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.

1.  Overemphasizing personal goals. Leadership is not about you, but providing the structure for others to be successful. The focus needs to move from yourself to other people.

2. Acting like a leader can get in the way of leading. We can get distracted by our  public image.

3. We turn our competitors into our enemies. Making other people wrong disconnects us from reality and the ability to take in data and be open-minded.

4. We wait for permission. This is especially true of entrepreneurs.

5. Going it alone. We need a strong team around us who compliment our strengths.

Here is the link to the video interview:

What’s Holding You Back?

What are your thoughts? Do you relate to any of these reasons?

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.

Now I have my own company and I can tap into my creative zone as often as I need to. I can block out periods of time that I don’t take calls or emails, even leave my office for a break from the routine of business to spark my creative juices. The major challenge is blocking out the time when your to do list is a mile long.

I believe that taking this break from your routine and nurturing your creativity is one of the most important things you can do for yourself and your business. It is easy to completely fill your days with tasks. There is no end to the work load. There is always one more thing that needs to get done. When you are frantically doing, however, it’s almost impossible to look at your business objectively and brainstorm about new ideas, projects, or perhaps a new direction for your business. It’s so easy to get lost in the abyss of busy work.

In his book, Linchpin, Seth Godin challenges us all to think outside the box and differentiate ourselves; to break from business as usual. This is how we truly become indispensable at work. I am now outside that glass box and in my own creative zone to move my business and career forward.

My advice is to schedule this “free” time. I find, for example, that if I am driving a long distance, if I turn off the radio and my blackberry, I can find that creative zone. I suggest you add some free time as often as necessary to your ongoing to do list. As a result, your business and your career will benefit tremendously.

What about you? How do you make time to be creative and brainstorm so that you can move your career and business forward?

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.

4.   Write a benefit statement for each of the above items. In other words, how did your specific contribution benefit that company? As a project manager for ABC Company, I led a team of 10 engineers to successfully complete a high profile project that resulted in a 25% increase in revenue within six months.

5.   Research the company, the company mission, recent successes and challenges.

6.   Align your experience and values to where the company is headed. For instance, maybe you are interviewing with a community bank that has a goal of becoming more visible and sensitive to the needs of the community. How does the fact that you live in this community benefit the bank?

7.   Gather as much information as you can about the interviewer, the decision maker, your potential boss. Ask pertinent questions to better understand the position and the expectations as well as what the decision process is and what is important to the company or decision maker. Use this information to show how what you bring to the table will benefit the decision maker (perhaps your potential boss) and the company.  For example, you’ve heard that your potential boss is no nonsense and bottom lined oriented. Tailor your conversation to his personality. Be direct. Stress how your experience contributed to net revenue.

8.   Review your value proposition and benefit statements. Practice with a friend or family member so you are comfortable talking about how the company will benefit from your talent.

After completing the above exercise matching your experience and value proposition to the job description and company goals, you will feel confident that you are qualified for the position and ready to communicate specifically why you are the best candidate.

In order to differentiate yourself, it’s important that people understand how your value benefits them. Keep this in mind at all times and make the transition statements during your interview that state not only your accomplishments and expertise, but how that can help the company reach their goals.

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?

Imagine if you took a wrong turn every so often or a detour, the GPS would “recalculate” and bring you pack on course.

It is common this time of year to set goals. We’re often so much better at setting the goals than keeping on track until we reach our destination. Here’s my suggestion: find a “GPS Buddy”.

Ask a colleague, friend, coach or mentor to hold you accountable this year and help you stay on track with  your own personal navigation system. A “GPS Buddy” could make a huge difference in how well you navigate in 2011 toward your life and career goals.

What are your goals for your career or business?

In this fast paced business environment, people are just too busy to seek you out so you need to strategically plan how to create your visibility, how best  to communicate your value proposition and to whom. Without this GPS or strategic plan, you are quite simply less likely to reach your career destination.

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.
  
• Let others know within the organization that you are seeking a sponsor. Your mentor might be able to help identify and facilitate this.
• Create visibility and credibility for yourself in the organization.

o   Take on high profile projects.

o   Make sure your position has P&L responsibility.

• Identify your value proposition. What do you bring to the table?
• Develop your web of influence (key stakeholders, decision makers, influencers, connectors) to assist you in reaching your goal.

o   Build and leverage these relationships.

• Learn to communicate your value.

o   Talk about what you bring to the table and tie it to business outcomes and results for maximum impact.

• Broaden your influence outside the company.

o   Develop your subject matter expertise through social media, community organizations and board positions.

Here’s the bottom line: you need to take control of your career. If you have the goal of sitting in the C-Suite, start by communicating this goal to others and find out how you can get a sponsor to take you under his/her wings and move you up the ranks. You need to advocate for yourself and create the visibility and credibility within the organization to get recognized and rewarded.

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.

2.   The opportunity to network and leverage relationships with other board members who can potentially help you advance your career and broaden your influence.

3.   The opportunity to give back to your community.

4.   The opportunity to further develop and use your expertise.

5.   The opportunity to create visibility and credibility around your personal brand.

6.   The opportunity to build relationships that will bring you business.

7.   The opportunity to be a part of a team that works together toward a common goal.

8.   The opportunity to contribute your time and energy to a cause that you are passionate about.

In summary, a seat at the table can help you in your own career efforts. Board positions often help widen your web of influence and acquaint others with your expertise and talent. Other board members can be great connectors or influencers for new job opportunities.

If sitting on a board is one of your goals, it is important to learn how to communicate your value and to network strategically so others know what you can bring to the table. First of all, let people know you want to sit on a board. Once you verbalize your intent, people will connect you to others who can possibly help you achieve this goal. As opportunities surface, evaluate them carefully based on their expectations of your time, financial contribution, and if your skill set is a good match for their needs. Most importantly, evaluate the opportunity based on whether or not this particular board can help you reach your overall career goals. Who are the other board members? Are they potentially good connectors and influencers? Look at the opportunity strategically and focus not only what you can contribute, but what this commitment can do for you.

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.

1. Write out your value proposition and accomplishments.
2. Describe how the work you do benefits the organization and your boss or department in particular.
3. Make it clear in your request for a promotion that it has nothing to do with not liking your boss. State up front that you enjoy working with him/her and love the organization and are interested in new opportunities to rise to the next level.
4. Ask for information about new opportunities and what, if anything, you need to do to move up. Determine if you need additional skills or if you need to enlist  allies within the organization to support your promotion.
5. Once you set your sights on a specific position, put a strategic action plan in place to communicate your value proposition to the key influencers and decision makers.

If advancing your career is what you want, you need to take action. Don’t assume that your boss knows that you are interested in moving up. Asking about new opportunities will lead to a dialogue about what is available and what you need to do to get promoted.

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.

4.       We give away too much. This includes too much information, too many things for free, and too many business cards. When we first meet someone at a networking event, we should not talk about ourselves endlessly. Craft your message so you just give enough information to stimulate curiosity and more conversation. Engage in a dialogue, not a monologue. You will learn more about the person.

Don’t offer to give away too many free products or services. Be strategic about give-aways. What product or service positions you best? What will provide a good intro so that people will want to purchase more?

Finally, don’t go to networking events with the goal of giving out as many business cards as you can. Collecting cards from the people you have good conversations with is much more important. Write notes on the back of those cards so you remember who they are and what they said. Once you have their card, you control the follow up.

5.       We don’t follow up. What’s the point of going to events to meet new people and then not following up?  Following up is how you begin to build relationships that will bring you business. If you tell someone you will make an introduction for them or send them information, do it and do it as soon as possible after the event. Determine who the key people were that you met and send a personal note and set up a time to talk or meet them again. This is the beginning of developing a network that will bring you business.

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.”

The same principle holds true for personal branding. Perhaps you have identified your value proposition, but do you use benefit language to state the business impact?

For instance, maybe I’ve identified that my value proposition is building strong teams. That statement alone does not have as much impact as when I tie it to business results. Find out what matters to your contact and make the connection for them.

Here’s how you could tailor your message.

” I build strong teams. What that means to my organization is that I help create more loyal, happy, and productive employees. Increased employee satisfaction means less turnover, lower employee acquisition and training costs. Also more productive employees means faster turn around on projects that results in more satisfied and loyal customers.”

Get the idea?

Don’t assume that people automatically connect the dots and bridge the gap between what you offer and how they can benefit. Don’t leave it to chance. Everyone wants to know what’s in it for them. Clearly communicate the benefit and the business impact to make your pitch or brand statement more powerful.

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.

To me, the process of stripping away all these stories and personas we’ve created is far more frightening than any Halloween costume. We choose to hide behind our masks because we feel the need to protect ourselves; because somehow we’ve convinced ourselves that if people knew who we really are, they wouldn’t like us or we wouldn’t be successful.

Many of us don’t even realize that we have taken on different identities and the effect this has on our lives. We don’t realize how much MORE successful, personable, and powerful we would be without the mask. And how much stress does hiding your authentic self cause in your life?

Ask yourself these questions:

• Do you feel you are being authentic at work?
• Are you being rewarded for being authentic at work?
• Have you adopted a management/leadership style that doesn’t feel comfortable because of your company’s culture?
• What type of “mask” are you hiding behind in your personal relationships?
• Are you more authentic with some people than others? What does this tell you?

Choose to connect with your authentic self.

Take OFF your mask. It’s the most empowering thing you can do for yourself.