by Solange Lopes | Apr 18, 2016 | Career
So here we go again…Monday rolls in, another week, another long list of to-do’s, from unearthing clean socks from the monumental (hopefully clean) pile of laundry, to preparing for that uber-important meeting with that high-level executive who looks like he’s going to chew you alive…
For the longest time, I dreaded Monday mornings. Something about the whole “starting fresh” thing just when you actually started relaxing on Sunday afternoon…And the pressure to start the week with a bang, when all you wanted to bang was your head on a fresh satin pillow as the birds happily chirp outside…Come on, you know you’ve been there, even you, the overachiever over there…
And as corporate sisters, having to juggle the house schedule, the kids’ appointments (and missing socks), and remember that the lipstick goes on the lips and not the teeth, it can be especially challenging.
As much as you may enjoy your career and look forward to Monday mornings (yes, some people from this planet actually do), there’s always that itty-bit (or humongous, depends on the perspective), side of you that needs a lil’ bit of extra motivation to roll off the bed. So for all those Monday mornings (or Sunday nights), when the motivational oomph isn’t quite there, and you’d happily trade off your shoe allowance for an extra hour in bed, here are 12 of my favorite motivational quotes from trailblazing, outstanding corporate sisters like yourself:
- “If we can learn to deal with our discomfort and just relax into it we’ll have a better life.” Mellody Hobson, CEO of Ariel Investments
- “Don’t be intimidated by what you don’t know. That can be your greatest strength and ensure that you do things differently from everyone else.” — Sara Blakely, Spanx
- “I always did something I was a little not ready to do. I think that’s how you grow. When there’s that moment of ‘Wow, I’m not really sure I can do this,’ and you push through those moments, that’s when you have a breakthrough.” –– Marissa Mayer, Yahoo
- “Option A is not available. So let’s kick the sh** out of option B.” – Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO
- “Many women live like it’s a dress rehearsal. Ladies, the curtain is up and you’re on.” — Mikki Taylor, Essence magazine
- I just love bossy women. I could be around them all day. To me, bossy is not a pejorative term at all. It means somebody’s passionate and engaged and ambitious and doesn’t mind leading.” — Amy Poehler, actress
- I wake up every morning and think to myself, ‘How far can I push the company forward in the next 24 hours?’” — Leah Busque, TaskRabbit
- My best successes came on the heels of failures.” — Barbara Corcoran, businesswoman
- My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.” — Oprah Winfrey
- “The way to achieve your own success is to be willing to help somebody else get it first.” — Iyanla Vanzant, speaker
- “I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.” — Estée Lauder, Estée Lauder companies
- We need to accept that we won’t always make the right decisions, that we’ll screw up royally sometimes — understanding that failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success.” – Arianna Huffington, Huffington Post Editor-in-chief
What other quotes motivate you to get going and slay your goals on Monday mornings?
To your success,
The Corporate Sis.
by Solange Lopes | Apr 15, 2016 | Career
Photo credit: shop style.com
As Spring is (slowly) getting here, and we can start showing a little more skin, cropped pants are officially back in! hence today’s Casual Friday pick, this pair of “perfect” cropped pants from Talbots. Love the versatility of these pants that you can pair with anything from classing pumps to comfy flats!
It also comes in a variety of colors you can pick from, form persian pink to crystal blue and countless shades in between…It’s $69.50 at Talbots!
So what do you think? Yay or Nay?
Love,
The Corporate Sis.
by Solange Lopes | Apr 15, 2016 | Career
This is our weekly career and lifestyle news update, where we round up exciting news of the last week and we let you have it…ahem, news-wise that is…
Think of it as your career gossiping section on steroids…
And while you’re at it, follow us on Facebook, Twitter,IG, and Pinterest!
Here we go…
Happy Week-end!
Love,
The Corporate Sis.
by Solange Lopes | Apr 14, 2016 | Career
“You can take a sister out of her career, but not the career out of the (corporate) sister.” If you’ve never heard the phrase, it’s because I totally made it up. Yet, if you look around at many of the corporate sisters around you, starting with good ol’ YOU, you’ll notice most of us display some of the same behaviors in our personal lives, as we do…ahem, at work.
Like when we drown in to-do lists for everything from how to separate the laundry by color, to the type of gluten-free bread to buy…Or when you tell the hubby, in your most romantic tone: “Can we schedule our love-making session for a more convenient time?” Or when your kid asks you why chocolate doesn’t grow on trees (which by the way is a perfectly valid question), and you ponder your thoughts for a minute before carefully replying: “Can I get back to you on this? Let’s table it for now.”
Whether we realize it or not, or admit to it or not, work seeps into our daily lives in both small and big ways. Even when we think we’re totally unplugged from work (with the exception of your work phone, you never know if a really important email that would change your entire career comes in the middle of the night), we’re taking some of our work habits with us. From list making to crucial family meetings and other personal “executive” decisions, there’s always something out there giving away the corporate sister in us…
Luckily, even if we sound slightly annoying to our anti-corporate (and anti-paycheck-or-personal-hygiene) cousin twice-removed, there are some great advantages to bringing some our career’s structure to our lives. Especially after your brain cells retired after baby number three, or when being “politically correct” is the only way to preserve any family ties. So for all those among us who don’t have time to switch off our brains between work and home, here are 7 career principles that can make your personal life much easier (and did I mention preserve family ties):
- A to-do list will save your life (and your laundry): You know the woman who’s methodically crossing items off her checklist at the supermarket? Yes, the one whose cart is not filled with last-minute impulse-shopping items like triple-chocolate-filled OREO’s? Yes, that one…While some things should be spontaneous (like falling asleep on the couch in the middle of 20/20), others are better planned, written down and organized, so nobody loses their mind (or has to eat load of triple-chocolate-filled OREO’s for days)! Just sayin’…
- Speak up! In your personal life as in your career, your ideas and insight need to be heard. Like when everyone wants to do pizza night when you’re craving sushi. Or when the house schedule could use a serious overhaul, so we’re not known as the “always fashionably late” family. For all those times when it comes down to business at home, keeping in mind this powerful career and life principle can seriously make a difference.
- Be visible! One of the hallmarks of success in Big Corporate is visibility. Are you visible enough to make an impact on the power players at work? Are your contributions known? In the same way, are you present in your personal life? You may be there for everyone, always ready to lend a hand, but do people know how much of an impact you have?
- Fake it ’til you make it! Now that’s my motto! It’s not about being unauthentic or not being authentic. Instead, are you projecting your ambitions and desires into who you are now? At work you can dress for the position you want, volunteer for challenging projects, etc. In your personal life, this could translate into carrying yourself a certain way, as well as adopting winning mindsets that set you apart.
- Stay “on brand”! Whether you’re known as the “Challenger”, or the “Hard Worker” at the office, you can build your own personal brand in your every day life as well. It helps people understand and bond with you better, while you get to hone in on your natural talents and skills.
- Learn from your mistakes! Everyone messes up, in the office or in real life. But when we really miss out, is when we don’t learn from it to get better. There’s a reason why you work is reviewed and scrutinized by management! And there’s also a reason why admitting your mistakes in real life and working to better yourself can take you a long long way…
- Take the initiative! Initiative is strongly rewarded at work, and should also be praised in real life. As you’re starting projects and initiating positive change in the workplace, why not do the same in your personal life? Not only will it add a greater dimension to your life, it will also inspire others.
Do you apply career success principles into your personal life?
To your success,
The Corporate Sis.
by Solange Lopes | Apr 12, 2016 | Career
It’s Equal Pay Day! And while we’re not exactly toasting to women being compensated less than men for equal work, it does symbolize how far we still have to go to be treated fairly in the workplace.
In honor of raising more awareness to the (sad) fact that women have been paid significantly less than men for ahem…forever (in the US, we make 79 cents for every dollar a man makes), we’ve compiled a few interesting facts around this day:
- 4 months: that’s the amount of extra time a woman must work to earn the same as her male counterpart
- Red: The color supporters wear to support women and show how much “in the red” we are with our pay
- “Unhappy hours”: In reference to bars’ practice of “happy hours”, some will celebrate “unhappy hours” to protest women’s lower pay in states like Texas and Washington
- Louisiana: The state with the largest pay gap in the US (women earn just 65% of their male counterparts’ salaries there)
- 118 years: The amount if time it would take, according to the World Economic Forum, until the global pay equality is finally achieved
- 79%: That’s also the percentage of their bill women would pay in certain New Hampshire’s bakeries and cafes to make up for the wage gap
- Women of color: For this group, the pay gap is even wider, and to acknowledge this, Equal Pay Day is celebrated in March for Asian America women, in August for African-American women, and in October for Latina women.
Here’s to a day when we’ll really celebrate Equal Pay Day (because you know we’d actually have equal pay, no pun intended)!
To your success,
The Corporate Sis.
by Solange Lopes | Apr 10, 2016 | Career
I’ve been wanting to talk about mindset and meditation at work for a while, but frankly, I wasn’t sure which angle to take on it without sounding all woo-woo and stuff…So at the risk of sounding all woo-woo and stuff, I’m just going to put it out there: one of the most powerful tools of career success is, wait for it, your mind! Yes, your mind. Not your hard work, not your extra face time at work, or your practically living at your desk 90% of the time.
With that, comes the potential to tap into its power through the practice of meditation and mindfulness…And before you click off back to Facebook to check on your frenemy’s last vacation to that spot in Bali you’ve been praying to visit, hear me out…
Before I started consciously (and consistently) meditate, I thought there would be no way in hell I could get my mind to be still. Especially not when it came to anything remotely work-related. And especially not at work. I mean, let’s just start with the inbox factor, with thousands of emails coming at you from every corner of the company, from the IT technician who messed up re-imaging your computer (so now your screen’s actually suggestively blinking at you), to the Director who wants that strategy report on his desk by 11am (really, 11am is pre-lunch time!!!).
Let’s keep it real. For the rest of us human corporate sisters running from endless meetings to kid pickups, not to mention the extra-fast occasional online shoe-shopping, our minds tend to be constantly in overdrive. When you’re not thinking about what to reply to your manager about that report you haven’t even started yet, you’re concocting a 10-minute (somewhat healthy) dinner in your head for tonight. Or you’re trying to remember if your daughter’s recital is this Sunday (or was last Sunday)…
In our busy, overbooked, overstretched lives, how often do we crave that breath of fresh air, that feeling of laying on the beach somewhere in the Cape-Verde islands, being caressed by the sun, in total, absolute peace? Until the kids start throwing sand at us and screaming they need to pee this very minute (and of course, there are no toilets nearby, in addition to the fact you just got to the best part of your novel…)
Yet what if that breath of fresh air, that delicious feeling of being at peace, were readily available in your everyday life, and in your career? Not just when you’re on that much-awaited vacation. Not just when you’re home alone and you can finally pee alone without anyone asking for anything as you’re trying to accelerate your natural urine flow (excuse the graphic image…)…
Adding meditation as a success practice in your career not only provides you with that much-needed break in your life and career. It also sets you up for great success at work, for the very reason that for the majority of people, work is one of the biggest sources of stress. As a result, our work performances, attitudes and outlook suffer from it. All in all, it ends up being a lose-lose situation.
So today, I encourage you to add meditation to your career as a major success factor. Even when you think you have no time for it. Even when you think this would be pushing the craziness factor even further than mismatching your socks underneath your suit (or quietly picturing that awful colleague at work with toilet paper sticking from their pantyhose, or some other scenario you’d never let slip out of your over-imaginative mind)….
Set some time on your calendar for it.; all you need is really about 10 to 15 minutes to sit in silence, quiet your mind, and breathe deeply. Find a quiet place where you can spend some time alone and quiet your mind. It doesn’t matter if you can book a room, or if you have to sit in a toilet stall for that time (true story).
However you choose to do it, just choose to cater to your mind’s health by practicing quiet time. And it may just be exactly what you need to do in one of the least quiet places and times of your life, at work.
Do you practice meditation as part of your career?
Love and Light,
The Corporate Sis.
by Solange Lopes | Apr 8, 2016 | Career
Photo credit: shop style.com
It’s the week-end baby!
And in honor of relaxing (in style of course), my pick is this roll-tab sleeve chambray shirt. Love the relaxed, all-day comfort fit of this shirt that takes you from the easy Saturday morning brunch to the kids’ birthday party…
The point collar and front pocket add a classic touch to this modern, easy piece with an easy price tab of $39.99 at Macy’s. Want to bring the glam factor up a notch? Add a funky yet ladylike layered necklace like this one to complete your look. And voila!
So corporate sisters, what do you think? Yay or Nay?
Love,
The Corporate Sis.
