HOW DO I MANAGE WORKPLACE POLITICS AS A WOMAN

Politics is not only synonymous with leadership at federal, state or local government level. In the workplace, there is corporate politics at play, it is therefore important to know how to comport one’s self and prevent being a casualty of workplace politics.

CONCLUSION:THESE 5 THINGS MAY PREVENT YOU GETTING YOUR DREAM JOB AS A WOMAN

Hello,
In the previous post, we started 'These five things may prevent you from getting your dream job'. Here is the conclusion of that post with a short personal experience.

 

THESE 5 THINGS THAT MAY PREVENT YOU GETTING YOUR DREAM JOB AS A WOMAN

Hello,

These are five major ways women let themselves down when they are earnestly searching for a job actually, the last one is no fault of theirs). Working on the first four points will increase your chances of being employed. Let’s get to it.

ARE THERE JOBS A WOMAN SHOULD NOT TAKE?

Hello,

The opinion widely held by Africans is that there are a few roles and jobs that women should not hold. We examine whether this is so.

SHOULD WOMEN WORK?

Hello,

Trying to answer the question should women work without relying on your culture, experiences and values takes research and willingness to learn so putting aside all previously held beliefs, extensive research on the subject matter began. Here is my finding:

Sexism comes to play when the same question is asked for both genders and the answers given are different.  For example, the answer to ‘Should women work?’ and ‘should men work?’ should be same. (Further reading)

Women who find themselves in the work place do not assist in bridging the gap between male and females present in the work place and would more readily give males a chance at work than their female counterpart. (Further reading)

WOMEN AND RETIREMENT: HOW DO I RETIRE SEAMLESSLY?

Hello,

60 is the retirement age of Nigeria's workforce. There have been arguments for the adoption of a new retirement age. Some make a case for the adoption of 65years and some others 55years, whatever happens, one thing is certain we will not work at our jobs forever.

It is very important to clear the misconception that a lot of people hold. They believe all that matters is proper planning for the moment when retire and get a lump sum called gratuity, only then they try to start the business of their dreams. The problem with this is that they may spend their gratuity learning the business of their chosen fields through common beginner mistakes.

TAKING CONTROL OF YOUR FINANCES AS A WOMAN: YOUR SALARY IS NOT SUFFICIENT?

Hello,

In the second post, you must have read that no 9 – 5 job can be called wealth creation. At best, you are helping another create wealth which is good in a sense but not what you set out to achieve. This is not to say that it is wrong to have a job, many people begin from working jobs and using salary to create wealth.

I honestly have not come across a person who is so content with their pay cheque at month’s end; this goes a long way to show that wealth is a thing of the mind. While struggling to create wealth, one has to be ‘content but hungry’. Content enough to know that it is not money that makes a person happy. The pursuit of money is almost never ending but you need to be hungry enough to want to ‘get up’ and create wealth (Trust me, the process is not a blink).

If you feel your salary is not sufficient to meet your needs, guess what? Half or more than half Nigeria’s population feel same. The only difference between most is their ability to manage scarce resources.

HOW TO MAKE FAMILY CHEER LEADING SQUAD ONE

Hello,

A successful woman remembers that she would prefer the presence of both her parents and her partner's attention at all times and know it is the same way (or to a different degree) her kids, wards and partner will prefer to have her time, input and attention in their lives. It is often better to have your family (Nuclear and extended to some degree) satisfied and prevent them from turning into clogs in your wheel of progress.

Do I really have a vice?

Hello,

Make no mistake about this, it has taken me weeks to get this together and years to get together this strategies from being curious about what made successful people thick. These are proven strategies I have been sharing for the last seven posts and we have yet two more to go in the series. If I were you, I would go back and see previous posts.

Why do I bother to share? Women (and everyone who reads the blog posts) need to be empowered in these economic times and find out what may have prevented the success which we all crave. 

List your top 5 vices.

I really do mean what I said, List your top 5 vices

Now lets get to it, do not get defensive or spiritual on me like this story of a person who went for a job interview and was asked what his weakness was and answered 'following the lord'. How is that a weakness? I think the candidate would have been more truthful saying 'lack of discipline in christian activities'. 

When we make our vice seem positive or excusable, we do not acknowledge it for the damage the vice/weakness does so please drop the self righteousness and critically examine yourself because success is what we are concerned with. If you need some examples of what vices are, here goes:

1. A shopaholic who cannot resist a 'good deal' or Always compelled to buy aso ebi every week

2. Lack of discipline with food

3. A talkative who does not have a limit to what they say and may pass on information to their competitors (also a proud, boastful attitude)

4. Drama queen or king

5. Mrs Emotional, overly sensitive... the list goes on, basically anything you find hard to put in check.

Let me pull a shocker and make this blog post short.

TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR VICE. With success, discipline is not optional.

Let me throw in a bonus, women also need to learn how to save ( blog posts about this coming up subsequently).
Remember we have two more posts on the how to succeed as a woman series. Do me a favor, leave me your comments, like, share on your social media platforms and subscribe to my blog posts. Thank you.

PEARL

HOW EXPENSIVE IS STRESS RELIEF?

Hello,

This is the seventh post on the how to succeed as a woman series and we are almost at touch down. If you have missed the previous posts from lastweek, go HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.

NO! I did not suggest a massage. Please read below to know more about the topic.
As you aim to succeed, it means you may not have idle time especially at the onset when you set out to achieving. Personally, I think success is not an idle man's friend so you may never really have idle time, you may find you need to consciously create the time to rest or do anything.

Seeing that you are going to get very busy

learning, planning, doing, why not think of the best way to relieve stress ahead of time so you do not lose time to stress.

It is important to plan consciously creating time rest but every now and then, there is the tendency to schedule work and lose track of time and soon we are burnt out and stressed.

How do you relieve stress? It is important to know the things that take stress off you. For some people it is a massage, for others, it is a holiday. For me, it is all of these and more but since I do not have the luxury of taking holidays frequently, I have found my lowest cost stress relief method.

My method goes back to studying, I had times when I was beyond stressed. I remember walking down the rows of products at Sainsbury, Morrison et al. They were close to my house in Fishponds and immediately feeling better. I also do the same in Nigeria here.

I have also found that taking walks help also but I favour walking round supermarkets, malls and shopping centers because for that time, my focus is on the beautiful row of products before me which means NO TIME FOR THINKING ABOUT WORK.

I encourage you to find your low cost stress relief before you get stressed. you cannot afford long, frequent breaks to 'clear your head' when you are focused on succeeding and retirement is still far away.

Enough said! Find your low cost stress relief method if being efficient and successful is important to you.

Do not be selfish about these strategies, share accross your social media platforms and subscribe to my blog posts. Please leave your comments below also, Thank you.
PEARL

HOW DO I NOT FEEL LIKE A FAILURE? NO JOB! NO PARTNER!

Hello,

If you have made it thus far, Congratulations, it shows you are benefiting from this series, remember this is part six of a ten part series so stick with me. If you have not read the past five posts, please do so.

You may say I have no job, how do I cope or start succeeding? Or I have a little education (or a lot of it), I have removed all stereotypes from my mind, I have even tried planning e.t.c. but I have also been searching for a job without success.



The unemployment rate in Nigeria is very high and most people who find work are not suitably placed, their capacity for performance is being underutilised. It is tough but remember tough times hardly outlive tough people. Remember Part 4 where you were advised to play with work/ work with play?. While you are applying to jobs, you may as well.
Remember Part 1 where we said get a little education (If you did not read it, you cannot understand it), it also comes in handy here. It is important to be busy while applying to Jobs.

Scan your environment, if no one will employ you, you have to employ yourself (Entrepreneurship). A mentor advised me never to look at myself as too big or educated to do any job or business including travelling to villages to buy from farmers and package for sale. While I did not do that exactly, I went to learn how to bake and would sell to my neighbours who had shops thus making money in hundreds (Did I mention I have an international M.Sc Finance?) while still blogging and play-earning with the radio. If you cannot get a job and still insist on working in a 9am-5pm, volunteer for free at an organisation and improve both your curriculum vitae and chances of getting employment.

It is also easy to feel like a failure when you do not have a partner in our society especially when you are approaching your mid 30's. Society seems to rubbish whatever achievement we have and think we got them by some preposterous and loose means. this is where Part 2 comes in handy for us.

Firstly, remember no other person holds the key to your happiness but yourself and you deserve a pat on the back for not accepting any 'Tobi' as your partner just yet.
Disabuse your mind of the stereotypes and do not get desperate, just be findable.

More important, read Part 2 : you are not a failure because you have not found a suitable pair, there is still more to life. most people find when they stop bothering themselves about it and focus on working on themselves to be better versions, they get positive result.

Lastly, We should not derive a value for ourselves from the number of relationships that did not work out for us. The reason I bother with these is because it is important to let the extra weight of worry go so you can focus on achieving.
FAILURE IS THE LAST BUSSTOP OF LIFE, THERE IS NO REASON TO FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE REACHED IT BEFORE YOUR LIFE IS OVER - PEARL

PEARL.

YOU NEED HELP, ASK FOR IT

Hello,

This is perhaps one of the really important blog posts for women who want to succeed because many women are constantly being overwhelmed with work due to traditional roles or profiling. In these days when both man and woman are expected to both contribute to family earnings, it is becoming accepted that women are in the work place but society has not adjusted it stance on domestic chores and raising the family.
SEE MORE>>>

CAN WORK EQUAL PLAY?

Hello,

Let us get straight to it, I am sure you have benefited from the previous three posts (Part 1,2,3). If you missed the introduction as well as previous posts see 'Introduction' , 'Part 1' ...

Just as a reminder, we are looking at how to succeed as a woman. The aim of this series of blog posts is to give you a front row access to the lives of successful Nigerian women and show what has helped them be successful so we can replicate or move closer to success.

SEE MORE>>>

PLANNING LIFE TO THE BEST OF YOUR ABILITY

Hello,

I am glad we have made it thus far, I hope you have put to use what you have learned from part 1 and 2? If you missed them, go back and check them because they will definitely benefit you.

PLAN LIFE TO THE BEST OF YOUR ABILITY. Do I sound like an anti- faith individual who could use some faith right now? Are you the 'leave it to luck and happenstance, it will turn out fine' kind of individual? Or are we a mixture of both?

SEE MORE>>>

How to succeed as a woman part 2 : I'd end in the kitchen anyway?

Hello,

Happy to continue the series we started on how to succeed as a woman.

TRUE OR FALSE: How many of the statements below are True
a) 1      b) 2        c) 3         d) 4        e) All of the above    f) None of the above

1.) The man in the family is expected to be the provider
2.) A woman does not have as much pressure as her male counterpart regarding climbing the work place ladder quickly
3.) The chances of having solutions to most monetary problems are high with a wealthy partner
4.) A truly successful woman is known by the success of her home. A neat woman is also known by her living conditions
5.) Most women aged 20 - 40 in my/your state of origin are happily married or on the way to marriage.


For most of us, we see this as true or a widely held belief. Society has taught women that they have no need to aspire to be great, doing okay is good enough and women should be dependent on men ( Fathers, husbands, and appalling but inclusive boyfriends and male acquaintances).

Now this is the point where you read the above 5 statements again and try to justify that there is nothing wrong with each of them.
Let me save you further stress and show you the original 5 thoughts that have been dressed up to look like the 5 above.

READ MORE>>>

Faster or Farther

Hello,

This post title is a question, take a minute to ponder and answer it.

Faster or Farther?
One day, my Father told us of something that happened when he was recently employed as an accountant by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (N.N.P.C.). A colleague of his told him that 'in NNPC, it is either you choose to go very fast or very far but you cant have the both of them'.
Of course, my Dad elected to go far while some others by their actions showed they only cared about going fast.

I have realised that this question stares us all in the face at one time or the other.
Let me take the liberty of explaining far or fast (what it means to me).

FARTHER: To get ahead, to continue in positive motion towards a goal and be ahead (when it matters) in comparism to a similar subject (my definition - I hope I have not confused you.)

FAST: To speedily make motion (my definition once more).

In this sense, the option before my father as well as everyone else was:
Acquire so much money by all means necessary on the job, be financially well off than your peers through bribery, corruption e.t.c (a.k.a Focus on now) OR be satisfied with your pay, do your job and rise slowly, steadily financially & otherwise (Focus on the future).

I have seen a lot of examples and have come to the conclusion that the 'grab all I can find' mentality does not lead very far but at the end of the day it is up to you... faster or farther?