my first campaign launch and gain traction.
Figure 1.1
Channel all your energy into taking those steps toward the career you're building. One step at a time. Focus on what you can control: your own actions.
Decide that if there are obstacles standing in your way and impeding your goals, you will do everything in your power to push them out of the way. Commit to asking, more than once, for what you want. If that doesn't work, commit to finding an opportunity that meets your needs.
Aggregating Your Accomplishments
My coaching clients already know that this topic is something I constantly talk about. Aggregating your accomplishments is everything when it comes to knowing your worth. If you're not sure what I'm referring to, then it's likely you have some work to do, but I promise it will be worth it.
Basically, it's easy to forget our accomplishments. Even if we don't intend to. We do stuff, we get busy, we do more stuff, we pause for a minute when something major happens, and then we move on to the next thing. That's life, I get it, but I want you to stop. Yes, stop right now and answer this question:
What are the 12 most important things that you achieved in the last year?
If you already have a list, congratulations! My next question for you is, how often do you update it and how often do you review it?
If you aren't in the habit of tracking your accomplishments regularly, I'd like you to adopt a new habit, starting today. I'm serious about this, because I believe documenting your accomplishments is the single most important thing anyone can do for their career. So, with that in mind, do whatever it takes: start a document on your desktop, create a list on your phone, start journaling, build a brag book. Call it whatever you want and do whatever you need to do to remind yourself that you know your stuff.
When something great happens—big or small—write it down in a dedicated space that is just for your accomplishments. That way, it's easy to revisit when you need to. At the end of each week, look at it. At the end of each month, reflect on everything and pick the number one win that stands out. If you do that every month, you'll have a least 12 amazing things to reflect on one year from now.
Dealing with Career Envy
We've all been there. You happen to catch a notification on LinkedIn from a former colleague who's suddenly scored an unbelievable promotion, or an incredible new role, and your heart starts to sink. In an age of constant social media updates, it can feel like others are accelerating way faster than you are. Career envy happens to the best of us, even when we're happy for the people with good news to share.
If you find yourself starting to compare and question your progress, it's time to switch gears and embrace your achievements and goals without the filter of anyone else to cloud your view. If that feels uncomfortable, perhaps because you can't shake the perception that someone else is moving ahead faster, remember this one fact. Even if you both started at the exact same point with the exact same skills, your journeys will not be the same, and that's OK.
Despite knowing the person whose career you're coveting, you may not know everything about their back story, or the reality of their career journey. The accomplishments that look fabulous and exhilarating from the outside can be stressful and unfulfilling on the inside. All we know is how our own career path feels, and that's where we need to focus attention. Instead of comparing yourself to others, focus on what you're building toward. Use the achievements of others as fuel to motivate you positively; if they can do cool things, you can and will too.
Working Through Challenges
Watching women of color successfully climb the corporate ladder is always inspiring because there are so few of us that make it. As a result, this type of ascent often makes headlines. Each time someone defies convention to make it to the corner office, the boardroom, the Senate, or wherever they've set their intent, we collectively cheer and applaud from the sidelines. But as we celebrate, I often reflect on what we don't know, or may not see. We don't know the struggle that preceded the achievement, or how it feels to be the first, only, or one of just a few, after a ceiling has been broken. Who picks up the pieces?
A few years ago, I heard US Vice President Kamala Harris say this, and her words stuck with me for the longest time:
“When we talk about breaking barriers, some would suggest that you're just on this side of the barrier and then you turn out on this side of the barrier. No, it's breaking barriers. And when you break things, it hurts.”2
As women of color navigating the workplace, we see and feel barriers to advancing that are largely invisible to white professionals. Breaking barriers is painful. Then, if we persist and push through, it can be equally painful on the other side. How your career looks on the outside isn't anything like how it feels.
My work is centered on helping others overcome challenges in the workplace. No one is immune from facing challenges at work; even professionals who are perceived as highfliers will have periods where they struggle. If you're facing a hard time, you're not alone, and you will come through it.
During my career there were periods of time when I was the only Black woman in a meeting, the only Black woman on my team, and the only Black woman in the building. When you're the only, the first, or one of very few, there's an inherent pressure to be perfect, because you represent your race and gender, not just your job title. And on top of that, it often feels like there's no protection.
The Devastating Effects of Discrimination
Despite decades of anti-discrimination laws, being a woman of color in the workplace exerts a largely unseen emotional tax on your performance, well-being, and ability to thrive. A recent study by Catalyst, a nonprofit that advocates for accelerating and advancing women into leadership, found that 68 percent of people of color are on guard to protect against bias and unfair treatment within their work teams.3 Most of us know we don't need a survey to tell us what we have already experienced. Studies repeatedly show that invisibility and exclusion—often described as the feeling of not being heard or recognized in group settings—is a widespread problem for women of color.4
While many of us have become accustomed to the perils of unconscious bias, lack of support, and performative allyship, dealing with insensitive language, microaggressions, harassment, and discrimination
