8 minute read
My Healthy Life
expression of empathy, but it absolutely is. And most of us have bad listening habits: rushing people through conversations, finishing their sentences, “faking” paying attention. We check emails while on the phone with them. All these things tell people, “I don’t care about you or what you’re saying.” DEVELOPING TRUST. Trust reduces the inevitable frictions inherent in working with others, the way oil keeps a car engine running smoothly. It enables the creation of deep, resilient connections at work and at home. When people trust each other, everything is easier: You can work together faster and more efficiently, because you don’t need to check up on each other all the time. You can express yourself to others without fear. Collaborating becomes a pleasant experience. In a hightrust workplace, you need fewer rules and controls. To build trust, demonstrate that you are always acting with the other person’s best interests in mind. You need to meet commitments, keep confidences, and answer questions without hedging. Make these qualities tangible by sometimes doing something for the other person that is clearly not in your interest and telling people quickly and openly about mistakes or bad news. Prepare carefully for meetings to showcase competence. On the other hand, trust-busting behaviors include criticizing others who aren’t in the room, exaggerating, and always ensuring that your needs are met first. AGENDA HELPING. A person’s agenda is their top three to five priorities, needs, or goals. It’s what is important to them over the next six to 12 months. We all have both a professional and a personal agenda. When you understand a person’s agenda, you can add value by helping them meet their goals—by sharing ideas or introducing them to others who can help. You may even anticipate or help shape their future agenda. Anticipating what may impact someone in the future is extraordinarily valuable. It’s the difference between saying, “Here’s an idea to help you climb your career ladder faster and better,” and, “I think your ladder is leaning against the wrong wall.” You’re looking ahead and giving them the big picture but be careful: You must be certain you understand what they’re focused on today. Don’t be one of those boors who tells people what to do without first getting to know them! INFLUENCE. Simply put, influence is the power to change or affect someone. If you have it, you’ll be able to convince others of your ideas and proposals and gain support for your goals. The foundation of influencing is
having a strength of character and depth of knowledge that commands others to listen to you and follow your advice. This is your “pull” strategy. The second part of the influence process involves “pushing” via the use of persuasion strategies.
There are seven main persuasion strategies: selfinterest, rational appeal, emotional appeal, consistency, reciprocity, social proof, and scarcity. All are valid in certain scenarios. I typically use the first three in combination, as they work well in most situations. Then I may draw from the other four to supplement these three. I tend to avoid scarcity—I find that it’s close to scaremongering. Appealing to self-interest and rational analysis is more powerful. RELATIONSHIP HEALING. Your ability to help resolve conflicts and heal broken relationships is paramount to your own well-being and that of those around you. Unresolved conflicts will fester, fueling anger and resentment. That’s why it’s crucial to be able to hold healing conversations. But first you must be able to forgive the other person.
Forgiveness is often misunderstood. It doesn’t mean that what the other person did is now okay or that you absolve them. Rather, true forgiveness is when you drop your demand to make them pay for what they did—you stop seeking revenge and compensation. This means you absorb the pain in the short-term, but then enjoy longterm peace.
The alternative is to try to punish the person—perhaps badmouthing them to everyone or somehow sabotaging them. But if you don’t let go of your anger and resentment, you’ll become, as my mother used to say, an “injustice collector” who is perpetually angry at everyone and stuck in a spiral of unending retaliation.
Becoming a master at developing and nurturing strong, trusted relationships may be the best New Year’s resolution you’ve ever made. It can impact every area of your life—professional and personal—in a profound way.
Life is complicated, and it’s easy for us to put off relationship development until “things settle down” or we have more free time. The problem is, that day never comes. This is how people lose touch, and how relationships atrophy. You must carve some time out of your schedule, put it on your to-do list, and commit to making it happen. Relationships rarely stay the same— they either deepen and grow, or they wither on the vine.
40% According to New CBcampus.com Survey
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Where Are the Black Women in STEM Leadership? By training diverse women in science and tech to become leaders, the whole ecosystem benefits
Today, Black women are working in every industry imaginable and doing jobs that, just a generation ago, we could only dream of. However, the number of those working at senior levels in STEM fields remains
low. In March, the National Science Foundation reported that in 2016, Black women earned more than 33,000 bachelor’s degrees in science and engineering, and 24
percent of doctorates awarded to Black women were in STEM. However, that same report showed that in 2017, only 5 percent of managerial jobs in STEM were held by Black women and men combined.
This disparity is occurring amid record employment levels, and there is a critical need for technical workers—but we cannot expect women and underrepresented minorities to remain in work environments where they cannot grow and thrive. We also cannot expect girls to enter fields where they do not see positive role models. It is imperative that we stop the constant drip from the leaky STEM pipeline by working hard to retain women—and especially underrepresented women of color. Duy-Loan Le, Semiconductor Industry Expert and Technology Consultant
At one time, Fortune 500 companies had their pick of graduates from the best schools. A brilliant young engineer from a top university will be heavily recruited but is just as likely to create her own company as she is to go work for a long-established one. Some industries are already feeling the impact of this and are trying to adapt. While leaders may say this is to address the ongoing gender imbalance in technical fields, dig a little deeper and it becomes clear companies already know they will not have enough capable talent to fill these roles in the digital revolution and are trying prepare for the loss of a preferred demographic.
Globally, we are still struggling to attract and retain women in STEM fields. While the problem has been getting more attention, the change is occurring much too slowly. The underlying reasons why diversity and inclusivity have not taken root have not changed over time. Women and minorities cite feelings of isolation, mistreatment by colleagues and management, and lack of opportunities for advancement as the reasons they leave STEM fields.
One solution is to create more diversity in emerging technologies by preparing women already in STEM for roles in leadership. These efforts would provide the skills necessary for diverse women with traditional STEM degrees to transition into artificial intelligence, virtual reality, the Internet of Things, and cybersecurity while leveraging their previous experience. Such resources could ensure women with technical backgrounds get the support necessary to become leaders in these industries far more quickly than we could be waiting on the next generation of workers to advance.
By training diverse women already in technical roles to become leaders, the entire ecosystem benefits. Women scientists and engineers understand the challenges of working in male-dominated fields and can better prepare others wanting to learn how to excel in management and entrepreneurship. In 2015, we launched Black Women in Science and Engineering (BWISE) to support underrepresented women via networking, mentoring, and career development. The group consists of women with degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math, even if they no longer work in these areas.
With BWISE, employees can get what they need despite—or in addition to—company offerings. Here, they have a safe space to discuss challenges and receive coaching, training, and insight outside of the workplace. Companies can sponsor employees to be a part of BWISE to supplement their existing diversity efforts and can also assist by bringing in speakers and supporting our events. The organization helps to prepare, train, and develop the next generation of Black women leaders in STEM. We also have hosted successful networking events across the country in Atlanta, GA; Austin, TX; Chicago, IL; Houston, TX; and Washington, D.C. Each event attracts the best and brightest in the STEM field, ranging from mid-career to top-level executives. In 2019, we will
expand to three more cities—Boston, MA; Dallas, TX; and New York, NY—and provide more in-depth training in emerging technologies to meet the career demands of our membership.
The network of BWISE chapters and women around the world consists of experts and thought leaders in business, government, and academia who are focused on engaging and empowering girls and women everywhere to join the digital revolution. Our members from the U.S., Europe, and Africa are poised to become leaders in their own countries, impacting the lives of underrepresented people around the globe. By creating a more diverse workforce globally in emerging technology fields, we can help reduce gender-based financial inequities and be better prepared for the workplace of the future.
