CIBER Event: How Women Succeed Around The World

PART TWO of Class 11 (April 18th, 2017)

Today's CIBER Event was led by Rania Habiby Anderson, "a leading authority on business women in emerging economies". She came to The Smith School of Business to speak on the current status of women in emerging markets and how we, as students, can become successful women in the workplace.

She spoke on a plethora of different topics with many stories to share from her travels around the world, but her top issue today was the 7 shifts women need to make to be successful from college to the workplace.

She spoke about a few ideals that women should keep in mind when looking to succeed: PIE, Ikigai and positive thinking. I will cover all of these.

Lastly, She urged everyone to stay at the event until they felt they had heard, thought, or felt something that would change the way they behaved in the workplace, for the better. I will cover my thought later in this post.

Topic One: The 7 Shifts from College to Work

1. Undeterred from what doesn't work to what does work!

With this first shift she spoke about the Goldilock Syndrome. The premise of this is that women are constantly told that they are not just right. That they are either too loud or too soft spoken... too directive or not directive enough. But guess what? You ARE just right! Any obstacle in your way can be pushed down and you do not have to give into what other people claim you are.

2. Prepare from Confidence to Competence

Confidence is only a feeling, it is not an action. If we worry too much about the trash thoughts that flow through our brains everyday, we will never have enough time to succeed in life. Instead of feeling negative, think THIS body carriers THIS brain and this brain is here to SUCCEED!

3. Focus from their success to YOURS!

There is no certain path or profile you MUST have - define your own success and be around people who mold you in a positive manner. Fail fast and move forward to bigger and better things.

4. Integrate: Do not Balance.

This point focuses mostly on the work-life balance and the family-life-work balance women have to figure out. So many people will try to make women feel guilty and horrible about not being home with their children because they are working. People tell women that they have to balance all of these working pieces and still find time to be happy. Well Rania wants us to throw that perspective out the window and realize that work, life, and family can all be integrated so long as you follow what is best and truest for YOU! If you are happy and your family sees that, then missing one soccer practice is not going to make the world crumble down. If you are happy at home, then stay at home. Just do what makes YOU happy - not what society believes you should do.

5. Accelerate from sitting down to standing out! (The MOST important thing a woman can do)

In classes we raise our hands, sit down, and wait for the professor to call on us to speak. In work: you have to speak up and challenge yourself everyday! Communicate your achievements and aspirations because there isn't anyone behind you waiting to do it for you. Make yourself visible and contribute in a way that advances your future and well being.

6. From Alone to Together:

Build yourself a 360 Network:

People are more powerful and more junior than you. People who are inside your organization and people who are outside your organization. AND people who are inside your industry and those outside your industry. The workplace is a place of teamwork and togetherness, so embrace it!

7. From Following to Leading!

You must play to WIN (active), not to lose (passive). Look for opportunities and take them before the person next to you does!

TOPIC TWO: Ideals for Women

1. Success is about PIE:

PIE stands for:

Performance - What you do

Image - How you do it

Exposure - Who knows about it

Women struggle with Exposure the most... but it's also the most powerful one! If you do not expose yourself and you do not voice your competence, you will be stuck before you even begin.

2. Ikigai: The Way We Need To Function

Ikigai is the reason for being and knowing that you are doing what you are SUPPOSED to do.

It is the intersection between passion, mission, vocation, and profession.

It is taking every one of the shifts mentioned before and breaking the rules and becoming your own true self.

Ikigai is knowing that you do not have to marry the GM of a 5 star hotel, but that you can BECOME the manager of that 5 star hotel.

3. Positive Thinking:

This thought encompassed the entire evening. When Rania traveled the world talking to women in emerging markets, she did not ask them "what challenges have you overcome to get to where you are today", she instead asked "what made you successful"? By changing the question in a very simple way, it made being a girl a little less scary. "Success is on the other side of fear" - we need to look at challenges as things we can overcome and succeed at, not road blocks inhibiting us.

LASTLY: My Takeaway:

"When women do better, we all do better"

There is a lot we still need to accomplish in this world and it can be solved by adding more women to the table. But that change needs to come from both men AND women. If women do not believe in themselves, they will not speak up and even if they are at the table, who knows if their opinions will be heard.

Women are strong and we can change the tides. And now, is our time.