Last year, Dan’l and Megan attended the inaugural PMA Foundation Women’s Fresh Perspectives conference in Arizona and came home feeling enlightened and influenced by the energy of the female leaders and rising stars in our industry. So when Dan’l and Megan gave Marci and me an opportunity to attend, we were ecstatic to head to Phoenix and get the chance to bring home a similar experience. The Second Annual Event did not disappoint, and in case you missed this year’s event, here are the insights we took away and quotes shared throughout the event that made an impact.

Overall theme: Self-awareness

Self-awareness was a reoccurring theme at this year’s event that brought everything full-circle. From the Predictive Index personality tests each attendee took to better understand herself to the breakout sessions that drilled down into specific areas of behavior, each woman left the event with a better understanding of her own unique power and influence.

One of the presenters, Paulette Ashlin, explained to us that great leaders are self-aware. In order to effectively lead others and manage different aspects of business operations, you must have a keen understanding of your own behaviors and how they influence the productivity and effectiveness of yourself and those around you. This boils down to your motivating needs and drives to exert influence, interact with others, adapt to change, find stability and utilize structure.

Finding your communication style

Through the Predictive Index test, we discovered that well over half of the females in attendance are “high A’s” or have a personality type that seeks control and freedom over one’s own activities and work. “High A’s” are independent and assertive and don’t shy away from competition. We also discovered that many of the women in attendance were also “low C’s” in addition to being high A’s. Low C’s are known for their impatience and thrive in fast-paced environments where they are kept on their toes – perhaps a reason why they love the produce industry!

Once we learned about our core behaviors and motivating needs, we became aware of our own strengths and weaknesses associated with our personality and could walk away with an understanding of what makes each of us “tick,” but almost more importantly how our coworkers might “tick” a little differently than us. Embracing and maximizing our differences is key to building and thriving in a successful team.

Using your communication style to be the most affective

The reason great leaders are often those that are the most self-aware is because they understand their personalities and behaviors enough to know how best to channel them to their advantage. It’s usually never what you say, but how you say it. In the breakout sessions, we learned a little more behind how our behaviors affect others and how to adapt to different personalities and behavioral preferences.

We learned that there is a rule even more important than the golden rule – the platinum rule: Do unto others as they want to done unto them. This is the ticket to great leadership – when you are able to adapt your own core behaviors to accommodate someone else’s, you will both be able to work more effectively together – producing results rather than added struggles.

Thinking big, deep and long

In addition to harnessing the power of our unique communication style and adapting it to work more effectively, we were also challenged to evolve our thinking outside the here and now to a more long-term outlook.

Session leader, and produce industry expert Julie Krivanek, shared her insights on strategic thinking and how produce professionals tend to think and operate in the present, solving immediate problems and never searching for long-range goals. We must be aware of fads, realize when they are a trend and jump on board quickly or fall behind. Of all the sessions, this one in particular provided some tangible ideas that both of us were able to take back to our companies and change the way we conduct business.

Speak your truth

Finally the closing speaker, Colette Carlson, wrapped the event by encouraging ladies to align their thoughts, words and actions and Speak Their Truth! Women need to communicate their limits and concerns honestly and confront challenges head on. She explained that ‘speaking your truth’ means saying what needs to be said with grace and tact – relieving yourself of the burden of carrying something alone. She encouraged leaders to learn how to have challenging conversations by learning how to disagree without being disagreeable. We may not always like what we hear, but at the end of day, we all want people to be honest with us. That practice starts with ourselves.

The 2014 Women’s Fresh Perspectives Conference brought together nearly 200 industry women to empower them with encouraging words and insightful information that will ultimately make them better businesswomen. To all the companies who invested in this experience, thank you. You are helping to make our industry stronger.