Critical.
Authoritative.
Strategic.
Subscribe to CIO Magazine »

The Executive Woman's Guide to Self-Promotion

Ambitious women sometimes have a hard time getting noticed, but marketing one’s accomplishments is a requirement for career advancement. Six female CIOs offer advice to up-and-coming women in IT and explain how they learned to network without compromising themselves.
Page:

To move up in any organization, IT professionals need to engage in a little marketing. Self-promotion isn't the crass skill of acting like a brazen minx, but rather gaining the interest and attention of others and, over time, earning their respect and trust. Reputation is everything for any would-be IT executive, and it's important to get it right.

However, some women must overcome aversions to self-promotion, conflict and voicing their opinion. "This has been difficult for me," admits Denise Stephens, the director of Information Technology and CIO at Washington Savannah River Company. "I must consciously conquer my natural tendency to hold back when interacting in conflict situations." Women can worry — occasionally with reason — that they'll be negatively labelled if they are assertive and speak out. "I keep this in mind but do not let it hold me back," says Stephens, "as I have rarely seen women penalized by these labels if they get the job done."

Your career is in your power. "Some women hold back because they don't think they can network or communicate on the same level as their male peers or management. Get over it," says Janis O'Bryan, CIO and senior vice president of IT at Hudson Advisors. "If you are good at what you do, and a professional, you can compete for the next level. Don't self-impose a glass ceiling."

Volunteer for Visible Assignments

You want to be appreciated and acknowledged for making a difference. That means you have to do something that has a visible effect — and also gives you the opportunity to shine.

Take charge of something visible, that people need, advises Magalene Powell-Meeks, Deputy CIO at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). "Put yourself in the position of solving a problem, and solve it for them," she says, "Even if it's a crappy job." Be the leader in that position, even if it's a small one, she says, and apply your unique technology or process to help those people. Become the go-to person in your discipline.

The momentum you build is more important than a fancy title, says Powell-Meeks. By helping your customer (whether that customer is internal to the company or an outside user), you build trust with your customer base — a big key to advancement. "Your reputation and your character are what sell you for the next big job," Powell-Meeks says.

Page:

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

More about: IT Matters, Leader, Leader Computers, NASA

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the CIO comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Latest Blog Posts
Whitepapers
  • FTP Replacement: Where MFT Makes Sense and Why You Should Care
    This research provides advice on when to replace FTP with managed file transfer (MFT) solutions, and which features to consider. This Gartner report includes MFT software and MFT as a service. Also highlighted is where MFT fits into the technology landscape and some of the key benefits. Key Findings include: - Technical differences between FTP and MFT including security, administration and scalability - Implementation concerns that organisations should be aware of (when migrating) - List of vendors and how they are expanding their MFT porfolios (including IBM)
    Learn more »
  • Managing Private and Hybrid Clouds for Data Storage
    Many organisations, driven by the opportunities for significant cost-savings, are considering cloud computing and cloud storage solutions, which take advantage of Web-based technologies to allow scalable, virtualized IT resources to be provided as a service over the network. Not a new technology in itself, cloud computing is a new business model wrapped around existing technologies, such as server virtualization, to make the use of information technology resources more efficient.
    Learn more »
  • The Value of Information: Business Decisions
    Traditional data-storage approaches are geared toward delivering structured data to management and knowledge workers through business intelligence and performance management applications. But CIOs need to look at the enterprise information taxonomy in a much broader context. External and internal information has to be collected, managed, and provided to many internal and external stakeholders. In addition, storage capacity is challenged by an almost exponential growth of unstructured data, such as audio and video files.
    Learn more »
All whitepapers
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis.
Recent comments

HP and IDG news, product videos and resources