I was one of the panelists Yesterday afternoon at the Oracle Women’s Leadership (OWL) forum to conclude the seminars’ series entitled « Leadership Starts with One ».

The theme of the panel discussion was « Engagement via Networking », hence my presence as an external guest. I must admit that it was a rather strange experience to be one of the only 2 male attendees at this session of the conference and the only one on stage.

However, when I was invited to participate, a few days before the event, I did not hesitate to answer positively.

The OWL program helps foster and promote equal business opportunities for women at Oracle. It represents quite a unique leadership development opportunity for its participants. 5,000 women of Oracle have already participated in at least one of the local or global events organized by OWL and there are over 40 local OWL communities Worldwide. At a time when women ratios at board level in all companies is a very serious topic for action rather than discussion, I was very interested in contributing my modest experience of  Networking with the panelists and the audience. On a personal note, being the proud father of two young ladies, also leads me to take to heart the issue of the women’s place in business.

We discussed about how networking can increase career opportunities; how selecting the right mentor(s) can help to fast track progression; how your network both « on » and « off » line by its depth and richness will open up new opportunities for you (new industries, news markets, new job families…) and also how it will open a few doors and job opportunities for you.

We also spoke about the importance of diversification in your network. While not forgetting to grow your internal network within the company, it is often the case that internal visibility grows with external recognition and networking (participation in events, certifications, articles in newspapers, books, blogs…). This lead us to talk about the social media tools that can indeed facilitate and speed up some the networking aspects such as being alerted when relations change jobs, move up, acquire new skills…

So, networking with a purpose, if centered on your true areas of interest and if you always keep looking for ways to add value to your networked colleagues, friends and business contacts is highly encouraged to also manage your online identity, understanding fully what you want to be remembered for when your name is mentioned.

Again, thank you to OWL and to the European Professional Women’s Network (EPWN) http://www.europeanpwn.net who were organizing and chairing this round table.

I learned far more than I could possibly give back to the audience!