Women2Women, launched by the Greater Reading Chamber of Commerce & Industry, encourages women to create connections, gain knowledge, open doors, and build strategic alliances. Their goal is to create more women leaders in Berks County by providing a forum where women from diverse backgrounds can learn, share ideas, and mentor each other.
The
following are the questions asked of Sharon in the magazine’s Q&A interview
style.
W2W: Why is your position unique to women
in our community?
Sharon: At Tweed-Weber, we do strategic
planning and market research (customer surveys, employee surveys, market
assessments, nonprofit board of director assessments, etc.). Our mission is to
help our clients build and implement strategies to gain and sustain competitive
advantage in their markets throughout the world. I think doing this kind of
consulting work is unique in Berks County. The market research side of our
business, where I spend most of my time, is extremely interesting. We work with
a wide range of for-profit and nonprofit organizations to help them identify
what internal and/or external research will help them make important, strategic
decisions with clarity and confidence. One day we are working with a human
service organization, the next an engineering firm, the next a candy
manufacturer, the next a library system, etc. The list goes on. Although our
client base varies, the research process we use to obtain the information they
need remains the same. Using the research data to help clients increase sales,
grow a product line, better understand employee perceptions, engage nonprofit
board members, and/or gain more visibility in their markets, is exciting and
very rewarding.
W2W: Would you wish to acknowledge a mentor
or friend who helped you aspire to this point in your life’s journey, and why?
Sharon: I can instantly name five
mentors that have had a huge impact on me. Two are people I worked for over 25
years ago before Tweed-Weber; Lori Wood (Noll) and John Pachuilo. One is my
current business partner at Tweed-Weber, Al Weber, and the other two are my
parents, Tom and Adrienne Danks. Lori Wood instilled in me the desire to work
and achieve the professional goals I set for myself. John Pachuilo instilled in
me the importance of being committed and dedicated to your work, and Al Weber
instilled in me the value, meaning, and integrity that must be the foundation for
your work. My father taught me at a very early age that being a responsible
person who contributes to the world around me will always result in something
good. And my mother always taught me to stay true to myself and to know that
God is the only one I need to impress; that way, I’ll never have a need for a
big ego. There are so many other people in the Berks community I would consider
mentors that I work with today (too many too mention), and I feel truly blessed
to be gifted in my life with such wonderful people.
W2W: What do you do
to set work & play boundaries?
Sharon: A lot of
people talk about “having balance” today.
I think there is an unrealistic view of what defines a healthy
work/life/play balance. I subscribe to what one of my mentors taught me years
ago. It reshaped how I view my life. He believes a better way to think about it
is through “integration.” How are you integrating, instead of balancing,
everything you need to do and want in your life? For me, different aspects of
my life take over and require more attention at different times, and I’m ok
with that. Sometimes I need to work like a maniac, and other times my home life
shouts a little louder and I need to answer the call. It’s much less stressful
when you take the pressure off yourself to achieve a complete balancing act
and, instead, stay flexible realizing that an always fluctuating integration of
work and life actually IS balance. It just looks different sometimes. I
think it makes for a happier life.
W2W: What’s your
mission?
Sharon: Gratitude.
My personal mission is to acknowledge and be grateful for, every day, the many
blessings in my life. I try to remind myself often that what I may take for
granted, someone else is praying for.
W2W: Is there a
philosophy that you live by?
Sharon: My
philosophy is a basic one – learning is never over. Every day is a chance to
learn something new. I believe anyone, from newborn to 100, can impart great
wisdom if you pay attention to them. I also believe strongly that animals are
the best teachers of what humans need to learn most.
W2W: What do you
consider to be the main asset of women?
Sharon: On a
personal level, I think the answer would differ depending on the personality,
beliefs, and talents of each individual woman. On a professional level, I
believe a few common assets would be confidence, empathy, humor, graciousness,
and the ability to work collaboratively with others.
W2W: What do you
consider to be the main threat of women?
Sharon: I
believe, man or woman, there is no greater threat than yourself. As the quote
says, “A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking, because
her trust is not on the branch, but on her own wings. If a person believes in
himself/herself, opportunities can be endless.
W2W: What words of wisdom
would you offer to other women?
Sharon: The
greatest words of wisdom I can share is something my father used to tell me and
my sister all the time growing up. He would talk to us about “the glass
ceiling” and how to approach it. He said if we ever ran into barriers, we
should always look at it as “a mirrored ceiling,” not glass, because it would
require us to look back at ourselves to get beyond it. I have been very lucky
in my life. There have only been a few times, early on in my career, that I felt
the pressure of the “mirrored” ceiling, but I realized my father was right.
Getting beyond an obstacle, for a women or man, is all about your attitude
towards it and how you take personal ownership of it.
If you would like to learn more about Tweed-Weber, feel free
to call us toll-free at 1-800-999-6615, email us at mail@tweedweber.com
and/or visit us on the web at www.tweedweber.com. Also, be
sure to follow us on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.) and Twitter (@TweedWeber).
For more information about Women2Women, go to www.berkswomen2women.com.
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