How To Support Other Women in their Career Growth—Remotely
As International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month come to a close, we’re all looking for ways to put our learnings into action. How can we be the best allies, mentors, or sponsors? Implementing these efforts is seemingly even more difficult in our new reality—working from home in quarantine during a global crisis. But, this period of chaos and change also provides great opportunity. People are more willing than ever to reach out (digitally) to chat, meet new people, and offer to help. Crisis brings out the kindness and goodness in people, so let’s use that spirit to lift each other up and empower one another in our career endeavors. Here are a few ideas on how to support other women while we’re all working from home:
Like & Share
OK, this might sound like a shallow one, but we all know that the dopamine hit we get when someone likes our posts is very real. What’s also very real is women’s tendency to second guess their work—to feel the rising tide of imposter syndrome. One of the great (and super easy) things we can do is validate each other. We can do this by commenting on people’s social posts about their initiatives. Did an old friend write about a work success on LinkedIn? Did an entrepreneur you follow on Instagram post about a new product? Does your company have an internal wiki where your colleagues are writing about their work? Like & comment! By liking each other’s social posts and blogs/medium articles, and by spreading the word about particularly good articles and initiatives we see, we are advocating for one another. It takes less than 5 seconds to like a post, so why not give these out frequently and generously? This is an especially great and unintimidating way to support someone you’ve never met and is something that anyone, regardless of their position or tenure at a company, can do to help be a promoter of others.
Be a Digital Sponsor
Take the easy action of “liking and sharing” to the next level by becoming a true remote sponsor for women you see potential in. There are a number of meaningful ways to do this:
Say something positive about someone in a meeting; Make an effort to acknowledge another’s work in every zoom call you have. This will help create a culture of sponsorship!
Push for a culture of recognition on your team. One way this can be done virtually is by having managers or team leads set up google forms where people can nominate a colleague as a “team champ,” and provide positive feedback in a way that can later be shared to the whole group (and management).
Want to write a recommendation for someone but are unsure what to write? Here are some great tips for putting together a standout recommendation.
15 Minute Zoom Meet
It can be daunting to ask someone you admire for a face-to-face meeting, especially when it comes to career development or “will you be my mentor” conversations. Flex this muscle and help support other women in your network by asking someone on your team or another colleague for a casual 15-minute virtual tea, or even make it a regular group thing! While having fun chatting, you’re also subconsciously strengthening your network, improving your remote conversation skills, and even building better business acumen.
Lend Your Expertise
We can all learn from each other. Now is a great time to become a mentor—let your manager know you’re interested in helping others in this capacity. There are typically more people that want to be mentored than there are mentors available, so there is always an opportunity to have a positive impact by serving as a mentor. Surveys have also shown that people with mentors out-earn those that don’t, so mentorship really is a data-driven way to support others. You can also support women outside of work by choosing to support small, women-owned businesses. This is an especially tricky time for small businesses, so making an online order or purchasing a giftcard online from one of your local shops can make a big difference right now. You can formalize your support of businesses and nonprofits by becoming a board member. For some of us, spending more time at home means we might have extra time to take on a new challenge, like serving on a board. If this is something you’re interested in, Women@HubSpot published a great guide on How to Become a Board Member.
There are really countless ways we can help one another. Not seeing everyone every day at the office means we might have to adjust our usual habits in terms of being a champion of others, but we now have even more opportunity to strengthen our relationships and networks in an effort to be women that truly empower other women.
Cameron Bruns Ewing is the managing editor of Just Us Gals. She works in Sales at HubSpot where she strives to make the tech industry more inclusive while also pursuing a degree in environmental sustainability from University College Dublin.