Keeping The Leader Inside You From Getting Lost

Keeping The Leader Inside You From Getting Lost Youve jumped through the hoops that conventional wisdom said were necessary to create a great future.  Youve even landed a job with a great company that should have all the potential for your career that you wanted.  Yet you cant help but feel theres something holding you back.  What is it youre not seeing? Unfortunately, we still live in a world where women have to do more than a little more to prove themselves and compete with the Boys Club that typically runs the show.  But there are those who have figured out the way to navigate your way to what you seek and have earned.  In  The Politics of Promotion: How High-Achieving Women Get Ahead and Stay Ahead,  author Bonnie Marcus lays out some pretty clear answers.   In addition to what she discusses in her book, we had the chance to get her responses to a few questions.  Here are her insightful responses: Bonnie Marcus Q.  Does the woman who begins with a company at entry level vs. a lateral entry at mid-level have a different set of challenges, and if so what are they? The woman who begins with a company at entry level has a couple of years to prove herself as someone who has leadership potential. For her to do that, she must make sure that she works hard, has great performance, and builds credibility and visibility for herself across the organization. In addition, paying attention to the dynamics and politics is important in order for her to understand how to best position herself in a competitive environment. She needs to create a network of allies and champions, and communicate her career aspirations with key decision makers and influencers early to line up support and resources. When a woman enters a company at mid-level, she faces many of the same challenges but must prove herself immediately if she is interested in advancing her career. There is more pressure to demonstrate competence, talent, and initiative from the start. It is vitally important when she comes into an organization at a mid-level to immediately size up the politics and identify key players and align herself with those people who have influence over her career. The danger for all aspiring women is getting stuck in a mid-level position and not being able to advance. Early discussions with your manager about your career goals to determine the best path to achieve those goals is critical. Advice from a mentor or sponsor can help you to circumvent any obstacles and stay on track. Q. For female professionals in a setting where there are multiple peers at similar management levels, what do you suggest she do to overcome the (unfortunate) advantage that some others have just because theyre males? The biggest advantage men have is access to networks with decision makers and influencers. These informal networks often meet on the golf course or for drinks after work, and it’s challenging for women to be included. Despite the fact these are often informal meetings, work is discussed and decisions are influenced and it is a disadvantage when women aren’t present to participate in the conversations or build the necessary rapport to be on the radar for promotions and special opportunities with decision makers. It requires a deliberate effort for women to build the relationships they need to get recognized and rewarded. Therefore, it is critical for women to identify the people who have control over their career and find ways to build relationships one on one, understanding that they may never be invited to the informal get-togethers. One of my clients worked in financial services and was the only woman in her department. She had a great rapport with her boss but one day she discovered that everyone was invited on a fishing trip hosted by her boss and she wasn’t invited. She approached him about it and asked him, “If you knew I liked to fish, would you have included me?” He responded, “No. It’s a guy thing.” So there you are! Make it your intention to build strong relationships and don’t count on being included in the network or “boy’s club”. Q.  If we stay attentive and intuitive, we can usually see whats coming at us, the handwriting on the wall if you will. When we recognize that, is it worth fighting or does it make more sense to start planning a strategic next career move? I’ve had many clients who face what seems like a no-win situation where they feel the cards are stacked against them for a variety of reasons due to politics, gender bias, or perhaps sabotage by a colleague or manager. Depending on the situation, I usually recommend managing the existing situation and relationships with the intention of repairing or improving them, and at the same time look for your next position or company. You can do both. Sometimes the current situation can be improved with some effort. If you determine that your present situation is not going to get better, you can make an easy exit. Even without a new position, at least you’re on your way to networking and getting information about possible opportunities. About Bonnie Marcus Award-winning entrepreneur and Forbes and Business Insider contributing writer Bonnie Marcus, M.Ed., has real conversations for real women in the workplace today. The President of Women’s Success Coaching, she assists women to navigate the workplace and advance their careers. With 20+ years of sales and management experience, Bonnie’s background includes CEO and VP of Sales at three national companies. She has held executive positions in both start-up and Fortune 500 companies. Bonnie started her career at an entry level position and worked up to the top of a national company using her savvy promotion and relational skills. Her passion is to help other women learn to be sensitive to the culture of their organizations, embrace the politics, and actively move their careers forward. Image credits:  Main.  

4 Benefits of Good CRM Software

4 Benefits of Good CRM Software Customer relationship management (CRM) is a crucial aspect of business that is of huge importance to any company. You need your customers in order to keep operating as a business, and in order to keep them, you need to give them the right customer service. The process of keeping your customers happy is a very complex one though, and it plays out across all departments of your business. Keeping all these cogs running smoothly and your customer service at the highest level isn’t always the easiest thing, but thankfully technology has helped make this far easier. CRM software is there to ensure your business can offer the best possible customer experience, and it does this in 4 key ways. Improved Organization One of the big benefits of CRM software is that it helps your business become more organized. When dealing with customer relationship management, there are lots of moving parts, and the right software helps you put all those parts in one place and easily access them. CRM software makes it easy to store and access the important details about a customer like a name, telephone number, and email, and to log interactions you have with that customer. For example, a certain lead might explicitly say they only want to be contacted by email, despite giving you their telephone number. Good CRM software helps you access this information and ensure that any staff member looking to contact the lead knows it must be done through email. Any time spent searching for this information is time that is lost. Better Customer Service Being able to quickly access this information allows you to offer better customer service. The more you know about your customer, the easier it is to give them the kind of service they want, and good CRM software allows you to access this information efficiently. Say a customer has a complaint about their last order. If the customer service rep can immediately access that customers order history, then they’ve got a better chance of being able to solve the problem quickly and efficiently. Coherence Across Departments With every employee having access to the right information, it allows your company to offer a seamless service, where each department works coherently rather than as an independent team. As businesses grow, they can become unwieldy, with different departments working very independently from each other. A good CRM system helps bring those departments back together, though, allowing them to work coherently, and use the information provided by other departments to improve their own performance. Ability to Interpret the Data In today’s world, we collect so much data, but unless we know how to interpret that data, then it’s not that useful. CRM software collects the data you put in and gives you analytics and actionable insights that help improve your business performance. Whatever department you’re working in, you can customize your dashboard to give you the analytics that are most pertinent to your job function. These insights help eliminate inefficiencies and improve job performance in a variety of areas.

The 3 job interview tips to help land a job or career

The 3 job interview tips to help land a job or career This post was written by an external contributor. Chloe Smith reflects on her own experiences to share the top 3 tips for anyone preparing for an interview.   They say that experience is the best form of learning. However, when it comes to job interviews, ideally you want to know all the best practices before you’re sat in front of your potential employer. So, Im here to make the whole interview process that little bit easier for everyone. Here are three top tips to take note of before you try out for that new career path. Research, research, research Prior to an interview, it’s vital that you research both the company you’re applying to, and the position you’re applying for. Not only does it show that you’re prepared, but also that you appreciate the role. The company’s website and the job’s advertisement are a good place to start. Social media is also helpful to see in terms of how and what a company posts, how it targets its audience, and what’s important to the business overall. I’m not saying you must learn the company’s entire history, but just knowing a little about what its values, targets and key milestones are will really be beneficial in the long run. It will demonstrate your knowledge, dedication and enthusiasm for a role. Based on my own experience, I found that listing off a handful of these facts when a related subject came up really seemed to surprise the person interviewing me, gaining a positive reaction. It may put you above your competitors, so do your homework! Confidence is key Confidence is practically a given thing when it comes to interviews. Sadly, not all of us are naturally as gifted in this trait as others. This can sometimes put the introverted candidates at a disadvantage. Despite my own struggles in this area, I recognised that you’ll make an impression if you’re bold. For instance, I went for a job interview where there was a group task, and I made a conscious effort to speak up. The employers took notice of this, and remembered me as a result. In turn, experiences such as this has helped me with my nerves a little, and helped my general confidence too. These tips for introverts  have some great advice to work from, but I also have another tried and tested method. The ‘fake it til you make it’ approach. Feigning confidence when I started interviewing eventually helped me become more outspoken in the long run. Perhaps this may be worth a try if youre struggling to find your own voice at first. Ask more unique questions No matter how positively an interview may have gone, I would always falter when asked if I had any questions. I tried out a few generic ones, however I found that these didn’t receive much engagement. Probably because the employer had been asked the exact same ones before and had got a bit tired of hearing them. Following this, I tried to think of questions on the fly during the interview itself. These would typically be on the back of something that had been said. Or alternatively, a genuine question I had been wondering prior to the interview about the role that hadn’t yet been answered. By using this method, I demonstrated my ability to improvise, and showed that I was invested in what the interviewer was saying. I also made a conscious effort to come up with questions that were unique and would be memorable. Prior to this, I may have worried that they would come across as silly. However, quirky questions more often than not have a positive reaction (provided they are appropriate for the setting!). Do some digging, and think about asking things that will make an impression. Download Debut  and  connect with us on  Facebook,  Twitter  and  LinkedIn  for more careers insights.