Every other year, Microsoft organizes a conference for women. Why? Because it recognizes that women more than men feel the need to get inspired by listening to some sessions oriented towards the emotional space and, more to the point, women feel the need to talk to other women, find out what issues those women have and feel that they are not alone. Well, this is more why women participate at the conference. But the conference benefits Microsoft as well, because inspired women are more creative, work harder and more efficiently.

This year's theme was “Opportunity In Change”. The planning team was formed by volunteers that did a great job – the organization was really well planned, the sessions and the speakers well chosen and from registration to food and networking events everything went flawlessly.

And I want to share with you some of the things I learned. The conference took 2 days and a half. In the 2 full days, there were a couple of sessions going in parallel. Of course, I chose the sessions that seemed more interesting to me. But I learned that the content and the speaker are not enough to make it a good presentation; in order to inspire you, the information and the delivery must match some internal struggle you are dealing with. There were sessions contained the right info, where the speaker did all the right things to attract and connect to the audience, but that didn’t honestly impress me. And sessions that I found heart reaching did nothing for other women.

The session I liked most was one by Nancy D. Solomon, talking about impact. As a writer, speaker, facilitator and executive coach, Nancy has built her career around one simple question: “What did you come here to do, and are you getting it done?” In this session, she gave us the definition of impact -  impact is the fingerprint, not the finger that left the print. Put it simply, it's the consequence of what you do/say/think that matters and not the action/word/thought per se. This was a good point for me, as I have the tendency to look at actions instead of the impact of those actions.

Another good point: people usually don't know what they want, because nobody asked them and, more importantly, they never asked themselves. This is quite applicable inside Microsoft. I know people that do things because they think that that is what they should be doing: I'll take this job because I'll be better positioned for the next , I'll do this because it will increase my visibility, etc. Very few ask: what do I really want? She told us about a study that looks at how engaged the employees are. I believe I found the study, and it says:

The Gallup Management Journal publishes a semi-annual Employee Engagement Index. Recent results for the U.S. indicated that:

•    Only 29% of employees are actively engaged in their jobs and feel a passion for their work and a connection to their company.
•    Over half of employees (54%) are not engaged in their work and have essentially “checked out.” They are going through the motions; putting in their time and keeping busy but not working with passion.
•    The remaining employees, 17%, are actively disengaged. Such employees act on their unhappiness and undermine the work their engaged co-workers are trying to accomplish.

When it comes to career progress, Nancy sais a lot of people think that personal satisfaction and achievement are on the same axis, and therefore in order to get one, the other will be neglected, Instead, she argues that people move an 2 axes, so it's possible to move to accomplish both if you do what you like.

Another session I liked was Bonnie St John’s one, about achieving peak performance in spite of the fact that life is sometimes tough. This was a very inspiring story: Bonnie had a most interesting life:

Due to a condition called pre-femoral focal disorder, Bonnie had her right leg amputated above the knee when she was only 5 years old. Despite this challenge, she went on to excel as an athlete, a scholar, a mother, and a businesswoman. After graduating Magna Cum Laude from Harvard University in 1986, Bonnie won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University where she earned her M.Litt. Degree in Economics in 1990. She worked in the White House during the Clinton administration as a Director for the National Economic Council, and is currently CEO of Courageous Spirit, Inc. Bonnie provides inspirational and motivational keynote speeches to dozens of business organizations annually, touching literally tens of thousands of lives each year with her messages of strength and courage.

The most important take away from her presentation was that if people often compare life with sports, nowadays, companies are better compared with disabilities sports (due to the economic situation that’s not quite pink – in case you haven’t noticed). Companies need to thrive despite their disabilities; same for people. About the people she competed with at Paralympics, she said: "what they don't have doesn't matter". What matters is to do the best with what you have.

Instead of playing it safe to stay up all the time, it's more important to learn how to get up fast after you fall.

Now, most of the sessions touched upon some common themes:

• Be yourself, and be the best you can be.
• Take risks, get out of your comfort zone.
• Enjoy the small moments of life, take time regularly to feel joy and delight.
• Find and follow your purpose in life to be more efficient.
• Soft skills impact business performance. A study shows that people give in average 85% off what they could be giving on the job; they put in more depending on the direct manager’s soft skills and the soft skills of people around them.

I also loved the quote Mitch Shepard shared with us at her session about Emotional Intelligence: The cure for exertion is not rest, it’s living wholeheartedly. I believe I’ll make this my motto.

Hope this gives you an idea of what happened at the Microsoft conference. Like Lisa Brummel, Microsoft’s senior VP for HR said at the conference, there are a lot of opportunities for personal development and learning activities in Microsoft; if people don’t know about them, it’s management’s fault; if they know and don’t take advantage of them, it’s their own fault. The women’s conference is an opportunity for women to network and connect with other women, learn and get inspired by different opinions, opportunities, and a variety of experiences. If your company organizes something similar, I highly recommend going.