Your Career Plan – Got One?

I work with women from across all professions. Occasionally I will come across someone who has planned out her career but not that often.

I’m not talking about a very rigid plan but about having a good sense of where you want to be. It’s a cliché (but clichés get to be clichés for a reason!) but if you don’t know where you’re going it’ s hard to plan a route! Even sat nav won’t help!

Plan Your Career

Your job takes up a large part of your life. It makes sense to give it as much attentiion and time as you do when planning other less significant parts of your life (like a new piece of furniture! Truly , we can spend longer than buying a sofa than thinking about our working lives constructively).

Take time out to think about where you want to be, what level you aspire to, how you want your work and home life to be. Listen to the free download (on the right) on this site, talk to friends, use a coach, read a book, research the newspaper ads, do what you need to do to take control and plan your route! Of course, there will be hold ups and delays and occasional fast forwards, but that’s the fun of it. As long as you’re going in roughly the right direction you can be sure you’ll get there in the end!

Photo Credit: Kiff Backhouse via RockwaterStudio

Essential Career Advice for Women – Equal Pay!

Can women get paid on an equal footing with men? Can you get what you’re worth? Well, you can blooming well try!

Women get paid less than men. There are a myriad of reasons why that is so, some of which are outwith your control as an individual. Focus on changing that which is within your control.

There are gender differences in pay levels. Fact. You are not being a hysterical woman if you point that out.

You are not being rude by asking what the salary levels are in your organisation and how they are determined (although a reluctance to tell you is giving you a lot of information!)

Being the longest serving post holder does not automatically deserve more pay. Career breaks need not necessarily mean less pay. Be clear about what you have gained during that break, what you bring back into the organisation. Don’t assume that you deserve lower pay.

Not knowing your worth may mean you get paid less. If an employer can get you on the cheap they will. And if an employer gets you on the cheap they will, albeit subtly, value you less.

If you are giving of yourself cheaply, you may value yourself less.

If you value yourself less you won’t ask for more pay.

Know your worth.

Know the worth of the job you do.

Know the industry norm for the job you do.

Know what your organisation pays others.

Know you have the right to ask for your worth!

You owe it to yourself (and all the women coming after you) to be paid equally with men. Go for it!

P.S. Speak Up! is a brand new course devised by me and launching in November. If this post has been useful to you, take a look at the course – you’ll love it!

Working Mums – Can You Plan Ahead and Avoid the Guilt?

I was asked by a journalist recently to make some comments on women and guilt for a magazine. The article was based on the premise that women always feel guilty when trying to achieve a harmonious work life balance.

Work Life Balance?

I can empathise with this. I had my own feelings of guilt for sure! Guilt when I was home that the burden for finance fell on my husband, and that I wasn’t ‘contributing’, and guilt when I was working that I wasn’t at home with my kids!

In the end I did what many women do (if they have the luxury of choice) and that was to work part time. There is no doubt that it harmed my career. However, I think if I had my time again I’d do the same thing but this time I’d plan for the impact it would have on my career and make adjustments.

Women have children, simple fact. Societies need women to have children. Some countries, notably Scandinavia have allowed for this in both legislation and child care facilities. We have some legalisation which helps, but attitudes are still very mixed towards working mothers.

Don’t Give Up Too Early?

I read of a recent survey that said women were dropping out of the career trajectory often years before they had children. The knowledge that they wanted children was causing them to not apply for promotion or invest in their careers several years before they actually planned to conceive; they were penalising themselves in the career stakes.

If this is true, (and I suspect it may be as I can distinctly remember myself not applying for a job thinking I’d have to leave it when I fell pregnant and it wouldn’t be fair – pre maternity leave etc!) this may well be a significant part of the complicated equation that explains why women are still so under represented at higher levels.

Plan Your Career

My advice to any woman is plan your career. And plan for your motherhood, if that’s your choice. Work out what you want to do very early on in your career. Women’s child bearing years generally coincide with significant career years. It’s not impossible to combine the two but it’s not easy. But like everything in life, if you’ve set yourself some goals, if you know where you want to end, it makes all the decisions along the way that much easier! It’s a lot easier to have rational discussions before those hormones kick in, believe me!

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic; please share! And if you’d like to read an interview with a young professional woman who found herself pregnant at just the wrong time, read this.

Photo Credit: Mokra

3 Essential Questions for Professional Women

How are you on waiting? Do you adhere to the old adage ” all good things come to those who wait”.

Overnight success is a myth. Or perhaps I should say sustained overnight success is a myth! It’s possible to get your 15 minutes of fame by winning a contest but look a bit deeper and you’ll probably find that they have been battling away for ages. And if they haven’t they rarely last the course. It’s important to have substance, to earn respect.

Don’t Wait Too Long

But some women wait too long! Yes, you need experience, knowledge, skills and talent but you don’t need to be perfect (see Qualifications Don’t Work).

So take a few minutes now to reflect on your career to date. How long have you stayed in a job before considering your next move? Do you know what your next move is? Or could be?

Plot your career path since leaving education. Write down each job you’ve had on a time line you’ve had and make a note when you started thinking about your next.

What prompted each move?

Were you reactive or did you plan it?

Do you have an end target on that time line?

Maybe Director by 30? Own company by 50? (If you read that and thought, 50? That’s too old, think again! I successfully changed career in my late 40s plus the population is ageing and our attitudes have to change too. Don’t fall prey to your own version of femageism. We’ll all be working longer so make sure you love what you do!)

If you want to get ahead, I recommend you think about a career plan: planning doesn’t mean you can’t be spontaneous or that you get stuck in a groove. It does mean that if you know where you are ultimately headed you’ll make better decisions along the route to ensure you get there!

Your Career Plan

Please do share your own stories of career planning or otherwise. If you have one is it helping? If not, why not?

Photo Credit: Everardo Ramirez

8 Key Strategies for Women Number 2 – Role Models

This is the second in my mini series following on from the work of Joanna Walvoort (see Eight Key Strategies for Women’s Advancement)

Four strategies stood out as being of particular significance in helping women advance their careers in Walvoort’s survey: networking, role models, confidence and knowledge of strengths. I looked at women’s networking in a previous post; today role models come under the spotlight!

What is a Role Model?

At my 50th birthday party my beautiful, sassy, intelligent and independent daughter stood up and called me her role model. Pride oozed from every pore. So, I am a role model! And you probably are too!

This is the definition from the American Heritage Dictionary:

A person who serves as an example of the values, attitudes, and behaviors associated with a role. For example, a father is a role model for his sons. Role models can also be persons who distinguish themselves in such a way that others admire and want to emulate them. For example, a woman who becomes a successful brain surgeon or airline pilot can be described as a role model for other women.

You’d better get looking for those succesful female brain surgeons and airline pilots! Presumably inadvertently, this definition also encapsulates the idea that women have to do everything better than men – the guy can be a role model to his son by being a good father; the women has to reach the (literally) dizzy heights of airline pilot or brain surgeon! Oh my!

A role model is someone who is doing what we’d like to do, or has skills and attributes we’d like to have, someone we can look up to. We don’t even have to know them as long as there is enough information in the public domain for us to know about them. Role models are important as we grow up, giving us an anchor amidst the uncertainty of burgeoning adulthood. (I’m not going to get sidetracked into a rant about unsuitable female role models here…) But role models for women are important as we move on in our careers too.

Choosing a Role Model

In the realm of work, having a figure who has many of the traits you aspire to can be motivating and encouraging. If there is no one in your workplace with whom you identify you are literally ploughing your own furrow or blazing a trail, or any other metaphor you can think of!

Which can be a problem for women moving into senior roles as there are too few women in senior roles… Seeing a woman on the board sends out a very powerful message to other women. Yay, someone has done it, it can be done! But this scarcity presents other problems too. Some early successful women could only get to these positions by adopting male behaviour traits; they had to be more like the men than the men were. That’s not my idea of a successful role model for women.

You may have to look outside of your industry for a good role model, or at least outside of your organisation. Think broadly. You may read about successful women, (incidentally, that is one of the reasons I have my Inspirational Women section on the site; I have a broad cross section of careers and backgrounds so you’re bound to find someone who inspires you!). Or perhaps social media will help. I have found Linkedin to be a brilliant resource for professional women, especially if you join groups with relevence to you.

Can a Man be a Role Model for a Woman?

Yes, of course! My first manager was someone whom I strove to emulate when I began managing staff; I loved his calm and approachable style and he was not macho at all. I suspect I even stroked my beard on occasion! (For purposes of clarity, he had a beard, I didn’t. But I have nothing against women with beards, fine by me.)

You need to be clear about what you are looking for in a role model. And there are men in the public eye whom I much admire who may have some of these traits. But as I began to develop in my management career I wanted to see women in the power stream.  I didn’t want to manage like a man. I wanted to be true to myself.

Questions for Finding A Role Model

Try answering the following questions:

• How may senior women are there in my organisation? How many women above middle or second tier management.
• How senior are they? In the top three? At the top of the organisation?
• If not my organisation, which organisations in a similar field have senior women?
• What are the qualities I admire in a senior manager/chief executive/ successful entrepreneur, etc?

• How can I find out more these women? Through social media perhaps? Do I need to network more?
• How can I turn those qualities into practical achievable steps for my career plan?
• What difference would having a female role model make to me? (Walvoort’s research revealed women at an early stag eof their career felt they would greatly benefit from female role models).
• What are my aspirations in this company? This profession?
• What are the areas I need to develop within myself?
• Who are my current female role models? Don’t limit yourself to business; one of my favourite women is Dolly Parton!

Role models can be a significant factor in helping you advance your career. In future posts I’ll be covering the remaining two – confidence and knowledge of strengths. Meantime, please let me know who has most inspired you to greatness!

Courses for Women

If you are seriously considering investing in your career you may be interested to know I have two courses for women running this autumn. Do take a look; one may be just right for you! RenewYou is in Bristol and Speak Up! is in beautiful Bath. Call me if you’d like to discuss how appropriate they might be for you! 01761 438749. Always happy to talk to women.

8 Key Strategies for Women’s Career Advancement with a simple exercise to help. Number One – Networking

There is growing body of literature and research for women who want to advance their careers but unlike some of the early stuff this is not of the ‘strut your stuff, pad your shoulders and play the men at their own game‘ variety. Thank goodness – I never looked good with padding!

Research into Women & the Glass Ceiling

We’re moving on and the research reflects this. There is an understanding that men and women are different and bring different skills and qualities to the workplace, of equal value. Even the term ‘glass ceiling‘ is being replaced by ‘glass labyrinth‘ as it’s acknowledged that women can get to the top, but by a more circuitous route than their male counterparts. A path still strewn with obstacles.

Janna Walvoort of the London School of Economics has undertaken an extensive literature review  with a follow up survey, looking at the main barriers women face in their organisations, and at the 8 coping strategies thought to be commonly used to overcome these barriers for women’s career advancement. The strategies are:

family and career balance

understanding corporate culture

systematic investment in career and development

confidence

knowledge of own strengths

networking

role models

career planning

Four strategies stood out as being of particular significance in helping the women in Walvoort’s survey progress with their careers: networking, role models, confidence and knowledge of strengths. In a series of four articles I’ll look at each of these in turn from a coaching women perspective and suggest options or exercises for you to follow.

As someone who regularly works with senior women these are familiar concepts to me and my clients; I’ve written on my women’s blog about these issues many times (you might like to check out How to Manage Workplace Stress – 3 Tips for Women, What Every Woman Needs to Know About Confidence, and 3 things Women Must Do to have Career Success. And I have a whole section dedicated to Inspirational Women to act as female role models and give inspiration to other women.)

Women’s Networking

Networking is one of the areas I find women feel least comfortable to engage in; by which I mean focussed networking that can actively assist in their career development. There are several reasons for this, not least that women may be working part time and part time workers tend to work really hard at the actual tasks of their job in their working hours and give up anything they see as peripheral, like career development. Men, rarely part time workers, are quite good at networking and their networks have been established for years.

If  you are serious about advancing your career then networking is something you need to pay serious attention to. It’s not merely window dressing but can also enhance how you do your job as it increases your exposure to colleagues in the field and the knowledge they hold, as well as raising your profile.

A Networking Exercise for Women

Try answering the following questions:

• What does the term networking conjure up for you?

• Is it something you feel comfortable with?  Are you sub consciously resistant to the idea?

• What kind of networks are you involved with already? List all of them, whether work related or personal, don’t compartmentalise. Your yoga class may be an excellent source when you stop to think about it.

• Are you on a social media network like LinkedIn?

• Do you keep it regularly updated and understand how it can help you? If not, check this out-masses of free helpful information on how to use LinkedIn professionally and you can sign up to get 100 free tips – LinkedIn Training.  (I’m not on commission, it’s simply a very helpful source of information that I offer to you as a resource!)

• Do you plan in time for networking? Is it part of your career strategy or, in common with many women, are you focussing your time on getting more qualifications and work experience? That’s not a bad thing, of course not, but you need more than that.

• Do you know the best areas for you to focus your networking?Are you looking for advancement in your current organisation, in which case look upwards. Or are you looking to move to a new firm, in which case look outwards.
• Who do you currently know that could help you?
• Who do you know that already has links in this area, who could make some introductions? This is where LinkedIn can be invaluable in helping you make connections with people you wouldn’t come across in the normal course of events. Twittercan serve a similar function although is not such a professional medium and restricted to 140 characters.

Make time for networking in your career plan. Remember, it’s no good being good at your job if no ones about you! As Harvey Coleman discovered, in relation to gaining advancement in one’s career, 10% is the actual quality of work you actually do, 30% is your image, and 60% is if people know about you. Are you paying enough attention to that 60%?

If you’d like to find out more about working one to one with me, or any of my courses, call me on 01761 438749.

Speak Up! Empowering Course for Professional Women

If you’re interested in advancing your career, whether you’re aiming for a seat on the board, or to make your way upwards in a largely male dominated world, you may well be interested in my brand new course, Speak up!

Speak Up is Women’s Leadership Training with a difference. It doesn’t teach women how to be like men; instead it works directly with women on how to be strong and powerful communicators who get their point across without being dogmatic, aggressive or disparaged. Learn how to make men listen to you, respect your views, and become an influential figure in your organisation. Advance your career! Invest in your personal and professional development.

This women’s course is launching in November 27th and 28th at the five star Royal Crescent Hotel, Bath. Give me a call on 01761 438749 or email me jane at changingpeople.co.uk to find out more or reserve a place. Numbers are strictly limited to ensure everyone gets the maximum benefit.

Photo Credit: McHaron