As with most associations, SEMA’s strength comes from its members. Too often, however, a person joins an association without a meaningful understanding of how he can best benefit from the services and programs provided.

The Young Executives Network (YEN) will be 20 years old in 2010. While the creation of the group was discussed and planned in the late-’80s, the Young Executives Council (as it was known originally) didn’t become recognized as a member group until 1990.

In doing my research for this article, I started first by looking to see how women in leadership roles view themselves in other male-dominated industries. I also wanted to see how the leadership styles of men and women differ from each other and, given a male-dominated industry, if one or the other...