by Solange Lopes | Apr 6, 2015 | Career
Box Pleat Dress – Photo credit: http://www.stories.com/us/
There’s something about this dress that says stylish sophistication with an edge! Loving the straight tailoring of this conservative, feminine box pleat dress with a twist! The two inverted pleats at the bottom of the dress create a surprise effect that keeps this dress interesting, fun and “conservatively flirty”…The powder blue color also helps set this dress apart. It’s $100 at & Other Stories.
For a definitely distinctive look, I’d pair this dress with stung heels like this pair of pointed leather pumps with slim ankle straps. Can you say stunning?
Work It Girl!
The Corporate Sis.
by Solange Lopes | Apr 6, 2015 | Career |
Photo credit: http://westafricalifestyle.com
“Always do what you are afraid to do.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson.
The day my last CPA exam results came out, I couldn’t muster the courage to log on to the computer and check if I had passed or failed. There I stood in front of the dark screen, unable to type a word or click on the mouse. I was terrified.
Fear immobilizes us, robs us of our innate ability to act, and leaves us helpless and powerless. It also affects our careers, plaguing us with micro-fears that ultimately chase success away.
Yet while it stops many in their tracks, fear has proven to be the catalyst behind many a success. Here are a few ways you can turn that tightening in your chest, ultra-rapid beating of your heart, even the paralyzing, numbing effect of fear to push your career higher:
1. Accept your fear! You have to acknowledge you are afraid first! Denying the growling feeling at the pit of your stomach will only serve to mislead you. Is that meeting scaring the living hell out of you? Are you afraid to ask for a promotion? Before you can move forward, accept what you are feeling and recognize it for what it is. You are scared, and it’s ok…
2. Understand your fear! Many don’t understand the mental blocks keeping them from success. Did your parents instill in you a mentality of “barely making it in life”? Are you ashamed of rising higher for fear your significant other, family, friends or community will reject you? Or are you doubting you, the perfect, well-behaved, responsible woman, will be judged for following your true career dreams? What’s scaring you? What makes you tick? If you don’t get your fear, it will end up getting you…
3. Let your fear fuel you! The saying goes:” If your dreams don’t scare you, they aren’t big enough”. Let your fear of success fuel you with enough anger, determination and strength to reach higher. The fear itself is not the problem. What makes or breaks your career success is how you decide to redirect this fear, and whether you allow it to swallow you whole, or set you free.
4. Start acting out! Not in a reckless, irresponsible way, but in a way that pushes against the effects of fear. Do the thing that scares you. Petrified at the thought of asking for a promotion? Go do something bold, like skydiving (or wearing flat shoes at your next event), come back to work and tell your boss why you think you deserve more money. Take a different way to work, order a different meal off the menu, challenge yourself, and dare to ask for what you want!
5. Now go help someone else! The ultimate way to use fear to your advantage is to help someone else do the same. Mentor another woman at work, dare a lady friend to go after what they want, post an inspirational quote on social media, do something to inspire someone else to embrace their own fear and use it to push themselves higher!
How do you use your fear to push your career forward?
The Corporate Sis.
by Solange Lopes | Apr 5, 2015 | Career |
What if you started the day with this simple affirmation: “I can’t fail”. No matter what the day brings, no matter the obstacles, the level of aggravation brought on by your boss or how long it takes you to put your contacts in…You cannot fail!
In her best-seller book #Girlboss, NastyGal founder Sophia Amoruso says it best: “Failure is your invention”, and I couldn’t agree more. Failure is the mask we hide behind to give power to what went wrong, instead of reinforcing what was right, however dismal that may be. It’s this disadvantage we have to spend energy overcoming, and even more energy putting behind us. Truth is, failure plagues us like a silent disease buried deep in the confines of our minds, releasing its poison of self-doubt and lack of faith in our careers and lives…
Failure plagues us like a silent disease…
As women at work, and as women in general, it’s far too easy to get accustomed to being harsh on ourselves. We are as fast to say “I’m sorry”, as we are to beating ourselves up for not measuring up. It’s not surprising then that we tend to feel under-qualified when applying for jobs, hesitant when asking for a raise, and in general being blamed for holding ourselves back at work.
So what if we couldn’t fail (and let the rest of the world know that too) at work or in life? What if we could simply acknowledge we messed up, fixed it and moved on? What if we could find in each experience, each life and work lesson an opportunity to grow and become better? What if being a woman, a minority, a mom, , or an LGBT at work were not as much of an obstacle to achieve success to us?
You can’t fail, and until you realize that, you may just be holding success at bay…
The Corporate Sis.
by Solange Lopes | Apr 5, 2015 | Career |
Happy Easter Sunday! Hope everyone’s enjoying today (and refraining from drowning in chocolate)! As you’re looking for that last piece of chocolate, here are the news that made us smile, laugh, and shake our heads this week:
- In awesome news this week, the Daily Show has a new host, and although it’s not a woman (sorry, I had to say that), it happens to be one of my favorite comedians, South African Trevor Noah! Can’t wait!;
- In less exciting (and actually rather unnerving news), former Kleiner Perkins partner Ellen Pao lost her case against the firm; however, Mashable confirms despite loss, Ellen Pao succeeded in calling out subtle sexism;
- Speaking of subtle (or not so much) sexism, this NY Times article virulently denounces the bias against women’s appearances vs. their talents;
- To make it a tad bit better, Fast Company lists 13 companies with remarkable perks (including a $4,000 newborn baby cash at Facebook, yes, talk about an incentive to procreate);
- This post by Bullish Jennifer Dziura in the Muse had me jumping in my seat in agreement: let’s ban “working mom” from the English vocabulary, or for any vocabulary for that matter;
- Apparently, some people are pissed more people of color are represented in the media, as revealed by Feministing (and we’re not sharing our chocolates with them);
- Fortune asks the 40 under 40 for advice they would give their 20-year old selves (and here’s my personal version);
- Speaking of advice, Forbes answers one key question for millenials: what to do with your 401k when switching jobs;
- The Wall Street Journal introduces us to In Her Sight, a company rating companies according to how they treat women (and we love the idea);
- The Guardian reveals new research suggesting what women really want is not so much flexibility, but rather power (yes, even is we tend to ask ourselves, “‘Mo power, ‘mo problems“);
- To end up on an inspirational note, enjoy these 100 leadership quotes, courtesy of Inc.
Happy Easter Sunday!
The Corporate Sis.
by Solange Lopes | Apr 3, 2015 | Career
TGIF! It’s Friday, and you’ve been looking forward to it all week! Yes, even you, the top performer who’s got it together, or you, who come in super early and makes sure to be seen working super late every night…The fact is, many of us in the corporate world, as successful (or not successful) as we may be, straddle that fine line between downright hating our jobs and mustering enough dedication to make it strong to the week-end…
Statistics clearly say we should take Friday off, forever and ever. And wouldn’t we make perfect business sense, considering Friday is the least productive day of the week (shocker), and by far…
My $0.05: Ok, I do admit some of my Fridays have not been the most productive. Yet at the risk of being the “Debbie Downer” here, I think Fridays should be the best and most strategically used days of the week.
I’ve learnt at my own humble expense maximizing your Fridays, not so much quantity-wise but quality-wise, can end your week (and start the next one) on a high (and much happier) note. And while I’d love a four-day week, let’s remember, even then, Thursday would be the new Friday…
What do you think?
The Corporate Sis.
by Solange Lopes | Apr 3, 2015 | Career
Levi’s Jean Pencil Skirt – Photo credit: kohls.com
Jean skirts are officially back, and while it’s taking me back to obscure, neon-colored times buried deep in the back of my mind, I have to admit I kinda like it. Hence my week-end pick, this Levi’s jean pencil skirt from Kohl’s. I like the fact that it’s still a bit on the conservative side, and is versatile enough to be styled many different ways. It’s $48 at Kohl’s, and is also available in a lighter bay blue hue and a darker shade as well. I personally prefer this in-between shade.
And since denim on denim is also back, I’d pair this skirt with a cool chambray shirt, like this (very affordable) women’s boyfriend version from Old Navy. For a preppier look, I may just style it with this check cotton shirt I had previously featured on the blog.
Happy Friday!
The Corporate Sis.
by Solange Lopes | Apr 2, 2015 | Career
Photo credit: http://mycollegeguide.org
So we’ve talked about picking your employer, and how it’s more like a marriage (even if the brief, Vegas, drive-through style) than you’d care to think (really, it is)…Yet, when you’re sitting across from your potentially future boss, what makes you beam inside at the prospect of working with them? Or what particular attitudes or behaviors remind you of your soon-to-be ex-mother in law (ok, that was harsh)? Really, what makes you tick when picking a job, or tap your feet in a Hallelujah dance? Or do you just leave it to chance, or your daily horoscope predictions?
My $0.05: Predicting whether a job or not will be the perfect job is a pretty tall order. I know some people for whom their first hesitant choices turned out to be their professional loves. And I know others who still can’t believe what they signed up for…
Intuition plays a large role for me. If all the conditions are aligned, and my gut is in, it’s a good sign. At the end of the day, I’ve got to be able to go to bed, having answered at least two of these three questions: Is this a company I can work for? It this a manager I can report to on a really bad day? And, last but not least, can I do this job and go home better than I was the day before?
How about you? What makes you pick (or ditch) a job?
The Corporate Sis.
