Author Archive
What Holds Middle Managers Back from Leadership?
Posted by: | CommentsA couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to speak at Harvard Business School’s Dynamic Women in Business Conference. Our panel discussion was titled, Working in Heels: Women in the Workplace today, and the focus of the discussion was the internal barriers and external barriers that women hold women back from advancing their careers and assuming leadership positions.
Internal barriers such as our limiting beliefs about gender, success, our ability to balance family and work can contribute to our lack of advancement. Also mentioned was the hesitancy to promote ourselves, take credit for our accomplishments, and speak up.
External roadblocks are the cultural biases that still prevail in the workplace today against women in leadership positions. Men still occupy the top level positions and women don’t seem to be making the expecting progress of winning more board seats or c-suite placement.
I thought it was particularly interesting that this video interview from Harvard Business Review with Anne Morriss, also focused on what holds us back and offers some very different reasons that middle managers do not advance to leadership roles. Anne’s research was not gender specific. Here are the five major ways she found that managers hold themselves back.
Do You Have Any Time to Think Creatively?
Posted by: | CommentsI remember how wonderful I felt at first when I was hired to run a national company. I was thrilled with my new title and excited to take on the challenge of resurrecting a company that was doing poorly. I was up for the challenge.
The position meant a move to Chicago from the east coast and a departure from my comfort zone of colleagues, family, and friends. My management skills were on the line since the company had 210 on site employees and another couple of hundred employees working around the country. I needed to constantly assure them all that they could trust my leadership ability to move the company forward. Creating that credibility and trust was almost a full time job in itself. I needed to be visible at all times.
My office had glass walls and I felt like I was in a fish bowl most of the time. Of course, the glass walls were meant to enhance the “open door” policy and open management style, but what I remember most is never having that private time to reflect and be creative. I always needed to be “on” and for myself, at least, it’s critical to turn “off” the outside world for private time to reflect and think creatively to solve problems.
8 Tips to Ace an Interview
Posted by: | CommentsCongratulations! It’s not easy to land an interview for a new position these days. The market place is overloaded with qualified applicants seeking employment, and the fact that you made it this far is indeed encouraging.
But, you still need to ace the interview and it’s critical to do some preparation to showcase your talent and communicate how your expertise will benefit the company.
Here are some tips to help you differentiate yourself in the interview.
1. Identify and understand your value proposition. What are your strengths? What are your accomplishments? Make a list of each and write down how these qualities have helped you in past positions and how they have contributed to your recent success. Give specific examples.
2. Review the job description. List all the responsibilities, qualifications, and expectations for the position.
3. Match your expertise and value proposition to each line item from the job description. For example, project management experience may be one requirement. How do you meet this requirement? List your experience from past positions.
Navigate Your Path to Success
Posted by: | CommentsI have always traveled quite a bit for business, and before every trip I would diligently print out my airline ticket, the rental car information, and directions from the airport to my destination.
Often this meant trying to read Mapquest directions while driving on a highway or in the dark. It never worked well and thank goodness I’m still alive after several close calls with other cars on the road. The biggest challenge, however, was having Mapquest dump me some strange place that was not where I wanted to go. Have you ever experienced that?
But now we have GPS, the Global Positioning Satellite, and somewhere up in the sky there is a satellite that knows where I am and beams down directions for me. It provides a step by step navigation and helps me stay on course so I get to where I want to go. How comforting is that?
Don’t you wish you had a GPS for your life and career? Wouldn’t it be great to simply plug in your dreams or goals for your life and career and have someone tell you in a very confident assuring voice how to get there?
Be an Advocate for Yourself
Posted by: | CommentsA recent Catalyst study demonstrates that mentoring does not help career advancement to the degree that sponsorship does. Mentoring is defined as career advice and guidance and sponsorship is advocacy. Usually sponsors have more senior positions than mentors, and it is their responsibility to advocate for an individual and pull them up the ranks to a top level position in the company. The study shows that men receive more sponsorship than women and this has a direct relationship to the number of men promoted to top positions. Women receive more mentoring and, in fact, are sometimes “mentored to death” with no upward mobility.
The recommendation from Harvard Business Review and Catalyst is for organizations to adopt formal sponsorship programs similar to IBM Europe. Companies now understand the impact of diversifying their talent pool, especially in leadership roles.
However, the companies that have formal sponsorship programs are few and far between.
High performing women need to take control of their own career advancement. They need to advocate for an advocate or sponsor. They need to be their own PR specialist every day.
Here are some suggestions:
- Be proactive, intentional, and strategic. Communicate your intention to advance your career.
Is a Corporate Board Seat in Your Future?
Posted by: | CommentsThis past week I had the opportunity to not only attend the MA Conference for Women, but also to participate in a leadership panel about women and corporate board positions. My role on the panel was to speak about how women can promote themselves and increase their credibility and visibility so they can get a board appointment. It was a wonderful experience and I was pleasantly surprised how many women attended the panel discussion and had a keen interest in serving on either a non-profit or corporate board.
I sure that most of us are aware of the current studies that prove that having a diverse board (at least 30% women representation) contributes directly to a company’s performance. In fact, companies with more female representation, outperform companies don’t have women. This is critically important for companies to understand and implement, especially companies that wish to improve their bottom line (and who wouldn’t be interested in that?).
So what’s in it for women to serve on boards, non-profit or corporate?
There are many advantages. Board experience can offer you:
1. The opportunity to learn and apply new skills that you can add to your portfolio and resume.
Ask for a Promotion
Posted by: | CommentsAccording to Donald Asher, author of Who Gets Promoted, Who Doesn’t and Why, “Bosses assume that any employee who doesn’t ask for more is satisfied with his job.”
If this is accurate, which I suspect it is, why don’t we ask about opportunities to move up?
Our hesitancy to ask for a promotion is more than likely related to our overall fear of self promotion. When we contemplate asking for a promotion, that nagging voice in our head chimes in with, “Who do you think you are?”, “Do you really think you’re worthy of a promotion?” “Your boss will laugh at you!”, “Aren’t you full of yourself?”
Do any of these negative questions sound familiar to you?
It’s time to put aside the negative self talk and focus on your talent and what you bring to the table. Listening to the negative self talk is sabotaging your career and can very well stand between you and a promotion.
Has it every dawned on you to be proactive and take control of your career?
Has it very occurred to you to ask for a promotion?
In preparation for a conversation with your boss, I recommend you do a bit of homework.
Five Mistakes We Make at Networking Events
Posted by: | CommentsWhether you are a solo entrepreneur or small business owner or career professional, you probably spend a fair amount of your time at networking events to build your business.
Here are some common mistakes we make at networking events:
1. We schmooze, but don’t make the necessary connection with people to get business. It’s great to meet new people, but effective networking is not just about how many new people you can meet. It’s about making more meaningful connections; building and leveraging relationships that will over time get you new clients. It’s about quality not quantity.
2. We mingle with no strategy. Who is attending the event? Who do you want to connect with that you have determined might be a potential client or referral source or even someone to collaborate with? Make it your business to meet the people who will have the most impact on your business. Focus and be intentional.
3. We assume that people automatically understand the value of our products and services when we introduce ourselves and hand out our business card. It’s important to use benefit language to clearly communicate the value of your service so people you meet can immediately determine if you will meet their needs or if they know of someone else who could benefit from your product or service.
Using Benefit Language to Communicate Your Value
Posted by: | CommentsIf you’ve ever had an introductory course in sales, you know what WIIFM’s are. WIIFM stands for “What’s In It For Me?” and these statements focus our sales efforts on how our product or service benefits the customer. They are meant to shift our mindset from our own agenda to what the customer wants and needs.
It has been my experience that using this benefit language is often the missing piece in elevator pitches as well as the communication of personal brand messages. As a result, many of our pitches fall flat. The use of benefit language makes an impact on our audience.
If you are an entrepreneur, think about your own elevator pitch. Do you make this important connection from your product or service to your customer’s wants and needs? A simple way to do use benefit language in your pitch is to state clearly what you do and then add, “what this means to you is”…
Here is an example. I could say, “My name is Bonnie Marcus and I coach women entrepreneurs to promote themselves effectively.” OR, I could say, “My name is Bonnie Marcus and as a professional coach, I help women entrepreneurs overcome their negative beliefs about self promotion, feel more confident and comfortable selling, so they can grow a successful thriving business.”
It’s Time to Take Off Your Mask
Posted by: | CommentsDon’t you love Halloween? It’s not just because of the sweet treats. It’s so much fun to dress up in costume and take on the identity of someone or something else for the day. The holiday festivities give us an excuse to put on a mask and adopt a new persona. Perhaps we choose to be someone funny, or maybe we become a scary monster. Maybe we don some sexy clothing that’s totally out of character for us, or maybe we become a super hero who possesses super natural powers.
Halloween is fun. No doubt about it. As I was thinking about the holiday this year, it dawned on me, however, how scary it is to take OFF your mask, to look in the mirror and challenge yourself to be YOU; to be your authentic self.
In actuality, I think many of us hide behind masks all year long. We adopt different personas in our personal and professional lives because we believe we need them to be successful or be more like able. We create stories about ourselves and these stories become who we are. We lose our authentic selves in the process.
