One of my passions, as many of you know, is women’s success in the workplace.
The good news is women are getting promoted into executive roles at the largest US companies faster than men. It’s a trend that began in 2001 and was still true in 2021 according to a recent study by the Wharton School of Business.
Yet: Women, who hold about a quarter of leadership roles, still rarely break into the highest levels: CEO, president, or chief operating officer. Only about 6% of women hold these titles, a number that has been flat for two decades. Women tend to hold the top job in support roles like legal, finance, marketing, and human resources.
How can more women break into the top echelon?
I believe that personal branding can help. Promoting yourself by communicating your strengths and actively seeking out leadership roles, especially ones with P&L responsibility, are areas where women can have some catching up to do according to studies.
Whether your ambitions are great or more down-to-earth, you need to avoid becoming invisible in the new world of work. Even if you don’t want the corner office, you do want to be recognized and fairly compensated for your accomplishments. And you want balance in your life.
In the new world of work, women are more likely to seek remote, hybrid or flexible roles according to studies, and that can leave women visibility challenged and hurt career advancement. That is unless you have a personal branding action plan so that you’re not overlooked for important assignments and promotions. After all, if no one knows your accomplishments, they don’t really count. It’s your job to make them known.
Come to the Virtual Women’s Conference Kicking Off on September 26
The sixteen women’s leadership experts speaking at the Unleash Your Inner Power, Break Through Barriers, and Step Into Your Greatness Summit will show you how. I’ll be sharing my tips and story with the summit hostess, Maria Victoria, on September 26, and I’ll talk a little bit about my new book, The New Brand You: How to Wow in the New World of Work.
I have a complementary ticket for you to attend. You can register using this link:
https://mariavictoriasummit.com/CatherineKaputa
Author: Catherine Kaputa
Watching the Queen’s Funeral Today Reminded Me of Why…
I couldn’t stop watching the Queen’s procession and lying in state culminating in her funeral in Westminster Abbey today. I am an American. I’ve never met the queen. Yet I couldn’t take my eyes away from the spectacle, the miles of mourners, and the pageantry. I realized the importance of taking part in history, showing respect for a woman who achieved so much, a woman who represented duty, goodness and leadership.
That’s why I was so thrilled when my friend Maria Victoria told me that she was hosting an online show on women and success. The idea was born out of her own experience as a wife and mom who found herself trapped and not having the life she really wanted. I’ve been there too and will share my story and talk a little bit about my new book, The New Brand You: How to Wow in the New World of Work.
The Summit is: Unleash Your Inner Power, Break Through Barriers, and Step Into Your Greatness summit.
I have a complementary ticket for you to attend. You can register using this link:
#DUTY
Marketers often think in terms of “owning a word” like Google and “search,” Amazon and “e-commerce” and Volvo and “safety.”
Owning a word helps a brand dominate a category, so when you think of the word, you think of the brand, and when you think of the brand, you think of the word.
Who do you think of with the word, “duty.”
Queen Elizabeth II, of course.
Queen Elizabeth II achieved something rare for a person. She came to be recognized as an icon in her lifetime – a personal brand dedicated to duty her entire life
She stood out as a symbol of duty for over seventy years in a changing world. But that’s not to say that she was all duty and no fun. She parachuted into the Olympic Stadium in London in 2012 with James Bond (Daniel Craig) and launched her Platinum Jubilee Celebration with a video with Paddington Bear.
Queen Elizabeth II understood the importance of humanizing her role as a queen with humor.
Queen Elizabeth II: The Epitomy of Royalty and Leadership
At a time when hereditary monarchies are not popular, the popularity of Elizabeth II was amazing. She was the embodiment of Britain: the foundation of the country’s national identity.
And she was amazing to behold in her brightly colored coats and matching hats as she spoke of duty and courage in the face of difficulty in her public addresses.
Elizabeth II was the epitome of royalty. She was polite, reserved, and obedient to the constitutional mandate of her reign.
She has all the trappings of royalty—the regalia – the palaces, the throne, the jewels, and the crown. And ceremonial pageantry – the processions, the carriages, the palaces.
Her regal monogram: E.R. for Elizabeth Regina appeared everywhere. Her image was on pound notes and stamps.
Yet she seemed down-to-earth and interacted well with ordinary people. I watched her getting a case of the giggles speaking via Zoom to the Jamaican bobsled team who were training in the UK before they set off to compete in the 2022 Olympics in Beijing.
There is also the feeling that she is not just a steady hand at the wheel, but a savvy leader. She insisted on personally driving Crown Prince Abdullah, of Saudi Arabia, the leader of a country that didn’t allow women to drive at the time, when he visited her at Balmoral, Scotland.
No wonder she is admired throughout the world. She stood for tradition, virtue, national unity, duty. Truly a timeless personal brand.
The Power of an Inspiring Leader
Honored to have been interviewed by @wearesubkit to discuss the Power of an Inspiring Leader. You can read the full interview here: https://gosolo.subkit.com/selfbrand/. For more on career success and personal branding, look for my new book, THE NEW BRAND YOU, in stores Nov. 15.
Should you go gray? It may depend on your gender
While gray hair for men in the office often brands you as the wise sage who brings gravitas and experience to a meeting, gray hair (and age) is rarely an asset for women.
In her Washington Post opinion piece, “Thank You, Miss Clairol, columnist Ruth Marcus tells the story of Lisa LaFlamme, 58, the anchor of Canada’s most-watched nightly news show. LaFlamme was sacked after 35 years with the CTV network and replaced by a 39-year-old man. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/23/lisa-laflamme-gray-hair-workplace-sexism/
According to reports, La Flamme, like many women, decided to go gray during the pandemic. Her new boss reportedly asked, “who approved the decision to let Lisa’s hair go gray?”
Really? Does an adult woman need permission to go natural?
Fair or not, the reality in study after study is that women are under more scrutiny in terms of how they look. Appearance counts more for women and age hurts women more than men in how they are viewed. That’s why Ruth Marcos colors her hair (as do I).
It reminds me of a remark by Dee Dee Myers, the first female presidential press secretary: “People can’t hear a word that a woman says until they decide if they like her hairstyle or not.”
Seriously?
Who’s Looking Out for You?
The new world of work isn’t all about power to the people, flexibility to work at home, and Kumbaya. You have to keep on your toes in the new world of work.
Big Brother may be watching. There’s more monitoring of how you spend
your day such as virtual clock in and out, tracking work computer usage and
monitoring emails and other internal communications through surveillance
software.
It’s “The Rise of the Worker Productivity Score,” according to Jodi Kanto and Arya Sundaram in the New York Times, August 15, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/08/14/business/worker-productivity-tracking.html
“Across industries and incomes, more employees are being tracked, recorded and ranked,” according to NYT reporting.
Worker productivity surveillance fosters productivity and accountability says companies using surveillance softer. It’s inhumane and inaccurate say many employees. The problem is that most of the surveillance software doesn’t track offline activity like mentoring, thinking, writing on paper, or talking with colleagues. Unless you constantly jiggle your mouse in meetings or other off-line activities, you’re just labeled as “derelict” in many systems. (Check out TikTok for videos on fooling the trackers.)
As timeless wisdom says, “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that is counted counts (attributed to Albert Einstein).
Watch out if you are using devices provided by your company. Best to
have personal conversations and activities on your own devices.
The metamorphosis of the workplace can make anyone feel uneasy. We
have to accept that change is no longer unusual, it’s the rule.
Transformation is the new status quo. You can’t rely on the company to
take care of you. That went away with the gold watch upon retirement. Most
companies are fighting for their own survival anyway.
You have to take care of yourself. #surveillance #employeesurveillance #workerproductivity
Will the new world of work be like an Edward Hopper painting?
During the pandemic and the rise of remote and virtual working, I started talking to clients, colleagues, and friends about how all of these changes would affect us in the long term. In many ways, the pandemic accelerated trends already happening – the shift to a more remote, digital and virtual workplace, a less hierarchical organizational structure, and a realignment of industries fueled by new technologies.
As I talked to more people, I started working on a book, The New Brand You: How to Wow in the New World of Work that will come out in the fall. You can preorder here.
So far the office wars are continuing over remote vs hybrid vs in-office. Many workers are digging in their heels about remote working and they have the upper hand due to the job shortage. Many corporate bosses are hoping the old way of working together in an office comes back in full force in the fall.
Wall Street Journal columnist, Peggy Noonan, makes a compelling argument about the importance of working together for both organizational and national culture. “I don’t want America to look like an Edward Hopper painting,” in an article titled, “The Lonely Office is Bad for America”
No one knows for sure how the office wars will end. But one thing, I believe is certain, you will have to be an adept marketer of Brand You in the new world of work.
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Want to Increase Your Sales Success? Grow a Beard!
Good-bye to the superiority of the clean-shaven face. Beards have the advantage according to a study by behavioral psychologist Sarah Mittal published in the WSJ on July 29, 2022: https://www.wsj.com/articles/beards-sales-marketing-research-11658425250?mod=hp_jr_pos2 The study was originally published in The Journal of Business Research, August 2021
Men with beards scored 10.6% higher in “expertise” and 11.6% higher for “trustworthiness” compared to a clean-shaven salesperson.
It’s the power of visual identity, which I discuss in my new book, The New Brand You, coming out in the fall of 2022. (You can preorder at: https://www.amazon.com/New-Brand-You-World-Work/dp/1399804065/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3MPQ50IVIOI4K&keywords=9781399804066&qid=1653313554&sprefix=9781399804066%2Caps%2C52&sr=8-1 
Visual identity is particularly potent in first impressions. Surprisingly it only takes a person only a few seconds to assess you based on how you look. As Dr. Mittal who conducted the beard study pointed out, “we immediately use visual cues to assess whether we think they know what they are doing…and if we should trust them.”
Women are more likely to be asked to do dead-end work
And women are more likely to say yes!
It’s a mistake for any one – man or woman – to take on too many “extra” assignments that are outside your job profile. These are things that are more busywork than important to your job’s focus. This includes things like attending luncheons for new hires or 60-minute meetings where you’re only involved in a ten-minute segment.
Taking on too much busywork is not smart for the obvious reason. Busywork eats up your time so you’re stressed or have to neglect some of the important things your career success depends on. You have to pick and choose, and bow out when the extra load is too much.
Granted, saying no isn’t easy. Women have a harder time saying no according to a study by Lise Vesterlund, an economist at the University of Pittsburgh reported by Rachel Feintzeig, “Just Say No to Busywork, The Wall Street Journal, July 25, 2022.
Extra tasks like mentoring young employees can be extremely satisfying, as a colleague I’ll call Penny relayed to me. She didn’t feel that she could turn down requests to interview potential hires and mentor new employees. Penny felt mentoring was especially important during the pandemic when everyone was working from home to retain employees during the Great Recession. But the requests continued and Penny continued to say, “Yes.”
Unfortunately, when her annual review came around, Penny was criticized for not being more involved in big strategic initiatives as many colleagues were.
As Penny discovered, it’s important to set guidelines for how many “good to do” extra assignments you take on. You need to have time to do what counts most so you “brand” yourself as an essential employee who plays an important role in the company’s mission. #womensleadership #careersuccess