Calgary leadership and business coach Jenn Lofgren offers some very simple advice to aspiring female entrepreneurs.
“When I first started my business (Incito), I was 33 and I was told I was too young,” said Lofgren, who was recently a recipient of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women Award. “I was female. I was too attractive. Fair enough.
“And a lot of the other business owners in my field were former senior executives. They were on their encore career and they were Caucasian men. They were trying to tell me that I’d be lacking credibility but they didn’t know how to tell me that,” says Lofgren.
“My advice is you’re going to get people that are going to give you advice that’s going to sound really discouraging. Don’t ignore it. Look for the truth of wisdom in it and learn from it because I had to listen between the lines and not say ‘I’ll prove them wrong’ or be defeated but to look at what they were trying to tell me. For them, they were trying to tell me people won’t see my credibility but they’ll see it in those other people or they’ll have assumptions of my credibility. I’m going to need to look at different ways to help people see that.”
For Lofgren, the recent award was unexpected and in some ways a surreal experience. It also is an acknowledgement of all the community work she has done.
“We need more women stepping up into leadership now than ever. If women want gender parity, it’s important that they take responsibility for their own leadership development and those of women around them to ensure they are developed and ready for leadership roles. If you don’t focus on it, no one is going to do it for you,” she says.
Lofgren, a certified Dare to Lead facilitator, will be conducting an upcoming seminar at The Grand Theatre in Calgary Jan. 30 and 31, which will focus on how leaders can cross the line from reactive to effective leadership.
Lofgren said the seminar is about courage building skills for leaders.
“Leadership isn’t about a title, it shows up in pursuing your passion and serving others in that pursuit,” says Lofgren. “Leadership is about an influencing role, not a titled role. It challenges us to stand out and be different, to rally people behind a cause we care about or have them take a desired action. Leadership is a skill we can all learn; great leaders are created, not born.”
Mario Toneguzzi is a business reporter in Calgary.
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