by Dot Callihan | Jul 17, 2012 | Acting As Empowered Women, Thinking Like Empowered Women, Understanding The Male-Dominated Workplace
When women entered the male dominated workplace we were confident we had the fortitude to climb the corporate ladder with our kids and family life slung over our shoulder. We knew we were great multi-taskers and time managers. So, there should be nothing barring us from climbing the corporate ladder to success.
But as we started climbing the ladder, what we didn’t count on were the changes men would make in the demands of the workplace. To men, work is a competitive place, where they consistently seek new ways to determine status and dominance. One of the changes they made was to no longer value getting work done quickly and efficiently so you didn’t have to stay late. According to the new values, only expendable employees went home after 8 hours and worked only 40 hours per week.
by Dot Callihan | Jul 12, 2012 | Acting As Empowered Women
One of the biggest critiques we hear is that unlike our male colleagues, we don’t self-promote enough. We are told we need to let our managers know what we accomplish because that is what our male colleagues do and unless we do what men do, we can’t compete with them. But this advice like so much of what we are told doesn’t work for us. Why? Because we are not men! Self-promoting in order to gain recognition is a male approach. We need to gain recognition using a female approach!
by Dot Callihan | Jul 9, 2012 | Acting As Empowered Women
When women entered the workplace it was very male. We assumed that the way men conducted business was the right way, it was the best way. We had to fit into their way of doing things – after all that IS how business is done.
That is the mistake women made – thinking that we had to play by men’s rules. We were led to believe that we have to go into the Blue Zone in order to succeed in business.
But the one thing I have learned in over 30 years of working with men is – STAY OUT OF THE BLUE ZONE!
by Dot Callihan | Jun 29, 2012 | Thinking Like Empowered Women
Did you ever wonder where all this “women are weak, timid and lack self-confidence” stuff came from? We often think of the 1950’s and the visions of the idealistic stay at home mother in her apron and pearls but it actually goes back to the period from 1820 – 1860. This was an age when the Cult of True Womanhood thrived.
by Dot Callihan | Jun 21, 2012 | Acting As Empowered Women, Dealing With The Ugly Stuff
A reader wrote to me about a job interview in which the male interviewers made inappropriate comments. It brings up the question – what should we do in this situation? Our initial instinct is to get angry and tell them off but more often than not we don’t...
by Dot Callihan | Jun 19, 2012 | Understanding The Male-Dominated Workplace
Baby boomer men make up most of the senior management ranks. As a baby boomer myself, I grew up with these men and know what they were taught. We were raised with a societal framework that shaped our expectations for our lives. It is important, especially for younger...
by Dot Callihan | Jun 7, 2012 | Acting As Empowered Women
I was watching the Dylan Ratigan show and he was interviewing Dylan Evans who wrote a book called Risk Intelligence. Ladies, you need to understand this concept! We are told that we don’t exhibit enough self-confidence at work. Well, what Mr. Evans proves is that...
by Dot Callihan | Jun 6, 2012 | Understanding The Male-Dominated Workplace
There is a great divide between managers and the average worker which is once again gaining attention. Have you ever wondered how this came about, why there is so much animosity between the two? The following is an explanation that I read nearly 25 years ago. What I...
by Dot Callihan | Jun 5, 2012 | Thinking Like Empowered Women
I read another one of those articles on a post from the Harvard Business Review stating that women often don’t get what they want or deserve because they don’t ask for it. Does anyone else feel like me after I read these types of articles – here’s another thing I’m...
by Dot Callihan | May 29, 2012 | Acting As Empowered Women
I worked in an office where we expanded to occuppy two floors. It just so happened that when we split the office the first floor was occuppied by men and one woman. Likewise, the second floor was occupied by women and one man. I found some humor in this –...
by Dot Callihan | May 29, 2012 | Understanding The Male-Dominated Workplace
I first wrote about the Great American Alligator Slayer © in 1991. I got the idea from thinking about how I was told to distinguish myself and get ahead at work. It is a very male concept. As a woman, you don’t want to embrace this concept for yourself but it is...
by Dot Callihan | May 29, 2012 | Acting As Empowered Women
I introduced the concept of the power seat and told you how to find it in your conference room in my article Understanding the Power Seat. Now it is time to learn how to use it so you can take lead a discussion and lead your collegues to better solutions. The power...
by Dot Callihan | May 29, 2012 | Understanding The Male-Dominated Workplace
From the example on the “Your Best Leverage” page, poor Bob has to build a wall but has no material. There is a crisis! And in the male workplace that is a cry for action! But will the male approach really solve the crisis or just lead to new problems?...
by Dot Callihan | May 23, 2012 | Acting As Empowered Women
I was working at an on-site construction office and I kept hearing rumors that I wore high heels to work. I had 2 pairs I wore, one black and one brown. To me they were boring 2″ heels and definately not sexy. They were “office shoes.” If I went...
by Dot Callihan | May 20, 2012 | Acting As Empowered Women
One of the most difficult things for most women to do is get their ideas heard when they are in a room full of men. Men can be loud and assertive, if not aggressive, in order to shut down the ideas of others. At the extreme a discussion can turn into nothing more...
by Dot Callihan | May 16, 2012 | Acting As Empowered Women
For women it is critical that we have a basic understanding of the principles of LEAN principles and systems-thinking. It is through systems-thinking that we can improve the processes our employees use to perform work. Systems-thinking is a natural fit for women while men are taught by society to resist it. For women systems-thinking can be our defining discriminator.
by Dot Callihan | May 16, 2012 | Acting As Empowered Women
In one of my earliest career assignments I used processes to train a team for a competition. Even though the team was by far the most inexperienced, their knowledge of the singular best process allowed them to excel. I learned that having the “best and the brightest” does not guarantee stellar performance – having the best process does.
