Friday, August 21, 2015

TIPS ON HOW WOMEN CAN MOVE UP IN THEIR CAREERS


Choosing your career path as a woman can, and in some cases, will be the most difficult decision you’ll ever make.  But once you get in the trenches of your career, you want what every man wants, advancement.  More often than not, we hear the phrase “the first woman to ever”.  That’s because, companies are now beginning to focus on the ability to do the job as opposed to the gender.  Your education, experience and track record is starting to speak for itself and that’s a beautiful thing.  But if you’re still challenged with male dominated leadership and looking to break down the walls of gender bias companies, here are a few tips to get you to the top. 

1.     Choose your career wisely:  If you choose a field that is generally male dominated, then breaking down gender bias walls is not impossible, but can be difficult.  In environments that are heavily male skewed, you have to constantly take them to school and teach them by using visual aids.  You remember that old saying “I can show you better than I can tell you”, it works well in those type of environments.  People will always do what they’ve always done, until you show them something different.

2.     Knowledge is Power:  Know your stuff!  Everything there is to know about the job you want should be embedded in your brain and regurgitated in a moment’s notice.  What you know is essential to how far you go.  And what you don’t know, learn it.  You already come to the table with a cloud over your head for just being a woman, but coming to the table as a woman who isn’t knowledgeable about the job she wants, will be the beginning of your demise.  Knowledge is the difference between the top and the bottom.

3.     Don’t ever play the girl card:  Being a woman can be your secret weapon, so don’t use it in public, because now everyone sees it and it no longer holds any value.  And if you use it one too many times, it then becomes “the boy who cried wolf” story.   The best weapon you can use to advance your career is your mouth.  Keep the fact that you’re a girl off the table.   Tell your leadership what your goals are and where you would like to position yourself within the company.  How else will they know if you don’t open your mouth?  Remember a closed mouth never gets fed.

4.     Engage in a little competition:  As a woman working in any industry, you will compete.  But your main competition are not men, it’s other women.  Yes, it can become a good old catfight, but don’t let it!  Competition can make us crazy but collaboration will make us better.  Pull your resources together because you’re both going after the same thing, the opportunity to advance.  The beauty in that is, if one of you get the job, you are now in position to reach back and pull up the other one and show them, “Who Run The World” Girls!

5.     Find the balance:  The hardest thing to find in life is balance, and the more successful you become, the less balance you have.  Finding balance between work-life and family is not as much an issue for women than it is for those looking to hire and promote women.  While it is important to maintain all areas of your world, don’t allow your decision to have a life and a family, affect your choice to have a career too.   As women, having it all doesn’t mean having everything you want, it just means having the same work and family choices that men do.


While this is still a man’s world and the “good ole boy” network is still in affect, women will continue to infiltrate industries that do not see the value in the advancement of women.  But ladies, don’t let that stop you, let that drive you.  Many women have knocked down walls, broken glass ceilings, climbed ladders and balanced it all, while remaining a woman, all for the sake of advancement.  So go get what’s yours