Why More Women Don’t Lead and Innovate - Transforming Your STEM Career Through Leadership and Innovation - page 45

Create family-
friendly
workplace
policies for
subordinates
Receive
gratification
from seeing
children grown
up

Develop
transformational
style of
leadership
Relational
emphasis,
teamwork, and
moral character
come from
filling role as
caregiver and
leader

Rely on support
from intimate
partner, family
members, and
hired help
Develop life
management
strategies
Craft personal
guidelines for
work and
family interface

Advance at
workplace
Create a family
Selection of
goals
Redefine
normative work
and family
roles

Start career
Learn from
mentors
Pursue
excellence
Form intimate
partnership

Develop high
achievement
motivation and
high
expectations
for family life
Learn skills for
career
advancement
and for life

Get higher
education and
training

Learn from role
models
Develop self-
esteem and
self-efficacy

Parental Encouragement
Self-efficacy & Motivation
Organizational & Family Support

FIGURE 3.2 Step-by-Step model of leadership development incorporating work and family roles.
Source: Cheung and Halpern (2010)

As you plan your strategy for career success communicate with your family.
Explain to your family what your aspirations are and why they are important to you.
Share your short-term and long-term vision. Will they understand you and support
you? The likely answer is yes (hopefully). Yes, they will understand and they will
give you their support - maybe reluctantly in the beginning, but happily and full-
heartedly later as the realization of your career vision benefits the entire family.

Not Recognizing our Strengths
Be yourself. Your best abilities will shine through when you remain true to
yourself and recognize how to utilize your strengths to attain your goals. The
premise of the topic Now, Discover Your Strengths [15] is that those achiev-
ing great results have learned to focus on and develop their strengths while
not letting their weaknesses hold them back. The weaknesses can be mitigated
through a number of strategies without impacting the focus on developing our
strengths. Strategies for dealing with our weaknesses include seeking activities
that will improve our abilities in this area, utilizing a support system, using one
of our strengths to overwhelm a weakness, finding a complementary partner
with the talent we're lacking, and simply giving up the activities that require
this weakness. The most appropriate strategy will depend on the significance of
the weakness, access to resources, and your personal desires. The point being
made is that weaknesses must be addressed; however, we should not spend too
much time focusing on them and trying to make them stronger, as this will
detract from the recognition and development of our strengths and natural gifts.
The manifestation of our strengths or the lack thereof, is seen in our daily deci-
sion making as we react instinctively to many situations throughout the day. We
make small decisions very quickly as our brain is taking the most efficient paths,
and these decisions aggregate to our performance for the day, week, month, and