by Solange Lopes | Oct 13, 2015 | Career
Fashion Break: Lace shoulder tee
It’s time for 3-quarter sleeve tops again, and I’m loving this lace shoulder tee from AnnTaylor. The simple cut of this jewel neck top contrasts nicely with the luxe look of the lace shoulders.
Perfect to pair with easy slacks or a fresh pencil skirt for work. Also looks great under a blazer or cardigan for chillier days at the office. A winner…
It’s on sale at Ann Taylor for $29.99.
Psst…AnnTaylor is extending its Fall sale with 60% off all sales styles (use code SHOPFALL).
With Love,
The Corporate Sis.
by Solange Lopes | Oct 13, 2015 | Career |
How to play well when co-managing a team at work
Have you ever watched two toddlers play together, sharing their toys in perfect harmony and agreement over whose turn it is to smash the mini firetruck into the wall?
Probably not…for the simple reason that if you’ve been around any toddler between the age of the “terrible twos” going on the terrible forevers, you know that whole harmony and agreement thing does not happen…
Neither does it exist between office walls when it comes to co-leardership or co-management of anything. No matter how many cups of strong espresso ingested, or daily zen meditations downloaded on your favorite podcasting stations, the fact is, having multiple bosses around one single project (and being one of them) is most often the perfect recipe for professional disaster…
I remember the last time I co-managed a project in Big Corporate. It also happened to be my first time managing a project at all. And while sharing the burden with another manager appeared to help at first, it ended up providing me with the largest, most consistent headaches I had ever experienced in my career. In addition to significantly upping my caffeine consumption and disastrously boosting the project’s budget…
And the poor staff on the project, treated like gentle lambs taken to the slaughterhouse, except every manager on the job had their own road map to the slaughterhouse and their own ideas as to how to get there….Think misguided directions, excessive meetings, and a general confusion all around…You get the drift…
After not so effectively experiencing the joys (not) of co-managing a project though, what was left (thankfully, something was left), were a few strategic moves to use in co-leading situations at work:
- Have a coordination plan! I am not the most coordinated of people, so if you see me walking down the street, beware! Well, the same kind of applies to co-leading projects at work. Without effective coordination, any project is doomed from the start. I remember one staff on a project I was co-managing buy myself and the other manager on the job, coffee at the end of the project just because she was so happy she no longer had to work with us. So meet ahead of time with your co-leaders, and establish a plan of action. Coordinate all the project demands, scheduling, tasks and responsibilities ahead of time. Meet on a regular basis to discuss progress and agree on the main points, before relaying any information or directions to the team.
- Not everything is due yesterday! The biggest challenge when co-managing at work is to coordinate everyone’s priorities. While the other manager on the job wanted their part of the project done yesterday, I also felt mine should be accomplished following the same deadline. The end result? Major confusion and frustration, in addition to a team positively wishing you miss a step and break a leg.
- Lay off the stress factor! Ok, I admit, there are days I literally wanted to tell my co-manager where to go. And I bet there were days when our staff wanted to tell us where to go…Acknowledge that co-leading a project can be extremely stressful, and a burden on the leaders as well as on the team. Check in on each other, and on the team as well. Be aware of the amount of work and responsibilities everyone carries, and let each team member have a say in the work.
It’s not like we are still toddlers and can’t share our toys at work, or is it?
What challenges have you faced when co-leading a team?
With Love,
The corporate Sis.
by Solange Lopes | Oct 5, 2015 | Career |
I remember the first time I was asked to interview a candidate in Big Corporate. It was mid-afternoon on a Friday afternoon, I was wrapping up on my current projects, listening to iHeart Radio and planning my outfit to go out to dinner with a couple of friends that evening. Then a slight knock on the side of my cubicle, as my Director turned to me and handed me a pristine resume, accompanied by a few hurried words: ” I need you to fill in and interview this guy.” Ok…
Me: “Hmmm…sure. When is the interview?”
Him: “In an hour.”
Longest hour of my career, as I fiddled with someone else’s career story, wondering how in the world I would hold my own in my first, impromptu interview without fainting or spilling my late lunch all over the poor guy’s resume.
And of course, the clock kept racing my mind, as I desperately tried coming up with inventive ideas to leave the office (and never come back again). It didn’t work out, and I did conduct my first interview, without any vomiting or hives incidents.
As it turned out, my assessment of the candidate was right on the money, and while I did not make the ultimate hiring decision, I hired quite a few interviewing lessons from the career battleground over the years (and kept them):
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Understand what your company/department needs.
Does your department need a PhD able to give a high-level overview of the work at a minute’s notice? Or do you really need a manager close to the work, ready to get in the mud with the team and get the job done? Are specific skills required, or can the department make do with a general set of qualifications? Understanding EXACTLY what your company or department, or even yourself as the hiring manager, needs is crucial to assessing the fit of the candidate.
Study the candidates’ resumes, assess their skills, retrace their career paths in your mind. A good practice is to put yourself in the candidate’s shoes. Read between the lines, try sensing what their goals, ambitions, likes and dislikes are. If you have access to their social media channels, try investigating there as well, and seeing what their likes/dislikes outside of work are. No need to stalk them, but you must do your homework first.
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Establish a conversation.
The interview is not a federal investigation. Please relax and see it as a healthy conversation between two people who are learning to know each other. Listen carefully, slowly, and engage with the candidate. This will allow for a more authentic and honest echange.
Be honest when answering the candidates’ questions. This is not about upsetting the job or company, but really allowing both yourself and the candidate to evaluate whether this is a good fit or not. Be open, without revealing the confidential nature of your business.
Most candidates are prepared for standard interview questions (at least, one would hope). Make sure to follow up standard interview questions (and their standard, canned responses), with thoughtful follow-up questions that actually reveal the candidates’ deeper motives. The devil’s in the details, right?
Do not set aside your intuitive powers. Trust your gut instinct and experience to tell you more about the candidate than a whole resume and packed interview can. Leave some room for intuitive questions and assessments.
Do not leave the interview room without informing the candidate of the next step. Provide them with some form of closure as to the remainder of the process.
Now go on and ace that first interview…
How did your first interview as the interviewer go?
The Corporate Sis.
by Solange Lopes | Sep 30, 2015 | Career |
How to work with a backstabber
You know him or her. The dreaded, despised but put up with for way too long office backstabber. The one who steals your ideas and takes credit for them later at the weekly status meeting. Or piggy backs on your contributions to inflate theirs, withholding critical information from you and magically “forgetting” to include you in Senior Management meetings. Yes, that one…
I’ve worked with a few of those. The ones who smile in your face, innocently chatting you up on the way to the cafeteria, right before they send out an email to the team with the spreadsheet you prepared (initialed with their names, of course). And as obvious as it is that working with such individuals can be a large source of stress and significant cause of inefficiencies, it remains dealing with a backstabbing co-worker still happens more than it should.
Every time I experienced this situation, the first thing I was tempted to do was walk straight to the offending co-worker’s cube, and give him a piece of my hot mind. Which I did, in a few instances. And almost immediately regretted. All I managed to do then was stir the pot, and motivate the backstabber to keep re-enacting their behavior in the hopes of making me lose my cool.
After weeks of “forgotten” meeting invites, stolen ideas and materials, not to mention the duplicated work and wasted budget time, it was time to come up with a “smart”, non-aggressive approach to beat the offender at their own game.
- Prepare ahead of time. The backstabber likes to take advantage of last-minute opportunities to steal your ideas and sweep the rug right from under your professional feet. Do not give them the opportunity. Be over-prepared. Ensure you have prepared for each meeting ahead of time, and have personally communicated related materials and ideas to your team and management before communicating them to him/her. Take credit for your work before they can take credit for it!
- Take the initiative. Do not wait for someone else to get credit for your research or work. Take the initiative early. Send out the meeting’s agenda, propose a discussion or meeting to discuss your ideas, speak up on your behalf early!
- Back yourself up! Initial and date your work to create a trail of evidence you can resort to in case the backstabber wants to lay claim of it. Sign off on your supporting documentation, keep an email trail, preserve evidence of communication and work showing your contributions. It will help you demonstrate your participation in the project or assignment at hand.
- Be courteous! It may sound counter-intuitive; however, showing kindness and courtesy goes a long way at work. Compliment team members (including the backstabber) on their work, and offer your help whenever needed. This will help alleviate any doubts when the backstabber proceeds to spread gossip about you, or wants to discredit your work.
As you climb the corporate ladder and assume new responsibilities at work, you will become the target of backstabbers. It’s just to be expected. Prepare yourself, and maintain your professional cool at all times.
Above all, let your work speak for itself, and refrain from perpetuating the backstabber’s behavior or engaging in any office gossip about or around them.
Oh, and take a coffee break every now and then…
With Love,
The Corporate Sis.
by Solange Lopes | Sep 21, 2015 | Career |
7 things working women taught me about a real career
The first time I had to work in a team led by a female manager, I nearly broke in hives. Not because I dreaded the work, the team, or the fact that mice came out to play after-hours in the office. Not even because it was a new job, in an new industry, in an old building with limited parking and unlimited dust mites.
What I dreaded, even more than running into the Department Head without waterproof concealer on, was working for a woman. A living, breathing, woman with hormones, feelings and the power to punish me for the way I part my hair.
Irrational? Biased? Unjust? Absolutely. Yet I didn’t know any better. I had been forewarned: women are hard to work with, more demanding, and infinitely harsher than the harshest man with the biggest professional ego out there. And judging from the way some of my friends’ female managers made them question their sanity (and every ounce of professional talent they thought they had), they might have been right…
And it was even worse for working moms out there. Apparently, working with or for women who do not understand or empathize with the fact that you are also responsible for little human beings who are not remotely controllable (or “schedulable”, or “plantable” for that matter) is the equivalent of a professional death sentence. And I happened to have two of these little people, with two different schedules, two different drop-off locations, and two very different set of astronomical needs.
I thought I was professionally doomed, but then again I needed health insurance…
And the unexpected happened…I met this woman. Straightforward, to the point, successful, with little people of her own, and the most amazing sense of professionalism and fairness I had ever witnessed in Big Corporate. I wanted to pinch her to make sure she was real, but I really needed to keep this job, so I kept my hands to myself…
For once in my career, I did not have to put on the heavy, masculine mask of professional ultra-resilience. I did not have to pretend I did not have a life outside of work. That I was perfectly comfortable spending the evening at the office while bribing some reticent family member to pick up my kids, yet again. That I knew it all, could do it all, all while keeping my hair frizz-free and my performance error-proof.
For once in my career, I could come as I was. A professional mom, with real competences, real talents, and a real life. No more bargaining advancement for unreasonably long (and unproductive) hours. No more pretending not to have a life outside of work. None of the unreal barriers to real, productive, honest work.
I did not have to lose my life to gain a career. Instead, I gained a more rewarding career, a better life, and less stress-induced wrinkles.
Working with fellow supportive, empowering, powerful working moms has taught me that:
- Authenticity gives work meaning. When working moms, and women in general, can bring their authentic selves to work, they can give it their all. The less energy we have to put into false pretenses, building a facade, and not being who we are, the more energy we can devote to the very reason we are here, to work!
- Work is part of a whole! As working moms, and women at work in general, we perform better from integrating all the moving parts of our lives. It’s not about “having” it all, it’s about having the choice to “integrate” it all. That’s real power…
- Be present! One of the most valuable lessons I learnt from this amazing manager was to be present. As I committed to checking my email while on vacation, she gently stopped me with these powerful words: “I believe in being present everywhere you are. If you are on vacation, then be on vacation.” And so it was, I went on vacation, and was actually all there, for once…
- Power is contagious! Seeing other women in power is one of the most effective way for other women to be inspired to rise to the top. Working with Senior Managers, Directors and VPs who were also women, moms, wives (in addition to being the most bad-ass corporate players I had ever met), made me believe I could do it too.
- You have the right to speak up! “I empower you to speak up”. These were my manager’s words after a particularly painful meeting with a particularly painful co-worker. Women instinctively understand the struggles other women face in Big Corporate. They get the anxiety, the push-backs, the internal fights we go through at work. They get it, and because they get it, they can help…
- We are all mentors! Mentoring does not have to be this stuffy, organized process. It need not require extensive planning or elaborate meetings. It can just be as simple as a casual talk over coffee, a walk in crowded company halls, or a smart piece of advice wrapped into a simple, everyday conversation. Just like that…
- Last but not least, I can do it! People learn from what they see others doing. The best incentive to have more women in board rooms is to show them other women in the board room. If they can do it, we can do it!
What lessons have you learnt from working with working moms?
Love,
The Corporate Sis.
