The simple question, Are you a feminist? never occupied much space in my mind. Of course, I am. What woman isn’t? would have been my spontaneous response.

It never occurred to me some women might posses a different opinion, or need to explain their version of feminism. However after a few weeks of discussing this topic at women’s networking events and with friends over dinner, or drinks, I learned a valuable lesson:

Some (in fact, many) women are uncomfortable answering ‘yes’ to the simple question. Most often, I listened as women qualified their answers, or tangoed around the perceived issue:

1. Well, I’m not one of those radical lesbians, if that’s what you mean! (No it’s not what I meant, but thanks for sharing.)
2. I’m lucky, I’ve never felt discriminated against. I’ve always earned the same as my male counterparts. (Translation: Feminism is about equal pay for equal work. I’m good, so can we change the subject, please?)
3. Maybe I was years ago, but things are different now. Men pitch in with the chores. (As if household chores was the original rallying cry for feminism.)

I quickly discovered I KNEW NOTHING, when it came to understanding women’s complex feelings surrounding the word, ‘feminist’.

So,I ask you Career Girls: Are you a feminist? If you’re confused as to how to answer the question, let me provide you with a few options:

Naomi Wolf,

For I conclude that the enemy is not lipstick, but guilt itself; that we deserve lipstick, if we want it, AND free speech; we deserve to be sexual AND serious–or whatever we please; we are entitled to wear cowboy boots to our own revolution.

Louisa May Alcott, An Old Fashioned Girl,

The emerging woman … will be strong-minded, strong-hearted, strong-souled, and strong-bodied…strength and beauty must go together.

Caitlin Moran, How to be a Woman,

We need to reclaim the word ‘feminism’. We need the word ‘feminism’ back real bad. When statistics come in saying that only 29% of American women would describe themselves as feminist – and only 42% of British women – I used to think, What do you think feminism IS, ladies? What part of ‘liberation for women’ is not for you? Is it freedom to vote? The right not to be owned by the man you marry? The campaign for equal pay? ‘Vogue’ by Madonna? Jeans? Did all that good shit GET ON YOUR NERVES? Or were you just DRUNK AT THE TIME OF THE SURVEY?

Don’t see your version of feminism articulated here? Then tell us yours! Are you a feminist? If so, why, or why not? 

DISCUSS!

The post Are You a Feminist? appeared first on Career Girl Network.

It was long thought that leaders were born. Some people innately possess the skills to inspire others, communicate great visions, and take action to ensure their visions come into fruition whereas others do not. Fortunately, much research has been conducted in this realm. It is true that nature does play a part in leadership development. However, nurture and choice also play significant roles as well.

FACTS: Leaders can be developed. Leadership can be learned.

Personality type, traits, characteristics, strengths, education, and continual personal and professional development are just a few key components of becoming the leader you envision. However, we all observe and acquire leadership qualities throughout our lives. Taking an honest look in the mirror is the first step to becoming a great leader.

To become a leader or improve existing leadership qualities, we must commit to personal transformation and examine deep-rooted patterns of thought and behavior. Formal education and assessments can assist with understanding yourself better.

From one Career Girl who loves to read and apply new skills to another, a great resource to begin or continue on the life-long journey of leadership is “Becoming a Resonant Leader.” Annie McKee, Richard Boyatzis, and Frances Johnston co-authored this wonderful book. The subtitle captures the essence of the book and workbook activities to “develop your emotional intelligence, renew your relationships, and sustain your effectiveness.”

Even if you have taken the Meyer’s Briggs Type Indicator, DiSC, StrengthsFinder (all trademarked assessments), or you are considered to have a genius-level IQ, the truth is it is no longer enough to just be smart or aware on one or two facets of yourself. Every Career Girl should strive for mastery of personal competencies and social competencies of emotional intelligence to become effective leaders. The book “Working with Emotional Intelligence” by Daniel Goleman is an excellent “manual” to aid with this process.

To learn more about Goleman’s book, check out the first few minutes of this video or watch it in its entirety. It is an audio version of “Working with Emotional Intelligence.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPocFijPKxA

Over time, more leadership articles will come. If any Career Girls out there have interest in broad or narrower aspects of leadership, please be sure to post comments and feedback. Take charge of your quest to becoming the leader you (may have been destined to be and) choose to become!

The post Becoming the Leader You Aspire to Be appeared first on Career Girl Network.

A revolutionary concept entered my life last week, attributed of course to the most amazing executive coach I know, Beth Ruske from Tiara Coaching. It’s natural, when one is staring at a massive “to-do” list to break that list into categories. Naturally, you immediately think each thing on that list is something you personally need to accomplish. If you’re lucky, you have a team surrounding you both personally and professionally to delegate certain tasks to. As you scan the list, you think some of the following:

• I can’t make that event, I should ask someone else on my team to go in my place.
• Oh no, I won’t be able to get to the dry cleaners before it closes. I’ll ask my husband to stop on his way home.
• I simply don’t have the hours in the day to get through this long-term project successfully, perhaps we can bring in a contractor to help with the work.
• Can’t I get my own assistant?

When you look at your list this way – What can I do myself? What can I delegate? – Beth Ruske told me (and it’s changed the way I look at my list), that you’re missing one massive place to delegate to – no one.

Take a moment, pause, and think about that concept. What is on your list right now that you could delegate to no one?

What does that mean? It means that something on that list needs to drop. You, my dear, need to drop. the. ball. And if you’re anything like me, your head is spinning right now. Women spinning 100 plates in the air at any time would be screaming, “But I can’t! I can’t just drop something for no reason at all.” The truth is, though, you can! Dropping the ball, breaking one of those spinning plates, what would it really do to hurt you? The truth is….nothing.

So I took Beth’s advice the last couple of weeks, and it’s amazing what I’ve been able to both accomplish and eliminate. Now, I look at my to-do list and I ask myself these questions:

1. Is this item something I absolutely have to do and no one except me could do it?
2. Is this item something anyone has to do? Is it urgent and important?
3. What would happen if this item was never accomplished?

If the answers are “No, no, and no,” then I know who I’m ready to delegate that task to….no one! Join the task list revolution. It might just change your list forever!

The post Delegating to No One appeared first on Career Girl Network.

I’m in the middle! That’s when I was an intern, with two people who taught me everything.

Today, I was prepping for a first day with a new intern. She is eager to get work experience to supplement her degree, and is feeling the pressure of a weak job market post-graduation. I was in the exact same situation a few years ago (it was awful), so I want to pass on all of the knowledge that I can. An organized first day would set the tone for the rest of the semester, so I searched “internship first day agenda” thinking I’d save some time by looking at someone else’s example. I didn’t find one, but I did find “6 Ways to Be a Great Boss to Your Intern” from Forbes and it got me thinking about how I’m going to be a more effective boss for this internship.

With any good internship, there are a few things that you should focus on as the supervisor to make sure that you’re creating a win-win scenario.

Vernacular. I realized today while teaching Amy about marketing that there are a ton of acronyms. In about ten minutes we covered wysiwyg editors, content management systems (CMSs), and comma separated value (CSV). I try really hard not to speak in lingo because it is annoying, but sometimes it’s the clearest way to communicate. People who went to college for a liberal arts degree (like me and Amy) and not for a profession often don’t have that information. Though we can totally deliver on skills, we have to be taught the vernacular that refers to common tools and ideas in order to do well in our field.

Setting goals. I recently wrote a post about setting goals because the process of setting goals leads you to become better at something. An internship is no different, and you should help your intern set their own goals. If your intern doesn’t have any goals, it’s okay to set some for them, but they’re adults and should think hard about why they want to do this and what they want to learn. Give them a day to think about it if they walk in as a blank slate, but encourage all Career Girls to challenge themselves to reach higher than mediocrity.

Time management. I’ve known several people who went to their internships and sat around because no one would teach them what to do and delegate regular tasks. If you honestly can’t come up with enough work and won’t take the time to teach them, don’t bother getting an intern. It would be a waste of time. Otherwise, keep a time log for a few days and see what you do. At the end of the week, go back through and analyze. What could you teach someone else to do with a little instruction? Don’t just get an intern to sweep. Find ways to teach them something useful, take it off your plate, and then use the time you gain to do some long-term planning, or get ahead on another area. Or advertise for an intern to do a special project. They’ll learn something and enjoy the experience, and you’ll be a better manager with a little extra time on your hands.

Realism. I’m in non-profit. I have emptied garbage cans, delivered a car full of drums, met famous people, driven a terrifyingly large van full of students, and filed for hours on end. You never know what’s going to come up, and you have to be able to do what needs to be done regardless of who should be doing it, and not quit every time you have to tackle something way outside of your job description. A big part of being a good intern boss is delegating rewarding work that will help your intern grow, but don’t forget to teach them that this is the real world, and sometimes you have to get your hands dirty without throwing a fit.

Every successful woman learned from someone how to be great at what they do. It’s our job as Career Girls who care about our fields and our communities to share what we know and what we’ve learned. Some tutoring on common software, helpful shortcuts and tips, time management techniques, and basic administrative skills go a very long way for new graduates, so reach out to local universities or put the word out on your website to let people know you’re willing to teach an intern. If you plan a little, delegate, and use the extra time to get work done while having a fresh face and new perspective by your side, you’ll both walk away feeling like you benefited from the internship.

The post 4 Ways to Create a Win-Win Scenario Internship appeared first on Career Girl Network.

Merida, our fabulous hero from Disney/ Pixar’s Brave is center stage this weekend! Evidently, she is being inducted into Disney’s wide world of princesses on May 11, 2013 at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom in a coronation ceremony. (For real!)

In case you live in reality and missed this princess phenomenon, do let me provide a bit of background on our fair maidens! There are currently 10 Disney princesses, and Merida makes the 11^th, robbing Rapunzel of the ‘newest princess’ title. According to Ricky Brigante (a writer for Inside the Magic.com) Rapunzel was coronated in 2011 at a posh ceremony in London – at none other than Kensington Palace. (WTF?)

Needless to say, a bit of a cleanup takes place for any young animated character when they enter a royal family, so blessedly, Disney stepped in and took our young hero from this look:

To this look!

Career Girls, I ask you this:  Am I the only one who sees this as an issue? Disney transformed our fabulous rough and tumble tomboy into a freaking Victoria Secret model. What kind of message does that send to all those young girls who flock to the Magic Kingdom on Sunday for this event? Or, the ones who will buy the redesigned merchandise that goes on sale in the park, in stores and online (you guessed it!) May, 11 2013.

We all have younger sisters, nieces, or daughters who idolize Merida, as they know her today. She teaches young women to use their smarts, their resources, and to stand up for what is right. What does the ‘new and improved’ Princess Merida teach a young woman? Be feisty, but look great doing it?  That behavior was fine when I was a kid, but now I’m all grown-up, so I better behave myself? I’m too busy keeping my dress up, so the bow and arrow shtick needs to go?

Please, share your thoughts and feedback with us! What does the new Merida mean to you and to the young girls in your life? 

The post Disney’s Newest Princess appeared first on Career Girl Network.

I found Greg Savage’s headline, “People don’t leave companies. They leave leaders.” recently and a picture came into my head. For the life of me, I can’t remember which terrible romantic comedy it came from, but I can vividly remember some female character in a romcom saying, “What if it isn’t that everyone leaves? What if it’s that everyone leaves me?” The same notion, as Greg Savage eloquently puts, is often forgotten in business. In fact, when an employee leaves, we’re quick to blame everyone but ourselves. Greg says:

Mostly, my natural reaction has always been a human one I suppose. “What possible reason would they have to do that?” or “What’s wrong with them?” or even, “She must be leaving for money. The fool!”

Instead, Greg points out that most people don’t leave companies for money or for a true “new experience.” Why do they leave?

Mostly, people don’t change jobs solely for money. They almost never resign on a whim, or in a fit of anger. They joined your company because they believed it right for them, and actually they want it to be right. Something, at some point, makes it wrong. And if you really take the time to dig into their real reasons for leaving – and you should – you will find that it’s not ‘the company’ they blame. It’s not the location, or the team, or the database or the air-conditioning.

It’s the leadership!

I’m sure we’ve all had an experience working for a company with flawed or even crazy leadership. I certainly have. So what’s the lesson in Greg’s point? For leaders, it’s to take a look at ourselves and realize why we might be experiencing turnover and what part we play in it. For those interacting with leadership, it’s a call to look for the right kind of leadership when searching for a job and ensuring you’ll be able to effectively work with them in any job you take. Because ultimately, it’s those leaders who will drive you up or out.

The post People Don’t Leave Companies, They Leave Leaders! appeared first on Career Girl Network.

Let’s face it, ladies, for most of us, being a female means being a list maker! Lately, “bucket lists” are all the rage. It’s a bit of a gruesome notion, really, but popular nonetheless. What list of things to do or places to see do you want to check off your list before you…..kick the bucket? Most of the things on your bucket list, though, are personal rather than professional. I’d like to visit the pyramids in Egypt and stand on the top of the Great Wall of China, of course. But in making our bucket lists, do we ever say, “And I’d like to be CEO when I do”? Probably not.

While it’s true that at the end of your life, no one’s tombstone will say “I wish I’d spent more time at work,” it’s also true that your career takes up a huge chunk of your life. That’s why we loved this article “Create Your Own Career Bucket List” from Women’s Agenda.

In fact, we’d advocate alongside the Women’s Agenda that you should have multiple career bucket lists.

Your Career Bucket Lists

• Your bucket list for your current position – what do you want to accomplish before you move on or move up?
• Your bucket list for your current company – what kind of a lasting impact do you want to have before you leave the company (or if you do)?
• Your bucket list for your long-term career – where do you want to be in 5, 10, 20 years and what are the big “wins” you need to achieve to get there?
• Your bucket list for your legacy – how do you want to be remembered? What goals do you need to achieve to get there?

A Few Ideas: What to Put On the List

Current Position

• To close X number of sales or $X in sales before moving ahead to a management position.
• To create great relationships with managers in X department before moving to another department.
• To find a sponsor within the company who can help me determine the best move for me.
• To mentor a young woman in my department.

Current Company

• To hold at least one additional internal job that is a step above my current position.
• Become friendly with and receive mentorship from at least two members of the senior leadership team.
• Spearhead a company-wide women’s initiative.
• Supervise 5 employees to gain important management experience.

Long-Term Career

• Hold a position that allows me to travel internationally regularly.
• Make $X per year by the time I turn 40.
• Become a member of a nonprofit Board of Directors.

Legacy

• Mentor a new young woman each year, even after retirement.
• Contribute $X or X amount of time to a philanthropic organization or cause.
• Become a yoga instructor and spend time at an ashram studying meditation.

Hopefully this list helps you start your own career bucket list. What are some of the things you’ll include?

The post Developing a “Bucket List ” for Your Career appeared first on Career Girl Network.

“Danielle, that’s why, as a woman, you only make 73% of what a man makes.”

Now, before anyone gets upset, this friend is a major advocate of women’s rights, and we like to give each other grief whenever possible. My comeback is typically, “Actually, it’s 77%. And don’t forget it.” But after several articles I’ve read recently, it seems that the trend may be (albeit at a snail’s pace) changing slightly. However, it always leaves me wondering exactly where women are in business today. Today, I found an infographic that I find extremely thought-provoking. Did you know that female MBA graduates make 93 cents on the dollar compared to their male co-workers? Sharing this, I wonder what your thoughts are. What is most surprising (or not at all) to you?

The post Where Are Women Today, Anyway? appeared first on Career Girl Network.

Is your team getting what it wants and needs for organizational success?

Are the individuals on your team doing what it takes to get what they want and need for individual success?

Most importantly, as a Career Girl, are you demonstrating what it takes to get what you want and need? That is, are you modeling the behaviors it takes to get what you want to come to you?

Once you change the way you are inside, the outer world changes.

~Joe Vitale

Another element in reaching your goals, in addition to planning, is setting your intentions, and visualizing your goal. Athletes in particular use this method. Below are some hints for the less tangible side of reaching for your goals.

Some keys for attracting into your life what you want

Get Clear on What You Want and Why

It’s not enough to know what you don’t want. You can’t get what you want until you know what that is! Getting crystal clear is where the magic of attraction all begins.

From Napoleon Hill:

There is one quality which one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants and a burning desire to possess it.

Imagine It

“See” your desired change as happening.

Conscious change is brought about by the two qualities inherent in consciousness: attention and intention.

Writes Deepack Chopra:

Attention energizes, and intention transforms. Whatever you put your attention on will grow stronger in your life

Be Healthy, Be Receptive

Exercise, eat healthfully, play, and relax. Stress, exhaustion, sluggishness, etc., can all interfere with your ability to stay present and alert, not to mention they can lessen your ability to attract what you want.

Though taking a day off to relax, rather than working frantically, may seem as difficult as running the iron man and breaking every record, it is often just what you need.

Listen to Your Intuitive Nudges

Attraction isn’t about sitting back and waiting for it all to come to you.

Action is always required to meet goals and make dreams come true.

Your job is to ask for what you want, and then to act on the inner nudges you get to do things, like make phone calls, write letters (yep, real letters with actual postage); visit a certain person, or whatever else seems right. Don’t worry if your “nudges” don’t make immediate sense.

Surrender

This is so important, and so hard.

You must let go and trust.

• Let go of influencing the particular way in which things will happen.
• Let go of fear, doubt, worry and disappointment.
• Let go of the need to struggle.

Trust that the outcome will be just right.

What is your dream? What do you want – a job promotion? Landing that huge client? Buying a new house? Lay claim to your dream. It’s yours if you want it. What other ideas can you share about getting what you want to come to you?

The post Do The Inner Work To Get What You Want, And Need appeared first on Career Girl Network.

The last few weeks, I’ve admittedly felt like I don’t have control of my own schedule. I have meetings, meetings, meetings, travel, travel, and more travel, and it’s becoming harder and harder to get things done in the meantime. Enter “3 Ways Great Leaders Make Every Day Count” on Inc. from Les McKeown, author of Predictable Success.

McKeown suggests looking at your schedule in areas of both hard landscapes and soft. Here’s why:

Balance hard and soft landscape in your schedule. Hard landscape items (scheduled meetings, calls and other time-specific events) are to leadership what systems and processes are in organizations. They are necessary to ensure the delivery of consistent quality in the face of complexity–but death to creativity, flexibility and innovation when overdone.

In my observation, once your calendar has more than 60 percent of its time blocked out for hard landscape activities, your ability to lead strategically begins to erode. By the time calls, meetings and other scheduled activities hit 80 percent of your reasonably available time, the chances of you leading at all are close to zero–you have effectively become a manager.

Review your calendar for the next two weeks: What can you drop, defer or delegate to make time for “soft” activities, like a strategic review of the next (or last) quarter, or an impromptu discussion with a key colleague–or a visit to a key customer?

I’m definitely implementing less hard activities and making room for soft ones in my schedule from here on out. How about you?

The post Hard vs. Soft in Your Daily Schedule appeared first on Career Girl Network.