Essence_USA__February_2018

MONEY & POWER : CAREER ADVICE
“Then ask yourself, Would I want that
person to take care of herself? If so and
you’re not doing it, ask yourself why
not.” You’ll quickly see you’re just as
deserving of the nurturing you’d want
for others. Now go make time for it.
Be the CEO of you.
You’re the head honcho of your
career, says Courtney Sanders,
founder of Think & Grow Chick,
which helps women reach their
personal and professional objectives.
Keep this in mind if you’ve hit
the six-year slump at work. “I see
this all the time—you’re moving into
year six at your job and are starting
to think, Man, when I was younger I
thought I wanted this role or that
position, but now that I’m here it’s
not all that interesting or fulfilling.
And part of that feeling is the
misplaced expectation that companies
will provide the experiences
you’re looking for on a silver platter.
That simply won’t happen, so take
ownership of your professional
advancement. The longer you’ve
been at your job, the easier it is to
lose sight of what originally brought
you joy.” But you’re not as stuck as
you might think. Sanders says, “I
always recommend that my clients
take on extracurriculars, like
helping with a one-off project, in
different divisions in their company
to create the experience they want.”
Don’t let a layoff define you.
It’s hard not to take a pink slip
personally. But once you give
yourself a few days to let your
emotions settle, Beirne says you have
to separate what really happened
from how you’ve interpreted the
situation. “It’s easy to collapse things
that are undeniably true with the
feelings that we have about those
truths,” she says. “Find someone you
trust who can help you identify what
the facts are. Then ask yourself, What
am I making these facts mean? The
reason people can’t move past a low
point is because they unintentionally
decide that the layoff means something
about who they are, and that’s
almost never true.”
Ask for what you want.
It’s Seard’s number one piece of
advice for her female clients: Just
ask! “You are responsible for your
success,” she says. “You need to find
out what you want, and determine
how you’re going to get it. Ask a
mentor. Ask for help. Women don’t
ask and are often looking for other
people to define their world. If you
see someone out there you want to
be like, call them or investigate what
they did, and model it. This has
worked for all my clients.”
Add value outside of your
job description.
Sanders says one secret to rising
through the corporate ranks is to
think like the leaders. “It’s the biggest
gap I see a lot of women in the
workplace missing,” she says. “They’re
not understanding how the decision
makers are thinking about the
business as a whole. So if you
network by doing those coffee breaks
and going out to lunch with higherups
from different departments, you’ll
get to hear what they consider is
important and where the organization
is going. After lunch you can go back
to work and make sure that you’re
keeping an eye out for ways that you
can contribute to the business’s
bottom line. People who have
demonstrated an ability to produce
visible results in a way that helps a
company get to where it’s going are
promoted faster, they’re more valued
and they tend to get laid off less.”
Remember that going into
business for yourself is not
everyone’s cup of tea.
“As much as entrepreneurship has
become this glamorized kind of
one-size-fits-all body-con dress, it’s
not,” says Kike-Lola Odusanya, who
established the business and personal
development firm My Boss Is Me.
“While entrepreneurship is a gift that,
if explored, can change the trajectory
of a woman’s life, it’s not for everyone.
And the only way to determine that is
to try it. I believe that entrepreneurship
is one of the best personal
development experiences a woman
can have because there’s so much that
you realize about yourself. I believe
you can be a boss in any area of your
life. A boss is somebody who is
decisive, and a boss is somebody who
knows what they want.” Even if you
return to a 9-to-5 job, you’ll almost
always feel more satisfied with where
you are. By eliminating the what-ifs,
you can make a plan that’s more
aligned with who you truly are.
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78 ESSENCE.COM FEBRUARY 2018