by Solange Lopes | Dec 18, 2013 | Career
Photo: bing.com
There are many stereotypes and cultural pre-conceived ideas that come with being a sister in the corporate world. Unfortunately, many not as positive as we would wish…One of these, the Angry Black Woman Syndrome as dubbed mostly in the media and popular culture, is unfortunately very much present in the corporate space, albeit seldom spoken about or expressed outright. From speaking to a number of corporate big and little sisters, there almost seems to be an expectation that as minority women in corporate environments, we may have a slight tendency towards somewhat of a lack of self-control or even flat-out anger. That maybe our reactions may not be as predictable, or professional, as would be expected.
This is in part attributable to the portrayal of Black women in most media outlets. Indeed, as we look around, there are so very few images of minority women holding high corporate, or official ranks in the public eye, that the predominantly negative palette tends to take over. Combined with already pre-existing stereotypes and views of minority women in general, and the increasingly small percentage of diversity in visible spheres of influence in society, this turns out to be more damaging in the end than we can ever think. So, faced with this, how do we move past the negative perceptions towards success as corporate sisters? During my years in corporate, and through the advice of many who’ve gone before me, these are some of the recommendations and advice that’s stayed with me over the years and through many a corporate environment….
Separate Yourself from the Stereotype: This has turned out to be more of a mental exercise than anything else. No one is confined to a single stereotype, or idea of who they are, wherever this idea may be coming from. And once we separate ourselves from what others may be thinking of us, and concentrate on our values, work and ethics, we will tend to see less and less of these very stereotypes. And the less we internalize the negative, the more we externalize the authenticity of who we are, and place ourselves in a frame of mind to produce our best results, and in the process, change the very mentalities and perceptions that threaten to plague our success.
Pick Your battles: My mama still tells me to move my tongue around my mouth seven times before speaking…And if anything, this single piece of advice has saved my career many times over. Difficult situations pop up everywhere, especially at work where we have to address them with as much professionalism and integrity as possible. As would also happen anywhere where different people, cultures, and ideas come together, there is bound to be misunderstanding and friction. When under-represented minorities, cultural and social stereotypes add to the mix, it can be even more complicated. And while it may be difficult, it can certainly pay to evaluate the consequences of every interaction, pick the professional battles that are worth it, and steer clear from anything detrimental to our careers and professional advancement…
Document, document, document! In the corporate world, as in most professional environments, the power of the written word is still very much prevalent! A great big corporate sister of mine always told me that ” it’s not real until you write it down!” From work achievements, to conflict resolution in the workplace, documentation is always, ALWAYS, every professional’s best ally.
Are You Pushing through to your corporate success?
by Solange Lopes | Dec 17, 2013 | Career |
Photo: madamenoire.com
It’s year-end, and while some of us corporate sisters are vying for a promotion or raise, others are considering finding a new place of employment. New decisions are being made, new resolutions are being subscribed to (read our post on why you shouldn’t subscribe to professional resolutions this year), new professional avenues are being looked at…As this year is drawing to a close, we are all looking for ways to better ourselves, to make it further this year than last, and maybe to even finally look at this “glass ceiling” in the face and confront it once and for all…Yet few are the discussions around one aspect of our corporate struggles that we, as corporate sisters, should mind even more than others, the big C, that is, the corporate culture we are evolving in or are getting ready to evolve in as we accept a new job, a new position, or embark on a new corporate adventure.
According to wisegeek.com, “corporate culture” is “a set of characteristics that define a business”. It not only involves “employee attitudes, standards, rites and rituals”, but also reflects characteristics found in society, such as the hierarchy system for instance. Or cultural stereotypes, erroneous assumptions, sexism or flat-out racism. And just like society, it can be positive, neutral, or plain negative… One of my big corporate sisters once told me this about the corporate jungle: “If you hadn’t experienced the real world, well, you’re about to!” In other words, if you didn’t know, now you know…
As corporate sisters, from those of us who are just entering the corporate jungle to the rest of us who have been doing the corporate “do” for a while now, culture is KEY! In order for us to evolve and grow in any environment, especially in the professionally challenging corporate space, we need to mind the culture at hand and wonder IF, and HOW we fit in. Yet it is one of the questions that is rarely asked in interviews. It is also one of the components of our success as women, and double minorities, that is not as much talked about as its resulting negative effects. Why is it that when we enter a room, we as humans are able to sense the “culture” in the room, and either adapt to it or separate ourselves from it? Likewise, when we commit ourselves to a corporate environment in which we intend to evolve and succeed, we should evaluate, measure and pre-position ourselves within the culture that we are entering.
Many a corporate sister has felt the disheartening pressure of a male-dominated, at times racially charged corporate environment. And since corporate culture is but the reflection of our culture as people in general, it should no longer be surprising. What should still surprise us, on the other hand, is that even as we struggle against and many times rise above the challenges of our world culture, we yet to have to put more into question the professional cultures we commit our successes to, possibly before we actually suffer from its negative effects…
So the next time we consider a raise, promotion, or new job, or even just a lateral move in a different department of the same company, maybe one of the first questions we should lean in and ask ourselves, as well as the person on the other side of the table, is: “What is your corporate culture, and how do I, as an ambitious, driven and successful corporate sister, fit in?”
Are you minding your corporate culture?
The Corporate Sister.
by Solange Lopes | Dec 11, 2013 | Career
Musical chairs – Photo: kidsparties.com
I took part in the most interesting, and edifying of Twitter conversations yesterday evening. Black and multi-cultural women all over the Twittersphere came forward and bravely acknowledged that they sometimes did not feel it in themselves to support other successful sisters. That seeing another professionally successful Black woman did not always inspire pride, admiration or a sense of unity. Rather, some of the feelings that would surface would be more along the lines of angered pride, resentment, maybe jealousy?
And I could not help but grasp a clear reflection of myself in these tweet-testimonies. Faced with the success of our counterparts in an otherwise limited and limiting professional and corporate space, we often err on the side of disunion as opposed to unity…And we’re certainly not all to blame for it…
It’s like playing musical chairs: for one sister to find a solid corporate seat, another sister has to lose hers. Or such is the comparison that is very often drawn upon when it comes to Black women in most professional spaces…And then ensues the stereotypical, and largely inaccurate, perception that we are not supportive of each other…
It’s not until I started my own corporate journey, and noted the real and disheartening absence of corporate sisters, along with the scarcity of opportunity for women in general, and Black women in particular, that I started to understand better…Professional black women networks were not easy to find then, and still are not today, especially for some of us who don’t live in a big city like New York, Boston, or Atlanta…Mentorship for Black women professionals is hard to find, to the point of being almost non-existent. I mean, just finding a peer sister in the workplace that can understand some of the same concerns, struggles or achievements we share is as rare as can be…
When and if there’s not enough room at the top, or in the middle, or even closer to the bottom of the corporate food chain for that matter, we as humans turn to protecting the little we have. It’s not social science, it’s just survival. And to make matters even worse, many, if not most of us, are the breadwinners or main providers for our close and extended families. That’s survival times 10. In some cases, scarcity brings people together; yet when scarcity is endemic, economic and psychological, it’s a whole other story…
So what do we make of these too few chairs? Do we keep watching some sisters being left out while others struggle to stay in? Since the music is not going to stop playing for long, we may just need to reach out to each other and share a chair…Or even better yet, we need to learn to make new chairs so more of us can sit at the table and enjoy the music…
Do you think we need to create more corporate chairs?
The Corporate Sister
by Solange Lopes | Dec 10, 2013 | Career |
Photo: www.essence.com
Natural hair in the workplace has been the subject of much discussion in and outside of the blogosphere and media. Should we, as corporate sisters, allow ourselves to wear our hair natural in the workplace? Or should we take the “Hairy” hair issue out of the equation altogether and not draw additional attention to ourselves? After all, we are here to work, and not to make a statement of any sort, right? There are enough stereotypes playing against us, and enough prejudice affecting us as it is to try and add to the already unbalanced equation of race and power? Right? Well, I happen to think wrong…
When I went natural almost two years ago, my biggest fear, like so many among us, is that my decision was going to negatively impact my career. That I would be perceived as different, rebellious, and unprofessional. As I scoured magazines, blogs and websites on natural hair in the workplace, my fears and apprehensions kept growing. Yet I knew that this was bigger than myself, that it was a personal decision that I had to take for my own sake. For my own personal reasons that I won’t elaborate on in this post, I made the decision and never looked back. And as a corporate sister, I was ready to face the consequences, and most importantly, to defend myself against these, as a professional and as a human being.
Yet to my very surprise, things did not play out as I had imagined them. The movie in my mind did not reconcile with the reality, and I have to admit that I was the first one dumbfounded. Sporting my natural hair in the workplace actually gave me confidence, strength and power, much of it that I struggled to muster before. In my authentic self, I found compassion for myself and my struggles, and learnt to be more accepting of who I am; which in turn gave me the courage and boldness to aspire to bigger and better things, especially in the workplace. As one of the only corporate sisters out there, I did feel that my hair was making a statement, and that unlike preconceived notions, that it was a very much needed statement. The workplace, as every other place, is also a cultural space, where various personalities and cultures interact. Yes, it is mostly about work and performance, but the foundation of it all is people. And people come in all forms, shapes, colors and hair textures, and taking the hair out of the equation, with what Black hair has meant and means to us through time, history and culture, is also silencing an important part of the corporate culture.
As much as we are to respect every one’s choice when it comes to who they are and how they wish to present themselves, we also have to dispel the notion that the cost of expressing our authentic self is, or could be, exclusion from the professional sphere. Although this may certainly draw negative attention, and has actually unfortunately happened in many a workplace, there are also positive examples and happy endings to some of our hair stories. As I faced the obvious questions about my hair, through my own personal struggle to walk out the door every morning with hair that now had a mind of its own, as I learnt to stand tall in the “un-conforming” fullness of this wooly, curly, temperamental mane of mine, I also learnt to teach others about myself. And in the process, I learnt that regardless of hair texture or cultural origins, the human spirit is more responsive to authenticity than we dare to believe. That if you dare to present yourself as you are, while offering your best effort, and rising to the challenge as you are called, that you may actually succeed…That you will certainly face challenges and obstacles in your way, yet at the end of the day, you would have given yourself a unique, incomparable edge in the workplace, and everywhere else…
Do you think your natural hair can give you a professional edge?
The Corporate Sister.
by Solange Lopes | Dec 9, 2013 | Career |
Photo: dreamstime.com
Managing your email inbox can be one of those daunting tasks that you really would rather devote very little time, if any, to. After all, as a corporate sister, you already have too much to do as it is. In the midst of year-end deadlines, reporting objectives and management delays, cleaning out and organizing your inbox may not exactly sit on top of your priority list…just like laundry is not exactly your favorite, or most pressing household chore…that is, until you have to sport the mismatched sock trend to work (thank God for tall boots) or have to make an express stop at the mall to re-stock your underwear drawer…Yup, that bad…
I personally dread Laundry Day, as much if not more than Inbox Cleaning Day. Because I just know that I’ll have to face the karma gods of organization, and will most likely pay up for my extreme laissez-faire sins…Even worse than Cleaning Day, is Random Email Question from the Boss Day, when your manager kindly stops by your desk asking you to forward to him that email from random client X from say, maybe 3 months ago, and there you are, cussing out whoever invented the very concept of email…Really?
Because I’m guilty as charged, and although not yet converted to the Clean Inbox corporate religion, I’m still seeking help, here are my $0.02 of advice that I’m struggling to apply to my stack of email messages…as well as my piled-up laundry:
Treat your inbox like your laundry basket: if it’s in there, it is DIRTY and needs immediate washing! Leaving old messages in your inbox is one of the worst sins of email management. When it comes to emails, accumulation rimes with confusion, and who’d need any more of that? Whether you file it, or discard it is up to you, but it’s gotta go!
Pay attention to what you delete! Hitting the “Delete” button too soon is just like selecting the wrong cycle for the wrong type of fabric. You’re better off filing and saving more emails than necessary than getting rid of that precious piece of information. When in doubt, keep a regular check on your “Deleted Items” folder just in case you pressed the “Delete” trigger too fast…
Stop treating your inbox like a to-do list! Just like piling up already dirty laundry on top of other dirty laundry is not a reminder to buy new clothes, piling up emails as reminders of to-dos is not the most effective way of managing your emails. If you need a to-do list, get a to-do list. In the meantime, all that needs to appear in your inbox is new, fresh email ready to be addressed and filed…
Are you managing your inbox like your laundry basket?
The Corporate Sister.
