In the past few months, there has been a lot of discussion around women in business. While there may not be a short-term solution to why only 15% of C-level seats are held by women, I believe that there are actionable things we women can do today to start remedying the gap. Below are key lessons from my own experiences and observations after spending 6 years in business. Please read and share with me your thoughts!
- Be Bold!
- Behave Like a Fortune 500 Brand
- Make Impactful Friends
Be Bold!
On the battlefield of business, we women may be our own worst enemy. Compared to men, we tend to undervalue ourselves and push less often for promotions. Respected SF blogger Gotham Gal wrote that she was once told by a male colleague at a meeting to “stop saying ‘I think’, women say I think and men don’t, that is why you can’t get in the conversation.” If women are to rise in greater numbers in business, we need to be bold and avail ourselves to the same opportunities as men.
Sheryl Sandberg (COO of Facebook) gave a very moving talk at TED during which she called on women to not be timid and “grab a seat at the table”. I would go one step further and add that not only should you grab a seat at the table, you should make your presence known! Early in my career, I often allowed my self-doubt to silence me at meetings; I didn’t want to seem naive or ask the dreaded “stupid question”. However, in doing so, I also failed to illustrate my value to my colleagues. I didn’t show others that I had an opinion, that I knew what was going on, and that I could contribute to the discussion. I firmly believe my timidness caused me an early promotion. So learn from my mistake – Speak up! Trust that you are smart enough to be in that meeting and deserve that raise/opportunity. Your company hired you because they thought you were smart. Why shouldn’t you believe the same?
Behave Like a Fortune 500 Brand
We’ve all heard that first impressions are the most important and last forever. However, people don’t stress enough that a positive impression needs to be nurtured and fed, like a plant, in order for it to grow into something useful. Raises and promotions aren’t based on first impressions; they’re based on the things you do consistently throughout the year.
Over time, your behavior at work will inevitably build you a brand. It is this brand that people think of when they’re looking to staff teams and give promotions. Your brand helps create opportunities for you, so it’s extremely important that you make sure it is a good one! Be clear on your brand’s message. What are your characteristics/skills/interests that make you valuable to your company? And equally important, are your “customers” (i.e. peers, superiors) aware of you as a brand? You need not turn every conversation at work to be all about you, but your manager should certainly know what positive impact you are having on the business.
Lastly, Make Impactful Friends
Before you jump down my throat, don’t read this to mean that you should be fake, or kiss ass at work. That’s NOT what I mean. My point is that, at work, you shouldn’t only make friends with those that you like and that are like you. While this may make the workplace more fun, it won’t help your career. Instead, make sure you have a variety of mentors that will be honest with you and help you grow. Myself, I benefited significantly from finding mentors across functions and levels. These people helped me see beyond what directly impacted me to how the company worked, and were able to tell me what I was doing wrong. It doesn’t matter if you want to label them “mentors” or “advisers” but get people in your circle that will stretch you and point you towards your dream.
Ultimately, you want to build relationships and find senior mentors willing to sponsor you at work. A sponsor is different from a mentor in that they go one step further – beyond simply giving advice – and are your advocates at work. A study performed by Catalyst found that mentoring is not enough to help women advance; men have more senior mentors, which resulted in more promotions and raises than women.