Each woman has a unique personal narrative that speaks of triumphs and challenges.
But a common thread connects many of these stories, especially for us as women in the professional world. It's the relentless pressure to prove ourselves, a phenomenon that goes beyond merely making our mark.
According to a study by LeanIn.Org and McKinsey, 1 in 5 women in senior leadership roles often find themselves as the only woman in the room, compared to just 1 in 30 men, intensifying the need to validate their space and role continuously.
Today, I want to talk about transforming this pressure into a catalyst for resilience, growth, and empowerment. As driven, ambitious women, how do we turn the constant challenge of proof into our strength?
Let's delve into this episode to find out.
Enjoy.
I want to invite you to a conversation with me. You can book your complimentary spot here.
If you want to receive a copy of the "Reflect & Rise" Workbook, email me at pmagoulianiti@gmail.com, and I will send it to you.
Each woman has a unique personal narrative that speaks of triumphs and challenges.
But a common thread connects many of these stories, especially for us as women in the professional world. It's the relentless pressure to prove ourselves, a phenomenon that goes beyond merely making our mark.
According to a study by LeanIn.Org and McKinsey, 1 in 5 women in senior leadership roles often find themselves as the only woman in the room, compared to just 1 in 30 men, intensifying the need to validate their space and role continuously.
Today, I want to talk about transforming this pressure into a catalyst for resilience, growth, and empowerment. As driven, ambitious women, how do we turn the constant challenge of proof into our strength?
Let's delve into this episode to find out.
Enjoy.
I want to invite you to a conversation with me. You can book your complimentary spot here.
If you want to receive a copy of the "Reflect & Rise" Workbook, email me at pmagoulianiti@gmail.com, and I will send it to you.
Welcome to Unbound Ambitions, the podcast where aspirations meet action, dreams fuel drive and every ceiling is just another floor to break through. Here we celebrate the power of persistence, explore the art of balancing career and personal life and unlock the secrets to growth and fulfillment. Whether climbing the corporate ladder, navigating entrepreneurship or finding harmony in your daily life, unbound Ambitions is your companion in journeying for your highest goals. Join us as we get real about challenges, present valuable information and equip you with insights for a life that's as thriving as it is grounded. Because here we believe your ambitions are just the beginning. And now your host, penelope Magilniti.
Speaker 2:
Hello and welcome. Did you know that, despite making up nearly half of the workplace, women only hold about 24% of senior leadership positions globally? Today, we will talk about the resilience needed to change this narrative. In our careers, we face many challenges. One of them is to balance our professional and personal responsibilities. We struggle to manage our career ambitions alongside personal and family responsibilities and what we need to do. We try to work harder to stay on top of things. We exhaust ourselves and in the end, we believe that it's not possible and we must sacrifice one for the other.
Speaker 2:
17 years ago, I found myself in this situation. I had a newborn and I was stressing about what to do with my career. My success, dream and mindset was telling me to go back to work after my maternity leave was over. But that little voice inside my head was telling me good moms, don't abandon their children to nurseries and nannies, to go back to their careers. And I believed that little voice and I stayed home, so I didn't have the guilt. And guess what? I was a miserable mom. Instead of finding out how to make things work, I've allowed all conditioning and old limiting beliefs to decide for me. This experience taught me invaluable lessons about resilience, which I am so excited to share with you today.
Speaker 2:
The problem isn't our work. The real problem is the way we approach our work. So I would suggest some practical steps to start thinking and implementing things differently. Number one prioritize and delegate. Set clear priorities on what you want to achieve, and please don't fall into the trap of making everything a priority and ending up having a huge to-do list of 1000 things on it. There are important priorities that, yes, will bring us closer to the result that we want, and they are the waste actions, as I like to call them. Their role is to give us the false sense of being busy. We do busy work, but not productive work. So concentrate on the 20% that is going to give you the 80% of the results that you want and find a way to delegate the rest, and this applies both at work and at home, and it's important to accept that not everything can be perfect, and asking for help when needed isn't a form of weakness but a form of power.
Speaker 2:
Number two it's time to overcome the gender bias in the workplace. I believe that most of our limitations are self-imposed. Yes, I know that there is a bias in the workplace, but we have a choice.
Speaker 2:
This is how I see it as a choice Either believe in this bias and do nothing to challenge or change it, because we think this is how things work or acknowledge that there is a bias, we don't accept it and work on our belief system that guides us to break through and, to be honest, this comes down to believing in our worth and our contribution, and stop asking for permission to do this. I was reading something the other day that made complete sense on how men and women handle things and how different we are in our mentality. Men tend to congratulate themselves for their successes, even if 60 to 70% was their success. Women, on the other hand, if the goal was successful by 97%, they won't congratulate themselves because they will concentrate on the 3% that it wasn't successful. And this is what I mean that we need to change the way we see and perceive things. Building a supportive network of allies and mentors and confidently advocating ourselves and other women is a great way to start, and there is power in the collective support, and it's very important to have a voice in challenging bias.
Speaker 2:
And the last point that I want to make today is the pressure to constantly prove oneself. We often face the added pressure to prove our capabilities, so we never stop. We are always on the go, and this leads to stress and burnout, according to a study conducted by Lin-Yin Organization and McKinsey and Company in their Women in the Workplace 2021 report, women leaders are significantly more likely than their male counterparts to experience onliness the feeling of being the only person of their gender in the room at work and, according to this research, about one in five women in senior leadership positions reported this experience, compared in just one in 30 men. And this feeling of onliness often translates into a pressure to perform higher standards and continually prove ones worth in professional settings. Again, this is due to the conditioning women had when we were very, very young, thinking that we need to work hard to prove ourselves, putting the extra hours and not asking for help out of fear of being perceived as not good enough. So the question becomes how do we change this? By developing inner confidence and practicing self-care to maintain mental and physical well-being. It comes down to understanding that we are equally important as the other members of our family.
Speaker 2:
We also need a long time to take a break from everything and everyone for a while, without carrying the guilt that we shouldn't. It's so important to be able to disconnect from work and from family engagements for a while so we can engage in activities that rejuvenate our spirit and our body. Once a month in my calendar, I have blocked a whole day of me time, and during the weekends I take a couple of hours to go along somewhere to sit and read, because I love reading, journal my thoughts and relax. And I'm not feeling guilty, because this is what makes me a better mom, a better wife and mentor for my clients, because when my mind is rested, I don't stress, I face challenges with calmness and a positive attitude instead of exploding or arguing. A rested mind is a more productive mind.
Speaker 2:
Let me ask you this what can you do to create your me time ritual? Think about it. Let me summarize what I've covered today Instead of thinking about stepping back from your career for the sake of your family and health, do this, prioritize and delegate. Number two, change your approach when it comes to gender bias at work. Don't believe it. Challenge it by working on your inner confidence and building support network around you with mentors and other fellow women. And thirdly, stop trying to prove yourself and take time to rest and recharge, because I can guarantee you, once you do, your productivity and creativity levels will increase. And while the journey might seem challenging, bifting, resilience is a powerful tool for success and fulfillment. And I will leave you with a quote by Maya Angelou. I can be changed by what happens to me, but I refuse to be reduced by it. This powerful statement captures the essence of our topic today Resilience in the Face of Adversity.
Speaker 2:
Thank you so much for your time, and if you have any questions or would like to discuss things further, I would like to invite you to a conversation. The link is shown now on the screen on your screen. Also, it will be in the show notes. For those of you that you are listening to me in the Unbound Ambitions podcast, please share this episode with a friend. Take a couple of seconds to subscribe to my channel and podcast, because I am preparing some exciting content for you and you won't want to miss out on it. Until next week. Much love, bye. There are several myths and misconceptions that exist about women who want to have successful careers and maintain fulfilling and beautiful relationships, and this is what I love to do. I love to debunk these myths, to coach and guide women to a new way of thinking and doing, and if you're interested in learning more about my work, I would like to invite you to a conversation. Go to PenelopeMagudianidicom. Forward slash. Let's talk.