mary f. collier's blog

Archive for the ‘Leadership’ Category

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After a long struggle, on February 4, 2011, the federal government Small Business Administration (SBA) opened the doors on a program to allow contracting officers to set aside certain federal contracts for women-owned small businesses (WOSBs) in 83 industries. The government has a goal of 5% of contracts to be awarded to WOSBs and economically disadvantaged women-owned small businesses (EDWOSBs)… read more

I watched this TED video by Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, today and highly recommend you take the 15 minutes to do the same. Sheryl discusses the disturbing issue of why there are few women in top positions in any industry.  It seems that in many ways we as women entrepreneurs and professionals are hindered by our own limiting beliefs.

Sheryl pointed out a number of issues, but several that really struck me are:

1) Men contribute their success to themselves and women contribute it to external factors

2) Women underestimate their abilities

3) Success &amp… read more

Recently a friend commented regarding a young man that had something wonderful happen in his life, “There’s no place for him to go from here but downhill”.  He was referring to the fact that this kid had, from the get-go, achieved something that most people will never achieve.

My response was that he had set his baseline and there was no where to go but up from there!

I’ve thought about this comment for the last few days and I think it’s really relevant to the barrier many… read more

Motivation-we’ve all heard the pros and cons of the “carrot” and “stick” methods, but there may be more to the story than what we were taught to believe.

If you are an entrepreneur you most likely have some kind of a team, even if it is a virtual team.  One of the key aspects of developing a strong team, and for yourself, is motivation.

I have known a number of photographers since high school, and something I observed in most of them over the years was the change… read more

An important component in Attraction Marketing is connection with those you want to attract.

Often, we want to project only our best characteristics and conceal our weaknesses.  But this rarely works.  Those around us are much more conscious of our short comings than we are.  Maybe because we have spent so much time trying to hide our flaws, that over the years we have erased them from our conscious belief of who we really are.

To become the leader we want to be, we need to recognize our… read more

As entrepreneurs we all want to achieve success.

But have you ever noticed the difference between “successful” people. Some seem to have it all–money, social standing, family, beautiful homes–everything any one could ask for; yet they end up with drug and alcohol problems, unhappy, self-destructive or worse.  And then there are those with all of the same visible signs of success, yet they are able to sustain it over the long haul.   These are usually the charismatic leaders of our society and present themselves as warm, compassionate and sincere… read more

I hear a lot about being an alpha leader; proving to your tribe that you are leader, that you are alpha.

I have started to hear a number of newer entrepreneurs telling others that every successful entrepreneur must establish themselves as a leader by demonstrating certain characteristics defined as alpha behaviors.

But I think there needs to be a clarification. Leadership is demonstrated by authenticity and consistency in action.

My horses are a perfect example.  I have a large band of horses (at one time… read more

I just released a new eReport today-The Spiritual Entrepreneur’s Guide to Success, the first in an installment of my Living from the Core series.

We live in a world that is increasingly focused on the bottom line.  Business is conducted with emphasis on sales and careers and selected more on making money rather than on what inspires and sparks us.  In spite of this concentration on the financial aspects of life, people continue to exhibit higher levels of debt and depression than any time… read more

According to a recent study by the Center for Women’s Business Research (Oct. 2009), US women-owned firms generate $3 trillion in revenue annually.  This equates to more than 23 million jobs, or 16 percent of all US jobs!  To get an idea of the magnitude of this, if US based women-owned businesses were their own country, they would have the 5th largest GDP in the world!  Think about that–that is larger than France, UK and Italy.

What does this mean?  It means that… read more