70% of women leaders credit another woman for their success: her flowers are long overdue

I’ll be honest with you. When we first started talking about doing something for Women’s History Month, I may have done a little eye roll at my desk. Please, not another LinkedIn post with a stock photo of women in blazers high-fiving.

Thankfully, that’s not how we “roll” here at Sendoso.

We Slack-huddled up for a team brainstorm. As ideas were being bantered around, one of our saleswomen had a lightbulb moment. She side-messaged me this: What if instead of us telling them who we think are amazing women, we just ask them?

Give Her Flowers was born: a simple nomination campaign to recognize the women who shaped careers in B2B. The ask was straightforward and direct: nominate her, tell us how she showed up for you, and give us one word to describe her.

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The responses were:

Fearless.

Generous.

Relentless.

Before we share some of the nominations, why are we even talking about women in B2B?

Women in B2B: the numbers behind the names

Women have been shaping (and reshaping) B2B — sales, marketing, finance, CS, all of it — for a long time. Longer than the industry tends to give credit for.

Women have always been — and continue to be — supportive of other women.  According to Cigna's Women in Leadership study, 70% of women in leadership say their success was made possible by the mentorship of other female leaders.

Read that again: 70%.

Behind nearly every woman who made it into a leadership role, there’s another woman who believed in her first, a woman who pushed her into a room she didn’t think she belonged in, a woman who said “you’re ready” before she felt ready.

Another stat from that same study? 76% of women leaders currently mentor at least one woman. The good work continues.

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We're not talking about policies or programs or top-down initiatives. These are just choices women are making.

And that’s exactly what Give Her Flowers is about.

Let’s look at a few of those nominations.

The Sendoso community has spoken. Here’s what they said.

We asked. You delivered. In a big way.

Since the campaign launched just over a week ago, we have received nearly 100 nominations. I’ve personally read each and every one, and it was moving.

Reading all of these kind, thoughtful, heartwarming words was powerful.

Here are a few of the nominations that have come in so far.

Note: We are still accepting nominations through the end of the day, Tuesday, March 31.

The sponsor who bet on you before you’d bet on yourself

There’s a difference between a mentor and a sponsor that doesn’t get talked about enough. A mentor gives advice. A sponsor puts their name behind yours.

Puneet Randhawa, Director of Quality Engineering at StackAdapt, nominated Joyce Janczyn — the COO at her first employer in Canada:

“You can’t be what you can’t see. Joyce was the first person who helped me see that I could aim higher and achieve more than I thought possible.”

That’s sponsorship. And it’s rarer than it should be.

The leader who proved the tradeoff is a lie.

Here’s a myth that refuses to die in B2B: that you have to choose between high performance and being human. That empathy is somehow a liability. That the best leaders are the ones who keep it strictly professional.

Several of the nominations we received pushed back on this. Here is one:

A founder & Marketing Strategist nominated her former manager:

“High-performance results and an empathetic culture are not mutually exclusive.”

Seven words. Powerful.

The champion who never stopped showing up

Not every career-defining moment happens in a big meeting. Sometimes it’s the person who keeps showing up ... through the hard quarters, the lateral moves, the seasons where you’re not sure you’re in the right place.

Julia T-Carr, Event Marketing Manager at Cority, nominated her leader, Heidi Spillett:

“She is the loudest champion for her team, always advocating, always recognizing … and she creates space for real emotions too.”

The loudest champion. I want that on my LinkedIn profile.

The one who gave you permission to be yourself

This one might be the most underrated form of leadership: helping someone stop performing and start showing up as themselves.

Sarah Reece, Director of Demand Generation at Orum, nominated Emily Jeffords:

“She showed me how to hold power in my authenticity.”

Full stop.

The thing these all have in common

Again, the above nominations are just a handful of the (nearly 100) submitted.

What’s cool to see is that these are all women from different industries, in unique roles, who have special relationships.

But every single nomination shares one thing: a woman who chose to show up for someone else. Not because it was in her job description. Not because there was something in it for her.

Because that’s what good humans do.

At Sendoso, we talk a lot about human-first connection, about the power of making someone feel genuinely seen and valued. Nearly 100 nominations in just over a week tell us something: people are hungry to recognize each other. They just need somewhere to do it. Give Her Flowers is exactly that.

Nominations close Tuesday, March 31st, end of day. Do. Not. Wait.

We still want to hear from you.

Who’s the woman who changed your trajectory?

The mentor who gave you guidance when you needed it most?

The leader who advocated for you?

The colleague who opened a door that changed everything?

She deserves her flowers. Go give them to her.

P.S: All nominees will receive a gift — yes, a physical, in-your-mailbox gift. Hey, that’s what we do best, right? The human touch.