The Strong Life Test for Women

Time Flies and So Do I

I'm writing this at 12:50 on a Saturday night(technically Sunday morning). Not because I was out whooping it up or having a nice chat with friends. No. It's because I was traveling out to the West Coast this week and I can't seem to get back into the Eastern time zone.

I tried to be good while I was out there, keeping my East Coast schedule but it obviously didn't work. I was trying since 10 pm to fall asleep. I tried writing in my journal. I tried reading. I even sat through a half an hour of a horribly boring t.v. show...but no, I couldn't fall asleep.

So I thought I'd write in my blog. I didn't realize that I hadn't written since the end of August. Where did September go? Well, for me, September brought me another calendar year wiser. It also brought me to the realization that I am on a journey of personal introspection. I know that I am supposed to be living with a higher intention. Now I just need to find out what it is. I'm on a mission to be fit, fabulous and fulfilled by forty.

I better fly because that's only 339 days away!

Expectations of Extraordinary Results

As it happens almost every year at this time, my work budget was cut significantly. Not once, but twice in less than two days.

Ironically, later the second day I got a survey from our corporate management asking how I am progressing on Extraordinary Results. One of the questions that sticks in my head read something to the effect of "Do you have the right tools with which to do your job?" Wrong time to be asking that question!!! We are expected to produce extraordinary results yet our budgets get whacked so badly that I can no longer complete the projects I had scheduled for Q3 or Q4. How can I produce extraordinary results without budget to do the work that was originally anticipated?

This is not about me wanting to get out of any responsibility of my job. As a matter of fact, I'm disappointed that I'm not able to complete these projects. I happen to work in an area where I am responsible for understanding our consumer requirements. It's pretty darn hard to deliver on our promise of becoming a consumer-focused company without truly knowing our customer's wants, needs and desires. I believe that in order for us to compete in our economy, we must exceed our consumer's expectations, but in order to do that, we must develop a relationship with our consumers. By cutting the budget, we will be making consumer product development solutions without really knowing our consumer's needs. Scary!

What's your View?

Let's have a meeting so we're all ready for the meeting

I once saw a quote that struck me to the core that I remembered it, but I can't remember the author. Sorry author, your name escapes me but your words ring so true. The quote goes "Meetings, where minutes are taken and hours are wasted." How true in corporate America?!?!

Today a superior called a meeting with me, my boss, and two co-workers to show us what he intends to discuss in a meeting that we are all scheduled to attend in three days. He "wanted to pass it by us to make sure that we didn't object to anything." It just so happens that the meeting in three days also includes a Vice President. I'm peeved at the fact that we have to have a meeting to get ready for a meeting. Isn't my time valuable? Aren't we all adults that can discuss topics in front of each other regardless of title? Do we have to present everything to a VP in a nicely wrapped package with a bright, big bow on it? While everyone is smiling and nodding in agreement.

Maybe this is why Americans don't have time to take the full vacations that are allotted to them. They are too busy sitting through pre-meetings that they can't get their work done before the next meeting. We're all suffering from PowerPoint paralysis!!!

What's your View?

Glass Ceiling

Okay, so I didn't win the lottery last night. I tell you, it's those darn co-workers who don't believe in The Secret that are bringing me bad karma. I may have to drop them!

Anyways, today's topic is the glass ceiling. After having worked in Corporate America for 15 years now, I have believed that there was a glass ceiling. After all, less than 20% of our positions at Senior Manager and above are filled by women. In a business that markets heavily toward women, I'm dismayed by this statistic. It had to prove the theory of the glass ceiling. Right?

I've recently changed my mind (it's a women's prerogative after all) and I no longer believe that their is a glass ceiling. After reading Ladies Who Launch http://www.ladieswholaunch.com/ they have convinced me otherwise. They bring up some great points about why they don't believe in the theory of the glass ceiling. Namely:

• There can't be a glass ceiling if women don't want to take those positions
• Women don't necessarily aspire to fill those positions because the VP & C-level positions involve very little creativity
• Those higher level positions don't allow for much flexibility
• Read the book to find out more...

In the process of searching my soul lately, I was wondering what happened to my drive to move up the corporate ladder? What happened to that fierce competitive spirit? Isn't the money at those levels great?

What I've come to discover is that:

• Balance is more important where I'm at than on a ladder to nowhere
• I can be competitive but I don't have to be fierce. My competitive spirit is directed where it should have been all along, on the competitors. I am more fulfilled when I help my team win rather than just winning alone.
• Yes, the money would be nice, but I don't want to lose my life, the time with my husband, children and family in the pursuit of the almighty dollar. I want to be creative and find a way to be successful on my own terms. If I'm finding a creative outlet for my talents, I will inevitably find a way to make money.

In the meantime, the heck with the glass ceiling. I'd settle for a window with a lake view!

What's your View?

Today's View

Let's hear it for an ex View diva - Star Jones - for making a comeback to her own new show on Court TV. The problem is that she has lost so much weight that nobody will know it's the Star Jones that used to be on the View. Good or bad, I don't know? What do you think?

A co-worker reminded me recently that "You know you're a redneck when you are relying on the lottery as your retirement plan." Well then I wonder what that makes me? I'm not relying on the lottery as my retirement plan - it's my ESCAPE plan! Boy am I ready to escape.

I play the lottery with two other co-workers. We've been playing for quite some time but it wasn't until I read the book The Secret that I realized why we haven't won yet. Apparently the two others that I'm playing with haven't fully believed that we could actually win. They haven't manifested the money. They haven't envisioned themselves holding the check in their hands. I keep saying "they" because I can see it clearly. I have envisioned myself going through the numbers and coming up a WINNER!!! I could see it so clearly that one day I was sitting next to my husband and I started smiling so wide that he asked, "What are you doing?" I told him that I was role playing what it would be like to win the lottery.

Lucky for me we didn't already have enough money or my husband would have carted me off to the looney bin!

So here's hoping that tomorrow I'm typing in all caps. (That is the online version of screaming, right?!!?)

What's your View?

Career Chess Match

As you might guess from the fact that I'm "Miss Opportunity" that I am a business woman. At one point in my life, I thought I was on the fast track to success at my Fortune 500 company. But little did I know that I would hit a speed bump. You'll notice that I didn't say I hit the glass ceiling. (Heck, I'm not that close to the top to infer that I might be near the ceiling!).

A lot changed when I became part of a dynamic working team. I truly cared about the people that I was working with and the supervisor for whom I was working. The job itself was challenging and the environment was stimulating. I got caught up in doing a good job and lost sight of playing the career chess game - moving from job to job every two years. Rather than focusing what I was going to do next, I continued to love my work and those around me. I knew the people I worked with pretty well and I got excited hearing about their families, what they did on vacation and I grieved when a loved one left. To me, this was personal fulfillment.

But little did I know that the View from Corporate America was more interested in career chess than they were about my personal fulfillment. Apparently I didn't read the rules as I didn't know I was supposed to tell everyone how great I was and what a good job I was doing. Strangely, I thought the work would speak for itself. Oops, there goes a pawn.

I had spent six years in one position. Because it was eBusiness, I was learning new skills on almost a daily basis. I was viewed as an expert in my space. I had the most seniority in this department and it felt good to be the go-to person. But I didn't realize that I made another critical error in the career chess match. I stayed in one place too long. My focus was on achieving goals and not on tooting my own horn. While others moved onto new jobs, I stayed and was committed to making our strategy work. It did, but nobody knew. After all, I was waiting for someone else to notice.

I've learned a critical lesson in career chess. There's a fine line between being a queen and getting rooked. You've got to do a good enough job that you have something to talk about but don't do too good or take on too much because you won't have time to market yourself for the next position on the board. Honestly, corporate life is all one big game!

What's your view on the corporate chess game?