Over-valuing Expertise
Make it stand out
‘Over-valuing Expertise’ is the Number 3 challenge holding women back according to *Marshall Goldsmith & Sally Helgesen.
This one we see all the time – especially when women take up new roles!
Even though expertise is important, we know that there’s extra pressure on women to ‘prove ourselves’ when we take up new roles – especially in new organisations – in fact Catalyst Longitudinal Research has shown that women do better staying with an organisation where they’ve already proven their worth as a lot of moving can mean a lot of proving… we can end up giving as much as a whole year proving ourselves in a new organisation before our expertise is accepted and taken for granted.
All that said, our point here is that, even though women can be somewhat ‘forced’ into putting emphasis on proving their expertise when taking up new roles, we think this is not the best option.
The real gold, when you move in to a new role, lies in relationship building – identify and establish relationships with your new colleagues, leadership, wider organisation, with all the stakeholders to your role and don’t confine yourself in house – reach out to clients, suppliers and others as well.
Some years ago, the Harvard Business Review had a great article on Taking over the Team You Inherit – and suggested that you develop a set of questions that you consult everyone on the team individually about and then share back to the collective what you’ve learned.
We recommend re-purposing this suggestion and developing a set of questions that you ask all stakeholders to your new role. Ask about challenges, priorities, opportunities – people will feel listened to, will feel like they know you and that their views are important to you.
And you will have a rich source of data and ideas to inform you on the key priorities you’ll take on.
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*Marshall Goldsmith & Sally Helgesen's book, 'How Women Rise: Breaking the 12 Habits Holding You Back' is worth reading over and over.
We're sharing a series of reflections on their 12 Habits based on our own experience; hope we spark some ideas for you!