Career Tips for Women # 14

Take a Risk!

Where do you stand on risk taking? Teetering right on the brink or way back out of sight?

Getting the recognition you deserve in your career means taking a few risks now and again. In my experience women are often diffident about risk taking, particularly when it comes to giving their own opinions if they are contrary to others. Some of this can be put down to all that we know about how men and women communicate and differing styles, but it doesn’t have to stay like that!

What’s Your Risk Attitude?

Take a few moments to think about your attitude to risk. When you are stepping outside of your comfort levels at work how do you feel? All fired up and excited, if  a little scared? Or sweaty palmed, sleepless nights and sick to your stomach?

You’ll probably have areas where risk taking is easier than others. Like anything, the more you practise the easier it gets. Start with something relatively easy like offering an opinion that isn’t the same as the norm (assuming it is your opinion – you need to be genuine.)

Steps

Try following these steps:

• Remember that success often comes from failure. We learn from our mistakes only if we critique ourselves honestly. Take out your previous ‘failures’ for a fresh look and list what you would do differently in the light of your subsequent experiences.
• Calculate the risk. It doesn’t have to black and white, pass or fail. Give yourself a little room for manoeuvre. 70% successful can be enough.
• Is the end result of the risk you want to take in line with your company’s mission/vision/business or are you stretching the boundaries too far? If it’s not easy for colleagues and managers to see the benefit your chances of success are very limited.
• Don’t forget the basics. There are all sorts of fancy equations you can do to assess the risk but sometimes just a simple pros and cons list works well.

How do you manage risk?

Why Women Mean Business

Why Women Mean Business is probably the most frequently referenced book in my library! It was published in 2008 by John Wiley & Sons and written by Avivah Wittenberg-Cox and Alison Maitland. Well done them!

If you are in business at all, male of female, I recommend this book to you.

If you are a woman looking to move on, I recommend this book to you.

If you are an academic studying gender issues, I recommend this book to you.

And if you’d like a sound economic case as to why women should be properly catered for in today’s workplaces, I recommend this book to you.

You will have gathered by now that I thoroughly recommend this book!

Why?

It is a well researched account of some of the issues women face at the top of organisations. But it’s not a rant or a moan. It’s also a guide on how to remedy them, packed full of useful advice, facts, statistics and case studies.  It makes the business case for women in senior roles, not simply an ethical one. And it’s eminently readable.

Here’s an extract from Chapter 5  ‘Seven Steps to Successful Implementation’.

‘Becoming bilingual begins with a shift in perspective. It depends on recognising that responsibility for better gender balance lies with all managers, not just with women. It focuses its efforts on teaching the current majority to become bilingual, fluent in the language and culture of both men and women. Only once all managers understand that the methods and messages used to recruit, manage and evaluate men do not necessarily work for women will women’s talents stand a chance of being accurately recognised and optimised.’

You can watch the authors talk about their book here and you can buy it from all good book shops, borrow it from your local library, encourage your workplace to acquire a copy, or purchase it via Amazon