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
The Best Way for Women to Advance their Careers!
This is the final post in a series of three about the latest Catalyst research The Myth of the Ideal Worker (see Does Doing All the Right Things Really Get Women Ahead? and What Every Woman Needs to Know About Work)
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!
What Every Woman Needs to Know About Work
Welcome to my second post on the Catalyst research into how people get career advancement. It’s called the Myth of the Ideal Worker; in brief it says, even if women follow all the advice and conventional wisdom to advance their careers it seems it still doesn’t produce the same results as it does for men. (By the way, if this topic interests you take a look at my posts on Career Tips for Women)
Conventional Career Wisdom
Conventional wisdom imparted to ‘high potentials’ all coalesce into 9 main points, says Catalyst. They are:
- Actively seeks high profile assignments
- Rubs shoulders with influential leaders
- Communicates openly and directly about their career aspirations
- Seeks visibility for their accomplishments
- Lets their supervisor know of their skills and willingness to contribute
- Continually seeks out new opportunities
- learns the political landscape or unwritten rules of the company
- Isn’t afraid to ask for help
The research set out to see if these strategies really do get ‘high potentials’ to the top and if they work equally well for both men and women. What they discovered was that men benefit more from following the strategies given. Even when women follow all the strategies given above they got ahead less and had less pay. Although you’ll be pleased to hear that Catalyst thought it better than doing nothing at all!
Previous research from many sources, including Catalyst has dispelled the myth that women don’t progress in either salary or status because of lack of ambition (Pipeline’s Broken Promise). Catalyst made sure to get as representative a group as possible by looking at 3,345 ‘high potentials’ with same educational achievements , no career breaks etc.
Most Effective Strategies for Women
Of all the strategies listed above, only making their achievements known and gaining access to powerful others had the greatest impact on women’s career advancement. While changing jobs worked as a tactic for men in increasing salary, it seemed to have the opposite effect for women and changing jobs did not pay off for women.
Given what we know about women’s reluctance to blow their own trumpet this is significant.
In my next post I’ll be looking at some of the assumptions which may be talking place in organisations. Is this is a classic case of the business world has been designed to suit men? To heretically paraphrase Shakespeare,
“The fault dear Brutus, lies not in ourselves but in the way the way men have organised the world….”
Don’t forget I have a great new course on this Speak Up, when we’ll be taking a very in depth personal look at what research like this really means for you.
Photo Credit: Faahkir Rizvi
Women, Where’s Your Ambition?
Do you conform to the research about women and senior careers?
The Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) ‘Gender and Ambition’, has identified four main obstacles which hold women back at work:
- Low ambitions and expectations
- Lack of self belief and confidence
- A cautious approach to pursuing career opportunities
- A less than straightforward career path
Women Have Low Ambitions?
Can that be true? Do we women really have low ambitions and all that it implies? I work with many women who have very great ambitions. But I sometimes wonder if we get ‘downgraded’ because our ambitions don’t necessarily match the male idea of ambitions?
Many of the women I work with, or who come on my courses, have stepped outside of corporate life and begun to run their own businesses, to do things their own way. (See this interview with Sam Roddick for someone who does it her own way and very successfully!) They are certainly not lacking in ambition. What tends to be different about them is that they are not motivated by accumulating wealth but by achieving a better quality of life. Obviously that involves making money but it isn’t the primary concern.
Cup Cakes or Mechanics?
I heard someone (female) in the media talking disparagingly about women and business the other day; they referred to the ‘cupcake mentality’. For goodness sake, they said, women must stop faffing about with girly hobbies like cake making and do real business. They were referring to those women who forge a living out of their hobby, beginning with making cakes at home, selling to friends etc and expanding. What’s wrong with that I wondered?
I believe the comment was sexist because cup cake making is seen as a ‘girly’ activity and therefore not of value. Presumably that also applies to all the those small garage businesses, mechanics who work out of their home garage or rent small premises. Turning a hobby and interest into a job? Funnily enough they didn’t get a mention.
A few of the Cup Cake Women will expand and flex their business muscles; most will be happy as they are. A few of the mechanics will expand and end up with a chain of garages; most will be happy as they are.
One difference between them is that the mechanics, following a male role, will not be derided for being ‘boy-ey!’ Because being boy-ey is OK…
We all have to learn to value the skills and talents that women bring to the workplace and learn to accept that men and women are different. Not better or worse, but different. And we have to let go of ingrained notions that just because the world of work was designed by men their traditional occupations are superior. That said, of course, men can make cakes, (when they get called master chefs, rarely simply a ‘cook’!) and women can fix cars. In fact, when women were brought into the design process of cars an increase in sales resulted. No big surprise as both men and women drive cars so get both perspectives into product design!
A Question for Women
If you can, take 15 minutes out to listen to my free download, (the link is just up the page to your right), and allow yourself to picture your perfect day. What came to you? What are you doing? Does it bear any resemblance to your life now? Or could it, with a few tweaks?
I’d love you to share with me what ambitions you had for yourself on leaving school or university or college. What did you think you might do? Did you do it? Are you ambitious now? (leaving aside the fact that for women my age, 55 we were actively discouraged from being ambitious, not feminine you know!) And why do you think women are so often seen as lacking in ambition?
Speak Up
If you find yourself frustrated at work, do take a look at my brand new course. It’s not for everyone, but if you’re a woman with great ambitions it is for you!
Photo Credit: Ruth Livingstone
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.
