The Importance of Alligator Trophies

I wanted to do a follow up to last week’s article Political Swamp Wars 2016 because I got some great positive feedback reinforcing a point:  When we are at work, we all need to have a bit of Alligator Slayer in us.  That after all is what our employers expect – they expect us to deliver tangible results.  They want us to have alligator trophies.

This is very important for women to understand, especially when they are going after a promotion or they are asking for a raise.

Have you seen this commercial on TV?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ilSeJ6B5ro

The girl wants a raise but is uncomfortable asking for it.  Why?  Because she doesn’t know how to justify her raise to her boss.

What she doesn’t know and what the older women doesn’t teach her is that the way to justify her raise is to show him her Alligator trophies.

Have you seen this commercial on TV?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIWcfhJ5PHc

Uncle Ritchie says we don’t need more desk sitters and status quoers.  We need more Chargers and Challengers (Alligator Slayers).  I can’t help but think that this is a huge endorsement for Alligator Slayers to win Swamp Wars.

Watching the two commercials together we also can’t help but see the different gender messaging about being Doers.  Women aren’t confident Doers.  Men are bold chargers.

As women we need to start seeing ourselves as Alligator Slayers.  We need to know what our alligator trophies are.

Going back to using the Presidential election as our universal example of the male-dominated workplace, last week (May 22) Hillary was interviewed on Meet The Press by Chuck Todd.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t1d7moOULg

Chuck Todd asked her what her “Big Idea” was in comparison Bernie’s Political Revolution and Trump’s Make America Great Again.  She replied “We are stronger together” and discussed that concept.  Chuck Todd then asked her “How are you going to do it?” because she is a polarizing figure (like Trump).  She responded “That when I have these jobs Chuck I get things done and I work with people across the aisle.”  Earlier in the interview she said that as President she would get “positive results” and make “tangible progress.”

What struck me was that the interview was a perfect set up for her to list all of her achievements – all of her alligator trophies.

She said that as First Lady she worked with the Senate to pass the Children’s Health Insurance Program and worked with Congressman Tom Delay to reform adoption and foster care.  Then she said that she worked as Secretary of State “to reduce nuclear weapons between Russia and herself.”  She then stated how she had favorable ratings as Secretary of State.

That was it.

She mentioned tangible achievements from the 1990’s but then for her most recent job as Secretary of State she began to falter and basically said – people liked me.   She did no better at promoting herself than the young girl in the commercial!

Answers like that won’t get you a promotion or a raise in the male-dominated workplace!

To move up in the male-dominated workplace women have to be able to rattle off their accomplishments!

Our workplaces assume that our male colleagues have accomplishments because society teaches us that men are Doers.

Women aren’t automatically seen as Doers.

So we wind up with thoughts like this.

This is not how you want your male colleagues or boss to see you! 

But both Hillary’s interview and the Secret commercial reinforce that this is who we are because we can’t list off our accomplishments.

I was taught very early in my career the importance of slaying alligators.  So I have always slayed them.  I also tie the alligators back to improving the workplace financial performance because it is the best justification for a raise or promotion.  Believe me, as a woman competing with men, slapping down a big ole alligator trophy on the desk and saying “Who’s got something bigger?” is very powerful!

It forces a meritocracy.

Contrary to what society teaches us, women are alligator slayers.  Given my experience I would say women are probably better alligator slayers than men.  In one job my boss questioned why I paid a woman who worked for me so well in comparison to some men.  I explained that in the last 6 months she returned $1.2 million to revenue that was pure profit.  She was slaying some huge alligators to make that happen.  I couldn’t list any alligators the men had slayed.  When I asked him to list their alligator trophies, he couldn’t list any either.  He just incorrectly assumed that because they were men, they had alligator trophies.

The most effective way for women to compete against men in the male-dominated workplace is to have bigger and better alligator trophies.  Therefore, we need to start seeing ourselves for the Alligator Slayers we are.

If you haven’t done it, write a list of your jobs, the description of your responsibilities and your accomplishments.  List everything you’ve done even if it seems small and insignificant.  It might be hard at first because we aren’t taught to see ourselves this way.  But keep the list handy and add to it when you think of something else.

It won’t take long for you to start seeing all the things that you make happen in a day.  And when you start seeing your accomplishments you start having a lot of pride in what you get done.  You then want to do more so you have more pride in yourself.  Before long you see yourself as an Alligator Slayer who has pride in her alligator trophies and isn’t intimidated to ask for the raise or promotion.

 

 

Empowered Women Slay Alligators and Use Their Alligator Trophy Collection to Get Raises and Promotions

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