Climbing the ladder
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The document provides advice for advancing one's career, including taking stock of your current position, deciding whether to move up to a higher level of management, modifying habits and attitudes to focus more on strategy and people management rather than details, negotiating effectively by making your value visible, self-promoting your accomplishments, developing leadership skills through taking on projects, setting goals and milestones, expanding your skills and network through public speaking and maintaining contacts.
Climbing the ladder
- 1. Climbing the Ladder: Are You Going Up or Down? By Chelse Benham First, take stock of yourself, and see where you are in the food chain of your organization. If you're not at, or near the top, it's time to take immediate remedial action. If you're already in middle management, decide to take on the toughest hurdle: moving from middle to top management. You probably will have to work consciously on modifying many of your habits and attitudes. Perhaps the most important attitude change will be to give up "the caretaker-of-the-details trap". The shift from middle manager to top manager is a shift from "doing" to "directing" or delegating. A top manager must focus on big picture issues. You must learn to develop successful strategy and effective management of people. Doing someone else's job can no longer be one of your options. Tackle the big problems....let someone else pick the ladies' room wall paper. Learn to take well thought out risks, since being unremarkable and unnoticed at work won't get you where you want to go either. If you seem "stuck" in whatever position you're in, take an analytical look at your company and its true "woman-friendly" quotient. Does your comapny have women in executive offices and on the board of directors? Do female executives earn as much as their male counterparts? If not, you might start looking around at companies where you may find a more "level playing field" and greater opportunities for advancement. Even a lateral move can put the momentum back in your career. Top Ten Signs that it's Time for a Career Change 1. You keep hitting the snooze button because don't want to get out of bed in the morning. 2. You wonder if why you didn't join the Peace Corps when you had the chance. 3. You wish you were someone else. 4. You have bad dreams about work. 5. You over-eat, over-drink, over-exercise, or over-analyze to escape. 6. You have frequent headaches or stomachaches when you think about work. 7. You try to block out all thoughts of tomorrow, because tomorrow means another day at work. 8. You find yourself humming the tune to "Take this job and shove it" 9. You feel bored or restless at work most of the time. 10. You fantasize about your boss falling into a sinkhole on the way to work.
- 2. Top Ten Signs that Your Career is On Track 1. You feel energized, vibrant, and alive. 2. You feel in control of your fate. 3. You feel like you are accomplishing something. 4. You wonder why things seemed so difficult before. 5. You discover things you didn't know you could do. 6. Your body feels at peace and in harmony most of the time. 7. You think about work in your "off-hours", simply because it's interesting. 8. You lose track of time when you are working. 9. You feel generous and loving toward others in your work environment. 10. You can’t wait to get back to work! Learn to negotiate, to uncover the "hidden agendas and masked perceptions", to identify your true value, make it visible, and make the negotiation pivot around it. Almost every day at work, we are faced with some type of negotiation. Not only must we negotiate for our salary, perks, benefits, title, office space and support staff, but daily issues involving our duties, the need for increased manpower, authority over projects, flexibility with clients, arrangements, communication or sharing of the workload with co-workers; all require a form of negotiation, which, if we fail to recognize, we will, in all probability, fail to win. Beneath the surface of all negotiations are "hidden agendas and masked assumptions", most of which are unfavorable to women. Women, generally, are expected to acquiesce, keep the peace, not make waves, and be the first to make concessions. Women need to learn not to buy into this self-defeating set of expectations. The only reason someone is negotiating with you is that you have a value which he wants. The more you can make that value visible, and make the negotiation pivot around it, the stronger your position will be. The first negotiation, which will shape much of your future is how much you will earn and what benefits you will receive. Bargain hard and smart. Your work life depends upon it. To talk is to win. At every opportunity, step up to the plate, speak up in an authoritative voice and present a message which is clear and communicates your firm belief in it. Whether it's a high visibility assignment for your company, a line position which will get you in the running for senior management or a plum post in London -- ask for it. Don't hint. Forget indirection and subtlety. If you want a job within the company ask for it. And ask for the authority to do it right. Get recognized, the not so easy task for women.
- 3. Why is it so difficult for women to get recognized in corporate America? It is one thing to perform effectively, and it is quite another to be perceived as performing effectively. The answer to being perceived as effective and getting recognized for it does not lie in performance. Research shows women perform as well on the job as men, often better, but men are prone to boasting and successful men have become experts in self promotion. To most women, boasting is anathema. A major turning point in most women's careers comes when they recognize that self promotion is part of the game of business. Start immediately by weaving your accomplishments into your casual conversations. If you want recognition, you must broadcast your achievements and press for appropriate rewards and advancement. No one else will do it for you. And if you start promoting yourself, you will soon feel comfortable doing it, and equally important, you will begin to realize you deserve it. Go for the power and never stop moving up. Power is an important currency in today's workplace. In fact, power is largely in the perception of it. To be perceived as powerful, act like a leader. Take charge, take responsibility, come up with a solution. Do you see a problem crying out for a solution? Develop a project to address it. Projects not only gather people together and marshall their strengths to achieve a defined and mutually beneficial goal, they advertise your skills and position you as a leader. Develop reputational power by tackling the critical issues and getting results. Determine to hone and expand your skills, grow and promote yourself, build relationships and networks, deliver results and be sure to get credit for them. Then, continue to get feedback. As measures of your success, you must.... • Have an exceptional skill or expertise at something which delivers real value. • Focus on the practical result of the skill you deliver. • Learn how to be a leader and a supportive team player at the same time. • Be a visionary..... define a goal and make it a reality. Advancing Women Web site Create a Plan and Lay Out Milestones There are a number of reasons why it is important, particularly for women, to set their own goals and not simply react to the demands or expectations of others. Everyday, hard working women in organizations "disappear" partly because they fail to set their own goals. It is very important for women to realize, they are not at work to be handmaidens or helpers who easily "disappear" by devaluing their activities. You are at work to
- 4. become a change agent, to positively impact the success of your company by setting goals which are aligned with your company's mission. Don't wait for someone to tell you what to do. Analyze your company carefully, and try to understand what you can do which will make a significant difference. Get a handle on the problem, develop a solution, and a consensus around it, lobby for approval, then execute better and faster than anyone else. Develop an "Advisory Board" To keep your career going strong and achieving its full potential, you will need a sounding board, someone who can provide you with an objective judgment of how you're performing. This can be a trusted mentor, or a group of professional friends, who are willing to meet with you occasionally and review the milestones you've set for your career. Take on Public Speaking It's impossible to overemphasize the value of being a good communicator. What all leaders share is the ability to articulate and communicate their goals with such passion or eloquence that others are motivated to share those goals and join together to achieve them. Regardless of whether you are an eloquent speaker, you can at least bring interesting news to an audience, in a fresh and organized way. Since most people in a general audience are not as up to date on your field as you are, you should be able to convey something to them which is of interest and which they didn't know before. If you are able to display a mastery of a subject, and keep your presentation brief and to the point, you will make an impression. And public speaking is one of the best ways to raise your profile in the community and in your professional circle. Create A Skills Inventory and Continue to Expand Whether your skills are based on your ability with graphics, or your talent for getting an office organized or inspiring people to join your project, you have a set of skills to track and build on. Create your own "portfolio" which identifies and documents those areas you have developed the most and have the greatest competitive advantage in, as measured against your peers, and make its continuous expansion an ongoing priority. Remember - It's Still About People: Develop A System to Leverage Your Contacts
- 5. Take a hard look at how you are networking and make some basic decisions about how to develop a system to make personal contacts and extended networks work better to advance your career. Today, in an intensely competitive global environment, it is important to capture any edge one can. Not only must our career skills constantly be honed, but our relationships must continue to expand and be nourished in order to maximize our odds of achieving success. Creating a career plan with milestones, gathering support, continuing to expand both our career skills and our networks, if executed faithfully, will lead to success.