hungry, oppressed, disadvantaged or the cruel. We reject concepts, like abundance, win-win and empathy because they are not competitive.  We are, unfortunately, passionate about life being a zero sum game, that in order for someone to win someone has to be the loser and when we or others lose, we are eager to determine fault, so that someone is blamed.

Don’t believe me, keep a tally on how often you ask yourself, “Whose fault is it? Who should get the blame for what is going on?”

In our workshops, “Conversation on Leadership”  we look to bring alive what it means to be a “Positively Powerful Person”, to providing a fuller understanding of “Responsibility”  and to how finding fault or blaming others diminishes ones own power.

2012 Sonic

Radically thinking and leadership is how we work our way out from under our current economic situation. Two new radical terms, Collaboration and Cooperation, may just work!

Let’s give an applause to General Motors for their new vehicle  – The Chevrolet Sonic – as well as to The United Auto Workers Union, for doing something as radical as “Collaborating and Cooperating” with each other in attempting to produce something positive for both sides.

The excuses on both sides of the political divide are simplistic, comical and shameful. They draw solutions from a history, when there was no IPhone, Google, a cure for most disease,  BMW being manufactured in South Carolina or 6 billion people on the planet. So it would seem evident that rummaging through their old bag of tricks and ideologies would not solve the issues of the day. Zachary Karabell post on the “Daily Beast” frames the problem perfectly “The truth, it is becoming clear, is that unemployment is a structural issue, and that the tools being used are based on the wrong analysis and will therefore continue to fall short.” We need to create a radically new model for economic growth in this country and possible for the world. Depending on our government to figure it out for us is risky.

So it is up to us. What is our first step?