I spent the afternoon at a woman’s business club meeting, the Wonder Woman Club. How I enjoyed myself there meeting new people, exchanging ideas for business effectiveness and just having fun. 6 of us from 3 difference races too! The facilitator is a Business coach and an effective facilitator. Wow, I am so fortunate to know these amazing people I am meeting. The club was set up as a mutual support system and skills sharing forum as opposed to the many business networking clubs around. So no hard sell to each other. One of the exercises was going round the room for a second time (we had done it during our introductions) and talking about our main challenges in business and getting some ideas and feedback.
I have underestimated the benefits of socialising and being in a community of like minded people or with common interests.
Slightly changing the subject but not entirely I was watching an interview with Jordan Peterson. The Canadian psychologist and academic, and he mentioned that one of the reasons for the pay gap between woe,n and men was that women are more agreeable than disagreeable. These are one of the so called Big Five personality traits (you can take the test here). It takes a certain amount of disagreeableness to get to the top of organisations and men in general are more disagreeable than women.
I can see how my agreeableness can cause problems in dealing with difficult clients, or saying no or making decisions that are for the best but will disappoint or hurt someone….this is not good for business. But I can also see how this how this trait makes me a good leader in some ways too…I care about the employees and they know it. I look for win win solutions in conflict situations. Some assertiveness training is next for me I think, and I’m going to look for classes.
This also explains why I’m coming across more difficult clients these day as I’m dealing with the successful business leaders, and CEOs. So learning snow to deal with them will be very helpful. Here’s a talk by Jordan Peterson explaining a bit more about it.
So how am I feeling generally at the moment? Encouraged and much les stressed. Everything has changed and shifted in last few weeks due to going out there and meeting people in groups that are focused on goals, on self love and on business. And importantly getting myself individual support with the therapist and coaches. I feel supported and much less lonely and so much stronger for it. I see how important it is to ask for help.
Learning to Rest with it All 