by Solange Lopes | Apr 22, 2014 | Career |
bamboo dry erase board – seejanework.com
It is Earth Day, and as environmentally conscious corporate sisters, we are also celebrating and honoring Mother Earth! And that is exactly why we picked today this bamboo desktop dry-erase board from seejanework.com.
Loving the natural look of it, as well as its versatility as it can be taken from the comfort of your kitchen to the organized business of your work desk.
It’s $14 at seejanework.com, and it’s our Earth Day crush of the day!
Seen a great, work-friendly accessory you’d like to share? Please email us at corporate@thecorporatesister.com!
The Corporate Sister.
by Solange Lopes | Apr 22, 2014 | Career
ceeceassociates.com
Happy Tuesday, and Happy Earth Day!
In today’s largely team-based corporate environments, leadership appears to be a constant requirement…even, and especially when, we are not exactly the Boss. Here you are, in a team of smart, ambitious, competitive team players, being assigned the responsibility to lead the team through a given project…only to be left wondering how in the world you can possibly act like the boss without the Boss title, experience or incentives for that matter…
I experienced this quite a bit in Big Accounting, where teams were assigned in hierarchical order, with staff led by Senior auditors, who in turn are led by Managers, and so forth and so on. While these reporting lines were most of the time informal and certainly blurry at times, they were still there to indicate some sort of an order to follow, even if titles, responsibilities and salaries were not necessarily aligned with them. It also had the benefit of teaching us, even as we just started out in the business, to lead, not necessarily from a place of existing authority, but rather from a place of acquired authority.
So how does one lead when one is NOT the boss? Especially when it comes to corporate sisters and minority women in the workplace who unfortunately tend to be perceived as having less authority in the workplace?
- Give others a voice: An important, and often overlooked aspect of leadership, is the ability to give others a voice. This becomes especially important in a team of peers where authority needs to be established and respect earned first. Start by listening to other members of the team, giving them the floor at first.
- Structure the conversation: The real challenge in leading a team in a subtle, understated yet effective way is to organize the conversation that inevitably ensues. Ideas will flow left and right, opinions will form, and while as a peer leader, you are stilt trying to establish your authority, you will need to digest this information and return it to your audience in a structured way, so as to assign each and everyone’s responsibilities accordingly. Your vantage point here is that since you would have been using the team’s ideas to create a structured workflow, the whole team is effectively leading the project…through you!
- Now YOU call the shots! Once everyone has been given a voice, and all ideas have been considered to create a structured, organized and effective workflow that the majority of the team is in agreement with, the hardest part of the work has been done. And now your authority has hopefully been established as a leader who can bring effective consensus! At this point, and after stepping to the side to let everyone speak up, it is time to get back to the forefront and call the shots! Executive decisions like assigning responsibilities, monitoring the progress of the project, and reporting status updates to upper management are yours! Time to shine!
How do you lead when you’re not the boss?
The Corporate Sister.
by Solange Lopes | Apr 21, 2014 | Career
actasifblog.com
Happy Monday!
Hope everyone had a great Easter week-end, and is ready to start this new week with as much chutzpah as it took to eat all those delicious Easter treats (you know who you are)…
And on days like today after a major holiday week-end, nothing like some healthy motivation to push us to produce our best work! Speaking of motivation, no one doubts the power of mentoring, especially when it comes to women’s careers. Yet very often, we tend to look more at what here at The Corporate Sister, we call vertical mentoring, as opposed to horizontal or peer mentoring.
I’ve had the opportunity to experience peer mentorship, and was pleasantly surprised with the results and long-lasting impact of it. While traditional mentoring implies a relationship between a role model figure and an aspiring employee or subordinate, peer mentoring has the advantage of leveling career-minded employees at comparable levels, thus fostering a sense of fellowship and comraderie.
Instead of looking up at one’s mentor as the idealistic representation of our career’s ambitions on a long-term basis, we can now look at a peer mentor as the attainable, concrete representation of our short-term career goals.
Don’t get me wrong, having an influential mentor in a higher-up position is an invaluable asset in one’s career. Benefiting from the experience, know-how, insights and even network of such mentors can propel us further in our careers faster than we could think possible.
However, many times we lack the immediate, short-term practical boost to step up the corporate ladder. And that’s exactly the added advantage that peer mentoring, at all levels of our career growth, can bring us…
Have you benefited from peer mentoring at work?
The Corporate Sister
by Solange Lopes | Apr 20, 2014 | Career |
Happy Easter Everyone! Here at The Corporate Sister, we wish you all a very happy Easter Sunday, hoping that your day is filled with love, laughter, and lots of chocolatey treats….And we also would like to thank you for all the support and love you’ve shown The Corporate Sister, and would like to give it right back to you!
On this beautiful week and awesome Easter Day, this is what we round up as note-worthy, inspirational, and all around “warm-your-heart”, “make you laugh, smile or yell” news:
Well, this is the news we’ve been enjoying the most this week! And as we’re off to enjoy chocolate bunnies and treats, we wish you all again an amazing Easter!
The Corporate Sister.
by Solange Lopes | Apr 18, 2014 | Career
Embroidered voile peasant top – $69.95 – eShakti.com
Hi again…
For our lunch break today, we are so glad it’s Friday, and to invite the week-end in, we are showcasing this voile embroidered peasant top from eShakti.
I love the country-chic charm of this blouse, which makes me think of open spaces and…tiem off from work! The blouson sleeves and sophisticated embroidery balance out the scoop neck for a relaxed, yet boho chic vibe. I would wear this on the week-ends with a nice pair of jeans and some relaxed loafer flats, or sport it on a casual Friday with some relaxed ankle pants under a cool yet professional blazer.
It’s $69.95 at eShakti, and not only is it a great buy, but what is absolutely great about eShakti is that all their clothes are customized to fit your height, size and style, and ready to be delivered in 14 days. And for petites like myself, it’s just perfection!
Seen a great, work-appropriate fashion piece or store you’d like to share? Please email us at corporate@thecorporatesister.com!
by Solange Lopes | Apr 18, 2014 | Career |
essence.com
Happy Good Friday!
It’s no secret that I love fashion. Nothing like a great outfit or a fantastic pair of shoes to bring a smile to my face, and I would even venture to say, pump up my productivity at work. You know how they say, “when you look good, you feel good”, well some of us would dare to add, “when you look good, you may even work better”!
As much as a good sense of fashion, especially when displayed by women in the workplace, has been associated with lack of professionalism or competence for that matter, it seems the professional fashion tide is now turning! Hence the explosion of fashion blogs aimed at professional women, and the resurgence of “wear-to”work” for fashion retailers. Not only is there now much of a demand, and a growing market, for professional fashion, but there is also an increased positive focus on the image and presentation of women in the workplace.
While in certain male-dominated fields, women still may have to tone down their femininity to fit in, there is now a growing sense that a good sense of fashion will not necessarily hurt a corporate sister’s career, but may actually very well help it.
1. The image you project is also that of the company: in fields like marketing, PR or real estate, image is everything! Displaying a tasteful sense of fashion also reflects on your company in a positive way.
2. A good sense of fashion helps you get taken more seriously. A recent survey demonstrated that well-dressed women, and women who wear tasteful make-up at work, tend to be taken more seriously than their less well-dressed counterparts. Good excuse to go shopping!
3. Well-dressed employees boost employee morale: from speaking to many a corporate sister out there, it appears that departments and companies with better-dressed employees tend to display higher morale. There seems to be a sense that these departments and companies are doing well, and thus are capable of offering more prospects to their employees.
So, if all of that good fashion sense isn’t steering you straight to the mall, I don’t know what will…
The Corporate Sister.
The Corporate Sister
by Solange Lopes | Apr 17, 2014 | Career
Skala Print Dress – $340 – reiss.com
It’s lunch break, and for our mid-day fashion interlude, we are erring on the side of a beautiful splurge, with this oh so fashionable Skala print dress from Reiss. Loving the unusual pattern of this dress, and the lime sorbet color of this otherwise round neck, cap-sleeved traditional dress.
This Skala print dress is a great addition to both your work and play wardrobe, with interesting and flattering details such as the nipped-in waist (help slimmer silhouette!), the elegant fluted hem, and the ladylike shapely panel detail.
At $340, it’s a bit of a Thursday splurge, but we only live once right (or feel free to insert whatever other excuse makes you feel better about whipping out your credit card….)
Seen a great, work-appropriate fashion piece you’d like to recommend? Please post below or email us at corporate@thecorporatesister.com!
The Corporate Sister.
