As women in business, when setting our sights on raising our leadership-rank in firms, we will weave our way up and sideways navigating the corporate landscape to make our mark. While our networking prowess makes savvy business sense when working for someone else, its career currency tends to drop when we begin working for ourselves, taking the off ramp to entrepreneurship. Waving our rising LinkedIn connection count looks great online, but offline we need to raise the bar and embrace a gentle umphhh to form new connections wherever our feet land.
The number one footprint smart ambitious women make when following their passions in business is collecting like-minded driven women professionals to add to their portfolio. ‘Picking up’ women is a natural relationship building skill for women, driven by the unspoken golden rule from their playbook:
successful women want to help others succeed.
The good news is, women are fueled by inspiration; when we come into our own, creating our success stories as entrepreneurs we believe in paying it forward with the wisdom we’ve gained from our journey. The bad news is, while we’re growing into our dream shoes in business, we initially shy away from asking for support and reaching out to others given our raised self-doubt antennas which convince us that we’re not good enough or worse that we will be rejected at every turn. We later learn this the hard way over time as we seek answers to the newbie questions that challenge us.
Women more than ever in this downsizing economy have taken the leap of faith that the hard wired persistence and perfectionism at our core will successfully lead us to the pursuit of our passions in business; it’s not the drive we are lacking. Our necessary wake-up call is recognizing that no one ever got anywhere alone and you don’t have to quit your day job to prove that you can – not yet anyway.
When going out about your daily routine, place down your preconceptions about the people you meet, seek out women strangers and start sharing the interests you have mentally laid out in your mission statement. Open up to those who can turn into mentors, who may share similar business models or who may be inspired by your new venture and connect you with someone with whom you can potentially partner with. Leaning on the connections we already have is powerful, but real change is made when shifting into the unknown when growing a business. Meeting as many new people as you can, lays the foundation for a female village that can’t lead you astray, like-minded inspiration alone is a guarantee of success when pursuing your passions in business.
Link
Marisa is hosting gutsy seminars for women in business in London and New York: The Dream Shoe Seminar for Smart Ambitious Women following their Passions in Business Email: LifeCoach@InRShoes.com to register.
Bio
Marisa Santoro is an American IT executive on Wall Street, a seminar leader, career columnist, media publisher and single working mother juggling it ALL. She leads inspiring women’s seminars in New York and London, lands success story interviews with women executives and entrepreneurs on both sides of the pond and shares career advice to empower working women in business.
She has a natural instinct for ‘picking up’ brilliant women passionate about their careers.
In Our Shoes: www.InRShoes.com
Great article – I have discovered so many positive, supportive and influential women on LinkedIN relative to my job industry such as IYOTSA, EUMA, WATC and Executive Secretary. These women are all happy to exchange best practice and information which is invaluable. They already know and acknowledge that the true key to success is collaboration, team work and ultimately sisterhood.