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Connecting, Leading and Supporting Professional Women Through Mentorship

“Our real vision…is that we will help women—through God’s hand leading us—see that their faith should be a part of every minute of every day, that their relationships should be their priority, and that their work is a place God has called them to be.” –Diane Paddison

At the age of sixteen, Diane Paddison was leading crews of eighty people on her family’s Oregon farm. As an adult, she was often the sole woman in Fortune 500 and 1000 boardrooms. Diane realized the crucial importance of a mentor early on, and now pays it forward mentoring countless women through the organization she founded called 4WordWomen and her book, “Work, Love and Pray.”

Through trials of her own, Diane learned how to pray fervently, stay grounded in God’s Word and surround herself with a support system of women who were fellow believers. She also went through the “Half Time” system, where she realized that God had prepared her with her experiences professionally and relationally, with a firm foundation of faith. She met Bob Buford, who encouraged her to write her book and catapulted her to start her ministry to “connect, lead and support professional women to reach their God-given potential.”

“Try to find companies where your values and priorities align. And then try to find roles where your strengths align with that role.” –Diane Paddison

What You Will Learn:

• The importance of a mentor and how to find your own mentor
• How to focus your goals in these three areas: professional, relational and spiritual goals
• The keys to putting fear behind you and overcoming hardships
• How to discern God’s will for your life and reach your full potential
• How to discover where your energy comes from and what you are passionate about

Resources:

• 4wordwomen.org
• “Work, Love and Pray” and companion study guide by Diane Paddison
• “Half Time” by Bob Buford
• Christianity Today

Bio

Diane Paddison, 4word Founder and President, is a Harvard MBA graduate, former global executive of two Fortune 500 companies and one Fortune 1000 company, and serves as an independent director for two corporations and four not-for-profits.

But her life’s passion is mentoring professional women.

The leading advocate for the professional Christian women community, Paddison published Work, Love, Pray in 2011 while laying the foundation for 4word. The book cast a vision for women of faith who represent a growing share of the fulltime workforce, yet are underserved in resources compared to the men around them. Featuring 15 women leaders who found personal and business success while keeping faith at their core, Work, Love, Pray affirms and challenges women who feel uniquely called to the workplace.

Diane’s heart for encouraging professional women took root in her early in her commercial real estate career, an industry where few women held mid-level roles, and were virtually absent in senior leadership. Crossing lines of tradition, Diane approached the top company executive – a man – to express her professional goals and ask for mentoring. He agreed, and since then, Diane has been purposeful in supporting women around her with the lessons she learned.

Mentorship is a lifestyle: even when traveling to a regional office on business, she often reserves a lunch hour to gather women company-wide to foster relationships. She led the development of the CREW (Commercial Real Estate Women) “Bridging the C-Suite Gap” mentoring program, credited with the advancement of many participants to senior executive ranks since it launched.

Diane Paddison speaks on life/work balance, mentoring/sponsorship, and impactful leadership at events across the country. She authors weekly posts at 4wordwomen.org, and is a featured columnist for Today’s Christian Women – a Christianity Today digital magazine. Diane serves on the board for the Harvard Business School Christian Fellowship Alumni Association. Diane and her husband, Chris, have four children and live in Dallas, Texas.