There are 4 qualities for success that every working woman shares. Wherever you are on your career path, enhancing these skills will increase your effectiveness in the workplace and enhance the quality of your life.
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1. Confidence is one of the most influential qualities for success
I was at a women’s networking conference earlier this fall. This was an event where women came together for skills training, networking and inspiration. During the event a woman approached me and asked for my advice. She was having challenges and was seeking out other women to glean wisdom.
My first impression of the woman was how soft-spoken and unsure of herself she was. Her eyes rarely held mine, her head was lowered, and her handshake was not strong. Her business card photo looked more like a schoolgirl than a professional woman.
As we talked further I learned she was an accountant and had recently left a large CPA firm to launch out on her own. She was expecting the transition to be an easy one, but she was finding that many clients had not followed her and she was having a difficult time with new prospects. Few people were taking her seriously. I was not surprised.
I my opinion, if your career involves influencing people and needing them to connect with you and work with you; carrying yourself with confidence is the single most influential quality you must have.
This woman did not need any more technical training. She was skilled in her profession. What she needed was confidence coaching. She needed to learn how to brand herself and carry herself in such a way that people took notice of her, trusted her and respected her.
“The most attractive thing a woman can wear is confidence.” -Pearl Galbraith Click To TweetPeople love to work with successful people. Even if you are new in your career, you can still be confident in your ability to serve your clients well. Faced with a question you can not answer? A confident woman will answer truthfully that she may not know the answer. But she will find it out, and then she will follow through.
2. Resilience is a quality leads to long term success
Shark Tank investor and real estate mogul Barbara Corcoran looks for what she calls the ‘superstar” trait in people she wants to partner with or hire. Entrepreneur.com featured an article on Barbara Corcoran’s Secrets to Success, and wrote that Barbara is of the opinion that successful people have one skill in common when it comes to facing adversity-
“When they took a hit, they didn’t take a long time to get back up.”
Barbara Cororan
Mary is one of the featured case studies in Lemon Crushers and a woman who bounced back and made lemonade out of the lemons life sent her way. She was let go from 3 jobs in less than 18 months. Every situation was out of her control. Being a woman over 50, working in the male-dominated technology field and living in a remote part of the county gave her very limited options for employment.
It would have been so easy for her to succumb and simply settle for an average job, but she truly believed that “better” was out there for her and she kept pursuing a job in the field she loved. Her resilience paid off and today she is working her dream job, which by the way, would have never presented itself if Mary was not let go from her previous positions.
Sometimes the best opportunities are waiting to be discovered on the other side of adversity.
Being resilient is a quality that working women need for long term success. Anyone can be a one-hit-wonder. It takes courage and resilience to face obstacles and not be defeated.
3. Patience combined with priorities are the perfect pairing for success
We live in an instant, Pinterest perfect, society. Pressures, especially on women, to be successful at work, have a wonderful home, the perfect partner and a social media thread full of latest adventures cause women great stress.
A working woman is not Wonder Woman, she can not be and achieve all her priorities, at once.
I do not agree with the concept of “balance” in the life of a working woman and I feel we do a disservice to women by encouraging something that does not exist.
When I was a full time working mom with toddlers there was no “balance” for me in my life. There is no “balance” for a med student in residency. There is no “balance” for a woman building her real estate career while juggling medical issues of aging parents. Balance does not exist, but seasons do.
I find it beneficial for working women to acknowledge the season of life they are in. Focus on the priorities critical in that season and don’t beat yourself up for what you’re not accomplishing. Women need to be patient and to trust that, in time, seasons of life change. As seasons change, she can adjust and align priorities to focus on goals appropriate for that stage of life.
A woman with a patient approach to accomplishing her goals is more successful and less stressed than one attempting to achieve it all.
4. Persistence in any field of work will lead to success
There is a saying that doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is a definition of crazy. That may hold some truth, but, in most careers, doing the same thing over and over is a necessity of the job and only through repetition does one become an expert.
In his 2008 book “Outliers,” Malcolm Gladwell wrote that
“ten thousand hours is the magic number of greatness.”
Malcolm Gladwell
Meaning that it takes significant time to become skilled at any craft. Whether the craft is athletics, music, business, gardening, interior design, hairdressing, or even being a parent, everyone starts as a rookie. It requires repetition, persistence and dedication to achieve significant levels of success in any field.
Find more about qualities for success as a working woman
Confidence, resilience, patience and persistence are Lemon Crushing qualities for success that are necessary for any working woman in both her professional and personal life.
For more on making Lemonade Out of Lemons you would love Pearl’s book Lemon Crushers; A Working Woman’s Guide to Overcoming Adversity! There are stories about the qualities for success and overcoming your challenges. You’ll be ready to start crushing lemons after chapter one.
