Highlights & Annotations
“We are in danger today of being mesmerized by people who play with our reptilian brain. For me, it is manipulation. I can do the storytelling too, but I refuse to play on people’s emotions. If the string pulling is too obvious, I can’t make myself do it.” (52)
- “Women and the Vision Thing” by Herminia Ibarra and Otilia Obodaru
- Then again, people want to be moved – and if we want our initiatives to flourish and take root, we need to know how to pander to emotions. But I guess as long as you are being truthful about things at the end of the day, you’re not doing anything malicious.
Re: “The Memo Every Woman Keeps in Her Desk” by Kathleen Reardon (101)
“If she doesn’t file the memo, Liz will be left with the new dilemma of subordinating her own wisdom and sense of self to a system that is not fully functional. She will have an aborted sense of her own value, an acute loss in a world that is crying out for more value to be added to it. If business is about value, then what better place to find it than within ourselves.” – Paul HawkenComplaining about sexism in the workplace
Revisited on May 7, 2019
The Competent Woman
- “If you're good at what you do, it's important to find people who are comfortable with competence. They don't see it as a threat. They celebrate talent rather than resenting and diminishing it. They tell you when you do a great job.”
- When a competent woman falls, she falls twice as hard // domino effect - intersectionality
- Always seen as someone who ‘can do it’, but when a mistake is made, it’s can be seen as huge
- “Women who are competent leaders and skilled workers face a lot of pressure at their jobs. I’ve seen it in myself and I’m sure many of my colleagues have as well. A cycle starts to occur where, when women are asked to do something that would 'prove their worth' around the office, they feel pressured to say yes in order to show that they’re competent. Now, in order to maintain that competence, women have no choice but to say yes when asked to perform a task. If they were to say no, then they 'aren't a team player' or 'can't do it'. A research article about women’s leadership said, “research shows that people fail to recognize women’s leadership potential even as they acknowledge women’s leadership competencies” (Ely, Ibarra, and Kolb, 2011). This is a really powerful thought, given that women must continue to prove themselves over and over again.”
- Self-reflection wise though:
- “A highly competent person can have a tendency to be a control freak and hoard responsibilities. The thought is that ‘no one else can do it as well, accurately, fast, or efficiently as I can’. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
- When you’re a highly competent person, people often take notice and take advantage of you. When people know you have the ability to complete a task, meet a deadline, and be a resource you will get a lot of extra assignments dumped on your desk.
- It’s not that you “can’t” complete those assignments, but is that the best use of your time? If you use all your time helping other people and being that “go to” employee, you won’t have time to pursue the opportunities that could take your career to the next level.
- https://www.womanuppower.com/3-dangers-of-being-over-competent/
- https://twitter.com/jesslynnrose/status/908319249231355906
- First, a person says something. Then, another person restates what they purportedly said so as to make it seem as if their view is as offensive, hostile, or absurd.
- https://hbr.org/2013/09/women-rising-the-unseen-barriers
- https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/04/opinion/sunday/men-parenting.html