This week, a guest blog post courtesy of published author, leadership coach and keynote speaker Carla Miller.
As a women’s leadership coach, I’m a big fan of taking control of your career. You can’t leave your career prospects and development in the hands of your line manager and hope that they recognize your potential. They have many other things on their mind and their priorities may not align with yours. A 2018 survey by Deloitte showed that 58% of people rated their employer as not effective or only somewhat effective at empowering people to manage their own careers.
One way you can take control of your career is to make sure you are being noticed by your senior colleagues and focus on making yourself and the value you add to your employer more visible.
In her enlightening book, Why Men Win at Work, former VP at Proctor & Gamble, Gill Whitty-Collins, talks about how women believe in the “myth of meritocracy” – that when we work hard and do a good job we will be recognized and rewarded for it. By contrast, she says “Men are more comfortable self-marketing away, so their work is much more visible to their managers and much more likely to be recognized and rewarded (with a bigger salary, a better job, a promotion).”
That really rang true for me. I’m sure I’m not alone in noticing that while women tend to be brilliant at bigging up their team and often use the term “we”, men will more often use the word “I” when talking about successes.
You can take small steps toward becoming more visible like those I’ve listed here below…
- When you’ve done the work and not your team, own that by saying “I” instead of defaulting to “we” by habit.
- Spend an extra minute or two at the end of a meeting chatting to someone more senior than you.
- Suggest ideas or solutions at an all-company meeting or ask a positive and intelligent question
- Ask for opportunities to work directly with senior stakeholders or key clients.
- Ask an inspiring leader to be your sponsor and tell them what you’d like to achieve through that.
- Ask to be in the room at the level above you for key meetings and be clear on the value you could add.
- Put yourself forward for new opportunities like working groups or public relations opportunities.
For more inspiration and strategies for developing your career check out Carla’s book ‘Closing the Influence Gap: A practical guide for women leaders who want to be heard’ which can be found in all good bookshops.
Bio:
Carla Miller is a Carla Miller is a leadership coach, trainer and keynote speaker who works with women to develop their careers and their confidence. She also supports employers to develop and retain their female talent, build their pipeline of female leaders and encourage male allyship. Hundreds of women leaders have taken part in her Influence & Impact course from companies including GSK, BT, Channel 4, Muller and Deloitte, as well as national charities, the NHS and the Civil Service.
Carla’s own leadership experience includes raising £20 million for good causes and leading the fundraising at many national charities before moving into CEO roles in the charity and commercial sector.
She hosts the chart-topping Influence & Impact podcast for female leaders, which has featured leading thinkers such as Graham Allcott, Harriet Minter and Stefanie Sword-Williams. Her book, Closing the Influence Gap: A practical guide for women leaders who want to be heard’ is published by Practical Inspiration Publishing.
