Lerners Women’s Symposium: Just Ask For What You Want

In 2017, Lerners LLP launched the Women’s Symposium, a speaker’s series that addresses professional development issues for women. It provides a forum for women to come together and learn from each other, and forge relationships with other women in their community.

My own personal philosophy for my professional development is to not be afraid to just ask for what I want. Obviously you need to be prepared to support why you should get it, but worrying about what someone is going to think about you because you made the ask, is not something that should be holding you back.

At the United State of Women Summit in May 2018, Michelle Obama said the following: “I wish that girls could fail as bad as men do and be okay, because watching men fail up is frustrating… If we want our daughters to dream bigger than we did we still have work to do.” While I am not advocating anyone less than the most qualified person getting a position, there are times when that happens – someone has “failed up”. Men are able to fail up, because they make the ask. They go for it. It is an attitude that women need to embrace. Moving forward is a lot harder to do when you wait for others to pave the way for you.

The next Women’s Symposium will be held in fall 2018.