Many women who aspire to reach the top of the corporate ladder don’t realize that simply being a woman is a powerful tool. View your femininity as a selling point of the brand that you market to the world, and your gender will almost always be an asset, not a liability. Below are ten ways you can bring a feminine touch to business that will set you apart.
1.) Tell good stories. The gift of conversation is an extremely valuable business asset. The ability to make good conversation is as much a skill as being able to read a P&L. Even more so, in my opinion. This is an area where women often excel, yet do not fully exploit this talent. If the office atmosphere in which you work does not allow for you to interact and showcase your interpersonal skills and gift of gab, cultivate your own opportunities for conversation. Place yourself in an environment where your good conversational skills can help distinguish you. You need to be able to tell a good story, be sensitive of the use of "I" and "me" in them and add some humor. Think about your audience and tailor your stories to them, not yourself. Stories should have an implicit, useful point and show your knowledge and wisdom — not just your welcome humor. Look people in the eye when you speak. In my experience, a dozen well-rehearsed personal stories and a few jokes go a long way.
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2.) Thank-you notes. I don’t mean a quick e-mail; I mean writing personal, handwritten thank-you notes. Increasingly, the practice stands out and gets noticed more, partly because it’s done less and less. I write dozens and dozens of notes a year, and have done so my entire life. It adds up. Some of the best business contacts I made came from so-called cold-call congratulatory notes I sent after reading about someone’s success. It helped, of course, when I included a bottle of champagne with the note. I did not expect anything specific in return, but over time — and sometimes years — a lot of those contacts produced a return. Women are often good at conveying a written and spoken "thank you." Make yours special — people will remember.
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3.) Be a team player. I believe that women are better than men at the use of "we" rather than "I." Being humble is a characteristic of good leaders. They don’t want or accept the credit for other people’s work. They promote the whole team, and that makes others want to follow them.
4.) Ask questions. Men do not ask for travel directions, right? That is a universally accepted truth. Men seem to see asking questions as a sign of weakness or failure. Women ask questions. They like to gather a lot of information before tackling a task head-on; men like to plunge in, letting the ends justify the means. The latter can often be counterproductive and a waste of time. No supervisor is happy when a job needs to be redone, or when they need to recall a promise made to a client by a subordinate who didn’t take the time to check if the company could meet the client’s demands. Capitalize on this gender difference — ask intelligent questions and do your research and you’ll rarely have to redo a job not well done.
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