Anatomy of a Blindside: How to Avoid the Landmines & Navigate Your Way to Success
WITI Boston, November 20, 2013
By Claire Robinson, AT&T and WITI Boston Member
When the subject of office politics comes up, most women cringe. We would rather turn and walk the other way than confront the politics head-on. But to move to the next step in our careers, and to keep moving (up or across), we need to understand and embrace those politics to achieve success.
More than two dozen women at the WITI Boston meeting November 2013 meeting listened as Bonnie Marcus, principal of Women's Success Coaching, shared with us the her insights on how to navigate office politics to build the career we desire. The substance of her talk, Anatomy of a Blindside: How to Avoid the Landmines & Navigate Your Way to Success, came from both her personal career experiences and those of people she has managed, mentored, or coached.
Bonnie discussed the three key elements she felt that each of us should build into our career "toolkit" to maximize our success:
- Magnifying Glass - ensuring that you/your team's contributions are visible to management. This is best accomplished by presenting those contributions in a way your management can best relate to - the value proposition
- Pass Go Card - building a strategic network, as opposed to simply an operational or developmental network. Many women focus on those that can help them in their current job (operational) or move to the next job (developmental), but overlook the strategic people - your connectors for the long term
- Get Out of Jail Free Card - finding and building strong relationships with sponsors and stakeholders that can help you and your team if/when you get really stuck.
For each toolkit element, Bonnie shared ideas and techniques for how to effectively build it into your daily work routine.
In summary, Bonnie indicated that to avoid the political blindside in your career, be sure to
- Understand the importance of politics in your career development
- Assess your level of influence and map out a plan to increase that in manageable steps over time
- Utilize the political toolkit elements to gain visibility and influence.
A lively question and answer session followed the talk.
WITI Boston would like to thank Bonnie for taking the time to share these great career building techniques. Thanks also to our sponsor, Covidien (www.covidien.com) and our Host, Microsoft Corporation (www.microsoft.com).
About our Speaker
Bonnie Marcus. As founder and principal of Women's Success Coaching, Bonnie Marcus personifies a remarkable blend of business success and coaching talent. An exciting, corporate career has taken Bonnie from her first entry level job to her position as CEO of a national corporation, and from entrepreneur to thriving business owner. Women's Success Coaching was founded with the specific goal of guiding women on the right path with the right tools. Bonnie has been featured in ForbesWoman.com and WomenEntrepreneur.com. She is well known for her motivational speaking and innovative workshops. Bonnie received her BA from Connecticut College and a M.Ed. from New York University.
womenssuccesscoaching.com
About the Author
Claire Robinson is a Channels Programs and Marketing Manager at AT&T and an active member of WITI Boston.
Opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily those of WITI.
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