“We have a profession
composed of women —
run by men”, said one
retired superintendent.
We find simply encouraging women to
accept compliments for a job well done—a
simple, “Thank you,”—instead of def lect-
ing credit, or saying, “oh, anyone could have
done that,” can create a huge shift.
While we tremendously value spiritual
humility, and an appropriate sense of one’s
own significance, we see again and again
that many women have difficulty promoting
their work, taking credit for their accom-
plishments, and unambigouously claiming
their achievements.
What can you do to own the value of your
own work more unambiguously? Face the
facts. One of my clients said, “If I don’t seek
more recognition for my work, I will never
be promoted. It’s that simple.”
Beware un-promotable work
Can you take notes? Would you mind or-
dering lunch? We need someone to organize
the professional development event — can
you do that?
Whether you’ve just started your career or
are the executive director, if you’re a woman,
people expect you to do routine, time-con-
suming tasks that no one else wants to do.
Our jaws dropped when one client told us,
“For male supervisors and colleagues over
the years I’ve written various white papers,
dissertations and superintendent applica-
tions, including cover letters; articles for
leadership magazines and developed pre-
sentation materials, all with explicit and in-
tentional expectation that I was not to share
that I was the author, and also that I was to
publicly give credit to the man as the owner
of the intellectual thinking and product.”
One of our workshop attendees told us,
“I’m looking around and although I lead my
department, I’m still doing lots of unpro-
motable work. I’ve honestly never thought
about this in this way. No one likes to come
off as self-seeking.” So how do we politely
say no, without getting labeled as someone
who isn’t a team player?
It’s important to do a survey of all the
tasks you are currently performing, implic-
itly or explicitly. What’s high-value work to
you? To your team? Are there any time-con-
suming or low-visibility demands that have
become yours that you’d like to negotiate?
Have you actually had a conversation with
your supervisors about whether this deliver-
able might be moved elsewhere, or pointed
out the number of times you’ve handled it?
Again, some of our male clients report that
they really weren’t aware of the tasks and
patterns women were caught in, and some
women describe being surprised by the data
themselves.
One of our clients also formed an infor-
mal group online called The No Club. Every
few weeks they would share a list of the tasks
they’d been asked to do, and seek assistance
from others about whether, and how, to
defer. “This helped keep us all accountable.
It provided data. And it was hilarious. It
gave us courage to step up and speak up. For
me, it made me more aware.”
Don’t go it alone
Which points us to the final, and most
important point. No woman is an island,
and no woman should ever be navigating
this tricky territory without a tribe to back
her up and share sisterhood. Women often
put their heads down, work hard, and be-
lieve that just working hard is going to
make it all happen, and don’t see the power
of aligning with other sisters (and allies)
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