Leadership Action of the Week: Keep on learning

Ruth Bramson, CEO of the Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts, recently gave advice on Forbes to young women leaders on how to build their leadership skills and attain leadership positions.

Leadership is a key skill that one must work on over time, but it requires other leaders to share their experience. “It is a talent that needs to be encouraged, nurtured by those with shared ideals, recognized and validated,” said Ruth.

Bramson’s advice is a must-read for all aspiring leaders, and will most definitely be a list that I refer back to often.

1. Be prepared.

2. Be accountable.

3. Be adaptable.

4. Be accessible.

5. Be authentic.

6. Be generous.

The one advice I’d like to focus on today is the first: “to be prepared”. Bramson talks about how critical undergraduate and advanced degrees are, but also encourages us to be life-long learners. “Even after earning an advanced degree, the learning should not stop.  Future leaders must continue to dedicate time and energy throughout their careers to understand innovations in technology and communications and advances specific to their profession”.

As a recent college graduate, I often worry that the lack of a structured education will dissuade from learning about new ideas, reading and challenging myself. But this year I’ve actually learned a lot more than I expected, poring over fundraising how-tos, attending webinars and lectures, and reading books on non-profit management.

I’m certainly in a unique position since I have had to learn all these things as the co-founder of a non-profit, but I believe that this advice is crucial for any young woman wanting to advance in her career and gain leadership positions. Learning a new skill does not necessarily need to be onerous or time-consuming; it could be the slow acquisition of a technology platform (Twitter), or reading books from experts in your field.

This year I’ve learned to use Twitter. I went from barely knowing what it’s for, to managing two accounts (a personal account and my organization’s account) that I check frequently. Twitter has been an important networking tool for me, and has led to several promising connections.

Look over where you are in your career path and where you would like to be. What skills do you think you should learn? What small steps can you take in acquiring them?

Action of the Week: Share your story. Find and use your voice.

In a previous post, I talked about how we need to find and use the power have in our lives. We all have power and influence, whether it’s in our family, among our friends or in our community. (Gloria Feldt just wrote an article on Forbes that talks about “valuing your piece in the puzzle“).

A crucial step in using our power is sharing our story, and using our voice to educate, move and inspire others. We all have life experiences that other people can empathize and identify with, and often it just requires one person stepping up and sharing their story to encourage others to share their stories and do something about an issue affecting them.

Finding your voice is one of the hardest and most intimidating processes one can go through as a young woman and adult. I have a constant fear that what I have to say is not interesting enough or relevant enough to others’ lives. But the important reason why we must share our story and use our voice is that our story is the foundation for change. Why do you believe in what you believe in? Why are you fighting for this issue? Your story lies at the heart of those questions.

I have found that the simplest way to finding your voice is to practice using it as much as possible. If you’re terrified of speaking in public, sharing your story online is the best way to start off. For example, you can volunteer to be featured on our blog. Or you can write a guest blog post for websites that interest you (I’ve submitted posts to feminist websites such as Gender Across Borders, The F Bomb and Rookie).

Your stories won’t always be featured, and you may not always find people receptive to what you have to say. But I can guarantee you that the more you put yourself out there, the more you will feel comfortable using your voice.

Action of the Week: Take control of your finances

As a young woman, there’s nothing more important than mastering your personal finances. In order to be able to lead (and be a good role model for other young women), you must have your own financial house in order. Of course, being this young means that in the first place, you’re not making that much money. So you think to yourself: why bother? I can barely cover rent and essential expenses, why have a budget or think about savings?

In fact, now is the time for you to start making healthy money habits. The key to a woman’s independence is financial independence, and it is not easily acquired. It’s hard earned, and must be learned and practiced.

A recent TED Talk by Alexa von Tobel, founder of LearnVest, a site for young women to control their finances, is a must see. It provides us with 5 key financial principles, one of which I want to highlight here.

 It’s crucial to have a budget. LearnVest recommends the 50/20/30 rule:

• 50% of take-home pay goes toward your essentials (housing, utilities, transportation and groceries)
• 20% to debt repayment and future savings
• 30% to everything else

Another article I read this week provides another tip for budgeting: fill out a monthly budget worksheet. All I have to do is subtract my fixed and semi-fixed monthly expenses — things like the phone bill, health and car insurance, gas and electric, and debt financing — from my monthly net income (after taxes) to determine the amount I can spend every month without going into more debt, then divide that number by 30 (the average number of days per month) to arrive at my daily spending allowance.

I’m committed to start sticking to my daily spending allowance. How about you? What are you doing to become cultivate good money habits?

Action of the Week: Get Advice!

Whether you’re graduating from high school, university, starting a new job or staying in your current job, you must constantly evaluate where you are in your career plan. Where are you going to be in the next year? 3 years? 5 years?

Though these questions seem intimidating and almost impossible to answer, remember that you are not alone.

The action of the week is to get advice. Whatever career path you’re on or thinking of going on, there are women who have walked the path before you. You can ask them questions about their position, how they got there, and the ins and outs of their industry. Though your situation is undoubtedly unique (you have your own talents, strengths and weaknesses), you could greatly benefit from asking a more experienced woman about her path.

So who do you ask? It can be difficult (and awkward) finding a mentor. This action of the week calls for you to take baby steps towards the bigger goal of finding a mentor.

You can:

1. Subscribe to career websites geared towards young professional women, such as Forbes Women, Levo League and The Daily Muse.

2. Attend conferences and networking events: this is often the best way to get advice. Listening to female leaders talk about their path to success often uncovers nuggets of wisdom that are applicable to your life.

3. Ask your mom, friends and networks if they know of a woman in your desired industry that you can talk to. Tell them why you would like to speak to this person, and ask them to connect you.

Good luck! Let us know what steps you’re taking this week to get advice.

LEAD Action of the week: Find out who your representative is.

We’re launching a weekly call to action to support women’s leadership, and we hope you join us!

It’s one small step per week that you can take to help create a culture that nurtures and supports women leaders.

This week, we’re inspired by Miss Representation’s call to “Vote, Support and Elect”. Although their campaign is US-centric, we want all of you across the globe to participate.

Miss Representation calls for you to:

- find the female candidates running in your district and learn about their value systems. Ask questions like, will they make women and girls a priority if elected? Are they going to work to ensure women have equal opportunities in the workplace? These are, of course, the same questions we can and should ask of all male candidates running for office this year and in the future.

- reach out to a young woman you care about – a daughter, a niece, a mentee – and encourage her to read up on the issues and participate in Elect Women 2012. Without support and encouragement, most young women don’t see themselves as active change agents in their communities. Remind them that their voice counts.

We know there are many elections taking place this year, not only in the US but also in many other countries, such as France, the Dominican Republic, Ghana and Serbia, just to name a few.

Our LEAD action of the week is to find out who your representative is, be aware of when elections are coming up, and register to vote! It is imperative to use the political voice at your disposal to learn more about the issues affecting your community and nation and to be able to support female candidates.

Let us know in the comments: is there an election coming up in your country, town, state? Are you going to vote?