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Women in Business

This article forms part of a special report entitled Women in Business. We look at the glass ceiling, and importantly hear from those women that have shattered it on their own terms. >> Back to Women in Business special report

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Succeeding on your own terms

Written by Gary Howes

Wednesday, 03 September 2008

How a businesswoman's intuitive leadership has lead to success.

A central focus of the Women in Business special report is questioning whether women are succeeding by mirroring men or whether they are succeeding by redefining how business and management is approached. It is the latter that adds real value to the title of “successful businesswoman.”

Vanessa Lenssen started up a company that is founded on a truly original idea. However original ideas lead to the need for unique leadership styles and present problems that can’t be overcome through the use of any best-practices business guide.

The background: hardships and strategy changes

Golearnto.com is a website based service – it offers a solution to those seeking a holiday a little different to the norm. Instead of going on holiday to purely relax, sightsee and such you go on holiday to learn. What you choose to learn is up to you, but can do anything from learning a foreign language, playing a new sport, dancing or cooking.

Growing a new concept is what presented the greatest hurdle to Lenssen when starting out.

To run as a successful e-venture the company needed the backing of a bank that would supply the merchant services. Yet, when facing the banks, Lenssen was greeted by resistance to the idea of providing services to ‘another travel company. ’

Travel is a hard industry to get backing due to the levels of fraud banks are subjected to and hence companies involved in travel are considered more risky.

11 banks turned her down meaning a change in strategy would have to be employed if the company was to become a reality.

The change in strategy came in the form of redefining what the business was, “I approached banks as an education provider, and this opened doors and at least conversations were started,” says Lenssen.

The approach worked and Lloyds gave the backing that allowed the business to get going.

Defining what success is

During our conversation Lenssen was adamant that being a woman had nothing to do with any of the hardships she encountered when starting up. According to her she faced the difficulties that greet most other entrepreneurs when starting up.

For instance the nature of banking today is such that in order to progress with loans you need to check the right boxes, and there is no discriminating box relating to your gender.

While the hardships at the startup stage may be ubiquitous, I feel that what Lenssen does present is a style of leadership that being a woman perhaps intuitively presents her with.

Golearnto.com is a global company and has offices in countries such as the USA, Brazil and Australia, and all the employees that work here are essentially working ‘out of the office.’

Remote working is hard on remote workers as it is often possible for those workers to feel left out and neglected, leading to a myriad of problems from a leadership point of view. Not least of these is being able to monitor workers fully and ensuring they conduct their business in the best possible way for the company.

“There is a challenge in working with remote workers, you have to learn to be able to let go and trust people, all the while keeping your communications just right,” says Lenssen.

Intuitive leadership is what overcomes any of the difficulties Lessen has faced with the remote worker issue: “I’m a big believer in personal touch, personal communications in particular, and it works, the hard bit is indeed ensuring people feel part of things.”

Striking the right leadership style in difficult circumstances has lead Golearnto.com to great success, and what is most rewarding for Lenssen is that this success was defined by her and achieved by her on terms that were dictated by personal beliefs, ambitions and leadership styles.