by Pamela Weinsaft (New York City)

Like many successful women, Marlene Mitchell Gordon, Vice President and Assistant General Counsel of Burger King Corporation has, struggled to find a proper work-life fit. “A few years ago, I was a total workaholic, and never made any time for myself. I began to feel the negative physical effects, which made me take a step back and make some changes in my lifestyle. I realized that life is not all about work.”

“I wish I had understood early on the importance of balancing your personal life and your career,” she added, “I always thought marriage and family would come later in life, but I got married right out of college and had my first child when I was in law school.” She credits a friend and mentor from law school for with helping open her eyes to the difficulties that lay ahead. “[My friend, a pioneer in her field] took me under her wing and helped me understand what life is like as a lawyer in a big firm. When I was pregnant and had an ‘I can do it all’ attitude, she told me that I didn’t understand what motherhood was yet and helped put it into perspective for me.”

She recognizes that this sort of challenge is women face regardless of industry or profession. “I believe that one of the barriers for women in the workplace is that we are the primary caretakers, but yet we still strive to progress our careers. It’s an obstacle and a challenge we need to overcome.”

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By Caroline Shannon (Dayton, Ohio)

When it comes to hocus pocus potions for success, NASCAR Deputy General Counsel and Vice President Karen Leetzow says it wasn’t a magic wand that led her to success. Instead, she claims the male-dominated sport has taught her to listen — that is, if you can hear above the roar of the firing engines.

“If you listen – you learn,” Leetzow said. “If you learn, then you know your stuff. And if you know your stuff, and work hard, then you will get the respect, assignments and the success you deserve — whether you are a man or woman.”

But it’s her role as a woman that has added the diversity Leetzow likes to see in her workplace. She’s proud of the fact that world-popular organization has taken on the idea that “women can do what men do in every area of the business.” Take a look at the company today, and one will see women not only in corporate positions, sales and marketing, but also hitting the track officials, engineers and team owners.

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by Pamela Weinsaft (New York City)

Grace Leiblein has been working for GM since she was 18 years old. While attending college at General Motors Institute (now called Kettering University), she worked with GM as a co-op student in a manufacturing plant. She worked her way up through assignments and ranks, with her last position before her recent promotion being the global chief engineer responsible for overseeing the engineering of all several hundred engineers (internal and supplier engineers) working on crossover vehicles like the Acadia and Chevy Traverse.

Says Leiblein, “I remember when I got that assignment. It was a huge challenge—much larger than I had ever experienced—but it was a lot of fun and I learned a lot. I grew a tremendous amount both personally and professionally. To be on a project like that and able to start from scratch basically and have your fingerprints all over some products – I’m very proud of the way they turned out, and when I see one of my vehicles on the road I feel personally responsible for them.”

She was appointed President of GM de Mexico at the end of 2008. Although Leiblein has a personal connection with Latin America—her father is Cuban and her mother is Nicaraguan—she has never worked in Latin America in her professional career and is thrilled about the new opportunity. “I’ve always loved Mexico…it is one of my favorite places to be. And it is a great opportunity to lead an entire business unit for a country. To have that kind of responsibility and authority and challenge is wonderful. And the team there is a proven, experienced team of professionals—nationals as well as expats from different countries—so it will be fun to learn from them as well.”

Leiblein advises women not to be afraid to take that stretch assignment, something she has done quite often over the course of her career. “Women in particular have a tendency to shy away from opportunities out of their comfort zone, whether that be moving into an area that they haven’t worked in before or moving to a different city or moving to a different country. If you really want to progress in an organization you have to take on those opportunities because that is (1) how you grow personally and professionally and (2) it is how leadership really looks at your adaptability for progression (watching how you do in situations where what you are doing is different from what you know).”

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by Pamela Weinsaft (New York City)

“Whether you’re studying an instrument, exercising or tackling a business issue head-on, be sure to understand that there are real choices in how we go about accomplishing whatever it is we are doing. There’s an expression that comes to mind: ‘There is never enough time to do something correct the first time, but there is always time to do it over again. Be sure to assess the needs of each situation and decide what is most important before taking your first steps.'”

So writes Nina Simosko on her eponymous blog ninasimosko.com. Ms. Simosko is Head of the Global Ecosystem & Partner Group at software leader SAP. She keeps a schedule that would lend itself readily to proclamations of being too busy to care about the details of how things happen; her global role requires her attention for more than the standard 9 to 5 day. “I don’t have the luxury of working in a time zone…to me, it is just one continuum. I am on the phone with the Europeans at 4 in the morning (in the car on the way to the gym for my morning workout) and the folks in Asia Pacific at 11 at night. I work whatever hours are required for me to do my job.”

Yet she manages to attend to the details of both her work and her personal life. Simosko cites her strong supportive relationships with husband and friends among her proudest personal achievements. “My career puts a large demand on my time. And I love the fact that people get it. It would be horrible to be in a relationship with someone who didn’t get the stress and the time a career like this takes.” Read more

by Elizabeth Harrin (London)

“I’ve had a back to front life,” says Anne Fergusson, a Director in PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory Business and Head of the PwC Panel Network. She hands me a cup of tea. “Life is full of surprises.”

Anne talks as if she is surprised at the way her career has turned out, but listening to her it is clear that she made good choices, and has actively managed her route to the top at PwC.

She started salaried work at the age of 40, when she separated from her first husband. “I made a decision to earn my own living,” she says. It was a decision taken by necessity: living in the west of Scotland, outside Glasgow, she had three children to support. She had qualified as a chartered accountant when she was younger and took a full-time lectureship at the University of Strathclyde teaching financial and management accounting and tax practice.

She met and married her second husband, who was studying at the time. He read her professional journals, which she admits to ignoring, and pointed out a job he thought she should go for. “I didn’t think I had anywhere else to go, and I enjoyed academia,” she says. However, she rang the Director of Education at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland and he invited her to an interview.

“I ended up teaching to demanding audiences and made some great friends,” Anne says. Her work with the Institute saw her working in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Russia, Poland and Romania. “I was responsible for my own material, the hours were long and family life was very restricted.”

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