Work/life balance was the theme of the Women in Telecom session at NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association’s RTIME conference in San Antonio, Texas this week.
The session presenter was Kari Coffey, a speaker and life coach who previously worked for IBM.
Coffey began the RTIME Women in Telecom session by describing the difficult juggling act that modern parents, especially women, face: the busyness of parenting versus the expectations of the workplace and the desire to be a good employee.
Mental health, professional development, and personal development all suffer when one juggles competing priorities, Coffey said. She highlighted increased reports of burnout, reduced capacity for deep work, and less time for mindfulness. As she showed a slide saying, “Stop trying to be Superwoman,” Coffey said, “For all you high-achieving women — your cape is holding you back.”
Coffey then led the Women in Telecom session in an exercise to identify values, encouraging attendees not to separate their professional values and personal values — “you’re one person” — and reassuring them that it’s okay to admit that something like financial health is a value: “It’s okay to want money; we all want money.”
Identifying values, Coffey said, helps a person “make consistent decisions, navigate ethical dilemmas, build trust, and set organizational culture.”
The Importance of Boundaries
Next, Coffey guided the Women in Telecom session in a conversation about “boundary setting as a wellness strategy,” asking participants to identify professional, personal, emotional, and digital boundaries. She presented five strategies for maintaining effective boundaries:
- Establish parameters to protect values.
- Define non-negotiables around your work.
- Communicate principles “respectfully but firmly.”
- Be willing to say “No.”
- Find alternatives that may help reconcile both personal and corporate values.
“Boundaries are about how you respond to a situation, not about other people’s behaviors,” Coffey said, emphasizing the importance of taking charge of one’s own boundaries. “If you can’t respect your boundaries, then why would anybody else?
“Leadership roles with work/life balance will never happen by accident.”
Takeaways for Women in Telecom (Men, Too)
Telecompetitor talked with NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield after the Women in Telecom session to hear about the origins of this year’s theme. Bloomfield said she works with an advisory council of roughly 20 female CEOs who meet together a few times each year.
“The thing we try to balance with this program is: What does the CEO want to hear about, and what does the line staff person want to hear about — somebody who might be doing HR, or is the assistant to the CEO, or does network support?”
Bloomfield shared three benefits she hopes attendees took away from the Women in Telecom session:
“I hope the attendees walk out with a tidbit or two, even if it is as basic as having all of us focus on what our values are and at least think about boundaries we are willing to set going forward.”
“Second, I never underestimate the power of networking in the room.
“And last, having that mixed audience of men and women — the value of having all genders discuss their perspective with one another is hugely impactful. That empathy and transparency makes our work together that much more powerful.”
The Women in Telecom session was recorded and will be reissued as a webcast for those who could not attend.
