What advice would you give to the next generation of female professionals?
To celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day, three successful businesswomen at Robert Walters Dublin shared their success stories, including the challenges they’ve faced along the way, and advice to aspiring females looking to excel in their careers.
Take a look at their top five secrets to career success:
Who should you surround yourself with?
As we all know, growing confidence doesn't happen overnight. But forging relationships with people who challenge and encourage you at different points in your career is a key driver to your career development.
From the Robert Walters experts we spoke to, all were unanimous that having a formal mentor as well as informal role models and confidants to look up to played a critical role in the lead up to their success.
Suzanne Feeney, Country Manager at Robert Walters Ireland, believes it's important to surround yourself with positive people who want to help drive your success.
Claire Dunwoody, Director of Learning & Development at Robert Walters Ireland echoes this view, adding:
“Starting off my career my director was instrumental to advancing my career. She pushed me to challenge myself - she saw my potential and was determined to help me realise it.”
Louise Campbell, Head of Learning & Development EMEAA at Robert Walters points out that mentors don’t always have to be people exactly like you. Looking outside your immediate circle is important to access perspectives that are different from your own.
“I’ve always made a conscious effort to surround myself with people who are slightly different from me – creating a network of relationships both personally and professionally. These are the individuals that inspire and challenge me by pushing me out of my comfort zone.”
What is the first step to success?
As soon as you realise that there's more than one route to success, it creates less pressure to try and fit into a certain stereotype to advance in an organisation.
Suzanne Feeney, said the first step to success was accepting this viewpoint: “Earlier in my career, I felt that career progression could only be achieved if I shaped myself into a certain mould. I’ve since learnt that being myself has far more meaning.”
Suzanne continues that women shouldn’t feel a need to adjust their behaviour in order to progress at work: “Attempting to mould yourself into a shape that doesn’t fit takes up a lot of energy that could be better spent on doing your job in a style that suits you.”
Is maternity leave a career killer?
I’ve always made a conscious effort to surround myself with people who are slightly different from me – creating a network of relationships both personally and professionally. These are the individuals that inspire and challenge me by pushing me out of my comfort zone.
Maternity leave is often viewed as having a detrimental effect on women’s careers, but our leaders share their positive experiences. Suzanne believes that taking maternity leave can in fact have a positive effect on your career: “Having some time away from the office can give you a bigger view of the business and allows you the time to re-evaluate your career, I found that when it was came to returning to work, I found myself with renewed motivation and determination to push my career further”.
Louise stresses that having a supportive team is critical to ensuring businesses retain top female talent: “Keeping in touch is so important, as it allows you to be aware of new business decisions, meet new clients and new employees, and makes returning to work far less daunting.”
Claire summarises that staying engaged with your business and the employment market makes the transition back to work much smoother: “If you take time out from the corporate world, keeping up to date will make it a lot easier to re-enter”.
How to face your fears?
All the female leaders emphasised the importance of pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone:
Keeping in touch is so important, as it allows you to be aware of new business decisions, meet new clients and new employees, and makes returning to work far less daunting.
“Learning to say yes to something that you wouldn’t usually put your hand up for is a great first step. It’s about recognising challenges as a means to grow, rather than stressing about the possibility of making a mistake”, advises Suzanne.
Louise shares how adopting a fearless attitude helps you to enter new career territory: “Be that little bit braver, you have nothing to lose by trying, but shutting down new tasks could cost you a brilliant opportunity to grow.”
If something makes you nervous, whether it's pitching to clients or sharing a new idea, Suzanne advises to “embrace the emotions, and use every opportunity to practise and overcome your feeling of doubt”.
How to overcome self-doubt?
Feelings of self- doubt is an ongoing issue among female leaders. In latest Robert Walters research, 1 in 5 women admit that a lack of confidence is a barrier to career progression. Lacking confidence was something all the leaders that we interviewed had either experienced personally or through mentoring other women, but why do so many women question their capability?
“In my experience, women are more careful by nature, whereas men tend to be more trigger happy and prepared to send off a job application without second guessing themselves,” says Louise.
So, how do women overcome that nagging self-doubt?
For Claire, observing how men navigate their careers prompted her to become her own personal brand ambassador. She reveals: “I overheard a male colleague discussing his recent project that had been a great success. The confidence he had really resonated with me and made me realise that if I don’t talk about my successes, who will?”
Suzanne summarises: “Your success is determined by your mind-set. Having people that share your passion and want to push you forward can be a huge help, but ultimately if you want something, you just need to go for it.”
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