How women adversely influence their careers

Did you know that...

• Half of women managers admitted to feelings of self-doubt about their performance and career, but only 31% of men reported the same.
• The study also found that this lack of confidence extends to a more cautious approach to applying for jobs and promotions: 20% of men said they would apply for a role despite only partially meeting its job description, compared to 14% of women.

 So, we need to ask ourselves, how can this situation be improved? I think that women should position themselves well in their organization, speak up, work on letting go of their insecurities and publicize their accomplishments to order to win the respect of their peers and enhance potential for moving up in their respective organization. Here are the 4 low-confidence behaviours that influence women's careers: 

Not asking. Often, women fail to get promoted because they don't step up and apply. It feels personally risky to step-up and ask for a big job or assignment — but there's really no other way. Not asking means you've lost the chance to influence the outcome.

Being overly modest. It is observable that men are more willing to take public credit for their successes. Women believe their accomplishments should speak for themselves, and they spend less effort ensuring they get the gold star next to their name. While modesty is a nice character trait, it's naive to believe that your boss, your clients, or your colleagues will recognize your accomplishments if you fly under the radar.

Remaining silent. It's not easy to get a word in during meetings, especially when six other colleagues are all fighting for the floor. But failing to speak up and express yourself when you have something relevant to add is a missed chance to get in the game. Getting your point of view across during important discussions is essential for your career!

Blending in. Many women go to great lengths to avoid attention. They don't want to stand out — in meetings, in the boardroom or even in the elevator. This means you are missing opportunities — every single day — to stand out and sell your ideas. 

The Path to Success

Identifying the cause of success or failure is at times, difficult for many people. Here are several ways to get you on the sure-fire path to success :) 

1. Be specific.
Knowing exactly what you want to achieve keeps you motivated until you get there. Think about the specific actions that need to be taken to reach your goal. Just promising you'll "eat less" or "sleep more" is too vague — be clear and precise. "I'll cut down on 200 calories/day" leaves no room for doubt about what you need to do. 
2. Take advantage of the moment to act on your goals. 
Many of us let opportunities to act on a goal slip us by because we simply fail to notice them. Did you really have no time to work out today? No chance at any point to return that phone call? Achieving your goal means grabbing hold of these opportunities before they slip through your fingers.
3. Be an optimist, but a realistic one. 
When you are setting a goal, be sure to engage in positive thinking about how likely you are to achieve it; but thinking things will come easily and effortlessly to you increases the odds of failure. Most goals worth achieving require time, planning, effort, and persistence. 
4. Monitor your progress. 
It is imperative that you regularly examine your performance, and adjust strategies if necessary. Don't take on too much to handle, it is better to progress little by little. And don't forget to reward yourself for your success! 
5. Have grit. 
Grit is a willingness to commit to long-term goals, and to persist in the face of difficulty. Studies show that gritty people obtain more education in their lifetime, and earn higher college GPAs. Grit is something that can be acquired! 
6. Build your willpower. 
By putting your willpower to good use, it will become stronger; enabling you to reach your goals.

To build willpower, take on a challenge that requires you to do something you'd honestly rather not do. Give up high-fat snacks, do 100 sit-ups a day, try to learn a new skill. When you find yourself wanting to give in, give up, or just not bother —don't. It will be hard in the beginning, but it will get easier, and that's the whole point. As your strength grows, you can take on more challenges and step-up your self-control workout.

7. Focus on getting better, as opposed to being good. 

Many of us tend to set goals that are about proving ourselves, rather than improving and acquiring new skills.

How to make work-life balance work

"It is important that you never put the quality of your life into the hands of a commercial corporation..."
This video has some practical ideas to take into consideration :)

http://www.ted.com/talks/nigel_marsh_how_to_make_work_life_balance_work.html

Time- and how to make use of it

So many things to do, yet so little time. Here's a list of several ways to make the most of time constraints, hope it's useful! 

• Plan every day in advance: Take a moment to plan your day in advance. For every minute you spend planning you can actually save 5-10 minutes in execution.
• Apply the “80/20 Rule” to everything: Resist the temptation to clear up small things first. 20% of your activities account for 80% of your results. So, be sure to concentrate efforts on those top 20% of activities.
• Create large chunks of time: Organize your days around large blocks of time when it's easiest for you to concentrate.
• Focus on key result areas: Identify and determine the results that you absolutely have to get done to perform well and work on them all day long.
• Do your homework: Learn what you need to learn so that you can do your work exceptionally well. A major reason we delay and procrastinate is due to our own feelings of inadequacy or  lack of confidence in our tasks.
• Obey the Law of Forced Efficiency: Single out your highest value activities since there's never enough time for everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing. 
• Leverage your special talents: There are certain things that you can do or learn to do that will make you extraordinarily valuable to both yourself and to others. Identify your areas of uniqueness and commit to becoming excellent in those areas. It's just a matter of asking yourself- "What am I really good at?"
• Do the most difficult task first:  Conquer the most difficult task first and resolve to stay at it until it is complete. 
• Identify your key constraints: Determine the bottlenecks (internally and/or externally) that set the speed at which your are able achieve your most important goals and focus on alleviating them. Did you know that most are internal? 
• Take it one step at a time: You can accomplish large and complicated jobs if you just complete them one step at a time.  Focus on a single action that you can take to make a difference.
• Put the pressure on yourself: Tip: Imagine that you have to leave town for a month. Work as if you had to get all your major tasks completed before you left. “Only about 2% of people can work entirely without supervision. We call these people leaders.”
• Maximize your personal powers: Identify the periods in which your mental and physical energy are at their highest. Structure your most important things to do around those times.
• Develop a sense of urgency: Make a habit of moving fast on your key tasks and you will become an action oriented person.

Procrastination never gets old...

Ah, university. Not only is the midterm rush coming up, but there seem to be endless commitments, ideas and problems that seem to prevent us from being productive, or cause us to lose focus on our work. Sometimes, it's mere laziness though...

Anyways. This brings me to my first blog topic- procrastination. Procrastinators sabotage themselves, and choose paths that hurt their performance. I've complied a few facts you may not have known, feel free to read this while you avoid your work :) 

1. Shockingly enough, procrastination is not a problem of time management or planning. Procrastinators are not different in their ability to estimate time, although they are more optimistic than others. Word on the street is- "Telling someone who procrastinates to buy a weekly planner is like telling someone with chronic depression to just cheer up". 

2. 20% of people self-diagnose themselves as chronic procrastinators. For them procrastination is a lifestyle. It cuts across all aspects of their life. 

3. Procrastination is correlated with alcohol consumption- they drink more than they intend to—a manifestation of generalized problems in self-regulation. 

4. Procrastinators are constantly on the lookout for distractions, especially ones that don't take a lot of commitment. Checking e-mail is almost perfect for this purpose! They distract themselves as a way of regulating their emotions such as fear of failure.

5. Along with procrastination come high costs. For one, there's health.  Research shows that during the course of one academic term, procrastinating college students had such evidence of compromised immune systems as more colds and flu. And, insomnia to top if off. Procrastination also affects others; it shifts the burden of responsibilities onto others, who become resentful. Procrastination destroys teamwork in the workplace and private relationships are at risk too.