Melt The Glass Ceiling
Are you a career woman? Do you work in a male dominated workplace? In Melt The Glass Ceiling, your career coach, Lisa Liszcz, will share tips and strategies on developing the career of your dreams. New episodes drop each week.
Melt The Glass Ceiling
Mastering Self-Advocacy in the Workplace: Strategies for Women to Shine and Get Noticed – Part 1
Have you ever hesitated to trumpet your own achievements at work, especially if you're a woman navigating the corporate world? Let's conquer that hesitation together. I'm Lisa Liszcz, your seasoned expert in career and leadership development, and I'm here to walk you through the nitty-gritty of self-advocacy in the workplace. This episode is a goldmine for those ready to transform everyday water cooler talks into career-propelling conversations. We'll explore how to strategically communicate your accomplishments without breaking a sweat, whether it's in team meetings or one-on-one with your boss. With my three practical tips, prepare to spotlight your hard work and step into the recognition you deserve.
Mentorship and assertive communication can be your secret weapons, and I'm here to show you just how to wield them. But that's not all—arm yourself with my exclusive 8 Ways to Advocate for Yourself and Your Career checklist, a downloadable companion to guide you further. And because your career growth shouldn't pause, I'll be back next week with even more strategies to keep you on the advocacy fast-track. So, if you're ready to melt that glass ceiling and let your professional achievements shine, this conversation is the masterclass you've been waiting for. Let's elevate your career together.
Hello and welcome to Melt the Glass Ceiling. This is Lisa Liszcz. I have been a career development and leadership development coach for over 20 years. I'm going to be sharing some tips with you today about self-advocacy. Oh, even as I say those words, self-advocacy, it gives me a little cringe, a little sense of tension in my stomach, because we women are often uncomfortable with advocating for ourselves and giving visibility to our accomplishments. Let me tell you why it's so important for you to stay competitive, for you to be visible, for people to understand the type of work you can accomplish and that you do well and that you like to do. We have to be able to share that, to be able to talk about it.
Lisa Liszcz:I can tell you that in my years as a human resources professional and a talent management professional working in global organizations, I had so many men in my office regularly telling me about how they added value to the organization and how they needed to be recognized for that. It was a frequent recognized for that. It was a frequent, almost everyday situation. And so if men are in the offices of HR and leadership and talent development talking about their accomplishments, we need to be also, so that we can be recognized and developed and promoted for our talents, skills, commitment, dedication and results. I know it can feel like bragging, I know it can feel arrogant or even egotistical, in large part because we're just not used to it. I get it. But let's just break it down and let me give you three easy tips for self-advocacy that you will be able to start implementing and taking action on today, if you want to, right away. These are very simple, actionable tips. So tip number one self-promotion. Self-promotion is a specific aspect of self-advocacy and it does help us to have more visibility, and in a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research, it was found that men are far more at ease talking about their accomplishments in a very positive, clear, specific way than women are, and they speak very comfortably about their contributions, their results, their accomplishments, which leads to them getting more recognition, better pay in a lot of cases and bigger promotions more quickly. So how are you going to self-promote? How are you going to talk about your accomplishments? Let me tell you when someone, in a casual conversation over lunch in the elevator, over lunch in the elevator at the coffee bar in your office area, asks you how's your week going? How are you doing? What's new with you. A lot of times we take that as inquiries about our condition, how we're feeling, what's going on at home, how is the work volume going.
Lisa Liszcz:These are great opportunities to specifically talk about what you are working on, what you have accomplished, what results you have achieved, what milestones you have hit, what challenges you have overcome. In just these casual conversations, this gives you an opportunity to talk about your contributions in your job to your company and to highlight aspects of your work that you really enjoy. That helps you become more visible and just talk about it in a very casual way. It doesn't, of course, it doesn't have to be formal in these situations. Just talk about what you learned or what you enjoyed about the process. Maybe it was someone you were working with, maybe it was a new person tool that you learned a new software, maybe you got to be part of a team that you really enjoyed working with, and these can be opportunities for you to add visibility to your work and to your accomplishments. So just those casual, in-passing conversations and you don't have to stretch it out a whole lot. Then just ask them how is their week going, how, what are they working on, and be interested, reciprocate. You'll learn something new about someone else's work and that part of the company. So that's just those casual conversations.
Lisa Liszcz:Also, in staff meetings, one of the mistakes I see my clients make is that they don't prepare for staff meetings. I see my clients make is that they don't prepare for staff meetings and then when they have an opportunity to give updates they'll say, oh, nothing new or something like big mistake. Big mistake. Before a staff meeting or a team meeting or a project meeting prepare, write down on a piece of paper or on your tablet three things you want to share, three updates, three new things that you're doing or you've done in the past week to help move a project forward, to help get some barriers out of the way, to help you and your organization move towards success. Take those opportunities, never pass them up.
Lisa Liszcz:Always give update Two or three things that you're proud of, that you feel good about a challenge, you overcame something, a connection, you made just something. And then, finally, talking with your boss, when you have those update meetings with your boss, those one-on-one meetings, again, do the preparation, get out a piece of paper, write down three things, or you know three or four things that you have accomplished over the past week or since your last meeting that you can update your boss about. I highly recommend to my clients that you do this. Start it several days ahead of time so that you can sleep on it. Look at the list again. You'll think of new things, you'll think of more details to share on your updates. Use this as a working document so that when you meet with your boss, you are prepared and you have your list of items that you can go through that outlines your accomplishments, your milestones, the challenges you've overcome and your successes. So now you are updating your boss, you're updating in staff meeting, you're updating in casual conversations around the office or out at lunch and in these ways you can specifically address self-promotion for your self-advocacy.
Lisa Liszcz:That's item number one. Item number two you need to get a mentor. If you don't have a mentor or you've outgrown the mentor relationship that you have had, it's time to get a mentor. Research by Catalyst you know Catalyst. Catalyst is the research group working for equity in the workplace, and their research shows that women's careers definitely benefit from having a mentor. When we compare women who don't have a mentor and women who do have a mentor, the women who have mentors get more promotions, more opportunities and salary increases that are larger. So you want to have a mentor.
Lisa Liszcz:First of all, find the right person. Make sure that your mentor is a person who you have chemistry with, you connect with, and I've had mentors at all levels of the organization. Your mentor does not need to be someone at a very, very high level in the organization. What you are looking for in a mentor is someone who understands the unwritten rules of the organization, the unwritten policies or procedures. This is a person who understands the culture, understands the politics. A lot of times, this is someone who isn't necessarily a formal leader, but is an informal leader. People listen when they talk. This is what you are looking for someone who has credibility, knowledge, expertise within your organization, someone who has gravitas. So you definitely want a mentor.
Lisa Liszcz:You want to make sure that you get the right person, someone that you have a fit with and, finally, I highly recommend we just keep it informal. I've seen people have very successful mentoring relationships for years who never used the word mentor. You just get along. You have each other's backs. You both share value in the relationship. It's a win-win relationship. You might be able to share some insights on technology or a new system or a new platform that your organization is using. You might have industry expertise or some other STEM-related expertise that you can share with your mentor.
Lisa Liszcz:What you're really looking for in a mentor is someone who understands the organization at the level that you are either at or interested in going next, and that person who has connections and is really savvy about how things work. And when you identify that person, just keep it casual, like I said, informal. Invite them to coffee, invite them to lunch, drop in their office, ask them how their day is going, have a chat and then move on. Those casual, friendly relationships really can have so much rich value. And remember, you want it to be a win-win relationship, so add value also for your mentor. Be a listening ear, share information that you have access to. You might even see an article that you know that your mentor would be interested in or new knowledge about a project going on or a development. Go ahead and share and be supportive so that that relationship is mutual. Okay, so we're doing self-promotion, we've got a mentor.
Lisa Liszcz:Tip number three is practice assertive communication. Sharon Anthony Bauer is an assertiveness expert and author. She says the basic difference between being assertive and being aggressive is how our words and behaviors affect the rights and well-being of others. Brilliant quote there. We always want to be sensitive to the words and the tone that we're using when we are communicating and, at the same time, we want to have integrity and stand up for our interests and needs. So it's important for us to express our ideas and opinions clearly and confidently, while also actively listening to others and showing support for others. We don't want to tear other people down. We don't want to hurt people's feelings. We want other people to listen to us and value our opinions and ideas, and so it's really incumbent upon us to do the same thing to listen, to be open to ideas, to pay attention, to not interrupt, to not talk over people and to not use a tone that might be offensive or derogatory. We want to maintain our integrity while being respectful. So, while we're respecting others and showing other people respect and professionalism, we still want to speak up for ourselves, our concerns, our ideas, our opinions, and sometimes we may need to patiently and calmly say something, share an idea a few times to make sure that we're heard and that we're not ignored.
Lisa Liszcz:And that is part of being assertive. It's not rude, it's just respecting others while also respecting ourselves. So, for example, if you have an opinion about what someone's saying and you disagree with what someone is saying, you can always say I respectfully disagree, here's what I think, here's why I think that. Or to even sift out some of what you do agree with. But then, talking specifically about the one or two pieces that you don't agree with, you can say I completely agree with this part of what you're saying and that's so validating. But then say but not with this other part of what you're saying. And in that very respectful way, being mindful to tone volume and your words, you can be clear about what your perspective is. You can also start out a sentence saying my concern is this and really focus on a larger issue for the team or the organization. So, for example, your department is moving forward on a new project and we're going in a direction that you disagree with. It's assertive to say my concern is that this is going to affect our employees or this is going to affect our efficiency, so that you show that you have strategic concerns without being negative.
Lisa Liszcz:Practicing assertive communication gets better with practice. All I can tell you is that I've seen over and over again with myself personally and with women in the workplace that the more you get used to speaking up in a respectful tone, the easier it gets. Get used to speaking up in meetings and in one-on-one conversations. Get used to sharing your opinions and start with baby steps. Start with relatively low-risk situations and speak up in those situations to build up your comfort level so that you become ready later to speak up and have confidence in your assertiveness in more challenging or more high-risk situations.
Lisa Liszcz:My goal is to help you accelerate your career success and to feel good about your career and feel good about your work. I don't want you stuck in a rut or not living up to your potential. For you to reach your potential, it is important that you advocate for yourself. Three of the important ways that you can advocate for yourself is to promote your accomplishments with self-promotion, get a mentor and practice assertive communication. Next week, I am going to have three more self-advocacy tips for you. In the meantime, I invite you to download my 8 Ways to Advocate for Yourself and your Career checklist. The link is in the show notes. Let me know if you have any questions or thoughts in the comments. Now go, melt the glass ceiling.
