(upbeat music) - Hi, everyone.

Steve Adubato.

We have her back.

She is Michele Siekerka.

She is the President and CEO of the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, and she's been with us many times to talk about a whole range of issues.

Michele, good to see you, my friend.

- Always a pleasure, Steve.

- Same here.

Hey, the Ninth Annual Women's Business Leaders Forum.

Nine years you've been doing this.

- Yes.

- The main message, I'm always asking, what's the main message?

What was the main message in the forum of these large group of leaders who happen to be women and making a difference in the world, what was the main message?

- Well, the main message is build those leadership skills, those hardcore leadership skills, and then let's bring visibility to all those great women who have those skills to get them to the C-suite and the boardroom.

The energy was palpable.

Everybody was excited.

We raised the roof at least 10 times.

- Yeah, but raising the roof in person, I'm not gonna say it's easy, but you and I have spoken and been in front of, we've done this remotely, but then we've been in person, and it leads me to this.

You have this Ninth Annual Forum, Women's Forum, which there's a great buzz about it.

It would've been much harder to create that buzz and raising of the roof remotely, fair?

- Absolutely, there is nothing like being in the room with 500 women and men, by the way, who are engaged and ready to discuss leadership and what it means to aspire and ascend to the C-suite and the boardroom.

- So, let's talk about that.

You and I have talked about this before, both on this program and also our sister program, "Lessons in Leadership," with my colleague, Mary Gamba.

We talk about relationship building and the fact that much of your success as a CEO, as a leader in this state in the business community comes about 'cause of relationships.

We're relationship people, right?

That being said, the unique challenges of not just building your brand, but building relationships that help you build your brand and the business that you need to run your business, a lot harder remotely.

Talk about that.

- Yeah, you're really missing the personal connection.

Look, we can be efficient and many times effective in a one dimension to get business done.

Transactional, right?

Great for transactional.

Quick, easy, we don't have to travel, we save money.

Great for transaction.

Relationship building, to take it deeper, you have to be in a room.

You have to feel the energy.

You gotta feel the warmth.

You gotta see the body language.

You have to be able to have sidebar, right?

The whole dynamic of physicality and a relationship is a big part of it.

- There's a challenge going on for many businesses, businesses that I've done leadership development coaching for in my other life, who are struggling with the question of, do we mandate people coming back into the office?

What's the hybrid situation?

What makes sense in terms of...

Listen, commuting in this state, we're not gonna get into a discussion about commuting in this state, which is never easy.

Have you come to a sense of what an appropriate, I know it's, look, we're doing this all remotely.

Sometimes we're out on location.

Mostly we're doing this, though, I wanna be honest.

Every industry is different, but do you have a better sense of the appropriate hybrid balance?

- Well, it all depends upon what the topic is, who you're speaking with.

I would say, time and manner, place.

Know when you need to be in the room, know when you need to be 3D and alive, and know when it's appropriate just to be on screen.

Your instincts should tell you, but sometimes you need to be told when you need to be in a room.

But you should know also what you need to get out of a meeting, a discussion, a relationship, and how to make it work, and sometimes that means being in the room.

- So I'm curious about this.

When we talk about building your brand, which is a major theme of the Ninth Annual New Jersey Business and Industry Association Women's Conference, the forum, when I've talked about people building your brand, they go, "What do you mean, bragging about yourself?"

And I'll say, "No, no.

"Brand building is, that's not for me."

Go ahead.

What's brand building?

I have my own ideas, but I'm more interested in yours.

- Well, you know, it's how you're seen, it's how you're perceived.

It's what people think of you, right?

And so you create your brand, your persona by how you're seen, by how you act, by how you behave, by how you engage.

And then people come to know you in a certain way.

So it is, how do you wanna be seen?

What is the perception you want people to have of you?

And how do you then step back and build that?

- Is it clear at this point, we're at the end of 2023, this show will be seen toward the back end of 2023 into 2024, are there certain industries that seem to be from your experience and the research of BIA, to be more accessible to women, that women are succeeding in more in ways that they haven't in the past that...

I know that's an awkward question, but I keep thinking, are there industries that women are breaking through and succeeding in in a way they weren't five or 10 years ago?

- So, I mean, I'd like to be optimistic and say, I think we're breaking in exponentially on the horizontal across many, all right?

Because there's been a lot of attention to this, and I see it in corporate America.

I also see the barriers still in place, and some might having to do with at the end of the day who's got a balance, right?

Who's got balance that family and that work.

And next generation coming up too, their definition of balance is very different than ours, Steve.

- Talk about that.

- Yeah, some days.

Yeah, some days, I don't know if I am ecstatic for the next generation, if I'm jealous for the next generation, or if I'm just sad about where we may be going in terms of our interaction and our relationship building.

So go back to now personal brand, right?

If you wanna be seen as someone who is dynamic, engaging, a relationship builder, has passion, momentum, you can only do so much of that on a screen, okay?

You gotta be in a room to do that.

If you wanna be seen more as like a worker bee, head down, I can get the job done, I can get that contract done and off to you, right, and the relationship aspect isn't so much, then maybe one dimension's okay for you, right?

So building your brand is also about, again, getting yourself in the room or choosing not to be in the room because that's not who you are.

Not everybody's an extrovert.

Some people are introverts and they're better in a quieter space.

I mean, if that's the case, then you wanna ensure that you send the message that that's what works for you and that's where you work best.

And that's why the idea of mandate doesn't always work either, Steve, right?

- You're not a fan of it?

- You know, well, I'm not a fan date of that word for anything, right?

I prefer to get people with a little bit of honey versus a stick.

Can you create an environment that people wanna be drawn to, that they know that they have to be there 'cause they don't wanna miss something, right?

Make it dynamic and get them in there.

If you force them in there, oftentimes they come in defensive.

If they wanna be there, they're bringing their passion in with them.

- Got it.

Hey Michele, set this up.

There are two leaders, two leaders who are at this forum, the Ninth Annual Business and Industry Women's Leadership Forum, Dawn Fitch, Founder and CEO of Pooka Pure and Simple, and Krishna Powell, Founder and CEO of HR4 Your Small Biz.

These are two women making a difference in succeeding, right?

- Oh, absolutely.

If you're speaking at our event, you have, yeah, succeeded.

- So, set that up for people.

- We- - How do you actually select those folks?

- Well, because we see them in action, right?

We're not gonna put on a program where we're gonna put people up that aren't tested in order to bring value to the other people in the room.

But then, you know, and that's all across the, don't just think it's a bunch of executive level women sitting there delivering message.

The cross-pollinization between the entry, the middle, and the senior is extraordinary.

Look, we're going into five generations in the workforce.

If we don't take time to understand from each other how best to interact and engage in our work environment and in all the things that we do, we're not gonna be successful in what we do.

So how do we identify these women?

Because these women have taken the time to build their brand, right?

- Sure.

- To get their hardcore leadership skills, and they're out there, so we wanna bring visibility to them.

That's the whole notion behind the entire leadership program.

- It is the Ninth Annual New Jersey Business, by the way, the website has been up the whole time.

Check it out.

The Ninth Annual Women Business Leaders Forum.

Michele Siekerka is the President and CEO of BIA, New Jersey Business Industry Association, our longtime colleagues and partners.

And also check out their magazine, "New Jersey Business Online," as well as in print.

You can check that out on the website.

Michele, thank you.

Thank you for teeing this up.

- Thanks Steve, and by the way, mark your calendar, September 25, 26, 2024, the 10th Annual at Bally's in Atlantic City.

It's already booked.

See you there.

- Say the date again.

- September 25 and 26 of 2024 at Bally's in Atlantic City.

- That's Michele Siekerka.

She knows how to plug.

Well done.

We'll be right back right after this.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by NJM Insurance Group.

Hackensack Meridian Health.

The North Ward Center.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Johnson & Johnson.

PNC Foundation.

The New Jersey Education Association.

New Jersey Institute of Technology.

And by The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

Promotional support provided by Northjersey.com and Local IQ.

And by BestofNJ.com.

NJM Insurance Group has been serving New Jersey businesses for over a century.

As part of the Garden State, we help companies keep their vehicles on the road, employees on the job and projects on track, working to protect employees from illness and injury, to keep goods and services moving across the state.

We're proud to be part of New Jersey.

NJM, we've got New Jersey covered.