Community Corner
Business leadership offered for women
Chamber of Commerce and WCSU combine on 10-part seminar to build success skills
Ellen Durnin is as classy and charming as anyone you will ever meet. She dresses elegantly and can talk confidently about fashion or the latest Greek debt crisis. And I would bet she is successful every time she engages in negotiation.
I have sat across the table from her, and although she never pounded her fist or raised her voice, she made it clear who was in charge. The smiling stopped and the eyes narrowed. She won.
Durnin, a Bethel resident who is dean of the School of Business at Southern Connecticut State University, is one of several educators who will offer their talents at a Leadership for Women Series that starts on Tuesday from 8 a.m. to noon. The event is sponsored by the Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce Women’s Business Council with the Ancell School of Business at Western Connecticut State University. The series will be held in the Westside Classroom Building on the university's Westside campus, 43 Lake Ave. Extension in Danbury.
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Whether you are happy in your job or looking for work, Durnin and the other presenters will offer information that will help you succeed. As a manager myself, I recognize that the workplace presents a constantly changing scene; you must stay alert to challenges from events and colleagues.
And the more skills you have in negotiation and management the more confidence you will have in meeting those challenges.
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One presenter, Rebecca Woodward, with whom I work with in her role as director of Media Services at WCSU, made the point in a News-Times article that women are more likely to employ teamwork when problems need solving, as opposed to the unilateral decision-making of men.
I must be very in touch with my feminine side, because I’m a big teamwork proponent. That’s partly because in my own career teamwork always has worked better than the times I went manly and made a gut decision on the fly. That doesn’t mean the leader doesn’t have to take stands, though, and the seminar is designed to build abilities through the entire process.
Tuesday is the first of 10 courses in the leadership series. The cost to enroll in the series is $100 for members of the Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce and $130 for non-members. For information, call (203) 743-5565.
