Start Bragging: Women Need Retraining to Succeed

A few years ago, moments before I was to speak publicly in front of a high-profile crowd, a female executive asked me pointedly, "Do you still get nervous?"  I explained that I did, but it was a good nervousness because I wanted to do a good job.  I instantly realized this was the wrong answer as she looked at me differently.  My answer made me look weak.  Her question haunted me and, I had no idea then, but my answer negatively affected my future because she had full power over my career.  Had I earned this event or was it given to me by chance, a roll of the dice?

Beth Monaghan talks about this issue in Fortune Magazine saying, "Women chalk a lot up to chance.  I was one of those women."

She mentions the book, "Lean In" by Sheryl Sandberg.  I must read this book.

Look at this book description:  "Ask most women whether they have the right to equality at work and the answer will be a resounding yes, but ask the same women whether they'd feel confident asking for a raise, a promotion, or equal pay, and some reticence creeps in. 

The statistics, although an improvement on previous decades, are certainly not in women's favour – of 197 heads of state, only twenty-two are women. Women hold just 20 percent of seats in parliaments globally, and in the world of big business, a meagre eighteen of the Fortune 500 CEOs are women. 

In Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg – Facebook COO and one of Fortune magazine's Most Powerful Women in Business – draws on her own experience of working in some of the world's most successful businesses and looks at what women can do to help themselves, and make the small changes in their life that can effect change on a more universal scale."

Who are the 10 highest-paid female CEOs?  It's time for women to study other successful women.  It's also time for women to open the doors and support other women.

Trust your instincts.

Speak about your abilities with confidence.

And toot your own horn ... no one else will until you do.