As featured in FairyGodBoss.com
Over my 20-year Corporate career spanning 5 companies and 6 countries, I’ve had the opportunity to work with and be inspired by several leaders. Only a handful of those were women - but what exceptional women! They seemed to have it all - the career, the family, the lifestyle. Each of them had a different personality and work style, but they were tremendously successful and respected in their field. To top that, they made it look so easy!
As I grew in my career, I faced my own set of challenges - switching career paths, changing countries, and balancing all this with starting my own family in a different country. This was certainly not as easy as it looked! So I asked for and distilled the advice from my role models.
Turns out, almost all of them do these 10 things regularly that get them tremendous success and respect in their workplace:
1. They are clear about their brand value and communicate it confidently
When you’re crystal clear about the value you’re bringing to your employer or client, it raises your self-worth and boosts your confidence. Not to mention, helping you negotiate a much higher compensation.
Each woman leader I worked with, knew exactly how her skills and actions translated to value for her clients and employer, and was not afraid to ask for her worth.
Tip: Draft a one liner statement based on these 2 questions:
· What are you known for?
· Who do you help?
Think about “you” as a brand (I help CEOs do…..) and not your employer (I work for ABC company). Focusing on “you” and your skills vs. the name of your workplace will allow you to clearly communicate your value at the next meeting or business opportunity.
2. They speak up and have a clear point of view (POV)
Have you ever been in a meeting when you shared an idea, nobody reacted and then a male colleague said the EXACT same thing and everyone loved it? Or you got cut off mid-sentence and the whole discussion went a different way? It’s more common than you think.
Most of us would let this slide and then fume later. These women leaders made it a point to speak up and express their point of view and rationale behind their thinking. Whether the meeting participants agreed with them was irrelevant; the key point was that they made themselves visible and their opinion heard.
Tip: The next time you get cut-off mid-sentence in a meeting, make it a point to get back in the discussion at the next opportunity using “As I was saying earlier….” or “Coming back to the point I was making …….” Or “I’m glad you concur with the point I made earlier…..”.
I have also used “That’s exactly what I said 5 minutes ago!” in an informal group discussion where a male colleague literally repeated a POV I had expressed earlier in the meeting. Hey! You gotta do what you gotta do! (I wouldn’t recommend this phrase in a formal meeting though.)
3. They design a well-defined career path
If you don’t know where you’re going any road will get you there
- Lewis Carroll
Where do you see yourself in 5 years, 2 years, even 1 year? Does it make you uncomfortable to think so far ahead? Are you letting your career run on auto pilot?
In conversations with each woman leader, I realized they always had a vision for their career. Some told me that they do not plan more than 2 years out because the economy is so dynamic, but they had a clear vision of their career path until those 2 years.
More importantly, they had broken down that vision into bite-sized actions on a career roadmap. This helped them identify the skills they needed to learn and the way they needed to show up today to become the leader they envisioned tomorrow.
Tip: Conquer the overwhelm that comes with a big goal by drafting a career roadmap. You’ll get a bonus sense of accomplishment for completing your bite-sized milestones as you move towards that big scary career goal.
4. They build a following
A successful leader knows the value of teams and making people grow. The woman leaders who inspired me, genuinely cared for the professional growth and success of the people in their teams. They showcased this in multiple ways –
· by investing the time to teach a new team member,
· letting a ‘rising star’ team member handle bigger areas independently to develop confidence and prove readiness for the next level
· even letting a team member switch to another job or team so they could upskill and achieve their career goals
In all cases, it was about the team member’s growth and long-term success. These women earned their teams’ respect by investing in their success. And in-turn, these teams were deeply committed to these woman leaders and their success.
5. They ‘look’ professional
All successful woman leaders I’ve worked with had this common thread: Executive Presence.
You could be the sharpest tool in the box, work the hardest, but still get sidelined because you don’t “look” capable enough for your client or employer.
Executive Presence is not about being the best-dressed or most beautiful woman in your workplace. It’s certainly not about wearing make-up or high-heels. It’s about showing up professionally dressed with poise and confidence.
Who would you like to hire? A smart person with good executive presence who shows confidence and composure in dress and demeanor (suggesting he/she is capable of handling complex roles)? Or a brilliant but mad scientist who shows up disheveled, looks harassed and distracted (suggesting he/she could break down at the thought of handling large operations)?
6. They’re NOT the go-to ‘party planner’ or ‘coffee getter’
Yes – I said it. I have yet to see ONE successful woman leader who was also the president of the “Party Planning Committee” (
sorry Angela!)
I once worked with a strong woman leader on a project where a senior (male) leader joined in for a few days. On a Monday morning, we were going to the pantry when she asked him: “Coffee?”. His response: “Yes – cream and sugar please”.
WHAT?!
He just assumed she would get him his coffee! And mixed to perfection at that!
As I fumed silently, she looked at him calmly and said in a perfectly normal voice:
“So – will you be coming with us to the pantry?”
He was dumbfounded to say the least. And I was wowed by her cool response to a very sexist situation.
This is not to say that you have to be stuck-up and can’t do the occasional team coffee/ bakery run. But how many senior male leaders do you see physically getting coffee for their teams or planning office parties (vs. showing up and paying with their business credit cards)?
Whether we like it or not, it is a gender stereotype – best not to fall into that trap.
7. They show emotional balance:
I’m not saying that successful women leaders are heartless. On the contrary, showing occasional vulnerability and sharing your story can help build powerful work relationships with your teams and clients. We’re not machines after all!
Showing emotional balance at work is about how you handle challenging situations with your team or clients – conflict, missed deadlines, difficult projects, late nights. Do you crumble under pressure or flip out if a client complains about a work deliverable? Or are you able to objectively assess the situation and see how to fix it?
All the uber-successful women leaders I’ve met in my 20-year career, were deeply respected for their maturity and capability in handling sensitive work situations, while staying on top of all their work commitments.
I want to be that senior woman leader who exhibits a sense of control and composure as the million projects in her world run magically, while other people run around like headless chickens trying to meet their deadlines.
8. They do not gossip
Never have I ever come across a successful woman leader who engaged in any form of gossip. This includes complaining about co-workers, comparing compensation / bonuses, getting “personal info” on colleagues, work relationships etc. Enough said.
9. They are Disciplined
Almost all successful women leaders I’ve met, were extremely disciplined – about their schedule (always on time for meetings); health (waking up early to get a workout, eating balanced meals); family life (blocking time for family activities, assigning certain days to travel) and time (avoiding meetings that could be emails).
They managed their time extremely well which allowed them to manage multiple work projects along with prioritizing their families and themselves.
10. They Say NO
When you meet a woman leader who is extremely successful, you have met a person who has evolved the action of ‘saying NO’ to an Art form.
I have met talented women who raise their hand for everything, die trying to deliver on all their work commitments, sacrifice family life, get raccoon eyes from all the late nights and still disappoint their seniors at work because their deliverable did not ‘wow’. Yikes!
And then there are those women leaders who know exactly how much work to take on themselves or know whom to delegate it to (usually their ‘following’ – see point 4 above), so they can deliver stellar results; all while having a life.
Tip: Setting boundaries and managing expectations is the key to having it all.
Women who are deeply respected at their workplace have also ‘grown-up’ in their career, facing the same challenges as us. But it’s their response to these challenges that has made their careers skyrocket! Which of these 10 actions will you implement in your career next? Write in the comments below.
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Punya is a former management consultant with 15 years of experience at 2 Big4 firms, serving top Fortune500 clients. She has lived and worked in 6 countries and changed 3 careers working across several industries. Punya is passionate about coaching new and aspiring Consultants to succeed in Management Consulting.