Let’s Be Honest. Having a career in Corporate America can be a harrowing experience. Especially for anyone who aspires to not sell yourself short or sell your soul to the dark side. The fact is we all need to pay our dues…but we don’t need to destroy our authentic self in the process.
Being a mom with a Corporate America career can be exhausting!
And it’s not because you’re working 10-12 hours a day. Or traveling all over the country (or the world in some cases). Or staying out late for expensive dinners with people who are, at best, slightly entertaining after the 5th glass of wine you’ve sucked down. It’s because we often find ourselves pretending to be someone other than who who really are…and this can be exhausting. It catches up with you after a while. It starts to impact not just your emotional well-being but your physical health as well. To understand why so many women get caught in this trap, it’s important to understand what Corporate America is and what it stands for.
Corporate America is an abstract term sometimes used to refer to the individuals within it who strive for success and positive results. These results might be good for them or their employers, but not necessarily good for the economy or environment in which they operate. It’s not an evil conspiracy per se, but often the overall behavior of the people who are part of it sometimes becomes compromised.
We all understand what corporations are.
They are entities that employ people and produce products or services that people need to live…and live well. But some corporations can become toxic. There are many reasons why this happens. In a nutshell, leaders know that they must deliver consistently high quarterly profits or they will be kicked to the curb and replaced.
Within any large organization there’s a culture that is unique to that organization, and one which is typically foreign to outsiders. Even though the insiders are aligned around the objectives of the company, there are often competing interests within and among different groups. This creates an inherently competitive environment. The need and desire to advance one’s career at all costs becomes an end in and of itself. This, coupled with competition from other companies, creates an environment where people are pushed to do whatever it takes to move up in the organization, and to make the organization profitable.
How do we succeed in Corporate American without sacrificing our morals and integrity?
Where do we go from here, while still striving to improve our financial, emotional, and physical well-being? The first step is to build your personal brand. This is a process, and one in which you need to be 100% invested. But what better investment is there than in yourself?
Be honest with yourself.
First and foremost, have confidence in yourself and trust your intuition. And I’m referring to authentic confidence — competence and optimism that drives purposeful actions and meaning. Be honest with yourself about where you are and where you want to be. The more honest we are about ourselves and where we are developmentally, the more likely we are to receive opportunities that will help us progress further.
Accept and appreciate where you are instead of resisting it.
The reality is that people who appreciate where they are and approach their next step with a willingness to learn are the ones who seem to constantly attract opportunities that push them just slightly out of their comfort zones. These small opportunities compile, and each time they take a bigger step out of their comfort zone, so it becomes a cycle of success.
They key to all of this it to stop deliberating and talking about what you are going to do next and just start doing it. Even if it’s a small step, just do it. Stop wasting time strategizing and planning over things that are basic tasks – step into it! Try a coaching session with me to experience what it’s like to understand and appreciate where you are, but put a plan in place for where you want to be.
