Ellen Leikind discovered to play poker when she was rising up. Whereas she and her mother had been cooking dinner after college, they performed Texas Maintain ‘Em and Backgammon. “My mother was an terrible cook dinner, and so was I,” recollects the native New York Metropolis resident.
Years later, as a senior advertising govt who labored at Pfizer and L’Oreal, Leikind perked up when she seen poker was rivaling golf as a kind of company networking. Whereas taking part in leisure poker she seen many widespread threads between the methods utilized in poker and enterprise negotiation. “I began seeing how among the issues that occurred to me on the poker desk occurred in enterprise,” she says.
In 2006, after taking a one-year hiatus from company life, she tapped what she discovered in childhood and based PokerDivas, the place she makes use of the ideas of poker to show management and negotiation expertise. The 2-person firm, which generates income within the mid-six figures, trains workforce members at firms reminiscent of Attract, BMO, Chevron, Elizabeth Arden, KPMG, O, Marie Claire, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Pfizer, and plenty of monetary providers companies on methods to change into extra fearless of their careers
Ellen Leikind teaches shoppers methods to apply what she discovered on the poker desk to the world of … [+]
To convey the teachings to life, Leikind holds mock tournaments, which regularly assist members to establish areas for skilled progress. “The extra steadily and aggressively you are betting, the extra comfy you might be with risk-taking,” she says.
Leikind teaches that to perform enterprise targets, you might want to “have the persistence to attend for the correct fingers, learn different folks and never be afraid of dropping your cash,” she says.
The applications initially focused ladies however now are co-ed, in response to demand. She has discovered that steadily, ladies are extra affected person and higher at studying folks, and males are extra aggressive with their chips and extra comfy with threat, although there are lots of exceptions. “You want all 4 of these issues to be good in enterprise as you do in poker,” she says.
Leikind can also be the creator of PokerWoman: How one can Win at Love, Life, and Enterprise utilizing the Ideas of Poker. She additionally runs a web-based networking poker membership, a course referred to as “How one can Negotiate for Your self,” and a unbroken authorized training program referred to as “How one can Be A Higher Negotiator Utilizing Poker Technique.” As a speaker, she covers matters reminiscent of taking management of your picture on the convention desk, bringing the inclusivity of the poker desk to company tradition and dealing with a bully within the board room.
She holds an MBA in advertising from Fordham College and a certificates from Cornell College in Variety and Inclusion.
Though Leikind coaches company staff, she finds the teachings from poker are simply as related for the self-employed. “They’re all about confidence in threat,” she says. “Are you taking part in to win or to keep away from dropping?”