Yesterday, I attended Step Up New York’s Power Breakfast featuring Karen Rose. Mrs. Rose is a business consultant, a director of Maidenform Brands, Inc. and serves as its chairman of the board, chairman of its audit committee and is a member of its compensation committee and nominating and governance committee. The Power Breakfast was held at Maidenform on Madison Ave and we were all treated to a lovely breakfast and we were told we would be receiving a gift from the company.

Before she began her talk Mrs. Rose wanted know what the participants wanted to learn from her. There were a wide variety of questions but the most asked about questions were about how to achieve work/life balance, creating change at work how to get on boards, mentoring and how she felt she had achieved her success.

Work/Life balance will always be a constant struggle and you will have to adjust as you move ahead in your career based on what is most important to you at the time. If you have kids do want is right for you. You will feel guilty regardless so accept it and move on.

Have a mentor and being  mentored are great ways to learn and grow in your profession and as a person.

Change can happen from the bottom up but you need to have an advocate at least in the middle who has influence with the people who can make a difference.

A lot of people also wanted to know about branding. Mrs. Rose wasn’t afraid to say that wasn’t her area of expertise. She did say that being yourself was important and that being genuine would get you further along in business than being a fake. She also attributed a lot of her success to luck and circumstances.

It sounds like Mrs. Rose has a family that supports her in what she chooses to do and this has allowed her to achieve both personal and professional success.

Download the Karen Rose_PowerBreakfast mind map.