According to the Women’s Financial Network, twice as many women start up businesses as men. This is a clear sign: Things are not changing, they have already changed in the business world.
Women are known to be better in multi-tasking than men. Although multi-tasking is considered a myth you know why is that myth so realistic when it comes to women? Women have the need to be on top of their game, every day, and that can be exhausting, health damaging and can lead to depression and a set of serious mental illnesses.
Women are expected to finish masters or doctorate and have kids by their 30’s, know how to cook like a chef, clean the house and do the chores while hitting the gym daily and looking like a Victoria’s Secret model. All that should be done while simultaneously looking happy, excited and having the energy to work with your child when you come home from work and he comes back from school, because why not? You can do it all, can’t you?
This kind of belief led a lot of women I know to getting cancer, depression, and some other serious illnesses because they were putting up with random shit the environment told them they should or should not do.
This Ariel ad says it all:
Are we passing gender roles that haven’t evolved with the times? Every woman has two jobs- one at the office and the other at home. She multitasks and handles both almost single-handedly! It’s time to understand why.
This all reminded me of the importance of organizations such as Lean In Serbia, which I am a part of. Because next to all the shit a woman puts up from the environment, she also has to handle the hate coming from the other women around her, reminded her she gained a few pound, haven’t done her job well or that she is having a bad hair day. Women are usually the worst to each other. Instead of realizing they need to stick together, they are turning against each other and making each other feel worse than they already are.
I want to focus on women who provided me with empowerment and who mentored me from far, such as Sarah Blakely, Sheryl Sandberg, Arianna Huffington, and Marie Forleo, a multi-passionate entrepreneurette.
Here are some tips about their habits that you can implement in your daily life and work.
- Be effective
Whenever you have to do something for your work, do you do it right away or you procrastinate as much as you can? In order to be successful and for people to appreciate you, you need to be effective. Successful businesswomen know that being effective means doing the right things, producing the right results. We all know how important it is to set the right business goals. Well, being effective is a part of that, because by reaching your goals, you can pass to the next level. - Be efficient
Whatever you do, you need to be efficient. There are a lot of business women that are good, but how many of them are really efficient at what they do? How much time and effort can you save on your daily job? And how well can you teach others to be efficient as well? Successful businesswomen inspire others and help them achieve great results by the power of positive example. - Be proactive
Another habit of highly effective women is being proactive, get things done and take action instead of waiting for things to just happen by themselves. Do you think about future, make plans and act on them? Do you create your own opportunities or wait for others to give them to you? Proactive people don’t just settle for status quo. Successful business women innovate, they change their direction when they see it’s leading nowhere and they are not afraid to say they are wrong. - Be confident
First and foremost, you have to be confident in what you do, because when you are the leader, people look up to you and they impersonate you, so you should try as much as you can on setting a good example for them. Women get more confident as they get more successful, but it can go the other way around as well. Businesswomen know that they need to be confident in their appearance, so people would respect them more. - Interpersonal relations
It is important to not forget about emotional intelligence at any time. Successful businesswomen know how to feel other people, their wants,and needs and also try to understand why they do thing the way they do them. By trying to understand them, they will open more to you, thus you will have better communication. - Time management
It is of crucial significance to be good with time organization in order to prevent procrastination. People respect them a lot more once they see they can manage their day well. It is important for successful women to show they have eyes on the prize, meaning that they know where they’re going and how they’re going to get there in the best way. - Networking
One of the main success factors is the power to network well in the business world. Successful women know that and they always carry their business cards with them, they are friendly, open minded and they are not afraid to take the first step. Others appreciate that and they receive good feedback from their environment.
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