by Solange Lopes | Sep 10, 2014 | Career |
Learning- Photocredit: womennewsnetwork.net
“Learning is like rowing upstream: not to advance is to drop back” Chinese proverb
My baby daughter started kindergarten this year. Every day as I pick her up, I ask her the same invariable (and invariably repetitive to her) question: “Baby, what did you learn today?” And since she is her mother’s daughter, she started chiming right back at me, in her little inquisitively sarcastic voice: “Mommy, what did you learn at work today?”
You’d never think a 5 year-old, 2-foot nothing little person could make you question yourself, right along with the entire concept of workplace learning. Well think again…
New technologies are popping up faster than you can switch anti-aging creams. And not only is there an app for everything, there’s a better app for that app. With millenials redefining the workplace demographics and women ever more powerfully leaning in, out or sideways, work is definitely not what it used to be. Neither is workplace learning.
Instead of formal lined up rows in student classes, we now are tasked with learning everywhere, from all our experiences combined. Learning is now as mobile as your new (bigger) iPhone6, and it’s also right there, on demand anytime! And now more than ever, learning is measured, quantified and predicted in terms of results.
From how it impacts the sales cycle, to customer satisfaction rates and overall quality, it’s become even more obvious that learning and doing are close family. To learn and not do is now equated to not learning at all.
So whether it’s applying some e-learning principles, making use of some informal networking resources or proactively seeking to better yourself as a whole, are you really learning at work? And if you’re not, is it time to start asking yourself and your company why?
In the meantime, I have to prepare to answer my baby’s question this afternoon…
The Corporate Sis.
by Solange Lopes | Sep 9, 2014 | Career
Google Glass by DVF – photo credit: net-a-porter.com
If you have $1,800 to spare and you love Google and fashion, then you’re in luck! We’ve reached the era of fashionable wearables for technology and fashion addicts, and nothing says it more than the Google Glass by no one else than DVF!
I’ve come around quite a bit when it comes to Google Glass. As with many, walking around with a computer on my face was not my first choice. Walking around with a computer designed by Diane Von Furstenberg herself: worth of consideration! Hence today’s pick, these teal frames with blue shades that keep you stylish while allowing you to share photos, make calls, shoot videos and update your Facebook page just by saying “Ok, Glass”!
My $0.05: I’m not yet ready to shell out $1,800 on this, BUT (there’s always a but), I can now picture myself walking around with a computer on my face…there’s progress…
The Corporate Sis.
by Solange Lopes | Sep 9, 2014 | Career
Patch pocket suit – Photo credit: the limited.com
I haven’t featured a suit in a while. Now that Fall is almost here, I’m back on the suit trend, starting with this patch pocket suit from The Limited. I love the menswear-inspired look of this twill women patch pocket blazer in rust red, as featured in the September 2014 issue of Redbook magazine. The high-waisted pencil skirt features metal buttons for a military-inspired look.
The geo print is both original and classic. While the blazer is available in rust red and taupe, the coordinated skirt is only available in rust red. The blazer is $108.00, and the high-waisted skirt $59.95 at The Limited.
The Corporate Sis.
by Solange Lopes | Sep 9, 2014 | Career
Respect – Photo credit: everydaypeoplecartoons.com
Happy Tuesday!
There’s an old West African folk tale about a slow tortoise and a fast hare competing in a race. Now why would these two even think about competing, right? It’s obvious who has the advantage here. Long story short, compete they did, and win the slow tortoise did, to the surprise, and most importantly, the RESPECT of all!
We all want R-E-S-P-E-C-T, and Aretha Franklin can’t sing it enough! And when it comes to our careers, we don’t just want it, we actually need it to forge relationships with colleagues, subordinates and superiors, and also just to get the job done.
When we walk in to a meeting room, we need to be respected for the expertise, personality and unique characteristics we bring in. As we describe our personal strengths and unique abilities to the hiring manager across the table during an interview, we need to sense a mutual respect. We are creatures of habit, but we strive with and for respect.
Not getting respect in the workplace, especially as a woman and a minority, can be a rather painful experience. As women in the workplace, especially as minority women, we’ve unfortunately been taught that our value has to be forcefully earned. That we must do more, be more, choose more, in order to be considered in the running for success. And that we must conform to most of the expectations society (ourselves included) places upon us, even when at radical opposites from who we are, what we aspire to and the way our lives are shaped.
Yet in the midst of all these external demands, from the urgent need to “lean in” to the gut-wrenching longing to have it all, we forget to honor our inner tortoises. Instead, we try to do more to match the hares of our times. Actually, we strive to rid ourselves of our precious shells so we can be more not like ourselves.
And then only to turn around and wonder why our super-human efforts and abilities are not earning us a spot in the boardroom, a mighty hammer to break the glass ceiling or at least some pay equality…
You can’t get the respect you don’t give to yourself. You can’t cross the finish line with legs that aren’t yours. And you can’t win a race you didn’t subscribe to in the first place.
And to gain respect at work or among a room-full of kindergarten kids, you must trust yourself, all of yourself, to run and finish the race. On your own authentic, genuine, persistent terms.
The Corporate Sis.
by Solange Lopes | Sep 8, 2014 | Career
thanks, but no thanks – Photo credit: alps411.com
Thanks, but no thanks! There are many instance when declining a colleague’s lunch or coffee offer is really what we want to do. But instead, we begrudgingly put on a brave face, head to the next ATM, and proceed to buy that lunch or coffee we really didn’t need…
After all, alienating colleagues is never a good idea. And looking like a cheapo or a solitary recluse, not so much… So how does one say “thanks but no thanks” at work:
1. Be honest! If you’re saving to buy a home or pay off your debt, be honest about it. Your co-workers will not only understand, they will be inspired too!
2. Do make time to be social at work! While you can skip some of the expensive lunches or Starbucks Coffee breaks, don’t make it a constant! Do invest some time building relationships with your boss and co-workers…even if you have to opt for the $7.99 salad instead!
3. Don’t ditch the boss! If you have to pick and choose, refrain from ditching the boss on a lunch date! Not that you have to kiss anyone’s b…, but you may miss out on invaluable opportunities to network upwards.
The Corporate Sis.
by Solange Lopes | Sep 8, 2014 | Career
Collarless blazer – $99.90 – Photo credit: zara.com
I love the bold yet classic look of this collarless blazer from Zara. The fuschia color is as unpredictable as it is classy, and the collarless cut is simply original. While I usually favor darker-colored blazers, this one just makes me smile and look forward to dressing for work (especially on a Monday).
I don’t think I would do the whole pink suit though, I’d probably pair it with dark pants or a black pencil skirt and minimal jewelry. This blazer is $99.90 at Zara.
The Corporate Sis.
by Solange Lopes | Sep 8, 2014 | Career |
Go ahead and let go; Photo credit: http://citysearchblog.yellowpages.co.za
Happy Monday!
I’m afraid of heights, there I said it! I’m also afraid of losing control, even a little bit. Over the family budget, the kids’ clothing choices, or the direction of my life. And I’m not alone…From the time we’re asked as kids what we want to be when we grow up, society places a heck of a heavy expectation on us. We’re supposed to know at about 5 or 6 years of age the occupation that would fill our lives for decades to come. And we had better make the right choice…Are you going to be a doctor, or a lawyer sweetie?
I wanted to be Superwoman, and as it turns out, I did not strike out too far off. Neither did most of us…We are all superwomen alright, except our brand of superwomen is not as glamorous as we had initially thought. For many of us unsung career women struggling to “lean in” and sit our tired selves at the crowded corporate table, we’re super-everything, yet not quite as super-successful as we ought to be…And when you’re afraid of heights and losing control, that can be super-unnerving!
Could it be that the same expectations to figure out and control our destinies as we were growing up, are now robbing us of success? Could it be, maybe, that we were (and still are), given the message that we can fix it all by applying certain gymnastics principles (lean in, speak up, sit down, jump up) totally unrealistic for the way women’s lives are shaped… when in reality we never had any control over expectations which were not even of our making? That if we actually let go of our desire to fit in and resulting control inner control freaks, we could actually regain our power?
After all, doesn’t the most popular vocational development theory, the Self-Esteem Theory by Columbia psychologist Donald Super, around the traditional career mindset totally obliterate women’s realities? By outlining the three stages of Establishment (20-30years), Maintenance (30-50 years) and Disengagement (50 and over), this model totally forgot about women having and raising children, or ethnic minorities even being part of this ideal picture. And what had happened was, we were given this model as a whole society, and taught to mold our lives and careers after it. And when we, as women tried to take control of it, we kept failing miserably…
And then we were told to act more like men, and stills subscribe to the myth that we can have it all at the same time? So we took up the challenge, vowed to keep it all under control, from our careers to the best partners, not to forget the safest way to freeze our precious eggs…
What we may not have realized is as long as we don’t let go of our fear to be inadequate as women and not fitting in the mold, we will stand in the way of our success, right there at the edge of the plank…
So go ahead, let go, do your best, on your terms…
Happy monday!
The Corporate Sis.
