Women business leaders taught to ILLUMINATE at Salt Lake Chamber event

Rebecca Olds
The City Journals

The Salt Lake Chamber hosted its 48th annual Women & Business Conference and Athena Awards Luncheon on Nov. 15 at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City.

The event celebrated business leadership and achievements, with the Athena Leadership Award being presented to Dr. Donna Milavetz, chief medical officer of Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Utah, for her excellence in business and dedication to empowering women leaders.

Six individuals were also honored with Pathfinder Awards for advancing opportunities for women in business, including Utah Sen. Ann Millner, Kerry Norman, Liz Owens, Noella Sudbury, Diana Young and Jessica Yurgaitis.

The conference featured keynote addresses from Nicole Sherman, president and CEO of Riverview Bancorporation, and Sandi Sumner Hendry, founder of Minky Couture, with a theme of “ILLUMINATE,” an acronym promoting leadership, learning, unity, motivation, innovation, networking, ambition, teamwork and empowerment.

The event offered women networking opportunities, professional growth sessions and recognition of impactful women leaders, including ideas on how to manage remote workers and have tough conversations about behavior or performance in the workplace.

Employees have not fully returned to the office post-pandemic, with 17 percent still fully remote and 71 percent working in hybrid roles, according to breakout session speaker Sariah Bronson, owner of Silver Pro Solutions LLC. In her session, Bronson emphasized the importance of setting clear expectations with detailed job descriptions and designated communication channels to help remote and hybrid teams function seamlessly.

“You have to be super-clear and set policies and standards that they know you’re going to hold them to, that you follow,” Bronson said. “And everyone on the team, especially if you’ ve got remote workers and in-house workers, it has to be the same across the board.”

Attendees Anna De Nicolais, a senior analyst at American Express; and Carma Dannelly, vice president of compliance at American Express, attended to learn more about effective communication and staying connected with international workers.

“I have job postings; I don’t have job descriptions,” Dannelly said. “I think it’s good to have the job descriptions that have clear expectations and make sure they understand it and have metrics.”

This foundation can also support hard conversations when necessary, Bronson noted.

Having tough conversations was the focus of another breakout session led by Jill Shroyer, CEO of Expedition HR, who spoke to two crowded rooms of women.

“The amount of success you’re going to have in life is directly correlated to the amount of tough conversations you’ re willing to have,” Shroyer said. “We can say hard things and still be kind about it.”

Shroyer shared with attendees her five-step approach to having a successful “tough conversation,” as she deemed it. The steps include starting with gratitude (“thanks”), explaining the need for the conversation (“why”), describing specific examples of behavior or instances without personal attacks (“what”), detailing the desired changes (“how”) and ending with gratitude (“thanks”) to create a positive conclusion. Her method is detailed in her book Conquer Sticky Situations: A Fresh and Empowering Approach to Tough Talks at Work and in Life.

The event not only honored achievements but also empowered participants to lead with confidence, compassion, and resilience in their professional journeys, organizers said.