What Are You Prepared to Say to a Prospective Career Sponsor?

This is the second in a series of posts that explores the steps that you can take to secure a sponsor.  In my first blog on this topic I suggested five actions for obtaining a sponsor:

1. Know who you are and what you want
2. Develop your brand
3. Network with senior executives
4. Volunteer for cross-functional projects
5. Approach and secure a sponsor

This blog tackles the first action:  Know who you are and what you want.

Studies show that sponsors clear the path for career advancement, but the inability for women to connect with senior management in securing sponsorship is one of the biggest barriers to their career advancement.  A sponsor is a senior manager in the organization who actively advocates for your career advancement and is in a position of influence to help push it forward.  

Before others can advocate on your behalf to help advance your career they need to know your passions, strengths and values, and your vision of your career path.  You must be clear on your career goals and know who you are and what you stand for before others can help you.  If others don’t know what you want and the value you bring, they can’t help you move your career forward. The following happened recently and illustrates the importance of these points.

I was talking during a break between the educational sessions at a recent professional meeting with several attendees.  During our conversation the topic of career progression came up.  One of the attendees offered that she was working on a second Master’s degree.  I asked her what type of position she saw herself obtaining after her studies concluded.  Her response was, “I’m not sure, there are so many opportunities.”  Since this was a vague response, I probed her some more and asked her to narrow down the opportunities.  She replied with an equally vague response:  “Something in compliance.”

At this point, I turned to another attendee, who was also completing a Master’s, and asked the same question. In contrast to the previous response, this person provided not only a specific goal, but also gave a picture of his passion:  “I see financial management as being critical in healthcare.  I’m going to take my current background and education and in five years be the CFO of a smaller healthcare organization. My ultimate goal is to be the CFO of a large healthcare system.”

Wow!  You can see the difference between the two answers.  The first one lacks clarity and sense of purpose.  In the second one, however, the energy, confidence, and determination just jump off the page.  The response not only includes a specific goal, but also offers a picture of this person’s passion.  My immediate reaction was to engage in further conversation and offer him ideas on how he could reach his five-year goal.

It was not lost on me that there was a gender difference in the responses. While the above example is a snapshot in time, it conforms to findings of research studies that show, on average, that women are less clear about career goals and have lower confidence, ambition, and career expectations.  Lack of career clarity has been cited as a significant barrier in holding women back.  So beefing up career clarity is especially important for women.

So how do you develop career clarity?  Here are some questions that can help you clarify your career vision:

• What are your strengths? (To identify your strengths, take the VIA 24 Character Strengths survey from Penn State available for free at www.authentichappiness.com).  Study your top five strengths.  Usually you are at your best and most fulfilled when you are using these strengths.
• Think about a time that you were at your personal best.  What strengths did you use that helped you perform well?  Are these in the top 10 of your VIA strengths?
• What do you like to do?  What is your passion?  Write these down.  Assess how these mesh with your top strengths.
• What would you like to achieve in life (your vision or legacy)?  Write this down.
• Given your vision, strengths, and passion, define your career path.  Where do you want to   be in 15 years?  Write this down.
• What must you do in the next year, in 3 years, in 5 years and in 10 years to get where you want to be in 15 years?  Write out a plan for each of these time periods to get you where you want to be.
• When a prospective sponsor asks you what your career future looks like what are you now prepared to say?

Committing to Goals and Keeping Them

This is the seventh and last in a series of posts on the story behind the making of my new book, 52 Week Game Changer:  How She Leads

Ok, we can all admit to it!  We’ve made goals countless times but more frequently than not have never met them.  I bet for most of us, goals we made five, ten, or maybe even twenty years ago are still out there in the stratosphere floating around.

I was first introduced to the idea of simple or single daily actions in a 12-week goal-setting workshop I took. (Blue Sky Visioning with Ben Dean and Anne Durand).  What a wonderful idea, I thought!  Small steps accumulated over time turn into big accomplishments.  Since that workshop, I have used this technique countless times in helping people move forward in achieving their goals and because of its success I wanted to incorporate the technique as singular process in the 52 Week Game Changer.

Having a personal vision is essential for leadership, but a vision is usually big, powerful and amorphous.  Getting your arms around how to turn vision to reality can be overpowering.  In fact many women I know become paralyzed with inaction not knowing where to start. That’s where simple daily actions can come to the rescue.

Simple daily actions are actions that you can control.  They are consistent, meaningful, and purposeful and taken together, they are so powerful that change the game……that’s why game changers will spend 26 weeks learning how to set simple daily actions and make them work. 

Be a Game Changer

Celebration time!  52 Week Game Changer:  How She Leads is out!  Purchase directly at www.lulu.com/spotlight/mljohnsphd or www.TheMonarchCtr.com

Honoring the Individuality and Values of Every Woman Who Turns Its Pages

This is the fifth in a series of posts on how my new book, 52 Week Game Changer:  How She Leads, went from vision to reality.

I believe that everyone has the potential for leadership.  I also believe that the roots of leadership are found at our very core—our personal strengths and values.  Leadership is rooted in who you are, not in trying to be someone else. Unfortunately, many of us do not think about, much less honor, our strengths and values to the extent that we should. 

Through coursework for leadership coaching and through the coaching experience itself (both as the coach and the coachee), my belief has only intensified that honoring personal strengths and values is as necessary for leadership success as water is for sustaining aquatic life.   If we do not know who we are how can others know and follow us?  If we do not honor our strengths and values, practicing and exhibiting them, how can we expect to model the way for others?  If we are not constant in the use of our strengths and values, how can we expect others to trust us?

The definition of confidence is a belief in one’s own abilities.  Studies have repeatedly shown that an important part of leadership is self-confidence and the belief that you can succeed. Those who lack self-confidence often avoid risk and are more cautious in career choices. Knowing your strengths and knowing how to leverage these is a critical underpinning of self-confidence.

Because knowing, honoring and levering your strengths is essential for leadership, six weeks in the initial part of changing the game is devoted to helping you know and honor what you bring to the table, finding your voice to speak for yourself, standing up for your convictions and believing that you have the ability to “Change the Game.”

Being companion, confidant, cheerleader, supporter, and sponsor

The following is the fourth in the series of how my book, 52 Week Game Changer: How She LEADS, went from vision to reality.

 

I was steadfast that my new-to-be book’s structure must serve the functions of companion, confidant, cheerleader, supporter and a sponsor to every woman who walked the game changing journey.

That’s why there are elements and exercises in the 52 Week Game Changer that serve all these roles.  Each week there is a companion, confidant, cheerleader, supporter or sponsor there for you.  In the beginning of the journey you learn how living gratitude and celebrating your successes frames your perspective for success.  Throughout the 52 week journey, Gratitude and Success journal are your companions, confidants, and cheerleaders. 

Vision and purpose are your supporters and the simple daily actions you perform over 26  weeks are the sponsors that motivate and drive you forward in fulfilling your leadership potential.

Knowing that journeys and game changing can be difficult, I strategically placed “Way Stations” along the way so that journeyers could clarify where they are and where they are going, and be given the opportunity to adjustments.

I decided that 52 Week Game Changer should have two parts.  Part 1 would be a series of brief (very brief) chapters describing one element of the framework.  The purpose of the book is not to be an academic work (there are enough of these already).  The book’s thrust is “Changing the Game” and therefore is devoted to action.  The introductory chapters are brief, but substantive enough to help game changers understand the framework.  Part 1 of the book is a mere 15 pages.

Part 2 of the book is where the action happens.  It is the heart of the process, containing 136 pages devoted to changing the game.  It is in Part 2 that game changers will find their companions, confidants, cheerleaders, supporters and sponsors.  It is here where the game begins to change by celebrating who you are, identifying what you want to accomplish, defining the steps you want to take and taking action to change the game!

The Title: I Knew It the Instant I Saw It

The following is the third in the series of how my book, 52 Week Game Changer: How She LEADS, went from vision to reality.

Game changer!  I was browsing through the Internet. I don’t even remember what it was that I was looking for.  But all of a sudden, there it was in bold letters as a title on some webpage.  “Game changer.”   I ran into the next room saying to my husband Russell and my dog Bruno, “That’s it!  Game changer.”  Both looked at me quizzically, not understanding the significance of the moment, but none-the-less cheered me on with “You Go, Girl!”  I knew the moment I saw those words, that they reflected the spirit of my new-to-be book.  The book would be a game changer for helping women to believe in themselves, honor their individuality, and valuing their strengths. It would be a game changer serving as a companion, confidant, cheerleader, supporter, and sponsor to women as they cultivated their leadership potential.

I knew that “Game Changer” was only part of the title.  It wouldn’t be an overnight game change.  Changing the game meant cultivating, growing, and feeling comfortable in leadership over time.  Discovering, acknowledging, and honoring personal strengths and values would be the book’s core.  Finding and then being inspired by a personal vision and motivated by purpose, developing confidence, and finding a voice would require reflection and exercise.  Committing to goals, setting accountabilities and keeping them, would mean taking simple steps on what would be a game changing journey, not a singular event. 

The title of my new-to-be book, flowed naturally:  52 Week Game Changer:  How She Leads.

Order from http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/mljohnsphd and receive an immediate 15% Discount.  Coming to other major booksellers soon.

Next blog:  Revealing the Game!