We're in the middle of the most chaotic season in business ever. It's time to get ahead of your career by tapping into practical, easy-to-implement concepts. Straight talk shared with love. Are you ready for it?
ThriveWithNancy Podcast addresses the tricky points you run into daily as a woman executive. Nancy Fredericks shares all the secrets she's acquired as an experienced thought-leader. She's passionate about sharing practical, insider solutions with women executives to tap into on your way to achieving all of your career hopes and dreams.
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Speaker 1:
Hello, you amazing executive women. I'm so glad you're with us today. Do you ever feel invisible in your corporate environment? No matter how hard you work, you aren't receiving the career changing promotions you believe you've earned. Stop the frustration. Let's slice through the barriers. Ready? Welcome everyone to Thrive with Nancy. This podcast is for executive women who want more from their careers, not more work, more success, more satisfaction. Well, you get the picture, don't you? Ready to begin enrolling others in you and your unique giftedness. Because you have it, it's time to get in front of your career. Initially, you may feel a bit of resistance because in your book, the organization should recognize all your hard work expertise and knowledge. Nothing more should be required from you. If your first reaction is agreement, please, please listen. If your first reaction is curiosity, congratulations. That attitude is this first step toward the new world of influencing how you are perceived and in turn rewarded. The journey always starts and ends with you. In the middle, you get to go wild and create developmental turning points to sustain advancement that you desire. As you assume higher level positions, your foundation needs to be able to carry a more significant load, so it needs to grow with you. Let's look at some areas that will stabilize your thinking and in turn the way others perceive you. First is your expertise, your knowledge, and your education. You can't get hired without these, and this area must be expanding continually to remain relevant in today's fast based ever-changing work environment. However, it isn't the be all and the end all for successfully climbing your company's ladder. The higher you go, the less these are door openers for you. Challenge yourself while pondering. This is a CEO or president of my company able to take over my job with the same competency I demonstrate. I bet my bottom dollar, your answer is a big fat no. That may surprise some women who have a wrong concept about what earns promotions in the marketplace. The loftier, your goals, the lesser expertise and higher education garner attention. So when developing your next level attributes, make sure you're paying attention to soft skills, creative thinking, collaborative capacity, ability to inspire others, et cetera, which were all essential for moving to the upper levels of the organization. Was that a bit of say what mental flip for you? Second, how's your confidence level? Why? Because self-confidence is ascribed as a common trait of those who receive promotions. Confidence you see is as crucial, if not more to advancement than your expertise. Huh? Is that another aha moment? And if you're shaking your head because it seems like such a frivolous quality to go after confidence after all, stop, you may equate confidence as a personality trait. It isn't. It is a profound unshakable knowledge that you have what it takes to get the job done. After all, if you don't believe in yourself, who will? Research confirms that when women have this level of confidence, the stage is set for career success and how do you build self-confidence with your self-talk By trying out and expanding your comfort zone by listening to people who believe and know you, not the jerks who don't understand what a successful woman looks like and acts like in today's marketplace. And you have to also be rigorously confident on the outside until you believe in yourself. It is after all and inside out affair that you own the results of and you get to initiate the charge. Three, it's up to you to generate your professional brand. Please don't let others do it for you. And whether you know it or not, you're walking around in your office and you're always generating a brand. It just may not be the one you want and it may just not speak all about the greatness of who you are. If you haven't explored branding, it's time to contemplate these two thoughts. They'll lead you right into it. When you're sitting on your front porch at 120 years old, rocking and reminiscing, what do you want your career to be known for? Right until your hand cramps and then write some more. Until everything is on a piece of paper, make sure these values are included in your brand. Next, consider an executive you've worked with admired and that executive is promoted or left for another position and someone else came in and did an equally awesome job. Now, answer this question. Did the job look exactly alike between these two? No, because there is plenty of space for individual uniqueness to show up. Did this thought blow your mind? It should because so many hold hard and fast to their job description. Define your it factor, these point to powerful aspects of your brand. Wear them for a while. How comfortable are you? You see, you want to define who you are and that doesn't simply include what you're capable of today. It also encompasses what your hopes and dreams are for your future. No one else knows. All these big and little gems like you do. They add to the richness and authenticity of your brand. Now, in the middle is where you counteract good or bad events through your actions and responses. What do you do if the flow of your career is on track with your heart's purpose? Keep up the good work. However, if it appears you are invisible, this is when you flip your attitude switch for your career. First, do you have influential senior leader champions who know your value today and have glimpses into your future? If your answer is yes, congratulations. If not, it's time to put your relationship building into high gear. Why? Because every research report I've read indicates relationships are key to achieving promotions, not simply your hard work. So start connecting as high as you could. Go. Second, if you didn't receive that significant juicy project or someone else was hired for that promotion you've been working for and thought for sure was yours. Let's work through a couple of scenarios. When this happens, do you internally curl up in despair and frustration claiming others have it in for you or someone else cheated? Or even worse, wear a hair shirt of pets and self-doubt over your incompetency? Neither choice is a pathway to success, but I think you already know that. You see the reasoning or stories we tell ourselves are by far the most powerful force in our careers and the trajectory of our careers. They are the fodder that feeds the results you produce. Start standing up for yourself in a good way. Go to the decision maker inquiring what they were looking for that you didn't offer. Ask for specifics. Keep digging gently. Of course, regarding areas you can concentrate on nailing for the next big assignment or promotion, or keep an eagle eye out for any unconscious biases around you. Leadership, I have to tell you, sadly, often has a more masculine depiction in the mind's eyes of our leaders than how we as women achieve our results. When they name an approach that you see as more masculine with curiosity, hear that curiosity ask, what are the results these attributes or skills would generate? Please don't make them feel defensive. You won't get anywhere. That way the conversation is for your future. Rarely is a decision going to be changed. That's not what you're in this discussion about. Now, once you've heard, you know, as you bring future results to fruition, ensure you are not bearing the lead by only reporting processes. Instead, highlight results as they mentioned to you. Can you see where this might have them perceiving you differently? And honestly, if the gentle approach doesn't work, you have two choices. Oops, three. The first is to report the discrimination to the appropriate people in the organization. Second, leave the company and find a corporate culture that suits you, your giftedness and your expectations. You have to know business cultures very widely, so find one that works for you. Third, don't do anything. Of course, then your forever disappointed and your career trajectory is going to be sinking faster than your hopes if you've hit a rough or disappointing patch in your career. Time to revisit the start. Sometimes we forget that we are the only one standing in the way of our future. It's easier to look at others, yet the longer we gaze outward, the more stuck we find ourselves ready to practice. Anything you heard, we're in one of the most chaotic seasons in business ever. No surprise to you. I'm sure. If you're confused about the next steps you should be taking, check out the free resources on Thrive with Nancy. Also, there's your Strategic Edge program where we create a full-on partnership to better your professional career and have you achieving your aspirations at www thrive with nancy.com/executive/and by the way, there's a bunch of free gifts you get with that. Remember, no successful executive makes it to the top or even arrives at their next destination alone.