How networks can increase motivation, well-being and even increase performance

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Professional-networking-advice featuredLast week we talked about how having psychological safety at work is a key to feeling happy and performing well. We have also talked about employees networks recently and there is a case to say that the two are connected and if you can find support and connection here, then why not join one? They could be good for the soul and tangibly useful for tips to advance and a place to find mentors and sponsors. Maybe chatting with peers around a number of subjects will be valuable to you, ranging from social matters such as juggling parental/elder care commitments to a specific project that you want to talk more about. Either way, networks create space and time to talk in, learn in and connect with others in.

It is worth noting three things about networks though. Firstly, not everyone is created with the same amount of desire for contact and affiliation and it is wrong to assume that your need to feel part of something is equal to the next person. As an executive coach, I firmly believe that you should know yourself first ( psychometric tests will help us give your data back to you on this matter).
Secondly, it is also wrong to assume that all women are this or that. We are individuals with varying degrees of extraversion, confidence etc just as men are. What is systemic are the assumptions around what we are however and that is where you get to choose how to fill in the gaps when people think they know you. Remember you, according to you and you according to them are sometimes distant cousins.

By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist

Contact nicki@glasshammer2.wpengine.com if you would like to hire a coach to help you navigate your career

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How do you become an inclusive manager? Create Psychological Safety for your Team

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diverse workforce featuredSeveral years ago diversity became diversity and inclusion. What does this mean? Well I am not going to lie, for most firms even if they have it in the title of a department, it means nothing just another buzzword.. If it is done properly however, inclusion is the most powerful tool a leader or manager can have in their toolkit because it can provide something that is the basis for individual and team performance. How do you become an inclusive leader , manager or person? Psychological safety at work- yes that’s right and studies have been exploring this for years, as has Google more recently with something they call Project Aristotle. They discovered that just by having a genius or two on the team, you are not going to get the best results. However if you have a team environment where people can feel, as well as think and be themselves (expressing themselves is really key here and being heard) then no matter who is on the team, the result is productivity. There are many factors to high performing teams for sure but Google’s data indicated that psychological safety, more than anything else, was critical to making a team work. This certainly makes sense if you think about it. Women (and anyone who does not fit the mold of the traditional work persona /expert) can find space to connect with others talking work and/or any other topic of shared interest.

So, let people talk, let them tell you about their lives and let them flow. For some of us (I know I am guilty of this) like to stay on task and to draw boundaries around topics when digression and tangents feel out of control, but maybe, just maybe try out this way of being in your next meeting.

By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist.

Contact nicki@theglasshammer.com if you would like to hire a coach to help you navigate your career

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4 Reasons to get involved in your women’s network (or other Employee Resource Group at work)

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Professional-networking-advice featuredLast week, I rather scathingly pointed out that taking on the responsibility to hire and promote women via your women’s network was to put it diplomatically, a long haul strategy.

This week I am going to outline what you should do in your network (and why you should join it)

  1. Advocacy is a powerful tool- advocating for an issue to be paid attention to is often where change starts. Advocating for others is powerful also (sponsorship) and finally advocating for yourself is crucial, raise you hand and put yourself out there for the next promotion or job.
  2. Personal visibility and access to people you would not otherwise have access to (this is a way to start a conversation with senior people)
  3. Networking with each other – peer, higher and reverse mentoring and connections are always a good thing to propel you forward in everyday work – knowing who to ask to get stuff done is what it is all about.
  4. Learning in a specific container creates mental and physical space, hence we hold panels at theglasshammer.com where people can mark time in their calendar to learn new insights.

More on this all summer long.

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Want To Help With Diversity Issues At Work? Make Leaders Address Them

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diverse workforce featuredI consult to many women’s networks and Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and one of the most consistent issues that I encounter is that women often assemble these groups’ work in a vacuum and they self organize because they see organizational barriers and biases. They do not form because they have excessive time on their hands and how leaders fail to see this is often astounding to me. If people formed due to product dissatisfaction, I am pretty sure bosses would question the product not the legitimacy of the group or worse just ignore them.

So, what am I saying here? I am saying there are several reasons to get involved in a network/ERG and advocacy is an extremely effective strategy as is sponsorship (which we will discuss in another post) but do not confuse thinking you as a group have the authority to change the hiring or advancement of women directly as it is an indirect power at best. In any role, you should only accept responsibility for a task that you have the authority to execute on.

I hope this has got you thinking and comments are welcomed. Such a big topic and we shall explore the individual benefits of being part of an ERG all summer but also be wise enough to know when you are being tasked with something that the talent management group along with the organization’s leadership need to address.

By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist

Contact nicki@theglasshammer.com if you would like to hire an executive coach to help you navigate the path to optimal personal success at work

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Change Yourself to Change the World

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Managing ChangeChange is pretty top of mind this week at theglasshammer.com as we prepare for our panel discussion tomorrow as part of our 5th Annual Navigating Your Career event ( no seats left, sorry!). The topic is “So, you want to be a change leader?” and we will chat with our panelists on how they have affected change when it comes to succeeding personally and improving things for people around them.

This is very close to my heart as I undertook a Change Leadership masters at Columbia University in the City of New York (I highly recommend this course to all executives, it is life changing. ) and a big part of the work we did there was using ourselves as tools of change by first understanding who we were, where are biases lie and looking at our appetite for challenging the status quo. That is what change work is! And you would be amazed at the levels of denial most people have around what constructs we all collude to keep in place.

So, start with you. Don’t say you want to have more diverse people in your team and then hire a man, don’t constantly look to men as the authorized experts on every topic and don’t discount yourself as the expert either. If you have got it, flaunt it as so many women I know are less aware than they should be off how equally or possibly more skilled they are than other counterparts yet are happy to defer to them.

Ultimately, it is about owning your influence to effect change!

By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist

Contact nicki@theglasshammer.com if you would like to hire an executive coach to help you navigate the path to optimal personal success at work

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Why Working For a Good Company Makes a Big Difference

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happy man with womenI coach women across many firms, most in the financial services industry and most in a variety of roles and although there are very individual reasons why people come to me for coaching ranging from wanting to leave to wanting to stay and get a promotion and sometimes when they have been a casualty of a restructure. While the old adage “people leave managers not firms” is definitely true, I have to say that I more and more see people leaving companies due to the fact they just do not believe that they are getting the best ROI for their time and energy spent. For years, we were told that women do not ask for promotions and pay increases and this is frankly nonsense as they are asking in various ways but sometimes just not being heard due to systemic issues at companies that are less evolved.

In short, working for a progressive company makes all the difference as the water is provided for the fish of all types and no one is left grasping for basic air supply.

If you are looking to go further then consider getting a coach. Not all are created equal and I would recommend people with coaching certificates from good universities or else coaches with an organizational psychology background as they can help you spot the company’s good points and flaws on a systemic level so we are not just telling you to lean in. Isn’t it time that the companies leaned in?

By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist

Contact nicki@theglasshammer.com if you would like to hire an executive coach to help you navigate the path to optimal personal success at work

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Is it time for a vacation?

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Beach-chairsAre you feeling overworked and not as productive as usual? Maybe it’s time for a vacation.

Science indicates that breaks help increase productivity and whilst short breaks during your working day may improve concentration, longer breaks and vacations can improve overall job performance. They help improve the state of our mental health by giving us better life perspective and making us more motivated to achieve our goals when we return to work.

So, my advice this week is to take more vacations, as recharging your batteries can make you more productive! On that note, whilst I’m on vacation in Florida, Career Tip will return next week.

By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist

Contact nicki@glasshammer2.wpengine.com if you would like to hire an executive coach to help you navigate the path to optimal personal success at work

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Power – How Do You Feel About This Word?

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POWER featuredI often run psychometric tests on my coaching clients to find out with some hard data how they are motivated and driven at work. More often than not, my clients come back with varying levels of ambition and varying levels of the need for power.

Power is sometimes seen as a dirty word for women and many will tell you that they do not want it (even if their data says otherwise), yet power is really just another word for authority and control over what you are responsible for delivering. You should want some power, as otherwise you might find you lack the resources to follow through on your remit.

Own your personal power as you see fit, but at work it is equally important to ensure your authority to execute on a task is aligned with the level of responsibility you have to see it all get done!

By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist

Contact nicki@glasshammer2.wpengine.com if you would like to hire an executive coach to help you navigate the path to optimal personal success at work

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Always Number Two At Work? How To Be The Boss

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Smartly dressed yyoung women shaking hands in a business meeting at office deskMany women tell me that they are always number two to a male CEO and yet basically do more than their fair share of work and do much of his too. Does this sound familiar? You are not on your own but the good news is that you can do something about it. It is your choice to stand in the shadows for the next 3 projects or to assert your confidence in showing people your capabilities. Apply for the project lead role- what is stopping you?

Reflect upon gender roles- maybe you were told to be a “nice girl” when you were little, while your brother was told to “go get ‘em tiger”.

Recommended reading “Nice girls dont get the corner office”.

If you can do it, why aren’t you doing it?

By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist

Contact nicki@theglasshammer.com if you would like to hire an executive coach to help you navigate the path to optimal personal success at work

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Executive Presence – Do It Your Way For More Trust With Your Team

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How-to-build-a-teamThere are many books and “experts” on executive presence out there, many of them keen to tell you how to dress and how to act. My take on this is simple, just be yourself. Authenticity and being truthful about who you are has been shown to augment trust between people and people make the work go around. This has been shown especially with LGBT managers.

Now we all know that if you are a woman sometimes you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t ( see every female leader who ever lived, currently Hillary Clinton could tell you about this in detail I am sure) so the least you can do is not assimilate to behaviors that feel odd to you. However, you can be interculturally competent in any situation- which means reading the room while doing it your way!

By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist

Contact nicki@theglasshammer.com if you would like to hire an executive coach to help you navigate the path to optimal personal success at work

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