'How Always Striving for Better Can Be a Misstep' August 9, 2012

Join us as Carolyn Kelly, former Seattle Times President and Chief Operating Officer, talks about how perfectionism can cause self-punishing stress.

Ginger could do anything dance partner Fred Astaire could do-only "backwards and in heels." So why is it that as women, we continue to believe that we must constantly strive for better and that good enough is never enough?

Moving up the ranks and helping run a Pulitzer Prize-winning daily paper, Carolyn learned much over her 33-year career at the Times. She realized that being overly perfectionistic can cause you and you alone to pay a price-like when you labor over something no one's likely to notice. She also has found that the mindset of always striving for better can often hinder staying focused on what really matters.

Carolyn has even seen these kinds of issues for women echoed in popular business and leadership books. She'll discuss how The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Good to Great, First Things First, and others champion concepts that women tend to experience are not as conducive to a healthy work/life balance as we think. Carolyn will share her own maxims for approaching life with integrity and authenticity.

Carolyn Kelly was President and Chief Operating Officer of The Seattle Times when she retired at the end of 2010. She joined as a financial analyst in 1977 in her mid-20s, moving through the ranks to hold positions including marketing and news business director, VP/CFO, and senior VP/general manager. When she was named president and COO in 2001, she joined only a handful of women in the U.S. who had risen to an executive position at a major newspaper. She oversaw advertising, circulation, corporate marketing, employee resources, finance, information systems, and operations.

Official Website: http://wbex.org/monthly-breakfast-event