Break the glass ceiling and Be yourself

“She will get the promotion because she is a girl”. “She is considered bossy because she demands the same level of work ethic as men do”. “She is very ambitious, so does not fit in our work culture”. This is not a struggle created only by opposite gender but this is the issue of human being’s fundamental darkness.

We as women often hear from feminist crowd that today is the time when women should come forward without any hesitation. Celebrating Women’s Day, wearing “Pink” color etc. are the country’s notion of working for Women empowerment. Why do women need any label or specific tag to define themselves? Can we not have all colors for us, can we not have all days for us equally? May be that one day you can make us feel special with cards, flowers, cupcakes and pink balloons, but what about other days when women must prove themselves to a far greater extent than men do. The moment we start doing something “special” for women, it shows that women need an external boost to be brought to the same level as men.

Be part of Top Management

It has already been proved that women can run organization as CXO, and I completely agree with Sheryl Sandberg’s comments in the fine piece ‘Lean In’: “A truly equal world would be one where women ran half our countries and companies and men ran half our homes.” But are there only external barriers which women face or do they have their own insecurities. As she also mentioned that “Women compromise their career goals to make room for partners and children who may not even exist yet.”

This is the ultimate chicken- and -egg situation. The chicken: Women will tear down the external barriers once we achieve leadership roles… The egg: We need to eliminate the external barriers to get women into those roles in the first place. Both sides are right.

They need to believe that they can fulfill the job of CXO as well as any other person. Women can help themselves to overcome this career hurdle by having enough confidence and strength. No glass ceiling was ever shattered by a whiner.

Make yourself Heard

The way women tend to talk at work can put them at a disadvantage but their opinion is as important as their red dress in their closet or salt in their kitchen. This must have happened with lot of us where we said something at a meeting and it was ignored. Then someone else said the same thing and it was picked up as a great idea. Learn how to be more assertive in meetings and how to deal with when interrupted.

Women tend to use “we” to a work they may have accomplished, wherein Men tend to use “I” to the work they may not even be responsible for. Women say “we” to be gracious about the people that they work with. But they assume other people will acknowledge that they really did it, whereas, for many men, they realize that they should call attention to it or people won’t know. So, show your shining shoes to the world and don’t assume you will get noticed by others without a sign. Take charge of your success.

Don’t apologize; it’s not your fault

Women are always seen as people who apologize too much. Sometimes a woman will use an apology to get the other person to apologize. I would like to use an example: Let’s say there was an assignment, she is the boss. Her subordinate didn’t give her the work on deadline. She might say something like, Mr.A, sorry you did not provide me the work I asked for. If I forgot to tell you about it, I’m sorry, it was quite important. She knows she told him about the criticality of the work. Now she will expect his apology in way that he would say Oh yes you did tell me how important this task is for the upcoming project. I will do it now and this won’t repeat again in future. But what if he says instead Yes make sure you will remind me next time. If this is the case she will start thinking What did I do wrong? My dear you did not do anything wrong, it is the way we forget how to be assertive when we need to be.

So, all future stars of the Corporate world, time has come to shine in the dark sky. Because sky is the limit!