The Networker: The Women's Leadership Exchange

The female alternative to the golf-course conference.

By Courtney E. Martin
Published: Apr 09, 2008

When you hear those dreaded words—"professional development"—what pops into your mind? A Steve Carell look-alike droning on and on about how fun organizing can be? A girl young enough to be your daughter chirping about the new frontier of blogging? One of your most annoying co-workers telling her life story as soon as she gets the mic during Q&A time?

At the Women's Leadership Exchange (WLE), "professional development" looks like nothing like this. Picture a room full of women of all ages, buzzing from station to station with the energy of a hive in bee season. Each woman sits down with a "growth guru," asks a targeted, brief question about growing a business and gets a cutting-edge answer, which they furiously scribble down before moving on to the next brain to pick. Efficient, customized, and inspiring, this is development 2.0.

WLE is a networking and educational organization for women in business. Co-founded four years ago by entrepreneurs Leslie Grossman and Andrea March, it has already served 17,000 businesswomen through its annual conferences in Long Beach, New York, Dallas, Chicago, Ft. Lauderdale, Tempe, San Francisco, Boston, and Atlanta, as well as through its comprehensive online community. WLE is not just about bridging what they see as the "information gap" between businesswomen and the know-how needed for big time success; they are also about fun—once a year they host a spa retreat designed to rejuvenate the busy women who are part of the WLE.

WLE grew out of Grossman's and March's own needs as successful, but stalled, business owners. Grossman remembers taking stock of her company—which at the time had 15 employees and two million dollars in annual revenue—and wondering where she could turn for help on taking the next steps. Most existing women and business organizations were geared towards women just starting out, not experienced ladies with growing pains.

"When men have challenges they ask their buddies on the golf course for help," Grossman explains. "Women don't do that—we're too busy to play golf. We're not only running our businesses, but taking care of our families, homes, and aging parents. Plus, women like to look perfect. We don't want to admit to vulnerabilities. We want to paint this picture that everything is great, business is fantastic."

The data on women-owned businesses backs up Grossman's claim: According to the Center for Women's Business Research, women are at the helm of about 10.4 million private companies nationwide, and businesses owned by women are growing at twice the rate of male-dominated companies. However, only 9% of the deals and 2.3% of the dollars from institutional investors go to female-owned firms. In part, Grossman believes, this is because women don't ask other women how to go after these dollars.

WLE was born when Grossman met Andrea March, who at the time, was running conferences on financial literacy and investing for women. Together, they came up with the idea of providing busy businesswomen with one day conferences that compacted three days worth of networking, skill-building, and information-gathering. They knew women wouldn't want to take more than a day away from their families—the one at work or the one at home.

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