Beate Chelette's Blog: The Women's Code, page 28

The Cinderella Rule: Best Tip for Businesswomen

Have you ever wondered exactly how to get an invitation to business meetings with powerful men? The ‘bro culture’ can be pretty tight in some industries. It’s a network of ‘old boys’ that can make it hard to get your foot in the door if you’re a newbie—and almost impossible if you’re a woman.

Back in the day…

When I was just starting out, I tried and tried to get meetings with the top guys in my sector. But it was no use.

Well, you don’t become successful by acting like a shrinking violet. You have to be a little bit bold if you want to get ahead in your career.

Then I had a brain wave (I’ve shared it with you in this video)! If you follow this rule, I guarantee you’ll be able to get your foot in the door to secure business meetings.

 

 

Why it’s a best tip for businesswomen

What makes the Cinderella Rule one of the finest tips for businesswomen is that it teaches you how to earn the respect of a man by being savvy and proving yourself to be trustworthy.

Here’s what I realized… Many of the business conversations at conferences I attended were done at the bar. The men would have a few drinks (and sometimes a few more) and let their guards down. They’d be willing to talk to people they normally wouldn’t have time for. I soon realized that they didn’t just talk about their jobs. They opened up about all kinds of personal stuff.

I would chat with the leaders in my industry and let them tell me all about their lives. My bar-mates would confide personal details of their lives to me. And then, I’d excuse myself and sneak up to my room (alone) and go to bed.

Three things to remember with the Cinderella Rule

This bit is important: I always protected myself. These are the three very strict Cinderella Rules: 1) three drinks maximum; 2) in bed before midnight, and 3) walk to your room alone.

The next morning, at least one of the men would ask where I’d disappeared to (with a guilty look on his face as he remembered our conversation from the night before). I’d just smile and say something like, “Your secret is safe with me.”

After that, I didn’t have to worry about securing meetings. By earning trust, I was guaranteed a slot in their calendars any time I needed. That’s how to get your foot in the door. Build rapport and earn trust at the bar!

If you’d like to hear more great tips for businesswomen, please check out our Youtube channel. Any great tips to share? I’d love to hear from you!

 

At her lowest point, Beate Chelette was $135,000 in debt, a single mother, and forced to leave her home. Only 18 months later, she sold her image licensing business to Bill Gates in a multimillion dollar deal. Chelette is a nationally known ‘gender decoder’ who has appeared in over 60 radio shows, respected speaker, career coach, consummate creative entrepreneur, and author of Happy Woman Happy World. Beate is also the founder of The Women’s Code, a unique guide to women leadership and personal and career success that offers a new code of conduct for today’s business, private, and digital worlds. Determined to build a community of women supporting each other, she took her life-changing formula documented it all in a book Brian Tracy calls “an amazing handbook for every woman who wants health, happiness, love and success!”

Through her corporate initiative “Why Acting Like a Girl Is Good For Business” she helps companies with gender diversification training, and to develop and retain women.

If you’d like to book Beate as a speaker on New Leadership Balance or Creative Entrepreneurship for your next event please connect with me.

The post The Cinderella Rule: Best Tip for Businesswomen appeared first on The Women's Code.

How To Find And Hire Women

The American workplace is experiencing a whiplash about issues surrounding women. Emotions run high as we watch messages that range from support to nasty accusations, and shake our heads over public missteps like the one Tony Robbins just made. We wonder about drastic corporate moves like the mysterious departure of two C-Level Executives at Nike.

But let’s get the focus back to what this is all about: EQUALITY. It means women want to be treated equally to men. What women want is simple and logical, and the data supports that women are good for business. Still, it appears that many organizations are challenged with figuring out how to find and hire women.

Women can lead, says the data

When we strip emotion and politics away from our opinions and just review the data, we find some answers as to how to find and hire women. At entry level up to management level, men and women are represented at roughly 50-50%. After management level is when the gender disparity begins. As I have said many times before, “women must get dumber as we advance” because only 2% of us make it to CEO level. According to a 2017 study by the World Economic Forum on the Gender Gap, it will take the American workplace 170 years to reach equality at our current pace. Seriously, 170 years. A snail’s pace is enviable!

Women improve financial results

Research from McKinsey says, “The United States could add up to $4.3 trillion in annual GDP in 2025 if women attain full gender equality. In a new report, The power of parity: Advancing women’s equality in the United States, the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) finds that every US state and city can add at least 5 percent to their GDP in that period by advancing the economic potential of women. Half of US states have the potential to add more than 10 percent, and the country’s 50 largest cities can increase GDP by 6 to 13 percent.”

The data confirms what we already know: women are smart, we are qualified, and our contributions move the needle. In The Women’s Code we are very clear about what women need to succeed—and it has nothing to do with what men have. What women want is to be allowed our own unique perspective and way of doing things. We are the Ying to the men’s Yang, we bring the other side, we close the infinity sign.

Why can’t we find and hire enough women?

Most organizations still don’t understand the difference between “same” and “equal.” My conversations with highly-qualified women, many of whom hold MBAs and Ph.D.s, demonstrate one of the main reasons we can’t find enough women. Sadly, it’s because women are still discriminated against for the most ridiculous of all reasons: having children.

The dilemma with women’s resumes

Working men are generally employed without a substantial break between jobs. Their resumes are neatly stacked. And when there is a choice to be made, the data shows that many women give her man’s career priority over her own. Here are some insights into why couples move for his career but not hers.

The dilemma for women is that we want to support our husbands in their careers, while trying to figure out the best time for us to have children. We negotiate this intensely emotional internal battle between taking time off to raise small children, or letting our precious babies go to day care while we continue along our career trajectories. Ideally, we would like to do both. But, it’s a heavy load; it’s double duty.

Because women have the unique privilege of giving birth, women (with the support of our men) want to ensure our kids are well taken care of. Many of us opt to take off six months, a year, or several years to ensure our babies get a good start. This shouldn’t be shocking or revolutionary. In fact, many men and women agree that it’s a good thing to do.

The gap year roars its ugly face

While the woman chose to put her career on pause to take care of their family, the man continued to advance. In most cases, he earns more and more money through a few promotions, and at home he is firmly established as the bread winner.

After years of childrearing, many women are enthusiastic to return to the workforce. Unfortunately, that enthusiasm is often short lived. Why? Because no matter where we were in our careers before kids, we soon discover we are no longer hirable.

I recently had a conversation with a woman who has a Ph.D. and is highly qualified in scientific research. She shared with me some of the demoralizing comments she had to listen to. She’s suddenly told that she’s not qualified to do what she did before. She is questioned as to why there is a gap in her resume. And apparently, having children is not a valid excuse. Giving up her job to move for her husband’s isn’t one either. But wouldn’t you agree that the transition into a new city would be the most practical time to start their family, instead of starting a new job and then doing it?

A Ph.D. holder who had a six-figure salary three years ago is now unable to get the most basic job. It has destroyed her self-esteem and confidence, and left her yearning to regain her independence. In her experience, head hunter after head hunter and hundreds of idiotic comments later, we arrive at the shocking fact: women are not men.

To find and hire women, the key is to realize what is typical for a man is unrealistic for a woman. Rather, it would behoove us to understand what is typical or EQUAL for a woman. Men can’t give birth, only women do that. Can we please stop punishing women for making sure that men can get social security when they retire?

It’s stupid and demoralizing to assume that women forget their business skills in the time they are serving their families. This mindset is gender discrimination at its finest.

If you want to find and hire more women, change this policy. You will be surprised at the many more qualified candidates to choose from.

 

At her lowest point, Beate Chelette was $135,000 in debt, a single mother, and forced to leave her home. Only 18 months later, she sold her image licensing business to Bill Gates in a multimillion dollar deal. Chelette is a nationally known ‘gender decoder’ who has appeared in over 60 radio shows, respected speaker, career coach, consummate creative entrepreneur, and author of Happy Woman Happy World. Beate is also the founder of The Women’s Code, a unique guide to women leadership and personal and career success that offers a new code of conduct for today’s business, private, and digital worlds. Determined to build a community of women supporting each other, she took her life-changing formula documented it all in a book Brian Tracy calls “an amazing handbook for every woman who wants health, happiness, love and success!”

Through her corporate initiative “Why Acting Like a Girl Is Good For Business” she helps companies with gender diversification training, and to develop and retain women.

If you’d like to book Beate as a speaker on New Leadership Balance or Creative Entrepreneurship for your next event please connect with me.

The post How To Find And Hire Women appeared first on The Women's Code.

The Role of MeToo to Find Solution to Sexual Harassment

The curtains have opened and light is shining onto the issue. Women feel more free to open up about what they have suffered, instead of remaining silent. With so many sisters speaking out, women feel that there’s safety in numbers.

The Other Side of the Story

Unfortunately, in the rush of MeToo accusations, we lost sight of the basic principles. The first step towards MeToo solutions is to expose the men who are serial sexual harassers. Many of the accused, such as Harvey Weinstein, are guilty. But that doesn’t mean you can make generalizations that all men commit sexual harassment. By the same token, the MeToo movement was wrongly used by some women to make dishonest sexual assault allegations for personal gain. No one is denying that.

Finding the Solution to Sexual Harassment

In order to find workable MeToo solutions, we need to come together. Honest women and men of good faith need to communicate and share their ideas so that we can find the role of MeToo in today’s business world. We need input from everyone to design protocols that will get rid of sexual harassment for good.

One person can do their best to create practical and useful MeToo solutions, but a variety of ideas and viewpoints are necessary—as long as they are offered in a respectful and constructive way. Here is a short video I recorded to expound more on this topic.

 

https://youtu.be/2e6IhDT8Xbo?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=04152018Video can’t be loaded: The Role Of Metoo | Workable #MeToo Solutions To End Sexual Harassment (https://youtu.be/2e6IhDT8Xbo?utm_sour...)

 

Together, we can find the role of MeToo in bringing real equality to our world.

If you would like to learn more about The Women’s Code and how we’re committed to bringing gender equality to the workplace (in a way that has a measurable impact on your bottom line!) please visit and subscribe to our Youtube channel.

I’d also love to hear from you! What’s your view on the role of MeToo? Has it had the impact we hoped it would? How has your life changed as a result?

 

At her lowest point, Beate Chelette was $135,000 in debt, a single mother, and forced to leave her home. Only 18 months later, she sold her image licensing business to Bill Gates in a multimillion dollar deal. Chelette is a nationally known ‘gender decoder’ who has appeared in over 60 radio shows, respected speaker, career coach, consummate creative entrepreneur, and author of Happy Woman Happy World. Beate is also the founder of The Women’s Code, a unique guide to women leadership and personal and career success that offers a new code of conduct for today’s business, private, and digital worlds. Determined to build a community of women supporting each other, she took her life-changing formula documented it all in a book Brian Tracy calls “an amazing handbook for every woman who wants health, happiness, love and success!”

Through her corporate initiative “Why Acting Like a Girl Is Good For Business” she helps companies with gender diversification training, and to develop and retain women.

If you’d like to book Beate as a speaker on New Leadership Balance or Creative Entrepreneurship for your next event please connect 

 

The post The Role of MeToo to Find Solution to Sexual Harassment appeared first on The Women's Code.

How common is sexual harassment at work?

According to the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 6,696 charges of sexual harassment were filed in 2017.

Unfortunately, those statistics don’t tell the whole story. It’s estimated that 71% to 75% of women don’t report sexual harassment at all, and even fewer bystanders want to get involved when they witness it.

What is considered sexual harassment at work?

Sexual harassment is legally defined in the USA as “unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature.” If an employer makes employment, raises, or promotion contingent on granting sexual favors, or creates a hostile work environment, he can be sued for sexual harassment.

The definition of a hostile work environment is not as clear-cut as grabbing someone’s breast or butt (which is sexual assault and clearly sexual harassment). It may be subtle, but has to be severe or pervasive. For instance, telling a lot of gross, sexist, demeaning jokes about women (or men – both men and women can be sexually harassed), is only sexual harassment if it happens often enough. One joke doesn’t constitute harassment.

What causes sexual harassment at work?

Now that we know what is considered sexual harassment at work, we can talk about its causes. Most of it seems to be linked to an attitude of male superiority and entitlement. Some men think that it’s their right to treat women with disrespect.

However, some men might have good intentions but misread social cues. Is it possible that women’s professional politeness is being misinterpreted?

 

Three pitfalls that can be misread

Here are three pitfalls that can be easily misread if some simple training is not provided:

Pitfall 1: Professional politeness

Women are raised to be polite and told from a young age that nobody likes a difficult woman. We’ve come to realize that being likeable will get us further faster. Unfortunately, this signal can be misread as romantic interest.

Pitfall 2: Flattery

We all know flattery goes a long way. For our professional growth, we need to surround ourselves with teachers and mentors so we can gain knowledge from them. When we learn something valuable, we politely share our admiration as a way of thanking the person for their insights. In our minds, we are being mentored. But for a man, it can be difficult to differentiate whether our flattery and admiration is personal or professional.

Pitfall 3: Others are doing it, why can’t you?

A former boyfriend worked at a Fortune 100 company, where it was open knowledge that one of the VPs was having an affair with his secretary. This same VP also emailed sexual jokes to other company employees. Because he did his job well, this behavior went unchecked for years until that secretary realized he was never going to leave his wife and finally reported him. The VP was fired a few days later.

When through tacit approval it is deemed okay for one person to behave like this, others can easily feel inspired to do the same or worse, even if they know what is considered sexual harassment at work. Pack mentality can explain a lot of poor decisions.

So… Can Sexual Harassment Be Unintentional?

If it’s possible to misinterpret friendliness as sexual interest, can sexual harassment be unintentional? Better communication could clear up a lot of misunderstandings in the workplace and lead to a better environment for all concerned.

Unfortunately, many people, both men and women, are not good communicators. If the situation is unclear, there’s nothing wrong is saying something like, “Excuse me, what exactly did you mean by that?” Clear up misunderstandings when they occur and no one will misinterpret friendliness as a sexual invitation.

How can you promote better communication? This is a topic I discuss in detail in my Youtube video Can Sexual Harassment Be Unintentional?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfjJm3TLPHg&tVideo can’t be loaded: Can Sexual Harassment Be Unintentional? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfjJm...)
Sexual harassment training at work

Providing employee sexual harassment training can help your whole staff learn appropriate boundaries for workplace behavior. An HR department that knows what to do and what to look for can help clear up sexual harassment cases before they start.

Invite us to come and train your team, or to provide you with a train-the-trainer program to support you in providing this essential foundation for Balanced Leadership.

A library of learning materials can be a great asset to a employee sexual harassment training program. Have us create a customized training video that will support your efforts in curtailing sexual harassment, while providing tips on how to recognize what is professional and what is personal at work.

Please contact us here and let us know where to reach you. We’ll get in touch.

 

At her lowest point, Beate Chelette was $135,000 in debt, a single mother, and forced to leave her home. Only 18 months later, she sold her image licensing business to Bill Gates in a multimillion dollar deal. Chelette is a nationally known ‘gender decoder’ who has appeared in over 60 radio shows, respected speaker, career coach, consummate creative entrepreneur, and author of Happy Woman Happy World. Beate is also the founder of The Women’s Code, a unique guide to women leadership and personal and career success that offers a new code of conduct for today’s business, private, and digital worlds. Determined to build a community of women supporting each other, she took her life-changing formula documented it all in a book Brian Tracy calls “an amazing handbook for every woman who wants health, happiness, love and success!”

Through her corporate initiative “Why Acting Like a Girl Is Good For Business” she helps companies with gender diversification training, and to develop and retain women.

If you’d like to book Beate as a speaker on New Leadership Balance or Creative Entrepreneurship for your next event please connect 

 

The post How common is sexual harassment at work? appeared first on The Women's Code.

How To Promote Gender Equality At Work

With the #MeToo movement blowing up world-wide, many corporations are thinking about how to promote gender equality at work. How do you go about changing paradigms that have been set in place for hundreds of years? Change has been slow, but things are getting better.

From where I stand, I see so much movement for women. I just facilitated an Entrepreneur Training at the Small Business Development Center in Long Beach (SBDC) and half the attendees were women. I recently spoke at the Duarte Chamber of Commerce women’s event and also at a World Financial event. All of the attendees were women with the exception of a handful of men. I’ve also been invited to keynote a Tech Talk for women venture funding.

And to top it all, I am going to be interviewed in the co-op opportunity of the U.S. State Department and the Indian Government on a Global Entrepreneur Summit that will be featured in the local media during the summit. And guess what? Yep, the focus is on women.

What is workplace gender equality?

This is a question that pops up quite often. ‘What is workplace gender equality?’ I get asked. The answer is pretty simple. “People must be able to access and enjoy the same rewards, resources and opportunities regardless of gender.”

Why is gender equality important?

The movement of women speaking up and speaking out is only getting louder. Your organization is losing opportunities if you are not actively engaging in the most important conversation we are having right now.

If you’re still questioning why is gender equality important, think about this – you’re missing out on half the talent in your workforce. No one does their best work when they are feeling belittled, demeaned, and harassed. The modern workplace should support everyone to bring out his or her best performance.

What are the obstacles to gender equality at work?

In order to fully appreciate the obstacles to gender equality at work you need to think deeply about the problem. Women are increasingly well-educated and well-trained. However, often women’s career paths stall because they are still expected to do most of the work when it comes to child and elder care. If a woman takes a few months off to handle these responsibilities her career may never recover.

What are the objectives of gender equality?

Men and women need to share the burden of child and elder care equally. Women in top positions should take the lead in initiatives such as equal parental leave, flexible time, and better childcare choices. It’s not just a matter of questioning the objectives of gender equality, it’s looking around for hidden expectations that are often placed on women.

How to promote gender equality in the workplace

I’ve covered it extensively in my blog and I see a lot of struggle and time wasted with figuring out what you can do right now. So, I’ve created a checklist that will teach you how to promote gender equality in the workplace. Use these points to make an impact at your workplace:

Showcase at least one women’s initiative

It’s okay if you only focus on one, but you must put money behind it and make sure it gets noticed. If you are not willing to put dollars behind it, don’t waste your time.

Intention alone isn’t enough—it has to be tangible

The success of equality is viewed differently by men and women. An eye-opening study by McKinsey and LeanIn.org (see the portion: Men think women are doing better than they really are) shows that the majority of men believe one woman in a boardroom of ten is excellent progress! You must have the conversation with both genders and establish your baseline for comparison. Otherwise, there is no measure of success.

Don’t make any excuses

It will only get you bad press. Rather, take a bold step and declare you are now committed to making changes and are putting money behind it. And then follow through with those changes. Show that you’re serious in learning how to promote gender equality in the workplace.

Point out small discriminations that women notice

Simple things like “let her finish” or “I want to hear what the women have to say” go a long way. When you see something that is not equal, please say something right away. Do not hide behind the men’s code (i.e. mostly silence).

How can I help?
Step up as an advocate for women leadership

Please consider me your ally. If you need any numbers or help to pitch something, or someone to be on the advisory committee, or just about any other thing I can do to help, all you need to do is shoot me an email. I have every imaginable study about this topic at my fingertips. I can help you. Really, I mean this.

The time is now. We don’t have any more time to waste. Let’s Grow.

 

At her lowest point, Beate Chelette was $135,000 in debt, a single mother, and forced to leave her home. Only 18 months later, she sold her image licensing business to Bill Gates in a multimillion dollar deal. Chelette is a nationally known ‘gender decoder’ who has appeared in over 60 radio shows, respected speaker, career coach, consummate creative entrepreneur, and author of Happy Woman Happy World. Beate is also the founder of The Women’s Code, a unique guide to women leadership and personal and career success that offers a new code of conduct for today’s business, private, and digital worlds. Determined to build a community of women supporting each other, she took her life-changing formula documented it all in a book Brian Tracy calls “an amazing handbook for every woman who wants health, happiness, love and success!”

Through her corporate initiative “Why Acting Like a Girl Is Good For Business” she helps companies with gender diversification training, and to develop and retain women.

If you’d like to book Beate as a speaker on New Leadership Balance or Creative Entrepreneurship for your next event please connect with me.

 

The post How To Promote Gender Equality At Work appeared first on The Women's Code.

What are the Unintended Consequences of MeToo?

Well, it feels as though the fallout of MeToo movement has resulted in two opposing camps at loggerheads regarding issues related to sexual misconduct.

Here’s the thing… Reformers need to keep this underlying point in mind: the goal of the MeToo movement is to stop sexual assault and harassment, not to promote animosity between men and women.

The Unintended Consequences of MeToo

It’s important to be aware of unintended consequences of MeToo that might push men and women further apart. For instance, the fallout of MeToo has led to some men living in fear of unjust workplace accusations. Some corporate CEOs are reluctant to have meetings with only one female participant, and so will have another woman come to act as a chaperone. And some companies are afraid to send men and women on business trips together, so they limit travel by gender. We don’t want this kind of backlash.

What We Want

What we do want is education. We want men to know how they can act to prevent sexual misconduct when they see it in their friends and co-workers. That really doesn’t seem like too much to ask, does it? And many decent men with good intentions are already asking for this information. I have recorded a short video to expound my opinion on this topic. Please watch it below.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAKremiklQc&utm_source=blog&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=04082018Video can’t be loaded: Tackling The Unintended Consequences Of MeToo – The Fallout (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAKre...)

 

Feminists have rallied to support the victims of sexual harassment. The MeToo movement has made great strides in bringing attention to the prevalence of sexual assault and harassment. The TimesUp movement raised $20 million dollars as of February, 2018. We have done so much already, but are not even close to completing our mission.

Now, it is up to us to create a work environment that takes into account all sides of the problem. We need to work around the fallout of MeToo to promote better communication and balanced leadership within companies. That’s our goal at The Women’s Code. We aim to foster workplaces that support each team member to perform at his or her best.

If you’d like to see more of our videos to know more about The Women’s Code, please check out or subscribe to my YouTube channel.

 

At her lowest point, Beate Chelette was $135,000 in debt, a single mother, and forced to leave her home. Only 18 months later, she sold her image licensing business to Bill Gates in a multimillion dollar deal. Chelette is a nationally known ‘gender decoder’ who has appeared in over 60 radio shows, respected speaker, career coach, consummate creative entrepreneur, and author of Happy Woman Happy World. Beate is also the founder of The Women’s Code, a unique guide to women leadership and personal and career success that offers a new code of conduct for today’s business, private, and digital worlds. Determined to build a community of women supporting each other, she took her life-changing formula documented it all in a book Brian Tracy calls “an amazing handbook for every woman who wants health, happiness, love and success!”

Through her corporate initiative “Why Acting Like a Girl Is Good For Business” she helps companies with gender diversification training, and to develop and retain women.

If you’d like to book Beate as a speaker on New Leadership Balance or Creative Entrepreneurship for your next event please connect with me.

The post What are the Unintended Consequences of MeToo? appeared first on The Women's Code.

A Woman’s Manifesto

Today I’m going to just let you in on a barrage of thoughts that has been percolating in my head and it comes bursting out like a woman’s manifesto should.

What bothers me is…

The time spent asking for what we shouldn’t have to ask for. It is not the best use of our time. Simple things like wanting what’s EQUAL. Like the word says, we want equal opportunity, equal pay, and equal respect. We don’t need to do more, we already have to do more than our equal share of responsibilities. Because we also give birth, and are the primary caregivers and social directors of our families. Outsourcing isn’t an option for us.

Are we being punished?

To get men to acknowledge anything it takes a movement. Think about it. We needed women’s liberation to vote, to be able to buy a home on our own or open a bank account. We needed feminism to be more than the secretary carrying that outward sign of equal in the form of that ridiculous bow around our blouse. Now we need the #metoo movement to announce to the world that we are not flattered when men are sexually attracted to us and want to exploit that sometimes with threats, harassment or much worse. Why does it need a movement to explain the most logical thing in the world?

We are all equal

More women are graduating from college than men. Women score as good (and sometimes better) as men in math, science and (gasp) programming and code. If you really want to be logical why don’t you let the numbers and the data speak not your bias or your outdated perception?

The constant battle

No I don’t hate men, most of us love men, but let’s clear this is not about men, this is about women. What we want is not against you. Women have had 50 years to catch up on… like everything. Just how much time is the world allocating for us to find our place and get caught up with what’s been built for thousands of years by men? It continues to be a man’s world with men making most of the rules.

Asking for too much

Yeah, yeah, we heard you the first time. Why are women never satisfied? Why do they have to keep repeating these demands again and again? Isn’t it enough already? Why do you even want all of this? Ever demanding, unreasonable, and difficult – I suppose it must be very difficult to understand that our capabilities are like yours. And spare me the argument that we can’t be that smart because our brains are smaller. Mouth open and (another gasp) yes this guy made that comment on my YouTube channel. The numbers are not advancing they are slightly retreating. Passive aggressiveness isn’t helping. Only action and consistent force will turn this ship.

I am so tired of it

The other day a guy on LinkedIn draws me into a conversation about his secretary checking him out. I am being polite, decline the offer at looking at the offensive evidence and he sends me a crotch shot where he wears a pant a size to small with no lining showcasing not his best features. Asking me how to say in German big dick. You can’t make this stuff up. It happened this week. He didn’t want advice on how to not make his secretary uncomfortable, he gets off on it and he tried to pull me into a sexual conversation. Never mind on whether or not I am with someone, or possibly married, with kids, even after I said no, he did it anyway. It just never stops for women and some men are that stupid, infantile, provocative, slapstick bro-funny and just need to see what they can get away with. (Count your blessings I am not using that photo you send me with proper credit as the illustrative piece to this article, it can get you fired.)

The cheap route

Go pout angry white power hungry man if you must, if you are this threatened by your wife, daughter, sister, mother, and co-worker asking you to take us seriously. We’ve endured this humiliation of our intelligence and brilliance for so long, what’s another #mgtow movement to us? Nothing, please go ahead and self-satisfy your every need, at least you now know what all the services are you have to pay for in the real world when you don’t have a woman doing this for you. We are so not threatened by you we are at the spa enjoying a well deserved break.

Real men want us to be strong

A real man understands the wishes, desires and requests of his woman. He doesn’t cater to her need, he gets her. His masculinity is not threatened by her wanting to see where her crossroad of woman and capability is. He knows that we don’t want what he has. He knows that we prefer to create our own, want our our own leaders, hero’s, case studies, and recognition.

A real man cheers us on and tells us after we roared all day that we are still their Queen and they help us shift into that because it’s hard to have to be both. Figuring out how to remain feminine and soft and go out everyday to tell the world what we are made out of.

 

At her lowest point, Beate Chelette was $135,000 in debt, a single mother, and forced to leave her home. Only 18 months later, she sold her image licensing business to Bill Gates in a multimillion dollar deal. Chelette is a nationally known ‘gender decoder’ who has appeared in over 60 radio shows, respected speaker, career coach, consummate creative entrepreneur, and author of Happy Woman Happy World. Beate is also the founder of The Women’s Code, a unique guide to women leadership and personal and career success that offers a new code of conduct for today’s business, private, and digital worlds. Determined to build a community of women supporting each other, she took her life-changing formula documented it all in a book Brian Tracy calls “an amazing handbook for every woman who wants health, happiness, love and success!”

Through her corporate initiative “Why Acting Like a Girl Is Good For Business” she helps companies with gender diversification training, and to develop and retain women.

If you’d like to book Beate as a speaker on New Leadership Balance or Creative Entrepreneurship for your next event please connect with me.

The post A Woman’s Manifesto appeared first on The Women's Code.

What Causes the Lack of Employee Engagement?

Here’s a number that should concern us all: only 30% of employees are engaged. That’s seven of every ten employees who are not actively trying to make your business successful.

Data and research has proven that ownership creates engagement, and engagement is what moves the needle in innovation, profits, and overall retention.

That means when it comes to our businesses, we need to prioritize taking care of our employees and improving our leadership abilities.

Ask Yourself

Are the teams aligned or is there tension? If you even so much as suspect that there is anything but alignment you want to get a team coach in immediately. One bad apple…

Is what I want clearly communicated? In the absence of clear information, people fill in the blanks on their own—and they may not take the steps you want them to.

How motivated is my team? Cost savings and money in your pocket is always a factor, but a motivated and happy employee is the ticket to profits.

Lack of Employee Engagement Causes

Now let’s understand some of the common issues resulting to the lack of employee engagement that needs fixing. Here are a few scenarios you might find helpful in recognizing what types of things can cause employee engagement to drop, and what you can do about it.

Partners, leadership teams, or founders are not on the same page

If “business parents” fight, the culture becomes toxic from the top down. And don’t for one moment believe that your employees don’t know what goes on. Your body language and those pointed comments or emails tell the story. If the top is unclear and out of sync, nobody else can be congruent either.

Your first call to action is always to get leadership aligned. Work it out, or hire someone who can bring you back on the same page. When I work with partners or team leaders, I find that they easily slip into managing each other instead of managing the business. We can fix this together in one day. It may just be one of the best investments you ever make.

Excluding people

There are two ways to interpret this. Efforts to include everyone when sharing any and every piece of information, especially on projects, include clicking the dreaded “reply all” or “message to everyone.” This can create an unnecessary load and it is NOT what I am talking about.

What I mean here is the hierarchy of relevant information. I truly believe that in a team or on a project everybody needs to buy into your vision. For example, if you exclude your admin people at the start, you’ll spend more time explaining what needs to be done because tasks are out of context. People need context, so give it to them and encourage them to think independently. It’s okay if you ask team members at which level of development they want to be cued in. When it is their choice, it helps creates ownership and adds to the dialog needed to keep people thinking and engaging.

Over- or Underestimating Where Great Ideas Are Born

I vividly remember a speaker who shared an example of a candy maker who bought an expensive machine. But, to change that machine to produce a different type of candy took four hours to recalibrate and set it up, causing a huge loss in productivity and output. So, the owner got his engineering team front row tickets to a Formula One race. They were so close to the pit that they could see how a team changes tires and fuels a car in 30 seconds. Guess what happened next? The team went to the drawing board and was able reduced the time to somewhere around 40 minutes. An outside perspective or an idea can come from anyone on your team, so include them and expose them to outside stimuli.

Results tell the story

Many, many times business owners insist that everything is working great, even when the numbers tell a different story or the results are not what they could be. Only when we give the opportunity for everyone to safely express opinions will we have an environment that encourages contribution.

We are entrusted the wellbeing of the people who work for us.

The most significant amount of an employee’s life is spent at our organizations. That is a big responsibility. The way we treat them and appreciate them trickles down to how they feel about themselves and how they perform their work. It also affects their ability to be innovative or find creative solutions. So, treat employees well, give them what they need, listen to their input, and then enjoy the rewards of a thriving business.

Let’s grow!

 

At her lowest point, Beate Chelette was $135,000 in debt, a single mother, and forced to leave her home. Only 18 months later, she sold her image licensing business to Bill Gates in a multimillion dollar deal. Chelette is a nationally known ‘gender decoder’ who has appeared in over 60 radio shows, respected speaker, career coach, consummate creative entrepreneur, and author of Happy Woman Happy World. Beate is also the founder of The Women’s Code, a unique guide to women leadership and personal and career success that offers a new code of conduct for today’s business, private, and digital worlds. Determined to build a community of women supporting each other, she took her life-changing formula documented it all in a book Brian Tracy calls “an amazing handbook for every woman who wants health, happiness, love and success!”

Through her corporate initiative “Why Acting Like a Girl Is Good For Business” she helps companies with gender diversification training, and to develop and retain women.

If you’d like to book Beate as a speaker on New Leadership Balance or Creative Entrepreneurship for your next event please connect with me.

The post What Causes the Lack of Employee Engagement? appeared first on The Women's Code.

Why Female Rivalry in the Workplace Exists

We’ve all experienced female rivalry in the workplace, right? The bitchy comments, the jealousy, the backstabbing… So, let me ask you this.. Why are some women seemingly incapable of getting along with other women? Why is there so much female competition in the workplace (and just about everywhere else)?

A closer look of female rivalry in the workplace

Because of our position in society over the past hundreds (even thousands!) of years, women operate on the scarcity principle: there’s not enough for all of us, therefore I must do what it takes to get mine. In terms of a career, female rivalry in the workplace is driven by competing against each other for the meager number of high-ranking positions we see occupied by women. Did you know only 2% of CEOs and only 13% of C-level executives are women?

This creates the mindset and mentality that many women have: If she succeeds, there’s less chance I will also succeed. This proven scarcity and lack of successful women at the very top goes a long way in explaining why some women feel the need to take out or tear down “competitors.” They simply don’t think there’s enough to go around.

Women are capable of being great leaders and role models, of course. The reason there are so few women in these positions is because we haven’t yet learned how to gain support from other women.

Instead, we see each other as threats.

So, how do we overcome this?

We need to change our thinking to reflect equal standing with men. In a world where the top positions are filled with 50% men and 50% women, women’s deep-seated insecurity has less chance to fester, and thereby we can expect to see less female rivalry in the workplace. Once we get to the point where the best candidate wins fairly based on merit, not gender, women will no longer view each other as competition that needs to be squandered.

 

 

Let’s pause to think about this for a minute… To overcome female competition in the workplace, we need gender equality in the workplace first! That’s what The Women’s Code is all about, and that’s what we’re fighting to achieve. To find out more about us, please visit: https://thewomenscode.com/.

Check out our site, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and if you like our message don’t forget to like our video, too! Thank you.

 

At her lowest point, Beate Chelette was $135,000 in debt, a single mother, and forced to leave her home. Only 18 months later, she sold her image licensing business to Bill Gates in a multimillion dollar deal. Chelette is a nationally known ‘gender decoder’ who has appeared in over 60 radio shows, respected speaker, career coach, consummate creative entrepreneur, and author of Happy Woman Happy World. Beate is also the founder of The Women’s Code, a unique guide to women leadership and personal and career success that offers a new code of conduct for today’s business, private, and digital worlds. Determined to build a community of women supporting each other, she took her life-changing formula documented it all in a book Brian Tracy calls “an amazing handbook for every woman who wants health, happiness, love and success!”

Through her corporate initiative “Why Acting Like a Girl Is Good For Business” she helps companies with gender diversification training, and to develop and retain women.

If you’d like to book Beate as a speaker on New Leadership Balance or Creative Entrepreneurship for your next event please connect with me.

The post Why Female Rivalry in the Workplace Exists appeared first on The Women's Code.

What Constitutes Sexual Harassment?

Can sexual harassment be unintentional? The answer isn’t always clear-cut. When sexual harassment occurs, we don’t always know for sure what’s really going on. One may feel confused in a social situation.

For instance, you might be at a bar or restaurant with colleagues and not be able to figure out if someone is making sexual advances or just trying to be friendly. Other forms of sexual assault are easy to identify, like if someone touches your breasts or bottom, or pins you against a wall. Making crude sexual remarks in a work environment is also sexual harassment.

Yet, when sexual harassment occurs it isn’t always direct or conspicuous conduct of a sexual nature. And sometimes, it might just be a miscommunication and not a deliberate offense at all.

Sexual harassment vs. compliment

How can you tell the difference between sexual harassment and a compliment?

Try to get at the intention behind the statement. Usually, the best way is to simply ask.

You can say, for example, ‘What did you mean by that?’ or, ‘I’m not clear on how I should understand that. Could you please explain what you just said?’

So… Can sexual harassment be unintentional?

Yes, I believe that sometimes it can. People perceive things in different ways. Someone might assume that a woman was giving off signals when she didn’t mean to send out an invitation of a sexual nature at all.

Clear communication is the best way to deal with suspected sexual harassment. When sexual harassment occurs, clearly state what the problem is and the reasons why it’s unacceptable.

In the workplace, setting clear personal boundaries is the first step in helping prevent sexual harassment. Having a clear procedure for reporting is the second. Here is a short video I recorded to clearly explain my thoughts on this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfjJm3TLPHg&utm_source=blog&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=03182018Video can’t be loaded: Can Sexual Harassment Be Unintentional? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfjJm...)


Why sexual harassment training is important

Sexual harassment training can ensure that everyone is on the same page about what constitutes sexual harassment. Importantly, if everyone is properly trained and makes the effort to communicate with each other, we can help to eliminate ambiguity and unintentional sexual harassment altogether.

What are your thoughts and experiences? Leave a comment below and let me know!

 

At her lowest point, Beate Chelette was $135,000 in debt, a single mother, and forced to leave her home. Only 18 months later, she sold her image licensing business to Bill Gates in a multimillion dollar deal. Chelette is a nationally known ‘gender decoder’ who has appeared in over 60 radio shows, respected speaker, career coach, consummate creative entrepreneur, and author of Happy Woman Happy World. Beate is also the founder of The Women’s Code, a unique guide to women leadership and personal and career success that offers a new code of conduct for today’s business, private, and digital worlds. Determined to build a community of women supporting each other, she took her life-changing formula documented it all in a book Brian Tracy calls “an amazing handbook for every woman who wants health, happiness, love and success!”

Through her corporate initiative “Why Acting Like a Girl Is Good For Business” she helps companies with gender diversification training, and to develop and retain women.

If you’d like to book Beate as a speaker on New Leadership Balance or Creative Entrepreneurship for your next event please connect with me.

The post What Constitutes Sexual Harassment? appeared first on The Women's Code.