by Dot Callihan | Apr 29, 2013 | Acting As Empowered Women
I like to express myself at work. If I had my druthers, I would start every day blaring a song that fit the mood of the day. But I was never quite able to put together a large enough sound system. So I found another method.
I started digging up quotes to fit the mood and plastering them all over. While I found many, my safety manager brought me this one from Teddy Roosevelt. It immediately became my favorite because it expressed what the project team and was soon posted in every office.
by Dot Callihan | Apr 23, 2013 | Acting As Empowered Women
One of the traits women are most credited with is improving collaboration. We get more people to open up and participate in conversations and problem solving. The result is a more complete solution to a problem.
Sounds great – in theory!
The issue many women face is that collaboration isn’t valued. Collaboration goes against the company’s driving, hard charging, make it happen culture – it is sissy stuff. In these environments the merit of an idea is based upon how hard the promoter is willing to fight for and drive his solution through. If you are not willing to fight hard for your idea, then it couldn’t have been a very good one.
Even in an environment where men are less contentious, they may already have their minds made up as to who they aren’t going to listen to, whose ideas are going to be shot down even before they are voiced. They know who is going to be shut down and shut out of all discussion. They are very good at enforcing the shut out.
For women getting their ideas heard in these environments is hard enough, let alone getting men to listen to each other and discuss all ideas.
So what’s a woman to do – how can she make a room full of men collaborate?
by Dot Callihan | Apr 20, 2013 | Thinking Like Empowered Women
Have you ever noticed years that singers have their biggest hits when they sing songs that they pick or write themselves, not what the industry tells them to sing? They do best when they connect with a song to express who they really are.
When I think about this Garth Brooks always comes to mind – not quite country and not quite rock. He didn’t try to fit into a music industry genre – he created his own. There is something energizing and powerful about that.
Being around a lot of women entrepreneurs lately, I noticed that women start businesses that are an expression of who they are. Their businesses have a meaning or purpose to them. Women personally connect with their businesses.
by Dot Callihan | Apr 16, 2013 | Thinking Like Empowered Women
Monday morning I was finishing up this article as the news came on about the Boston Marathon terrorist attack. I decided to re-write it since I talk about a study I did on terrorism several years ago.
Back in 1985 when I was an Air Force 1st Lt. I had a project dumped on me. Originally it was assigned to someone else but they dropped the ball leaving me 6 weeks to complete a 4 month project. My assignment – conduct an Energy Vulnerability Assessment to determine the mission impact if a terrorist disrupted the water, electricity and/or natural gas supply to Minot AFB.
In a bit of a panic I called the project’s manager and explained my situation hoping for a time extension. He told me not to worry, that this was a preliminary idea gathering study and there would be follow-on work.
After talking to him, I had an idea. What they really wanted to know was if terrorism could impact the base’s mission. Could terrorism keep Minot AFB’s B-52’s and Minuteman missiles grounded? That would require taking down the command and control system.
by Dot Callihan | Apr 12, 2013 | Thinking Like Empowered Women
I never really liked my tag line “Empowering Women for Success in the Male-Dominated Workplace.”
To me it sounds kind of blah-blah, boring typical professional language. I always felt it was missing something – that it wasn’t exactly hitting the mark of what I needed to say, but I haven’t known what was off.
Sometimes as I am writing my articles I find myself reading my words and saying “Blah, blah, blah, blah,” same old stuff. I then trash it and rewrite using the words and expressions I like. Over time I have noticed that what I am rejecting is all of the professional words and thoughts that have been drilled into me throughout my career. They just seem so freaking dull!
Why are they so dull? Because they are male! I want to express myself as a woman and women have emotion! We have vibrancy and enthusiasm!
