Ten Points For Rising Stars From Retired Women Who Know.
By Karen and Erica
Many of us are retired, or are thinking about it. We are no longer climbing the career ladder. We’ve made it! But most of us know younger people, still mid-career, who might be happy to hear advice from women like us.
Here are ten principles we would offer to these ambitious workers:
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Be prepared. Start your day in control of everything you can control. There will surely be surprises. Don’t let them be caused by lack of preparation.
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Dress for work. Your clothes might be formal, as ours were when we went to court or to a board meeting, or might be less formal, as on casual days, or might be invisible, under a lab coat. (Let’s not even talk about Zoom.) Don’t listen to all that blather about now you can wear what you want. Not if you want to succeed. Your clothes say who you are, and give you a strategic advantage if the message is clear. FInally, dressing for work will put your mind in a productive professional place.
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When you are working, you are not acting for yourself. You are representing your company or client. Be yourself, but be your professional self, not your friends and family self. (Remember inside and outside voices? Same thing, but visual.)
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Communicate clearly and succinctly. If it takes a lot of words, you have not thought it through. Save the purple prose for that novel you will write after you retire.
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Look at email regularly. Respond quickly. Do neither in important meetings. Or while performing surgery.
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Do not think outside the box before you know what the box is. That’s just lazy. And arrogant..
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If someone comes to you with an impossible problem, your job is not to sympathize. It is to solve the problem. Once you get your head turned in the right direction you are on the way to a solution—though you might have to bang your head against the wall for a while. That’s why you make the big bucks.
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Make like a swan. Swans glide calmly along on the surface, but underneath they are pumping like crazy. Same for you. Appear tranquil, even when panic sets your heart racing. You need to project confidence when you are in charge. But keep thinking and probem solving as you go.
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When you connect with someone who has been around longer than you, cultivate her or him. Yes, men too. Don’t be obsequious, but do value what experienced people can tell you.
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Be strategic, and think about the big picture and what you are doing to make it happen. But don’t let ambition blind you to the needs of the moment. You still have to do your job as it is in order to get to the job you want.
What would you tell younger people to help them get ahead?
Get curious- Ask for feedback! Don’t give feedback unsolicited, only when asked – this ensures they’re interested and ready to hear the feedback.
Work to achive your goals, but don’t run yourself ragged trying to do it all. Timing is king.
Great advice! Someone once said to me ‘you have the curse of making everything seem easy.’ I prefer being a swan!!
I like your list. A couple of others I picked up over the years:
"Trade time for money": meaning, if you don’t like cleaning your home, and can afford (or just about afford) to pay someone else to do it, pay the cost and spend the time doing something important to you (like spending time with your kids, friends, family).
"If it doesn’t make sense to you, it probably won’t make sense overall or to someone else": Meaning, if your boss sends you off to get an answer to something, don’t merely find an answer and parrot it back to your boss if you don’t fully understand it yourself. Give yourself credit for being smart. If the answer is not clear, dig deeper until it is. In this way, you expand your own knowledge and also the value you can bring to the situation.
One of best things you can do in your workplace is to be kind to others. That goes from the cleaning crew, maintenance, IT etc. This will help you in all aspects of your life not just work.