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

In brief, the research found that even when adopting the same strategies as men, the strategies generally viewed as effective, women do not advance at the same pace as their male counterparts. Of all the strategies used the most effective career strategy for women was making their achievements known to significant people, with networking also proving almost as effective for the women as the men.

Questions for Employers (and Women!) to Ask

Catalyst ask some searching questions at the conclusion of their report; they are good questions for women to ask of their employers, or potential employers too:

• What assumptions do organisations and individuals hold about skills and behaviours that are necessary for successful advancement?
• How are women and men being coached to get ahead? Are assumptions being made that what has worked for men will work for women (see Speak Up)
• What explains why women are less satisfied with their advancement and compensation progress when comparing themselves to others in their field and at their level? Do women know what male counterparts are earning?
• To what extent are people advanced and compensated based on skills and performance?
• How might strategies used by women and men be evaluated differently?
• How are individual contributions communicated and recognised for people who work in teams?
• If women realised that changing jobs negatively impacts on their pay, what does that mean for for organisations seeking to recruit experienced women, leveraging their skills and experience?

It’s a minefield out there at times and this research seems to bear out my own prejudice that male norms prevail in all areas. How can women get ahead if the received wisdom for getting ahead primarily suits men? I am reminded of the fact that for many years all information put out about to how to spot the symptoms of heart attacks were only the symptoms that applied to men. Women have different symptoms but it had been overlooked.

I am looking at issues such as these and at how you as an individual can minimise the impact, in my Speak Up course. It seems not only shouldn’t you have to behave like a man to get ahead, but even if you do, you’re disadvantaged!

The thing is, even if I wasn’t I genuinely would like this book! It’s sub titled ‘How to Kick-Start Your Career and Change Your Life’ and it’s a great book to pick up when you need, well, a kick to get moving!

The book is not really a traditional manual telling you how to get a new a job; it’s jam packed full of stories from women who have changed their lives and followed their passions, interspersed with snippets and articles from professionals in the field. There is some great advice and the women who have shared their stories really will inspire you. Within the pages you’ll find stories from Sarah Beeny and  a female fighter pilot, just to name two!

Here’s an example of what you can find within the covers:

“Try This: Skill Swap
One way of getting help without actually paying any money for it is to swap skills. We’re sure you have loads of skills you could offer to someone in exchange for the helping you out. You might be good at gardening, speaking Spanish, sewing, typing or getting your head round the accounts – whatever the strings to your bow, write them down, and then get together with your friends and set up a Skill Swap.”

It’s written in a very easy to read style, and packaged in a small neat book you can easily take with you to work, or on a journey to dip into as required. At £8.99 it won’t break the bank and could be a brilliant investment in your future brilliant career. It’s published by Hayhouse and available from all good bookshops, or your library will order a copy for you (use the libraries!), or you can get a copy via Amazon

And my bit? Well, Nadia Finer and Emily Nash, the authors, asked if they could use something I had written called Ten Tops Tips for Managing Difficult Conversations. It was a free download I was sending out with my newsletter and they had received it when subscribing. Well, they certainly inspired me as it set me on the path of rewriting the tips into a much longer ebook for subscribers. And it’s still free!

A career is something you have for life (although you may have several careers in one lifetime!) A career is something YOU control.

I have had jobs (too numerous to mention!) and I have had three careers – as a professionally qualified social worker, as a manager, and now as a specialist in change.

A career is a lifetime experience of making the most of your skills, your knowledge and your life experiences. People with careers tend to read and study in their spare time and it doesn’t feel like drudgery. A career is something you develop and plan. Having a career that you love really does mean that work isn’t working!

It’s your life, your career. Don’t hold back from spending time thinking about and planning your career. It’s time well spent, whatever age you are! There will be knock backs along the way, and times when you leap ahead. But knowing what you want, having goals and milestones along the way, will ensure you get where you want to be and then help you stay there.

What has been the best move you have ever made to help you take charge of your career?

Well, because she’s a woman! Men and women ARE different, for whatever reasons. And until what women bring to the workplace is equally valued along with male attributes, we’ll always be a pace behind, trying to fit into a male oriented workplace.

An issue that crops up time and time again when I’m coaching senior women is ‘how can I be true to myself yet still progress?’ My response is often to reverse the same question:

How can you progress without being true to yourself?

 That way madness lies. So don’t try and behave like a man, dress in pinstripes, wear ties (shades of the 80s for those old enough to remember!) if that is not comfortable for you. Relish and be proud of your feminity.

Choices

If you are in a very traditional organisation where male attitudes dominate (however subliminal) you have some choices to make:

1)You can challenge the staus quo, using whatever means are comfortable and appropriate for you and your circumstances.

2) You can try and moderate your behaviour to the cultural norms and not rock the boat, i.e. behave like a man to get on, although as you aren’t actually a man, you may never cut the mustard.

3)You can plan to leave and go somewhere you can flourish!

If we women don’t promote feminine values in the workplace, who will?

However, we acknowledged that in the current economic climate having a job which paid reasonably well, with friendly colleagues, was not to be sniffed at! It was just a tad dull with few opportunities around to change.

What’s Missing?

So we explored together just what was missing. In her case it was easy to pinpoint- she missed the opportunities for developing staff and supporting others as her role had become more office based.

If your job is not exactly what you want, don’t forget there are other places than work to fill those developmental gaps. In this case, volunteering was a possible option- in a capacity where she could make use of her supportive and empathetic skills. Like working with a local charity.

Maybe to move to the next level you need more experience of handling budgets, for example. Don’t always look to your employer to fill this gap. I know of a woman who got appointed to a senior role without ever having had extensive formal budget experience, an essential requirement of the person specification. She had, however, taken on the PTA treasurer role. She was able to demonstrate that she had all the competencies required and was given the job.

Think Laterally!

Look around you, think laterally. You may be able to meet the gaps in your professional development outside of work, add to your CV, and do a bit of good into the bargain! And if you’re on a career break, don’t forget to keep a record of all those activities like running the local playgroup, or organising the carers rota. It’s all valuable and evidence of your abilities!

Research shows that successful people are ‘career resilient’; they take charge of their own learning and development and are ready to reinvent themselves to keep pace with change.

In your career lifetime you may have several different types of career and business. Young professional, to homemaker, part time work perhaps, professional woman, senior management, or international entrepreneur?

Try this exercise. Close your eyes, and allow yourself to relax. Breathe out as long as is comfortable and you will take in a much deeper breath as a result. Now, imagine that you are coming home from work in a year’s time. You have just had the best of working days for you. You are so thrilled. What has happened to make it so great? In your mind’s eye see yourself going through your day in your brilliant new job and make a mental note of what is happening? Where it it happening? Who is there?

As you bring yourself back to the present, take a pen and jot down anything that has come to you. Dare to dream that you CAN have the working life you want. You just need to know what it is and then you can make a start!