If you look at the statistics around women of color at work, whether in corporate careers or businesses, the related rates of success are dismal. It is obvious that even when we make it, only a few of us get to reach to the pinnacle of success. Only a few of us get to attain the peaks of corporations, or climb to the summits of business. Where every other woman faces a glass ceiling, we face concrete walls. Where one of us succeeds, thousands are lagging behind.
While there is a notable lack of opportunities for women of color at work, there are also destructive mindsets that continuously keep us behind. One of these can be summarized in these few words: Not Enough Room for all of us.
It’s a mindset rooted in scarcity that teaches us that there can never be enough opportunities for more than a handful of us. As a result, it pits us against each other, leaving us to compete for the “Queen Bee” spot at the top of whatever ladder we may find ourselves on. The result? Less women of color in position of power and influence coupled with a growing sense of mistrust and lack of collaboration among us.
Changing our reality starts with changing our mindsets from a place of scarcity to one of abundance. Contrary to what society seems to suggest, there is enough room for women of color to rise in all career or business areas. Diversity is the conduit of innovation and progress. However, it starts with us refraining from believing that there are limited spots for success, and instead claiming and creating the spaces and opportunities we need to flourish.
Here are a few ways we can as women of color leave the “Not Enough Room for all of us” mindset behind and move forward in our lives, careers or businesses:
Work on ourselves
As women of color at work, we face unique challenges. From facing a blatant lack of diversity at work to sometimes overt discrimination, the obstacles are many. Which also requires us to be more prepared to face these roadblocks mentally, emotionally, spiritually and even physically.
Taking care of ourselves is a must. Working on our mindsets is indispensable. This means being willing to take time aside to develop ourselves through adequate education, training and self-improvement. It means investing in the curriculums, books, coaches and programs to strive in our careers, businesses and lives.
Foster increased collaboration between women of color
As women in general, it can be hard to trust others, especially other women. Popular mindsets and social stereotypes portrayed in mainstream and social media have us believing in competition rather than collaboration.
It is up to us to fight these stereotypes and seek increased collaboration opportunities between women of color. It may require us to step outside of our comfort zones or challenge pre-conceived notions we may have been raised with. However, it’s only through collaboration that we can get to make a real difference.
Increase mentorship opportunities
One of the main reasons why women in general, and women of color in particular, don’t reach higher levels in their careers or businesses, is lack of mentorship. Very few women of color get access to quality mentors who can help them achieve higher levels of success. For most of us, mentorship is considered a privilege.
As we advance in our own careers or businesses, let’s consider mentoring other women of color. As we have access to rooms closed to other women of color, let’s consider teaching those behind us how to unlock them as well. It’s also important for us to accept to be mentored and receive the many advantages of mentoring as a benefit, rather than a hindrance to our lives and careers.
Create and sustain more businesses
Entrepreneurship has never been more of an equalizer as today. Women of color are starting businesses at higher rates than ever. The more women of color are able to create and sustain thriving businesses, the more we can create opportunities for a larger number of women.
Businesses are being created in a plethora of new markets every single day by women. This goes to show that there is indeed room for women in general, and women of color in particular, to move forward in their lives, careers and businesses.
Bring another woman of color with you
Along with mentoring other women of color, we can simply bring one with us as we evolve through our own careers and lives. This may mean inviting a fellow sister to a strategic team meeting, introducing her to a new networking group, or just putting a word in her favor.
Every time we’re stepping in rooms where there are no or not enough women of color, we should ask ourselves how we can change the situation for the better.
What’s your take: Do you agree that this mindset keeps women of color behind?
I used to be a perfectionist. Which also means that anything having to do with failure, or mistakes, ranked very low in my list of favorites. As a matter of fact, failure was a no-no. It was not ok to fail, make mistakes or stray from being, or even worse, looking less than perfect.
This is also the mentality that many working women, especially in Corporate America, are saddled with. In most corporations, or Big Corporate as I like to call it, you’re judged on how well you perform. Whether it’s your sales quota, your performance rate, or your ability to manipulate office politics, there is very little room for failure. When was the last time you’ve heard anyone being celebrated at work for learning from their mistakes? My point exactly…
The turning point for me happened when I started learning about entrepreneurship, and becoming an entrepreneur. The first time I read an article about Sara Blakely, the creator and CEO of the Spanx brand, recounting how her father used to ask daily both she and her brother what they failed at, I was amazed. Yet, she says that it’s because she was never afraid of failing that she was able to go from being a door-to-door saleswoman to building her extraordinary business. Many other entrepreneurs like Blakeley talk about the many failures they’ve had to endure and learn from before ultimately reaching the pinnacle of success.
As women, especially as working women accustomed to carrying the world on our shoulders and doing it all just because we can, failure tends to make us cringe. We tend to recoil at the thought that anyone would know that after all, we don’t have it all together. That we stumble and fall, sometimes more often than we actually have a handle on our lives or careers. Our failures tend to be very private, hidden as shameful occurrences we’re quick to swipe under the rug.
Yet, what if failures were actually incredible learning opportunities we keep missing out on out of a disproportionate and misplaced sense of shame? What if there was really nothing to be ashamed of when it came to our mistakes? And what if they were instead a sign that we were progressing and making strides forward?
A few years back, after failing at my umpteenth Certified Public Accountant (CPA) exam, I started keeping a failure journal. I would record every exam I failed, and everything I had to work on to prepare to re-take it. The more I thought about it, the more evident it became to me that I should expand this practice to other areas of my life. Needless to say, in the beginning, the process felt like sucking on sour lemons. Yet, it taught me some of the most important lessons about myself, my career and life I’ve ever learnt. From unearthing my deepest insecurities to exposing the areas I needed to work on, it was an eye-opener, and still is. Today, the word “failure” no longer paralyzes me, which is a far cry from the old “perfectionist” me.
If the very idea of failing at anything fills you with dread, consider facing it head-on instead. This is not about getting complacent about not succeeding in any area of your life. Rather, it’s about leaving society’s misconceptions about so-called failures behind. Anything you’re not succeeding at is teaching you a lesson. You never really lose, you only learn. However, you can only learn if you’re willing to embrace the experience and let go of the shame.
What’s your take on it: Would you keep a failure journal?
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!
Business Insider shares 15 things successful people do over holiday breaks;
Black Enterprise shares how the new tax plan affects your expenses;
“You can’t be what you can’t see”. You may have heard this phrase before, and so have I. Not only have I heard it, I have come to make it a powerful principle in my career and life in general. It’s also the reason why I started creating a Career Vision Statement for myself, because rather than hoping and wishing, I wanted to see where I wanted to be and what I wanted to do in the future.
Your Career Vision Statement is the equivalent of a mental picture of what inspires you and where you aspire to be. These are not expectations from society or what others think about you, or want you to do. It’s about your own view of success according to your personal values and interests. The reason why a Career Vision Statement is so powerful is because it helps draw out a path for your work, create meaning behind it and direct your actions as you move towards your career purpose.
How to write your Career Vision Statement-2
This study revealed that one of the reasons why women persisted in fields as challenging as STEM was because they had a “personal vision”. A strong Career Vision Statement will keep you inspired, motivated and engaged.
As a working woman, having a Career Vision Statement has helped me face and overcome discrimination, bias and barriers in the workplace. I believe it can also help you achieve bigger and better things in your work.
Here are three simple steps to create your Career Vision Statement:
Define who you want to be and what you want to do
It’s important to be as honest with yourself as possible about who you really are and what you really want to do when it comes to your career. Many of us have a flawed vision of who we should be, based on feedback from friends and families, or expectations that are not in aligned with who we are.
Instead, ask yourself: “Who do I want to be?” “What do I want to do?” Through this process, do not settle for second best. Let go of logical thinking and pragmatism. Turn off those negative voices and dare to think “big”. Anything is possible!
Here are a few questions you can ask yourself:
How do you define career success?
What type of job or career do you envision yourself doing?
What would you do if money weren’t a concern?
If no obstacles stood in your way, what would you like to achieve your career?
Who are the people you most admire?
What does your life look like once you achieve success?
Do you have a gift or calling?
What do you love to do?
Where would you like to be in 1 year? 5 years?
What makes you special?
Recognize what you need to do to get there
Reality check: There’s a gap between the “who” you want to be, and the real you at the moment. This is not to beat yourself up for not having reached the levels of success you’re aspiring to.
Your Career Vision Statement is a great place to devise HOW you intend to make your professional vision come true. Think about a few steps you can put into action to illustrate ways you can get to achieve your career goals.
Review periodically!
Review your Career Vision Statement periodically, preferably as often as possible! I keep mine in my wallet and try and read it at least once a week, if not multiple times a week. I find that every time I read it, I get a boost of self-confidence and motivation.
Make it a habit to review your Career Vision Statement and update it regularly.
At the end of each year, I inevitably ask myself: “Self, where do you stand?” While this question pops up as related to all areas of my life, it also inevitably gets asked of my work. Like most of us, the majority of my time is spent working. Reaching December 31st also means that twelve full months have elapsed during which most of my waking days have been spent pursuing some professional or business goal or another. What it also means is that it’s time to review your career at year-end.
While we’re all about looking forward, especially as we start a new year, it’s important to look back at what our experiences have taught us. This is all the more prevalent in our careers as these are not built in a year or so. It’s the sum of countless lessons learnt from the cubicle to the office that create real success. Not the success borrowed from your frenemies’ timelines on social media, but lasting success on your own terms.
7 Steps to Review Your Career at Year-End-2
Take a pause as the year ends to quickly review where you stand in your career. If you’re unsure where to start, consider these 7 steps:
Start Within!
How do you feel about your career? Are you as excited as you were when you started out at the beginning of the year? Or are you dragging yourself out of bed every morning? Are you justifying the way you feel by the fact that you need to pay bills and do what you’ve got to do?
Checking in with yourself is the first step to re-evaluate your career at the end of each year. This is not to say that you should beat yourself up for feeling the way you do. However, we should all make an honest assessment of where you stand emotionally as related to your career. It’s normal to evolve and change. It’s also normal that your desires and tastes evolve with time. What’s not normal is to deny the emotional impact your work has on you and your life if you want to create success on your own terms.
Goal Check Time!
As the end of the year approaches, where do you stand as related to the career goals you set at the beginning of the year? Did you get that promotion you had planned for? Have you made that lateral move? Are you closer to finding a new job, or leaving your 9-to-5 to work on your business?
Many of us avoid reviewing the goals we set at the beginning of the year because it can be a painful exercise if we did indeed fail. However, we must understand that failure is not only normal, but also necessary. Failing means you’ve tried, and that you may need to re-evaluate those goals. Yet, you need to assess these goals first in order to move forward.
Do An Opportunity Check!
Now let’s talk opportunities. What have you learnt this year? Every year should bring about new opportunities to progress, learn and advance. This is not just about scoring a promotion, raise or the book deal of the year. It’s about being better and further than where you started.
Look past the usual symbols of success such as money and status, and look for ways, even the smallest of ways, in which you have progressed in your career. It may be a new training you took, a good performance review, or some praise from your managers. Recognize the good.
Also, recognize those areas where you missed opportunities, and ask yourself why. The most important part of this process is to understand what worked well and what didn’t, so you can re-adjust your approach in the new year.
Assess where you stand!
This can be a tricky part of your review process. When asking yourself if you are where you should be in your career, it should not be to reflect what others are telling you about yourself. Neither is it to beat yourself up because you are not where society thinks you should be at.
Rather, this is where you should use your own barometer of success. Are you where you think you should be according to what is important to you? If you feel like you haven’t progressed enough, then it may be time to devise a plan to go further in the new year. If you do, don’t rest on your laurels, but continue to learn and better yourself.
Create Your Career Vision!
Now project yourself onto the future, and ask yourself what your career looks like in the next year, or in the next five years? This part of your review process is crucial, as it will determine how you re-orient and re-engineer your goals as you step into the new year.
What is it that you want more of? Less of? What is the next step for you? What is your next milestone?
Write down your Career Vision statement for the next year, and read it aloud to yourself as often as possible. It should represent where you see yourself in your career in as much detail as possible.
Take Action!
Now it’s time to draw a Career Action Plan for yourself. This is where you actually devise specific steps you need to accomplish what you desire in your career. It may mean taking on more complex assignments, going back to school, being more assertive, etc.
Whatever it is, make sure to list in your Career Action Plan for the next year. Keep this action plan handy as you start the new year.
Use your village!
It takes a village to build a successful career, according to what your view of success is and to what is important to you. Review your goals at the end of the year is an even more powerful process if you can share it with people who can help you. Whether it’s a mentor, a trusted manager or colleague, or even a dear friend, consider discussing the results of your year-end review with someone you trust.
This will help you bounce some ideas off of someone else’s, and come up with even more insight.
How do you review your career at the end of the year?
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!
Black Enterprise writes about this genius Brooklyn teacher who remixed Cardi B’s “Yellow Bodak” song to teach her students geography, and we’re just in awe;
Recruiter teaches you to build a better resume in….60 seconds;
Got a pastry fanatic in your midst? Serious Eats lists some great gifts for them.
Check out this video of the amazing Brooklyn teacher who’s spinning Cardi B’s “Yellow Boadak” hit into a geography lesson:
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!
Looking for a blog? The Muse lists 17 companies hiring like crazy in December;
The Glassdoor blog shares with us the ultimate holiday out of office checklist;
Are you in a toxic workplace? Ellevate Network lists 5 steps you can take now;
The Daily Muse shares these tips when you’re the only black person in the office;
Business Insider shares the 20 best tech companies to work for in 2018;
Ellevate Network advises women on how we can stop shooting ourselves in the foot on Linked In;
