Tag: women

  • Celebrate the Milestones!

    The Woman In The Room is one year old!!  For me this is a milestone and cause to celebrate!Cupcake with candle

    At work, how do you celebrate milestones and achievements?  Are they subdued?  Do you talk about doing something and then nothing really materializes?  Who is responsible for or takes the lead in planning the celebration?

    Thinking back over my career, I’ve had one manager who made sure we celebrated achievements and one who did a pretty good job.   With the rest, ideas withered and died.  Men seem to be generally uncomfortable driving these celebrations.  Historically they have passed the planning to the admin staff.

    I’ve always enjoyed putting together something big and fun.  Sometimes women are reluctant to put together these events fearing they will fall into a stereotype and deep into the Pink Zone.  To prevent yourself from becoming the office party planner, pick and choose what you want to celebrate.  Knowing everyone in the office’s birthday and bringing in cake is different from finding the milestones that employees should have pride in achieving.  Instilling pride and recognizing hard work is what a leader does.  And you don’t have to be the manager to lead the celebration.

    Here are a couple of things I have done in the past and after 12 years I will finally admit that it was me who pulled off one surprise event.  Think big, think outside the box and use the event to energize! (more…)

  • The Woman In The Arena

    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.  However, I was never able to put together a large enough sound system.  So I found another method.

    I started digging up quotes to fit the issues we were facing.  I then plastered the quotes all over the office.  One day my safety manager brought me this one from Teddy Roosevelt.  It immediately became my favorite because it expressed what the project team faced every day.

    THE MAN IN THE ARENA
    Excerpt from the speech “Citizenship In A Republic”
    delivered at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France on 23 April, 1910

    It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.  The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

     

    woman rock climbing

    Even though the words are written in a masculine tense, they apply to women as well.  Women should have the courage to stand up for what we believe in, to go for what we want to and to make things happen.  This is what life is about.

    However many women were not raised to believe we can or should go into the arena; that women can be bold or courageous.  But if we don’t go into the arena, then only men are the doers of great deeds and only they know the triumph of high achievement.  We return to a paternalistic society.

    The only way women will ever come into their own and attain their equality is by entering the arena and daring to strive valiantly.

    Empowered women enter the arena.

     

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  • Women Help Companies Improve Collaboration – So What?

    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? (more…)

  • A Woman Personalizes Her Business To Lead

    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 that expresses 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. (more…)

  • Energizing Women To Lead the Male-Dominated Workplace

    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! (more…)

  • How To Map Processes, The Simple Way

    Process_MappingI tell women to learn their company’s operating and management systems as a foundation for building a success career.  But most women (and men) have never been taught how to think in terms of systems or how to map out processes so my advice may seem daunting.

    If you took the initiative to search the web you may have been overwhelmed.  Mapping processes seems complicated!  There are symbols that you use to create diagrams to convey specific functions.  The experts have names that require you to twist and contort your mouth in an attempt to pronounce.  And it seems everyone has a PhD.

    But the reality is that you don’t have to make it complicated for most of your purposes.  No one needs to be well versed in systems or processes design.  Here’s how I got a project started on mapping its processes. (more…)

  • Working With Women In Traditional Roles

    When you are a woman entering a traditionally male role you will be focused on your relationships with your male peers and supervisors.  But you also need to focus on your relationships with your female co-workers in traditional jobs.  You may assume that the women in the office will be cheering for your success however your presence may be as uncomfortable for them as it is for the men. (more…)

  • Should Women Strive For The Top 0.1%?

    I read a book by Chrystia Freeland called Plutocrats – The Rise Of The New Global Super-Rich And The Fall Of Everyone Else.  I was interested in the subject because I saw parallels to my Swamp War articles and several ideas I had swimming around in my head.

    What are Plutocrats?  They are the extremely wealthy class who (supposedly) rule and influence the world based on their wealth.  Unlike plutocrats of the past who inherited the wealth, most of today’s plutocrats are self-made millionaires and billionaires, coming from ordinary backgrounds.

    Why is it important that women understand Plutocrats?

    Because as a society we measure success by wealth and because so few plutocrats are women.  Chrystia writes “Consider the 2012 Forbes billionaire list.  Just 104 of the 1,226 billionaires are women.”  (8%)  “Subtract the wives, daughters and widows and you are left with a fraction of that already small number.”  (more…)

  • A Blue Zone “Motivational” Letter

    I came across a letter that I want to share with women.  This letter is VERY Blue Zone and meant to inspire the overwhelmingly male managers within the company to achieve the 2013 financial goals.  I am curious as to women’s reaction to this letter.  Does it inspire you?

    This is the actual letter – I have not changed much – I left out the company name and specific financial information.  But I did keep in all the exclamation points!     (more…)

  • Thanks Mom and Dad

    I haven’t been able to write while I helped my mother during her declining health.  At her funeral some family members noted that she was a woman ahead of her times – she was very independent and went after what she wanted.  My mother pursued a nursing career and didn’t marry until later in life.  She loved to travel and even as a young woman in the 1940’s ventured out across the country.

    Because of my parents I did not grow up with the stereotypes.  Neither of my parents believed that a woman’s sole role was to marry and have children.  In my father’s family all the women back to his grandmother went to college.  He was adamant that life was unpredictable so women cannot rely on a man to always be there to support them.  Women should have the education and/or skills to support themselves. (more…)

  • Discipline – A Female Trait That Draws On Our Motherly Instincts

    While talking to several women about their work experiences I realized that I forgot to list my top female balancing characteristic – Discipline.  I grew up learning that female discipline is one of the most important foundations of society and civilization.  The balancing male characteristic to female discipline is playfulness.

    Discipline and playfulness conjure up visions of the wild, wild west that was tamed by women and the Lost Boys of Neverland that Wendy mothered .  We also think of wives who produce “honey-do” lists for husbands who if left to their own devices would spend all their time watching sports or playing video games.  Our discipline is critical to getting things done on time and to high standards.

    Female discipline is tied to the thoroughness of women which together often results in women cleaning up after men.  I was recently reminded of this when I was in a new work environment with 4 men and 1 young woman.  Watching their interaction I saw discipline and playfulness in action and became very aware of the pitfalls women fall into.  We may think that our discipline and thoroughness is a good thing but this natural behavior moves us to the sidelines, if not completely out of view. (more…)

  • Don’t Be OnThe Swamp War Sidelines

    I came up with the concept of Swamp Wars about two years ago. It stemmed from my work experiences and for a while I thought it was unique to my industry because we have so many classic Alligator Slayers. But as I wrote this series of articles (Swamp Wars and The Rachel Letter) the national political conventions were held and politics fills the “news” media. Over the past year, I’ve seen huge similarities between what I experienced at work and what I see happening in our politics. I am now convinced that Swamp Wars is more than just my unique work experience – it is part of our society. Swamp Wars is a recent phenomenon and something women need to understand because it is having a significant impact on our ability to advance at work. (more…)

  • How to Use the Rachel Letter To End Swamp Wars

    In the season 3 finale and the season 4 premier of Friends, Ross and Rachel decide to get back together.  But Rachel has one condition – she writes Ross a long letter in which she describes everything that went wrong with the relationship and Ross has to accept full responsibility.  Ross, anxious to get back together with Rachel lies and says he read the letter – twice – and agrees to everything in the letter.  As he learns what he agreed to he is unable to keep up the charade.  Ross finally comes clean and admits that he fell asleep reading the letter – it was 18 pages long – front and back!

    Women understand Rachel’s letter.  It is a pure pink female masterpiece – long, citing every incident no matter how trivial in exacting detail.

    Believe it or not our ability to write these types of letters comes in handy when working with men.  I have written several business “Rachel letters.”  It is one of the few times I get to venture towards the Pink end of the spectrum and frolic in my female characteristics with abandon.       (more…)