Mental Moment – Women in Business Series
I am going to do a Women in Business Series. I start out in this blog by talking about the initial process of being an exec. From here I’ll talk about developing your philosophy, having better communication and end with why I think women don’t get ahead in the business world. Ah I may even write a blog on politics and playing with the big dogs :-).
I am not a business or executive leader coach but I work with many executives. To tell you the truth helping business exec’s get better at their job is one of the favorite parts of my job. Why? Partly because I’ve been an exec and because the same mental state & emotional principles that I use for athletes and coaches apply to business people: motivation, confidence, philosophy, communication, focus, goal setting, control, process vs outcome, etc.
In my opinion the 360 and other evaluation tools are not helpful. On the other hand the Meyers-Briggs can be slightly helpful but only in that it tells an exec who she is and tells her how her employees operate. Go back and reread that sentence. What’s wrong with that? Herein lies a couple of problems with many exec’s: they don’t know who they are particularly as a manager and they don’t take the time to get to know their employees. If you are using the Meyers-Briggs after the fact it’s too late. If you are using it as a starting point its fine but still limited. It puts people in boxes and the information is not really applicable for the day-to-day business world because its so outside what’s natural.
Many exec’s are not trained to be an exec. People usually fall into it without really understanding the depth of such a role. People think well, I’ve done great at this or that and being an exec pays a lot more money. Count me in! Being an exec involves politics, managing up, a deeper accountability to your employees and the company, longer hours, being a role model, training, giving presentations, budgets and playing with the other ‘big dogs’. You may be naturally good at some of this but one of the areas where many exec’s fall short are what I call the ‘soft skills’. The soft skills are your people skills: how do you help support others to get their work done and grow in their job. While I work with exec’s on all of the above hard skills I spend a lot of time helping them think about and develop soft skills because this is, really, how an exec flourishes. And ladies, don’t take this the wrong way but many of you are not very good with your workplace people skills :-).
Start by thinking about what your leadership philosophy is. Who are you?
Happy Tuesday!
Dr. Michelle
Photo credit: en.wikipedia.org
