Welcome back.
Friends, today I would like to talk to you about the importance of managing your image.
Professional Woman or Office Mom
I was at an event a couple of weeks ago where I was speaking and after I finished a young lady from the audience came up and pulled me aside and wanted to get my take on her situation at work. So she started telling me about how she was the third rung from the top and her organization’s hierarchy–there was the leader, there was a second command, and her and She and this other person in the second command had very similar credentials–similar backgrounds essentially they were supposed to be basically equals in terms of how decisions are made etc., but this person expressed to me frustration that she did not feel that her input was being appreciated to the extent that the other person was and that there was some issues with potential power grab–that the second command tried to take credit for the success of this person. Okay so this is definitely worth talking about and I asked is this a common thing? Is it just some jealousy there or is it you you’re being put out of decisions entirely or I asked her to clarify and she said to abbreviate she basically we arrived at that she did not see that her opinions were being appreciated to the same extent that the other person was. And then I asked her about how others perceived her? I said can you tell me is this just isolated between those two individuals or was that were their perception difficult differences amongst everybody in the firm. And she went on to tell that unlike the person who’s in number two spot she found herself doing more more of the housekeeping activities changing trash bags, making sure there’s coffee things like that–a lot of this and this administrative role was often done mb admin assistants. I said, “Okay. That makes a little bit of sense. And I said how do you think people perceive you in terms of these individuals who were not those two on top? And she said well I’d say they all respect me. I believe that and I said, “Do they do the same amount of contribution for these housekeeping activities as you do and she said, “Well probably not. I think they have work to do so I’m trying to help them be successful.” I said, That’s a noble thing to do, but here’s the thing and this is just part of overcoming some of the perception differences that we’ve had over the centuries. I asked her if she thought that she was looked at as the “office mom” and that made her think for a second. I said you’re telling me that the other folks are other folks are not really emptying trash cans. They aren’t making sure the soap is filled. Things like that. There’s no problem for you doing your share of that; but, you should not be doing all of that. Because that’s what a mom does that’s not what a professional does. And with that reality it’s important to realize that we don’t really promote moms to the head of companies. Well if it’s a mom founder, that’s one thing. But usually we don’t promote moms as easily as we do other professionals– professional women in this case. We promote professional women not moms and those are not the same thing although they may be in within the same person. So if you’re being perceived as a mom and not as a professional woman, that is going to filter into every interaction you have in the office. And that caught him by surprise and she thought about that she said, “There’s probably some truth there.” I said, “Okay, Good.”
The Fallout
So I managed to meet up with her again the following week and she thanked me. She said, “Thank you. That was very interesting feedback you gave me and I now have a clearer picture of how I’m being perceived in the office. And although I can’t do anything about the two people in command at this point. I have asked the other folks around the office to chip in to do their part and I just said that, ‘Hey, I have my part to do and that’s fine but we all need to do this together.’ And once that was said they all agreed. They appreciated that it would seem to be unfair at that point.” So she’s happy about that she doesn’t know how to tackle the issue with power at this point; but, this is a situation that may help to resolve itself in time as she takes greater emphasis and priority about carrying herself as a professional woman and not as a mom. I think that will help her to address some of the problems that she may have going forward and even if it doesn’t, well then she would be a professional woman that will make another boss delighted to have her. So I really hope that you take the time to manage your perception and how you’re being perceived at work– your image. And I think it should serve you well. it will help you achieve what status, what appreciation of the contributions that you’re making to the extent that you deserve it.
Thank you very much and we’ll talk to you in the next video.
