Amy Mifflin, Houston, Texas

Business:  CEO of Global Collaborations

http://www.global-collaborations.com/

We are highlighting successful women entrepreneurs in our posts, and we have lots of interesting stories to tell!

Our first successful woman entrepreneur story comes from Houston, Texas.  Introducing Amy Mifflin.  Amy worked in the energy first in the utility industry and then moving into upstream and downstream oil/gas sectors and held various corporate management roles for over 25 years before striking out into the entrepreneurial world, starting Global Collaborations in 2013.   Amy recalls that as a woman in the oil and gas industry she faced some big challenges, especially as they related to leadership.

Amy’s Thoughts on Leadership

I think one of the biggest challenges I faced was trying to be someone I wasn’t …sometimes it is easy in male dominated industries for women to want to adapt to male tendencies – be tough, non-emotional etc.  I was determined from the beginning to be authentic and genuine – ensure that I kept my word on promises I made.  There was always an element of ‘proving yourself’ which becomes exhausting.  And the danger would be to become angry and bitter about it.  Men could say their credentials and be immediately accepted.  As a women it was an interrogation of my skills and experiences. So even with these challenges I felt I needed (and chose) to stay above the pettiness.  After all, once you get past it and start delivering – all that falls to the wayside.  And in light of this, I made sure I built relationships vertically and horizontally throughout the organization.  I knew everyone from the mail room and up and everyone laterally and in between.  Building relationships BEFORE you need anything was crucial to my success in the energy industry.

Amy is able to utilize her well-honed leadership skills to develop a suite of products at Global Collaborations.  One unit of her business has a Strategic Business Services segment which focuses on

• Leadership Development
• Cultural Awareness and Preparedness (Culturally Intelligent Leader)
• Strategy Development, joint ventures and business acquisitions

Another division is Diversity Management and Inclusion which is all about helping clients achieve inclusive cultures with their organization, increasing employee engagement, morale, performance and productivity.  And leadership is an important element in developing inclusive cultures and teams.

Global Collaborations also concentrates on Millennial Intelligence – focused toward companies/organizations for integrating Millennials successfully into their workplace cultures by building long-term strategies for employee engagement, collaboration and teaming among Baby Boomers, Gen X and Millennials for organizational success.   Millennial Intelligence has a second parallel business line catering to the Millennials themselves for their development and future success.

Amy’s 25 years of leadership in a non-traditional industry has given her perfect insight into the qualities for excellence in leadership and have led her to create her own consulting business which focuses on developing leadership skills.