Developing, Acknowledging, Celebrating Women Leaders

The 4th Annual Prescott-Area ATHENA Awards, sponsored by Quad Cities Business News, is expanding and increasing its impact with three award categories at this year’s High Tea celebration, 3-5 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 24, at Starting Point in the Prescott Gateway Mall. “Our goal is to showcase excellence demonstrated by women leaders in the Quad Cities and to inspire all to achieve their potential,” said QCBN Publisher Amy Bix.

The ATHENA Awards is an international program that honors outstanding leaders who shine in their professions, serve their communities and mentor women. For the first time in Northern Arizona, the 2023 Prescott-Area ATHENA Awards will recognize businesses and organizations that support, develop and honor women leaders with the ATHENA Organizational Leadership Award.

In addition, QCBN will recognize an individual with the traditional ATHENA Leadership Award and also will present the ATHENA Young Professional Leadership Award.

Citing statistics such as the fact that 10,000 baby boomers are retiring each day and that 83% of businesses report the need to develop leaders at all levels, ATHENA International President and CEO Traci Costa says there has never been a better opportunity for women to develop their skills and step into leadership roles. “Businesses that embrace women leadership have an advantage. Research shows they achieve greater success when they have a balance in leadership voices – people with different perspectives and different experiences.”

Founder Martha Mertz started the international ATHENA Awards program in 1982, thinking it would take 10 years to change attitudes about women as leaders. “We ordered 10 custom-made ATHENA sculptures and believed that the culture would change with the acknowledgement of all the incredible accomplishments women leaders have achieved individually and together. We thought ours was a short-term aspiration, that once enough women had achieved success, all qualified women would be eligible for leadership consideration. We didn’t know how many barriers we’d encounter before any kind of power would be shared. We’ve learned a lot along the way and discovered there are barriers today that we didn’t anticipate back then.”

In the past, Mertz said, those in leadership positions tended to hire and promote people like themselves. “What we are hearing from younger women now is that they aren’t seeing female role models and success isn’t happening fast enough. They are getting dispirited about it. However, we know how to build leadership skills and leaders. We know that we need to keep striving and we need to propel each other upward. Our leadership model has withstood the test of time. Leadership is not how you handle an army of people or necessarily how you motivate people. It’s not how to do, it’s how to be.”

The ATHENA Leadership Model includes eight principles: live authentically, learn constantly, build relationships, foster collaboration, act courageously, advocate fiercely, give back and celebrate. Costa says the principles have forever changed her life. “They have caused me to look at myself and ask if I’m living my truth and walking my path. They have caused me to have a stronger, more authentic relationship with myself so that I can be stronger for others.”

Mertz believes we are experiencing a transformational time. “In a slow-motion shift, the culture has evolved to the point where women aren’t clumped together in a single category, but are perceived and judged as individuals, with strengths and faults alike. This is a huge leap forward and will impact every place where women step into positions of power and influence. As the numbers of women in these posts of importance increase, so does the understanding of how much that matters.”

Bix says this year’s High Tea program will feature powerful women leaders from the region and their inspirational stories. “The bonding, the encouragement and the celebration of women making incredible strides despite adversity is powerful at the Prescott-Area ATHENA Awards. Women often tell us they feel uplifted and have a renewed sense of purpose through the experience. We are so proud to offer such a positive event for everyone.” QCBN

By Bonnie Stevens, QCBN

Courtesy Photos: LEFT: In 1982, ATHENA founder Martha Mayhood Mertz set out to change the global culture of leadership. RIGHT: ATHENA International President and CEO Traci Costa says the program’s guiding principles changed her life.