I’ve seen a lot of women succeed in the employment marketplace. I’ve always been one to take notes at others’ success so that I could apply it to my own goals and ambitions, and from my observations of such heroines of business I have arrived at a few pointers:

Don’t be afraid to promote yourself. In fact, just promote yourself.

• I couldn’t stress this one enough. Ladies, you can’t be afraid to make your successes and your accomplishments known. For too long women have been taught to keep to themselves, to be modest, to not be conceited, and to be more withdrawn. That time has long since passed us by. If you have accomplishments or successes that would make you a worthy candidate for a leadership position then by all means make them known! Don’t keep quiet when speaking up could mean that transition into a leadership position that you’ve wanted for so long.

Write down your achievements.

• Like the above pointer, this one is for when you’re applying for a job or looking to get a promotion, and you need to really sell someone on why you are the best person to lead others. Women for a long time have been rather shy and coy in the workplace as has been human nature for so many centuries. You need to make yourself known though and really get it into the minds of your supervisors that you are the one who can and should lead.

Make a game plan.

• Too many people just wing it. Winging it is great in golf, but not so much in business. If you’re a woman in a competitive business environment and you want to be a leader then you need a game plan. Itemize out everything about the leadership position you are vying for, and work out exactly how you, or something about you, aligns perfectly with each one of those points of the position. Then get together a game plan of how you’re going to close the deal on that leadership position and start going through it step by step. Trust me, going in with a sound plan beats winging it every time. 

Make strategic choices.

• If you want to be a leader you need to be a master at strategy. When I worked for my family’s Cadillac dealership my mother could plan out a week’s worth of business models from start to finish in her head, put it all on paper, then show us all exactly how we were going to make our targets. This is what you need to be doing, and as an added bonus, it’ll give you practice for when you are actually leading your group to victory in your marketplace.

Take risks.

• On the flip side, don’t be afraid to take risks. Too many men and women alike miss opportunities every week in their places of work because they aren’t willing to stick their neck out on the line to help a fellow co-worker, to agree to work on selling that particularly difficult client, or to stay late and work those extra few hours to wrap up a business transaction. A leader is someone who takes total responsibility for the group and who is willing to take risks and put herself out there for the success of the group. Display these traits on a daily basis and they’ll get noticed.

There are a lot of different ways to succeed in the workplace. Still to this day women in some ways are at a disadvantage, but that gap is closing. Follow these tips and others out there and you’ll be leading your team to success and beyond in no time.

 

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