Reach Out to Take Care of Yourself

Feminine energy is very "other" oriented but, if women want to get ahead, they must break that pattern. To take care of themselves they need to reach out and network in a strategic manner.

It's all part of balancing their natural energy with a healthy dose of masculine energy and developing good Gender Physics.

Masculine energy starts by establishing a goal. Goals are how we grow. They mean you are taking a risk but that's how you succeed. Feminine energy is very risk averse so it's not a surprise that women don't set more goals. Just by setting a goal you are developing your masculine energy.
 
Next, you need to identify who can help you reach your goal. Once you've determined the individuals who are on that list, you need to decide how often you will reach out and connect with them.

However, in my experience, women are better at doing this for others than for themselves. For example, when I was doing investor relations at PotashCorp, I established a list of our company's major shareholders (those who owned 100,000 shares or more).

Then I set a target of visiting each of these shareholders personally, in their office, once per year. It was an aggressive action-plan that kept us constantly on the road, but it helped us stay in touch with those we depended upon for capital. We wanted to grow our company so their support was integral to us reaching our goal.  

Notice how easy it was for me to set aggressive goals for my company? (It's an example of being very "other oriented.").

What is interesting is that I no longer work at PotashCorp and now have established my own speaking business. Have I established a goal? A list of those who can help me? Have I set targets as to how often to reach out and connect with them? Unfortunately, not. I know better but I don't do for myself exactly what made me successful at PotashCorp. 

If you're like me, there is hope. We can both establish a goal, determine who can help us reach our goal, and decide how often we'll connect with them.

Most importantly, if we pretend that we are doing this for a client rather than for ourselves, we'll make it a priority. It's a way to "trick" ourselves into doing it.

Reaching out and strategically developing a network is key to meeting your goals and taking care of yourself. Are you ready to balance your "other" with yourself? 

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Comments

[Kipley Bruketa]

Great insights Betty-Ann. I'm in the boat right now of trying to set goals AND develop my network :)

[Betty-Ann Heggie]

It is actually a good thing to be doing them both together, Kipley. You can set a goal and then make a list of who can help you achieve your goal. Then you can begin to reach out and connect with those people. Some of those who can help may be more difficult to connect with but when you do connect, you have an objective and it is easier to turn a relationship into a transaction. Start by writing down your goal and then follow-up with your list. Then put an action plan together to start connecting- use a multiple of ways to connect- social media, phone, personal visits. There is an interesting statistic in the book "The Tipping Point" 55% of people get a job from a presonal connection. And of those 28% hardly ever saw the person who helped. They call it the "strength of weak ties". You just have to know someone who knows someone etc. Good luck and blessings. BA