Women's Leadership Blog

Graduate Studies or a Career? How Do Women Choose?

Guest post by Anna Miller

Not all of us know what we want to become early in life; in fact, there are stages we go through where we move from one ambition to another before we finally decide before or in college what we really wish to do with the rest of our lives. And even after we make this decision, there are other choices to make – do you need to continue with your education or are you ready to jump into a job? When you’re a woman, this decision becomes even more crucial considering that you have to weight your personal life against your professional one and try to balance the two equally.

Some women are happy being wives and full-time moms; they’re fulfilled by taking care of the home and looking after their families. Others need to achieve some level of professional success even before they can think of settling down. They usually take a break from work during their pregnancies and come back in a few months or when they feel their children are old enough to cope without them. And yet others prefer to immerse themselves in their profession without thinking too much about their personal lives; for these women, career success is an important life goal.

Grad school is a choice for those who are career oriented – if you want to become a doctor or a lawyer, you must apply for graduate studies and dedicate a good portion of your life to academia. But some aspiring professionals prefer to test the career waters before they go back to school to earn a graduate degree. For example, if you want to do an MBA or any other advanced business degree, it’s best to have some work experience under your belt.

Another deciding factor is money – it’s not cheap to earn an education these days. So if you’re struggling under a mountain of debt because of outstanding student loans, you’re likely to work for some time, pay off your loans, and earn enough to put yourself through grad school.

Also, women find that online education works well for them when they’re trying to juggle their personal and professional lives. Most of them don’t want to put their personal lives on hold just to pursue an education or a career – they prefer to do both simultaneously either because they’ve met the right man or because they feel their biological clocks ticking and want to start a family before it’s too late.

The choice of grad school or a job depends on:

• Your choice of career – some require you to apply for grad school immediately after your undergraduate degree while others allow you the freedom to work for a while before you decide to earn a master’s degree to further your career in terms of a promotion, raise, or both.
• Your personal preference – you may decide to stay in academia for a few more years rather than find a job.
• Your finances – you may be averse to taking out another loan to finance your graduate degree, so unless you’re able to find a scholarship, it’s best to start working so you can pay off your debt and start saving up for grad school.

This guest post is contributed by Anna Miller, who writes on the topic of online degree. She welcomes your comments at her email id: anna.miller009@gmail.com

 

 

10 Resolutions Every Woman Should Make

Here are a couple of great resolution suggestions from Jo Miller of Women's Leadership Coaching, and lead facilitator of FWL's 2010 Leadership Development Program. Registration for the program ends on February 16.

1. Become more influential

Build your ability to influence, persuade, and motivate others, regardless of whether you have a management job title.  Influencing Without Authority>>

2. Seek management’s buy-in for a new idea
Take a great technical idea, and sell it to your senior management by partnering with others to build credibility. Selling your technical idea to management >>

3. Don’t let others steal your ideas
Pitch persuasive proposals, and pitch yourself too, to get credit for your work. Getting Credit for Your Ideas >>

4. Learn to delegate effectively
Manage the work performance of others, without hovering about like a micro-manager. How Do I Delegate without Micromanaging >>

5. Build an influential network
You don’t need to be a “shmoozer” to be a good networker, when you include these five key types of people. Five Key People You Need in Your Network >>

To see 5 more resolutions, visit 10 Resolutions Every Women Should Make.  To learn more about the LDP and to register for the final information session on February 4, visit the FWL Leadership Development Program homepage.

YOU - the best investment you can make...

These days, it is so important to put your best foot forward, whether you are trying to progress in your job or trying to find a new position.  Knowing your strengths and how to use them to your best ability is vital. Taking the steps to build your leadership skills and self-awareness is an investment that will pay off for a lifetime.

In mid-November, Future Women Leaders held an information session for our 2010 Leadership Development Program, which is designed to help women truly come in to themselves as leaders.   We discussed the goals of the program, the content, and how women can make this investment possible.  Here are some of the takeaways on how you can find the time and funds to attend:

• Ask your company to sponsor your attendance.  Be clear about the program outcomes and why you think your participation would be valuable for you, and for them.  Offer to make a presention to your team on your learnings.  Make this training part of your performance development plan. 
• Negotiate.  If your company is unable to sponsor your entire participation fee, perhaps they can supplement it.  As an alternative, ask to take time for the sessions as training days rather than vacation or PTO. 
• Ask your family to sponsor you.  Ask for the gift of personal development this holiday season!  It is a great way for your loved ones to be involved in your success.
• Invest in your self.  Draw up a weekly or monthly payment plan agreement with your self, and budget a set amount for each month to put towards to program. 

At the end of the day, this program is for YOU and you will reap the greatest rewards, so it is worth investing your time and energy TODAY on something that will benefit you for years to come.

For more information about the 2010 Leadership Development program, scheduled to begin in Februrary, please visit http://www.futurewomenleaders.net/leadership-development-program.  The site includes a description of the program, as well a link to our registration page and the presentation from the Nov 11 Information Session.

Women in Leadership Series: Working with Millenials

FountainBlue's When She Speaks, Women in Leadership Series

• Topic: Working with Millennials
• Date & Time: Friday, June 12 from 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
• Location: Cisco Building 3, 2nd floor, New Frontier Conference room. 225 East Tasman Drive, San Jose
• Cost: $20 members, $25 partners, $30 general, $40 for membership and admission, corporate packages for up to 10 people are $100
• Registration: Register online by 6/11 at noon, no exceptions please. Late and on-site registration is $40 - does not include membership.

Working with Millennials
The Millennial Generation otherwise known as Generation Y is no longer made-up of just kids and teens. The eldest are now graduating college and entering the professional workforce. How will this affect corporations looking to recruit and retain them? What is unique about this generation, and how and why should corporations recruit and retain them? We have recruited a panel of hiring managers and HR professionals who work closely with Millennials and proactively plan recruitment and management strategies for these uniquely prized workers. Bring your questions and insights and actively participate in this conversation. Our panelists this month will Include:

• Facilitator Lisa Orrell, The Generation Relations Expert, The Orrell Group, author of Millennials Incorporated
• Panelist Urvi Bhandari, AT&T (Urvi was a 2009 graduate of the LDP Program)
• Panelist Megan Campi, Customer Service Relationship Manager, Cisco
• Panelist Kristen Dearing, Sun Microsystems
• Panelist Claudia Galvan, Lead, International Program Management Group, Microsoft
• Panelist Shalini Govil-Pai, Lead PM, Google

Steps to Earning Equal Compensation

Did you attend the recent FWL event "Why Women Don't Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide"?  Looking for advice on how  to increase your salary or up your benefits?  One of FWL's featured leaders and the facilitator of the FWL Leadership Development Program, Jo Miller, addresses how to earn equal compensation in her monthly Q&A forum hosted by Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology. 

We've noted Jo's five steps to maximizing your compensation and career advancement below, but feel free to read her full posting here.

1. Find a position in a division of the business that is growing, not shrinking or stagnant.
2. Ensure that you are hired into a division that is a revenue center, not a cost center. For example, seek out jobs in areas like product management or sales rather than in finance, operations, or human resources.
3. Look for a role that allows you to demonstrate the link between your work effort and business results, and make those results visible to senior-level leaders. For instance, if you work in marketing, measure return on investment (ROI) of your marketing programs and present results/metrics to senior leaders.
4. Ensure that you report to a manager who likes and mentors you, and whose manager does the same for them. That way, everyone's careers advance faster.
5. Seek opportunities to work on high-profile projects that demonstrate your leadership capabilities and challenge you to grow.
   

Have any other tips on how to grow your salary or benefits?  Let us know in the comments.

1/30 - Women In Leadership Symposium

Qualities of Successful Leaders

Nina Simosko, who was recently featured as a woman leader by FWL, recently wrote about what makes someone a  natural leader on her blog:

We’ve all had those people in our lives that, for whatever reason, seem to be the leaders amongst us. What is it that makes these people command our respect and following? For sure, some of these characteristics are subjective - important to some but not to all of us. However, it is fair to say that there are certain characteristics that truly appeal to us all about some leaders. It’s almost as if they have “leadership pheromones” - or some type of chemical that elicits a natural response to follow them. During the course of my blogging, I have written about traits of leaders that command my respect. But I have done so across many entries and wanted to capture these thoughts in one, concise entry so as to lay out a clear picture of an ideal leader.NinaSimosko.com, Dec 2008

Read more about the leadership characteristics Nina values - clear communication, honesty, the ability to get things done, focus on the goal, and continuous learning.  What qualities do the leaders in your life exhibit?  How do these qualities naturally pull others towards the leader's mission?

What Leadership Qualities Do Successful Women Share?

I've always been interested in what qualities successful business women embrace.  Due to the low number of women executives, it's often difficult to see first hand what makes them so successful.  There simply aren't enough role models!  I just came across this excellent article, "Centered leadership:  How talented women thrive", written by The McKinsey Quarterly.  Not only does it dive into the five qualities/areas successful business women exhibit, but it also offers additional reading on how to develop these qualities in yourself.

McKinsey Quarterly's research and interviews resulted in a "leadership model" comprised of five key success "dimensions":

• Meaning
• Managing Energy
• Positive Framing
• Connecting
• Engaging 

The article is a fascinating read, and I couldn't help recognize how Future Women Leaders helps women build these qualities through our events and programs.  For instance, FWL's six-month Leadership Development Program helps women build upon their existing leadership skills, many of them mentioned in McKinsey's article.  Program applications for LDP will be available shortly.  Please join our interest list and we will advise you as soon as they are available. 

Leadership Development Program for Emerging Leaders

I joined Future Women Leaders last year when I registered for the Leadership Development Program. My husband actually came across the listing on the Stanford inCircle and gave it to me as a "gift" because he thought it was exactly what I needed. And, he was right! Many of the 10 participants who participated in the program last year had it paid for, at least partially, by their employer. But, I was in the process of transitioning in my career and trying to figure out what path was best for me and paid for it on my own.

I had no idea that the program had been an annual one for the past 4 years and I often asked myself, "why didn't I find this program earlier?" But, I feel like everything happens at the right time and had I found it earlier, I may not have been ready for the in-depth self-reflection required to make the changes I wanted in my life.

Fast forward one year later and now I have made 9 new friends, connected with an excellent career and personal coach, joined the Future Women Leaders organization, and am now planning the 2009 Leadership Development Program. I now have a deep understanding of my personal leadership style and an increase and awareness of fundamental leadership skills.

We'll be featuring more experiences from LDP Alumni in the coming months and are even planning a informataional session about the program. Stay tuned...

For more information on the four-month Leadership Development Program in 2009 visit FWL online.