by Solange Lopes | Jun 24, 2018 | Career
Welcome to our career, entrepreneurship, lifestyle and fashion weekly news roundup! Think of it as your online watercooler/work gossip station/coffee break spot for now…Want to add anything to our list? Email us at corporate@thecorporatesister.com!
- Business Insider shows us how to be fearless at work and how you can get over your fear;
- The Guardian shares the self-help guide for Black women “Slay In Your Lane: The Black Girl Bible”;
- Don’t have the right degree? Recruiter advises you on getting the job without the degree to back it up;
- Ellevate Network highlights how you can boost your career goals this summer;
- The Muse shares how to get ready for work in 10 minutes;
- Workology tips you off on how to command a room as a woman at work;
- The Glassdoor Blog lists 5 interview questions employers trip you up with;
- Got the travel bug? The Indeed blog recommends 15 careers that satisfy your wanderlust;
- Want to get C-suite buy-in? Read this advice by Forbes;
- Ellevate Network shares how to get press for your business;
- Entrepreneurship can be tough on your mind. Forbes Woman reveals 5 mental health tips for entrepreneurs;
- The Undercover Recruiter answers the question: “How can we promote healthy eating in the workplace?”
- The Corporate Sister tells you how to look professional in the summer as a working mom.
To Your Success,
The Corporate Sister
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by Solange Lopes | Jun 23, 2018 | Career
Looking professional as a working woman during the summer months is challenging. I mean, you’re supposed to look put together in the middle of the sweltering heat outside, and as you battle the icy cold of air conditioners blasting inside. Your clothes are supposed to remain immaculate, as you gracefully lodge your freshly manicured toes in elegant open-toed shoes. The reality is that many times, you’re clutching your underarms for fear some unwelcome stress sweat will drown the room, as you’re blotting your face for the umpteenth time before getting mistaken for the corner mirror.
You’ve probably noticed that summertime is also when company and departmental dress codes magically reappear after the winter. It’s because it’s also the time when some pretty interesting, and inappropriate fashion choices, are made in the workplace, from lazy flip-flops to eyebrow-raising tank tops. As a general rule, you may want to check your office dress code, to ensure you’re abiding by the rules.
How to look professional in the heat
Although you certainly don’t wake up like Beyonce (none of us does), there are a few things we can do to actually look professional in the heat:
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Hello summer dresses
French Connection Whisper Ruth Sheath Dress – Nordstrom
The easiest and quickest piece of workwear in the summer is the proverbial summer dress. When in doubt, throw one on, which will avoid you the headache of figuring out which pieces to pair together. My favorite dress shapes in the summer are easy sheath dresses, like this fresh French Connection Whisper Ruth sheath number from Nordstrom. I also like fit-and-flare shapes, such as this Elie Tahari fit-and-flare shirt dress from Saks Fifth Avenue. The point is to be comfortable, fresh and still polished.
Elie Tahari fit-and-flare dress
You may want to avoid too short dresses or dresses that are overly revealing. Preferably, you would pair it with a cardigan or light blazer to combat the air conditioning assault inside building (see tip#6).
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Pick the right fabrics
The last thing you want as you head in to work is to literally suffocate as you’re trapped in some too-heavy fabric for the weather. Make sure to pick breathable and comfortable fabrics, including cotton, linen and silk.
COS Short-sleeve shirt
Flowy silhouettes also tend to be more comfortable and versatile, especially at work. I love this Cos A-line short-sleeveshirt for its basic simplicity. This Akris Punto Kodak stripe wrap blouse from Saks Fifth Avenue is perfect from the meeting room to the after-hours gathering.
Akris Punto Kodak Stripe Wrap blouse – Saks Fifth Avenue
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Pay attention to details
Details are ultimately what make you look polished in any season, but especially so in the summer. As the layers tend to come off in the summer, details such as your nails and even undergarments are more apparent.
Essie Guilty Pleasures nail polish – Dermstore
Keep your manicure and pedicure fresh and polished for a professional look. My favorite nail polish shades for the summer include this Guilty Pleasures cheery shade from Essie,as well as this gorgeous lavender shade from OPI. You also can’t go wrong with clean nude shades like the iconic Christian Louboutin Nudes collection from Nordstrom, or the Burberry Nude pink No. 101 from Net-A-Porter.
In the same vein, make sure your undergarments are supporting and complimenting your figure adequately. The 24/7 Lace Perfect Coverage Bra from Third Love is great to achieve the comfort and support you need at work.
24/7 Lace Perfect Coverage Bra – Photo courtesy: Third Love
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Put your right footwear forward
As a general rule, if there is more shoe than foot, you’re probably dressed too casually for the office. When wearing peep-toe pumps or sandals, pick dressy ones that look polished enough. Avoid flip-flops or overly open footwear.
Cole Haan Patent Leather Peep-Toe Wedges – Saks Fifth Avenue
My favorite footwear for the summer is elegant and comfortable wedges, preferably peep-toe style. For work, I like these classic Cole Haan patent leather peep-toe wedges from Saks Fifth Avenue, or these Lucky Brand Jestah beauties from Nordstrom.
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Carry some summer essentials with you
Aburatorigami Japanese Blotting Papers – Sephora
The heat definitely makes it necessary to carry some beauty essentials with you, including a small deodorant, blot paper and antiperspirant wipes. My favorites are these Aburatorigami Japanese blotting papers from Sephora, made of natural abaca leaf and gold flakes to absorb excess oil without damaging your make-up.
These IGK charcoal dry shampoo hair blotting tissues, also from Sephora, also come in handy when you don’t have time for more frequent shampoos in the summer. While you’re at it, grab these Dermadoctor Med E Tate antiperspirant wipes from JC Penneyas well, and this Fresh sugar roll-on deodorant anti-perspirant from Nordstrom.
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Mind Your Layers
J. Crew Factory Cardigan
I’m still not sure why the air conditioners are set to blast arctic air inside when the temperatures rise outside. The point is, it’s always recommended to plan for layers in the summer. This may mean carrying along a light blazer or cardigan that you can quickly throw on in the office, and take off when you step outside.
One of my favorite is the cotton, three-quarter Clare cardigan from J. Crew Factory. I also love floral cardigans such as this Karen Scott printed number from Macy’s.
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Work your do
As a curly girl, summer is one of my least favorite “hair seasons.” Between excessive frizz and rebellious edges, it can be hard to keep a professional hairstyle all day long. I’ve found that it takes the right products to keep your locks in place and look the part.
Cantu natural coconut curling cream – Sally Beauty
My go-to’s to tame your curls into professional and elegant looks are the Cantu leave-in conditioner from Sally Beauty, as well as the Cantu coconut curling cream, also available at Sally Beauty.
Over to you: how do you manage to look professional in the summer months?
To Your Success,
The Corporate Sister.
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by Solange Lopes | Jun 20, 2018 | Career, Working Mom & Woman Tips
It takes a village. Not just to raise a child, but to live our best lives as women. It’s challenging to be truly successful alone, if possible at all. As much opposition that there seems to be among women, in and outside of the workplace, the truth is, we need each other to be fully flourishing and successful, whatever our definition of success is. As working women, we do need a tribe of supportive women to surround and accompany us on our personal and professional journeys.
As the proverbial independent woman, I was taught that you can accomplish success alone. However, the more I was around other powerful and strong women in their own right, the more I realized that our impact is not diminished but rather multiplied when we’re in the right tribe of women.
Yet, it can be challenging to find the right tribe for us, especially considering the barriers and obstacles imposed on women in and outside of work. From the “Queen Bee” syndrome, which mandates that only one woman can hold the power in a given organization, to the many false stereotypes and preconceptions about women being unable to collaborate and work together, there are indeed many challenges. This is not about being part of a clique or exclusive group of women reminiscent of high school. Rather, it’s about building an empowering circle whose main goal is to help the women in it maximize their potential and fulfill their God-given purpose.
Through my discussions with my women friends and many working women around me, and by experiencing myself the power of being part of a tribe of supportive women, I learnt about what it takes to build it for ourselves. If like me, you’re always looking to build or strengthen a tribe of supportive women around you, these pointers may help:
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Work on yourself first
Any relationship you may have starts with you! Before even thinking of entering or building a tribe, you must first consider working on yourself. You can’t pour out of an empty cup, neither can you be a full part of any relationship unless you are full yourself! When I say full, I mean filled with your own authenticity, purpose and worth. This is not to say that you must be perfect, no one is. However, you must work on yourself to clean up any mental or spiritual clutter that may affect your relationships with other women, and be accepting of yourself so you in turn can accept others.
One recurring message I heard throughout my youth is that you cannot trust other women. As a result, I grew more distrustful of my peers, which created a block in my relationships with other women for a long time. It took self-exploration and self-work to understand these mental patterns, and eradicate them from my mind. It also took working on my self-esteem and self-worth in order to accept myself as I am, so I in turn could be more accepting of others.
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Look for leadership characteristics
Building or strengthening a tribe of strong and powerful women requires certain leadership characteristics in all parties involved. You cannot build strong relationships based on weak character. This is the reason why relationships and friendships are so crucial, as they mirror who we are and help us develop into the people we need to be in order to have healthy and fruitful interactions.
This is also why it’s so important to look for leadership characteristics in your fellow tribe sisters. The goal here is to empower each other, so we must all do the work on ourselves. Unfortunately, we also all have seasons during which we may not be a right fit for each other, and it’s ok.
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Be open-minded
Very often, we miss out on wonderful connections and relationships because we’re not open-minded enough. A tribe of supportive women is made out of all different women with different tastes, likes, dislikes and abilities. The more open-minded we are, the more we can build fruitful and positive relationships that help us empower and strengthen each other.
The most positive relationships are most often those in which opposites are connected and help strengthen each other through their differences. Be open-minded enough to get to know women who do not look like you, do not move or think like you. You may find out that there is such a wealth of perspectives, knowledge and wisdom to be found around us.
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Don’t be afraid to walk away from relationships that don’t fit
Building a tribe of supportive women also means knowing when to walk away from interactions that are simply not the right fit for us. This is not to condemn anyone, or cast a judgment upon anyone. The reality is we all need to work on different areas of our lives. As we go through different seasons, we must also realize that some relationships and connections, and by extension some tribes, are just for us. We must also muster the courage to walk away from these and seek the tribes that are truly for us.
There’s always some level of guilt associated with walking away from certain relationships. However, it doesn’t have to be a conflicting situation. Rather, it can simply be a peaceful understanding that it may be better to explore other relationships for the time being.
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Support, not competition!
The point here is to foster a supportive, not a competitive community. Unfortunately, we’ve been conditioned as women to compete against each other, as we were made to believe that there is only room for one of us at a time. This is one of the greatest fallacies of time, which seeks to pin women against each other, and thus diminish our influence and impact.
Instead, seek to build a tribe that is focused on supporting each woman reach their potential and accomplish their purpose.
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Honesty is key
Honesty is crucial when it comes to building such a tribe. Often, in attempts to protect others or ourselves, we shy away from being our most transparent selves. A solid tribe of women who support each other is one where honesty is the rule and not the exception. Dare to speak up and confront your fellow sisters when necessary, and establish a foundation of trust.
While certain conversations can be hard to be had, it’s important to get past the initial discomfort to address potential or existing issues. It’s also one of the best ways to get to know your fellow sisters and learn to face challenging situations together.
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Honor yourself
Last but not least, always honor yourself. Being part of a tribe of women doesn’t mean denying oneself. On the contrary, it’s an act of self-love and communal love that says: “I value myself enough to surround myself with strong, supportive women whom I support and who support me in achieving my God-given purpose.”
Now your turn: How have you built your own tribe of supportive women?
To Your Success,
The Corporate Sister.
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by Solange Lopes | Jun 13, 2018 | Career
If you’ve been at your job for some time, you may have noticed yourself getting more complacent and borderline bored at times. As a working woman, you may enjoy the amenities, benefits and compensation that naturally come with the territory. You may even have formed healthy and positively happy relationships at your workplace, and may feel at home there. Our jobs may be so comfortable that we can refrain from proactively seeking to advance and grow in your careers. This may result in it taking a few years for you to realize that you may be in a dead-end job that may not really fulfill you or motivate you to accomplish your purpose.
While it can be challenging to do so, it’s crucial to look for tell-tale signs like boredom, extreme routine, salary plateaus, and work overload. If you’re getting up every day with a certain lack of excitement, you may want to start re-considering if stagnation has been invading your work. Better yet, you should take some time out to stop and re-evaluate your work at frequent intervals to ensure that you’re not just going through the motions when it comes to your career.
If you’re reading this and considering how to avoid stagnation in your career, here are a few ways to consider:
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Never stop learning!
As working women especially, we have so much on our plates that we end up foregoing our need to learn and evolve at work and in life. We no longer make learning and growing a priority, and sometimes even believe we know enough to advance in our careers and lives. We tend to get stuck into familiar patterns and cycles that keep us not moving forward in our careers. Very often, we even fail to recognize the many lessons showing up in our daily lives and work.
It is often said that your job is paying you to learn, and nothing could be truer. Learn to spot and use any and every opportunity to learn something new in your career. Whether it’s increasing your knowledge of a certain field or industry, learning from a client, or picking a colleague or manager’s brain, you want to use your workplace as a source of growth and learning. This will require to proactively seek new ways to learn and be willing to stretch yourself. However, the rewards are immense if you allow yourself to do so.
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Get skilled at more things
Along with continuously learning in your career, acquiring new skills is one of the best ways to avoid rampant stagnation at work. These skills, especially those that are crucial to your advancement and progress in your particular field or industry, will keep you fresh and growing on your career path.
Whether it’s a new certification, computer program, or industry-related ability, spot those skills that are of interest to you and can help you progress at work. Better yet, the more specialized skills you have, the more valued you tend to be.
Related: How to become a CPA in less than 12 months
- Volunteer, volunteer, volunteer!
Growing in your career also requires you to stretch yourself beyond what you believe to be your capabilities. This means volunteering for opportunities in and outside of your team or department, and at times putting yourself in uncomfortable or unfamiliar situations. It also means diversifying your professional experience so as to create a portfolio of experiences that can motivate you to reach further.
Whether it’s volunteering for a good cause, or lending your services or expertise to be a mentor, or to help in a different team, be willing to step outside of what you would normally do. This goes a long way in showing that you are a leader and pushing you to achieve your goals and objectives. It also takes you away from the routine of everyday, predictable tasks in favor of discovering new professional territory.
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Don’t be afraid to ask for opportunities
Growing in your career requires you to be willing to ask for what you really want. This may mean asking for new opportunities in terms of responsibilities, salaries or even positions. Is it time to ask for a raise, a promotion, or a rotation in your career? If you’re finding yourself not challenged enough or doing the same things day in and day out, you may want to start asking for the opportunities that will help you grow and be more motivated at work.
It may be as simple as exploring openings and opportunities within your own department or company to assess if a change is needed or possible. Or you may want to consult with your mentor, or even your manager, and devise a plan whereby the right opportunities could help you steer your work in the right direction.
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Stop and re-assess!
When was the last time you stopped and re-assessed your career? When did you actually take the time to ask yourself if you were too stagnant in your career? As working women especially, it can be challenging to actually find and take this time to ask ourselves these questions. In turn, we may be working for days, months and years on end, with the feeling of not going anywhere.
Take the time to regularly assess your professional standing. Check in with yourself to see if you’re fulfilled or are just going through the motions at work.
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Consider a lateral move
Have you ever considered how a simple lateral move can actually boost your career? There are many opportunities within your department or company that can push you to the next level. However, you must be attuned to yourself and to your work environment to recognize and seize those.
A lateral move can do wonders for your career, while still not committing you to a major change. Consider positions that may be equivalent to yours, but allow you to grow and advance.
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Know when to leave
Sometimes, there is no other choice to avoid career stagnation than to leave where you are. There may be no opportunities to get promoted, or you may have simply attained your ceiling wherever you are. Know and discern when it’s the best time to leave, rather than remaining complacent in your career.
In any case, decide to quit without burning bridges and don’t forget to maintain the network you have already acquired. Choose to see it as a stepping stone and an opportunity to grow and move to better horizons, rather than a personal or professional failure.
How do you avoid stagnation in your own career?
To Your Success,
The Corporate Sister.
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by Solange Lopes | Jun 11, 2018 | Career
Have you ever cried at work, whether hidden in a bathroom stall or flat out in front of your boss? Have you ever expressed your anger in an explosive way you wish you could take back? Or have you witnessed a co-worker or friend in similar situations? You may have experienced any of these situations which may have required you to manage your emotions at work, whether you or someone else was involved.
As working women, we’re often saddled with the reputation of being “too emotional”. Popular opinion has it that women at work wear their emotions on their sleeves, and for this reason, may not be able to aspire to or hold positions of leadership. As a working woman, I know the importance of managing our emotions at work. From speaking with fellow working women, I also know that many have experienced, either personally or through a relationship, the negative effects of emotions at work.
In the traditional sense, emotions have been heralded as not belonging in the workplace. You’re not supposed to show your emotions at work. Neither are you supposed to talk about them. However, considering that emotions are natural mechanisms of survival as embedded in our biological make-up, how realistic is it to be expected to show no to little emotion at work?
Truth is, both men and women react to emotional stimuli, albeit in different ways. While men tend to explode, women tend to cry. However, as explained by neurologist William Frey, women tend to also carry in their systems a hormone that makes them more prone to crying, also known as prolactin. Yet, women are blamed more at work for expressing their emotions and as such tend to be more emotionally constrained.
What are we then do to as working women to manage our emotions at work? While ignoring your emotions at work is counter-productive, there are ways to manage them so that they help and don’t hinder your career:
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Know your emotional patterns
Being aware of how you emotionally react is the first step to effectively managing your emotions. What triggers you in and outside of work? How do you tend to react in certain situations? Who are the people who make you react in a more emotional way?
Learning to be mindful of your own emotional triggers and reactions can go a long way towards helping you manage them. It will also help you anticipate highly stressful and emotion-inducing situations or contexts so you can choose the most suitable reaction for yourself. For instance, faced with a colleaugue’s or boss’s demeaning remarks, knowing that this is a trigger will help you decide to step away and grab a coffee in order to calm yourself down first. Even in situations where you may cry or get upset, prepare to discuss the behavior that made you react this way and seek an amicable resolution rather than letting it fester.
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Do not ignore your emotions
One of the biggest mistakes you can make is totally ignoring your emotions. Burying deep-seated feelings or delaying emotional responses may worsen them in the long run. Acknowledge that you’re experiencing certain emotional reactions and work to understand their roots and origins first. What is it about a certain setting, context or person that creates certain strong emotions in you? Does it relate to a time or experience that you may not have dealt with previously?
It requires strength to recognize your emotions, when you may be tempted to ignore them. Instead, acknowledge them, and consider sharing them with someone you trust as a way of release. You can use this knowledge to devise the best way to react rather than being taken by surprise and reacting out of character.
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Develop habits that help you balance out your emotions
Experiencing a host of different emtions at work, or anywhere else for that matter, is normal. Additioanlly ,considering the large amount of time we spend at work, it can be hard to avoid our emotions. It’s important then to develop habits and rituals to balance out the impact of some of the storng emotions we may feel at work. Habits such as exercising, meditation, prayer can help instill more happiness and stability in your day-to-day, so as to bring more emotional balance overall.
Having outlets for your talents, skills and interests outside of work can greatly contribute to helping you manage your emotions without denying them. It will also expose you to different environments and various personalities which in turn will teach you the resilience and experience needed to handle other situations at work.
Overall, you must demystify the importance of emotions at work and learn to use these as actual compasses and indicators rather than enemies to be avoided at all costs.
Now your turn: How do you deal with your emotions at work?
To Your Success,
The Corporate Sister
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by Solange Lopes | Jun 1, 2018 | Career
All across social media and everywhere around us, all we tend to see these days is: “Be real, be yourself, be authentic!” If you ask me, authenticity is one of the biggest marketing selling points nowadays. As working women, we are encouraged, more than ever before, to sit at the table and bring all of ourselves to the global conversation of work, business and life.
Yet, I find it interesting that in the same vein, we’re still very much expected to conform to societal expectations when it comes to how we work, how we dress, and how we present ourselves to the world. Let’s think about it for a minute. It’s still not okay to breast-feed in public, and neither is it to dress a certain way in certain environments, or to be paid the same wages as our male counterparts for that matter. Office politics still implicitly require us to behave in a certain manner, all the while being subjected to glass ceilings and concrete walls of all kinds. The entrepreneurial world still won’t give us the benefit of the doubt when it comes to funding resources or establishing general business credibility.
The truth is, authenticity is a struggle for many, if not most, working women. This is not just about being real, which if you ask me is nothing more than a pathetic excuse for many not to be held accountable for their conduct. Women have been conditioned by society for so long, that many have had to un-learn inaccurate beliefs and perceptions about ourselves. Think about all the little girls who are given stereotypical definitions of what beauty means from a very young age on. Think about those imprisoned in boxes of conformity and expectations, from when it is proper to get married to how many children they should have, what work-life balance really means, to whether they can even really handle having a career and raising kids.
So how do we manage to be more authentic at work and in life especially as working women? And can we really do so without endangering our already precarious careers and businesses, not to mention our entire lives? Despite the many challenges you may face in expressing our authenticity as a working woman, it is still possible to beat the fear of being your own woman. Some of it involves un-learning many of the expectations and false messages sent your way, but it is possible.
In my own experience as well as through the stories of many working women I havedirectly and indirectly known, I have found that white authenticity is a struggle for working women especially at work, there are steps that can be taken towards it:
Acknowledge the areas in your work or in your life in which you are not your most authentic self.
At work, it may be with certain people, in certain settings or environments, or when you are exposed to certain situations. It may also be an all-encompassing attitude you may have adopted all across your career or business. In your personal life it may occur in certain relationships, circles or settings.
Take a step back and assess those areas where you may not be at ease enough to bring all that you are to the table. When I did this, I realized certain settings and environments challenged me because of the fear I felt of not being adequate enough. As a result of my fear of being judged, especially in high-performing professional and business environments, I refrained from opening myself up and sharing some aspects of my personality. Especially as a woman of color, certain cultural aspects of my experience would remain untold. I would not share much for instance about my cultural background, the way I like to wear my hair in a puffy ‘fro, or the traditional foods I enjoyed the most. This in turn I admit, did not help me build more powerful connections and relationships.
In the same way you may have refrained from sharing parts of your personality or your experience for fear you would be judged or disqualified based on this. This is not so much due to dishonesty or lack of ingenuity, or being “fake”. It is simply because especially as working women, we’ve been so much conditioned to conform to certain societal, personal and professional expectations that it ends up being challenging for us to open ourselves up and share more of who we are and what we can do.
I once interviewed a great lawyer who happened to be a woman of color like myself. When I asked her about the best piece of advice she could give fellow women like her, she replied that she would advise them to bring all of who they are to work. According to her, if they couldn’t be themselves at work, then they wouldn’t be as successful as they could be. Her nugget of advice made me think long and hard about our need to be authentic, but also about the challenges that are in our way when we try to do so. Many women of color have faced discrimination and disapproval when wearing their hair natural at work, for instance. This is in addition to other forms of discrimination. Depending on the setting or environment, we’re also expected to act in certain ways in order to be rewarded with career advancement or business success. Yet, as challenging as it can be, not being our most authentic self will ultimately deprive us of the real success we deserve.
Identify the beliefs you have about yourself that make you less authentic in certain areas of your work or life.
Despite the barriers and obstacles placed in our way which keep us from sometimes being our most authentic self, there are barriers within us that should be addressed first. These are the beliefs about ourselves which were planted in us by well-meaning friends and family members we may have grown up with, or that we may have derived from certain situations and circumstances. Identifying these these beliefs could make you understand why you refrain from showing up as your most authentic self in certain situations or settings.
Some of the sources of these these beliefs are rooted as far back as childhood, and as close as the daily interactions we have. What do you believe about yourself that prevents you from sharing more of who you are? What are the sources of your feelings of inadequacy that make you hide part of your personality and abilities? For some, we may believe that we are inadequate because a parent or a family member or even a friend conveyed this message to us in one form or another. For others, it may be because we believe that we have to conform to a certain image in order to be successful. Identifying these damaging beliefs in ourselves also helps pinpoint their sources, so we can let go of them and adopt a more positive attitude.
Sharing is caring!
The best way to cultivate authenticity in our working life is to share more of who we are. Most people are not inauthentic out of a desire to be dishonest. Many simply lack the room, space and opportunity to bring all that they are to the table.
While all the doors and tables may not be open to us just yet, and although progress is certainly being made, we can begin this process by opening up more. In a previous article, I shared why as women of color especially we need to tell more of our stories. When we don’t bring all of who are to the table, and fail to tell our stories, we deprive the world of an important source of wealth, information, motivation, inspiration and strength to move forward. In my own experience, I have found that every time I was willing to be more vulnerable and share my experiences, mistakes and story, it would open the door for more powerful connections. There will certainly be instances in which your authenticity and genuineness will not be well-received. However, it will always be worth it to present yourself exactly as you are and identify early on whether a certain environment, relationship or opportunity is the right fit for you, rather than incurring the weight of falsely placed expectations.
Commit to standing courageously in your own truth.
While the process starts with sharing a little more of who you are and of your personal and professional story, it continues with a deep personal commitment to consistently stand in our own truth. This may require us getting outside of our comfort zone and facing situations in which we’re not always at an advantage. It may also require showing up in all of our difference, being “the only one in the room“, and braving negative stereotypes and preconceptions. Yet, what it will do is not only free you to be your most authentic self, but it will also open doors of opportunity that only your true self can walk through. Additionally, it will offer others the priceless gift of knowing that they too can show up exactly as they are despite the obstacles and challenges in their way.
All in all, being our most authentic selves at work and in life is not always as easy as it seems to be. Depending on the environment, the circumstances and the relationships at play, it may feel more comfortable to only present the parts of our personality or stories that are most comfortable for us. However, there are ways to cultivate our unique individual authenticity as working women in and outside of the workplace, while also empowering others.
Now your turn, how have you managed to become your more authentic self at work and in life?
To your success,
The Corporate Sister.
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by Solange Lopes | May 27, 2018 | Career
Welcome to our weekly career, entrepreneurship, lifestyle and fashion news roundup! Think of it as your online watercooler/work gossip station/coffee break spot for now…Want to add anything to our list? Email us at corporate@thecorporatesister.com!
To Your Success.
The Corporate Sister.
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