Peer Learning with SheGenerate & Susan Hayes

17 Feb

A huge thanks to our fabulous friend and ally Susan Hayes - The Positive Economist who very kindly hosted a recent #SheGenerate workshop for our group of early stage women founders from across the Island of Ireland.

This is what Susan shared after the event with us. You can also watch back the video outlining below in more detail HERE.

Thanks Susan

“ I was (delightfully!) invited to speak about transferring personal skills to business skills, interview Mary McKenna about the entrepreneurial mindset and run an Active Peers AI session. Here’s what happened:

Six personal skills that transfer:

1. Active listening can be improved by reflecting back to others “what I hear you say is…”

2. Diary your time and energy - while there is the same time between 10 am to 11am on a Wednesday as 10 pm to 11pm on a Friday, your energy will likely be different.

3. Ask effective questions (and check out Caroline Reidy’s “Art of Asking the Right Questions” for that).

4. Bank personal wins (and my breakfast posts here on LinkedIn are examples of those!)

5. Build trust by doing what you say you’re going to do and then point out you’ve done so.

6. Listen to how you’re introduced (as this is your personal brand in action).

Mary McKenna then shared insights about the sacrifices you need to make when in business, how to show grit and resilience and how to push through those excruciating moments long after your comfort zone was in sight all fuelled by excitement and dynamism.

Next, we ran an Active Peers AI session focusing on the aforementioned skills. Our group noted they wanted answers to specific questions, advice, insights, the voice of experience, confidence, tools, ideas on approaches, other perspectives, concise direction, the opportunity to build relationships and a meaningful opportunity to put themselves out there. We certainly made all those happen and that dovetails right into the ethos that Sinead Crowley Mary Carty Clare McGee Mary McKenna and all the AwakenHub team cultivate into the network.

I talk in the video about what our audience shared with each other and it’s super important to mention that while we put the tech and process in place to , it was the way people worked with each other that underpinned the success of the session. One participant said “It was easy to understand my sharer, ask questions and share my concerns. I was also given practical insights and references to software tools” and another said “I felt so positive! The question prompts are so useful”.

Thank you kindly to the AwakenHub team for their kind invite to collaborate. You’re a fabulous team building an accelerating network and it was a joy to work with you and your #SheGenerate members.”