Building bravery & resiliency is no small task, but it is the lifeblood of what we want to see in ourselves and those around us. Resilience is defined as: the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness’ (dictionary.com).”

This past week, I participated in a conference called the Women’s Venture Summit in San Diego, California. The event was organized & put on by the Stella Foundation. To summarize: the conference was dynamic and informative. I took a plethora of notes! The conference served as a springboard for further conversations, with speakers and other founders/investors/entrepreneurs.

There were many resilient and strong women at this conference: they are Founders, Venture Capitalists, Investors & Entrepreneurs. These women exude confidence & independence. As a woman, I truly appreciate being around these types of humans. They are my people and hearing their experiences is vital for girls and women to empower them to do meaningful and impactful things in their work and their life.

Running marathons has taught me many things about resilience. I started running when I was in 7th grade and now, fast forward, I have run 16 marathons, with my 17th and deck in October.

The Stella Foundation’s mission is to inspire, equip, and propel diverse female founders to successfully launch, grow, and sustain their businesses while cultivating a thriving network of investors to increase equality for women-led startups. The vision is equal representation of female founders & funders across the venture table.

While listening to Kelly Ann Winget, Private Equity Fund Manager, speak, I was both inspired and enlightened. She spoke about being the only woman in the room many times and how her entrepreneur spirit was there from the start- earning money by organizing car washes at 15 years old.

Now, fast forward, and Kelly Ann is the Founder of Alternative Wealth Partners, a Dallas-based Private Equity firm focused on blended portfolios of alternative assets. Alternative Wealth Partners was launched in August 2020, the middle of the pandemic, with a laser focus on making private equity understandable and accessible to Main Street investors.

The experience in San Diego at the Women’s Venture Summit was inspiring and truly taught me about some very prominent women’s stories and how they got to where they got. One telling moment was when Kelly Ann Winget said “how many unicorns are in the room?” and many hands went up. A business that reaches unicorn status is one that reaches $1 Billion in value. It is a very high-level that companies strive to attain.

There were a plethora of anecdotes and notes that I took while at the venture summit. One being: women earn $.32 to every $1 that men earn. What does this mean for our economy? It is a startling statistic.

Higher wages boost spending and investment, two of the fundamental drivers of economic growth. The gender wage gap also hampers women's participation in the U.S. labor force, contributing to the persistence of gender gaps in labor market participation.

Resilience in the workplace is a vital topic, especially as organizations face various challenges and changes.

Here are some key statistics and insights related to workplace resilience:

1. Impact on Performance: Resilient employees are up to 15% more productive than their less resilient counterparts, according to various studies.

2. Employee Engagement: Organizations with higher resilience levels see a 61% increase in employee engagement. Engaged employees are more likely to stay with the company and perform at a higher level.

3. Stress Reduction: Resilience training can reduce employee stress by as much as 25%, leading to improved mental health and well-being.

4. Turnover Rates: Companies that foster resilience experience 50% lower turnover rates compared to those that do not prioritize employee resilience.

5. Adaptability to Change: Resilient teams are 70% more likely to adapt quickly to change and challenges, which is crucial in today’s fast-paced business environment.

6. Mental Health Benefits: Employees with higher resilience report lower levels of anxiety and depression, with studies showing that resilience can decrease the likelihood of burnout by 30-40%.

7. Team Dynamics: Resilient teams tend to have better communication and collaboration, with research indicating that resilient teams are 40% more effective in problem-solving.

8. Leadership Impact: Leaders who model resilience can significantly influence their team’s resilience, with studies suggesting that supportive leadership can increase team resilience by 30%.

In addition to information on women in the workplace and the earnings gap, the venture summit had speakers talk about women needing a “permission slip” to take risks and make lasting change. We need bravery now more than ever.

“Most girls are taught to avoid failure and risk. To smile pretty, play it safe, get all A’s. Boys, on the other hand, are taught to play rough, swing high, crawl to the top of the monkey bars and then jump off head first. By the time they’re adults and whether they’re negotiating a raise or even asking someone out on a date, men are habituated to take risk after risk. They’re rewarded for it. It’s often said in Silicon Valley that no one even takes you seriously unless you’ve had two failed startups. In other words, we’re raising our girls to be perfect and we’re raising our boys to be brave.” (Reshma Saujani)

This is important to note, as there is a fundamental difference between the way in which girls and boys are raised and what characteristics were fostered and encouraged. Girls and women have a unique set of strengths and offer a unique perspective in the workplace that is unlike that of boys and men. Women are intrinsically intuitive, hard-working and dynamic. Let’s not lose perspective and teach our girls perfection.

Perfection doesn’t lead to innovation and risk taking- it leads to fear and inaction. This directly ties into resilience because girls, when they don’t strive for perfection- become more resilient because they are taught to be brave. Bravery goes hand in hand with resiliency.

“The bravery deficit is the reason why womenare under represented in STEM, in C-suites, in boardrooms, in Congress, and pretty much everywhere you look. Those dreams have never been more important for our country. For the American economy, for any economy to grow, to TRULY innovate, we cannot leave behind half our population! We have to socialize our girls to be comfortable with imperfection and we need to do it now. We can’t wait for them to learn how to be brave like I did when I was 33 years old.” (Reshma Saujani)

We need to reexamine how we encourage our girls and women- it will make a world of difference.