Last Saturday, about 300 women attended an inspirational and motivational session of SISTA 2 SISTA. Held at the Hilton Hotel, the forum provided invaluable tips on how to be professional at the workplace, get the desired promotion, keep fit through an enjoyable routine, and why it is important for all women to have annual pap smears, writes NJOKI CHEGE.
| Susan Mwaura |
By SUSAN MWAURA
Head, Reward and Policy, Barclays Bank
First up was Susan Mwaura, the head of Reward and Policy at Barclays Bank. She held the women captive with her rules of climbing the corporate ladder, using terms like ‘the elevator pitch’, ‘dressing for success’ and ‘perception is reality’ to challenge the women to revolutionise their thinking at the workplace.
With the brilliant use of humour, Susan warned that ‘image is everything’, emphasising the need for women to go out of their way to dress for success.
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"It is better to be over-dressed than under-dressed," she advised, adding that the office dress code can be rated on the scale of 1-10. A professional woman’s dress sense should, therefore, be somewhere between seven and eight. Anything below that is mediocre, while anything above that is too much ‘glamour girl’.
So how do you get promotions? "By giving your company 120 per cent," Susan advised. "Take more duties. Do what is in your job description and then some more. That way, nobody will have a doubt about your capabilities."
Susan continued: "Self promote without shame. There is no room for modesty in the corporate world. Use every opportunity to promote yourself. You know what they say… out of sight, out of business," she said.
In other words, to stay ahead, one must be visible. This would include participating in meetings (and that means sitting next to or near the boss), contributing at least twice in every meeting, not avoiding the lift just because the boss is in it, and never avoiding the opportunity to interact with the boss.
Susan particularly warned of the danger of perceptions, which are often viewed as reality. It is, therefore, important to be careful of the opinions that significant people in your organisation form about you.
"People are not promoted simply because they work hard," she said. "It happens because decision makers know the character of the person and feel confident about them."
Finally, Susan challenged every woman in the room to leave a legacy wherever they go. "What will your epitaph read?" she asked as she left the podium to thundering applause and cheer.
