Add value – blackenterprise.com
Happy Wednesday! It’s hump-day, already, and since this is a short week, hump-day feels even better…
The perennial question in our careers is, How do we advance our careers? What can we do as corporate sisters (and brothers) to get ahead, climb the corporate ladder, break the glass ceiling, I mean, simply put, how do we get to the top? Do we work harder? Play politics? Lean in, lean out, lean to the side, do the happy dance? You get the drift…
Career advancement, especially for women, is a complex animal. According to a recent study by Catalyst, the percentage of senior management roles filled by women globally is 24%, while 21% of the same roles are occupied by women in G7 countries.
While the discussion has long been centered around gender parity (or rather lack thereof), little has been said about value. Regardless of gender, are we adding value to the workplace? What unique qualities, perspectives and talents, as women and corporate sisters are we bringing to the table?
Instead on focusing on more masculine attributes of work and business, such as assertiveness for instance, why not look at and positively present what we bring to the professional forefront. As natural-born leaders, nurturers, advocates and decision-makers in the natural, we are bound to add value to any professional environment we may step in. Whether through our resourcefulness, managerial abilities, people skills or resilience, we are naturally equipped for professional challenges.
Yet, we tend to not perceive our contributions as valuable simply because we compare them to our male counterparts’. As a direct result, the marketplace’s general perception of the value we bring declines in proportion to it.
Maybe the question should be, instead of how can we advance our careers as women and corporate sisters, what intrinsic, personal, real value are we adding to the workplace?
The Corporate Sister.
