The media likes to boast that women get more college degrees than men. We are “smart girls” who do better academically than men. However, academic achievement doesn’t guarantee workplace achievement.
When we were in school, we knew who the “smart girls” were. They sat in the front of the classroom, they got perfect grades and the teachers really liked them. They got into the college of their choice and graduated with honors. They got great job offers. But that is where their success starts to erode. They don’t go on to become the next great entrepreneur or the CEO of a Fortune 500 company.
Why not?
It’s because the workplace rewards different qualities than academia.
Our employers initially hire us because we have knowledge. However, they don’t pay us to regurgitate that knowledge.
Employers expect us to apply our knowledge to develop skills.
They then expect us to use our skills to achieve workplace objectives. They want us to keep developing and applying our skills, so we gain experience that then allows us to achieve more complex objectives.
The workplace is all about taking action, making things happen and delivering results that positively impact the bottom line.
In the workplace “smart girls” can struggle with workplace expectations because in school they were conditioned to believe there is one right answer. In school they got regular feedback as to whether or not they had the (one) right answer. If they were correct, they were praised with gold stars, high grades, certificates and membership to elite clubs.
However, in the workplace, the textbook “right” answer is seldom the best or correct workplace answer. The textbook answer has to be adapted to the current complex situation and environment. The workplace “right” answer has to be figured out and may not resemble the academic textbook answer at all.
In the workplace, even after you have the “right answer”, you learn that answer didn’t produce the “A” you expected. You lacked experience to know that the “right answer” expected you to also go on and answer more questions. So, you wind up with a “low B” or a “C.” It may even turn out that you earned a big fat “F.”
It’s a test.
Your employer is looking to see how you respond to your low grade.
Are you the type of person who can stay in the arena and keep working the situation to get to the best solution?
Are you the type of person who can take the B, C or the F and turn it into a B+ or even an A?
The workplace is about rising to the challenge in front of you.
Being the “smart girl” in school isn’t good preparation for the workplace arena because the classroom doesn’t teach you to take risks and think beyond the textbook. It can be infuriating watching the “class clown” get ahead just because his silliness taught him to think outside the box and adapt quickly to new situations. He developed skills that make up for his lack of textbook knowledge.
Being the “smart girl” however, can be great preparation for being on the workplace sidelines.
“Smart girls” often discover their comfort zone puts them in support roles, especially communication-based support roles. They get to train or write and speak about what the people in the arena are doing and accomplishing. In these roles they can showcase how intelligent and articulate they are. They get the feedback and validation they want – “Good report,” or “Nice presentation.”
However, there is a danger that is always lurking out there. And when you face it, it feels worse than getting an F.
Too often, when articulate women are asked to speak on behalf of their inarticulate male colleagues, they only know what is in the presentation. Because they haven’t been in the arena, they don’t have the experience that makes them experts on the topic. So, when asked in-depth questions, they don’t know the answer. Many try to bluff their way through with an articulate and sometimes lengthy textbook answer.
But in the conference room that gets you skewered.
You are labeled “Incompetent.” And you are pushed even further to the sidelines.
Over the past several years the media and academic outlets joined forces to increase the emphasis on being the intellectual, articulate person. They sold us on the idea, “Words Matter.” However, we must realize that works well in their world where they sell ideas.
For them, the content of their words may be right, wrong or total BS. It doesn’t matter. They aren’t in a business where they have to prove their words produce the tangible desired outcome. Instead, they’re on a debate team where they only have to sell a point of view and score points for style.
The business world isn’t a debate club.
It’s a sports field.
In business, if you are going to sell an idea, then you also have to score points by delivering the expected results.
Right now, it’s also trendy and prestigious to be in a consulting firm or an organization with “Institute” in its name. However, as I’ve seen in ALL of my workplaces, those consultant recommendations and reports wind up in the trash can.
Why?
Because they are textbook recommendations. They weren’t written by people who honed skills in the workplace arena and had the experience to adapt their skills to the current situation and environment.
So, if women are to advance in the workplace, then we must stop valuing being the “smart girl.” Throughout my career, I watched “smart girls” who had the potential to break barriers and shatter glass ceilings just give up. I watched them leave nontraditional jobs and return to a traditional career or a gender-neutral career with little hope of advancement.
As women we must accept that the requirements for workplace success are different from those for the classroom. We must also prioritize the skills for workplace success over those for the classroom. After all, where are we going to spend more time? Which environment will impact our life more?
As women must spend several years in the arena of our industry. We must learn how it functions, take risks, experience failure, experience achievement and learn to think on our feet to solve problems in the moment. Then we can leverage our advantage – intelligently articulating what we did, how we did it and the results we got.
That is how we get promoted.
Empowered Women Are Smart To Get In The Arena
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