Last week I had the great pleasure of being part of Nordnet’s Power women in tech, where together with other five amazing women I shared tips about my career. It was great to listen to the incredible women I had the pleasure to share the stage with and hear about their personal stories and their advice on how to have a successful career in the tech world.

They all were really opened and inspired me with their stories and their path to the top of some great tech companies. This is the advice that I take with me from every single one of them:

Have the courage to stop

Johanna Bolin Tingvall shared a personal story about her life and was really candid about saying that there was a moment when she couldn’t make personal life and career work at the same time. So she put a stop to her career and took care of herself. I loved the message about self-awareness and always put one own’s needs first, the rest will follow.

Forget storytelling, it is all about story-doing

Anna Bäck gave me the gift of my next favorite expression: story-doing. She said that she leads her team not by storytelling and creating a fictive idea of what could happen, but by story doing and showing what she makes happen. I really love this idea of leading by example and action.

It takes hard work and a never-give-up attitude

I loved that Maria Hedengren got real saying that to get at the top you really need to put in a lot of hard work and never give up. Having clear in mind where she wanted to get, and never get discouraged by the failures she found along the way is the receipt of her success. I loved to see the determination when she talked about it, so inspiring!

Get a personal board of directors

Liv Sandberg shared a really concrete tip on how to make good career decisions: create a personal board of directors. A group of people you trust, that know you and are not just your regular friendly ”yay sayers” and can help you by challenging your career decisions. When she spoke about it, I really hoped I had my own board of directors in place. I might start recruiting soon 🙂

Be ambitious and create your own opportunities

In an uplifting presentation, Kajsa Lundborg told us all the story of how she used a school task to create her first business. I was really inspired by how Kajsa took the initiative and create her own fortune by being ambitious and thinking boldly. And what I loved even more is how she gave concrete ideas on how to start on the same journey to everyone listening.

You can find the entire conference here below, in Swedish. The panel I participated in starts at minute 29:00.