My name is Janet Schieferdecker. And helping women to (re)gain their confidence and successfully lead their lives and their organizations is my business.
I work with women who want to lead a fulfilling life--full of contribution, respect and joy. Let's face it, success is a heck of a lot more fun than anything else. So the women I work with tend to have achieved a lot at a young age but then, somehow, hit a wall or just need a change and want to feel like they are in their right power again, as creative forces for good.
And that's my story too.
I started my business career in sales in High School selling stuff, literally. The company was called Stuff Inc. After graduating from college I ran off to Japan to teach English for two years and avoid taking a desk job and travel the world. I took the opportunity to travel to Nepal, Thailand, Burma (now Myanmar), and Hong Kong.
When I came back to the US, I worked as a financial analyst and borrowed massive sums of money every day to buy raw materials for a Japanese steel manufacturer. Really, I was a clerk and, giving away my age here, in those days we had to actually manually type the documents. Since there were carbons, if we made a mistake we had to start over. I'm so glad I don't have to that anymore!
I went to London Business School and got my MBA in 1992 and went to work for Phillips Medical Systems (now Phillips Healthcare). I again got to travel the world but this time as a manager. Which was awesome. I held marketing and business development positions based both in the Netherlands and in Singapore and traveling globally.
I chose and enjoyed this job partially because the organization was going through a lot of change and my interest in business school was already leadership and organizational development. And partially because the equipment they made solved big problems for people. I wanted to work in a company that made a product that really helped people.
The international line management experiences I got at Phillips have been invaluable to me when I coach leaders today.