How to Break the Glass Ceiling

Despite the number of women in the workplace, the glass ceiling persists, with few women in top positions in corporate America. As of 2009, only 13 women were heads of the 500 largest publicly traded companies, and according to a 2008 survey conducted by The Corporate Library, female CEOs earned more in base pay, but in total, after bonuses and stocks, the women earned 85 percent of what the men who were CEOs earned.

While the “old boys network” is as strong as ever, truth is, the glass ceiling is something that is not only imposed by men and patriarchal society structures, but also something supported by women. How so? Women often don’t ask for more money, promotions, and opportunities. “We need to stop polishing the glass ceiling and letting ourselves be mesmerized by it and instead crack it open,” says Barnsley Brown, PhD., president and business coach with Spirited Solutions.

What are the new rules for breaking through the glass ceiling?

Become a master negotiator. Learn to become versed and skilled in how to ask for and get what you want and how to “sell” your abilities and talents to the highest bidder in the workplace.

Find mentors. Stop “going it alone” and reach out to people who are where you want to be. Study and emulate their success secrets and strategies and benefit from their experience and achievement. Why reinvent the wheel when you can become an apprentice or mentee to someone who has not only made a wheel but rolled it onto the road of success? Build trustful and synergistic alliances with people, not only women, throughout the organization, including those in the C-suite.

Focus on the right enemy. Stop competing with other women at work and stop being sidetracked by female rivalry.  Do not triumph when other women fail. Do not undermine other female workers, believing this is to your advantage. This will keep you form the team spirit needed to break the glass ceiling, says Susan Shapiro Barash, a professor of gender studies at Marymount Manhattan College.

Network like crazy. Participate in professional organizations and get to know others in your profession. Get out of your cubicle, initiate meet-ups for breakfast, lunch, or after work. Networking is critical. Most jobs are filled from networking. Networking not only creates visibility for yourself, but also provides you with advisors outside your organization that you can rely on. In addition, it keeps you on top of what’s happening in your field.

Take calculated risks. Play it safe, and you’re likely to be sorry. You need an edge if you’re going to enjoy exceptional success in a male-focused culture, that means taking calculated risks, not foolish risks, but the kind where you’re thought through the pros and cons and decided that you have more to gain than lose, and even if you “lose”, the experience gained outweighs any potential downside.

Go where other women aren’t. Many of the women who have recently reached the top in business organizations, did so in industries and businesses that were effectively closed to women 25 years ago. Think paint/chemicals companies, agribusiness, or oil and gas for example. “Many of the men who populate such organizations now seem to bend over backward to promote well qualified women managers when they did the opposite years ago. In contrast, sectors traditionally more open to women such as travel, fashion or publishing seem saturated, no longer offering the prospects for advancement they once did,”says Doug Branson, author, The Last Male Bastion – Gender and the CEO Suite at America’s Public Companies.

Just say no. For sure it seems like you have to do more than men to get ahead. And doing more means you’re the yes gal. You give the nod for project after project. However, successful women know that setting and keeping boundaries will pay off in the long run. Focus on stretch assignments that will give you more depth or breadth in your skills, open the door to working with new people, and raising your visibility. Set the bar high for what you will take on and what you will politely decline.

The glass ceiling is there, and quite frankly it’s not going anywhere. Rather than lamenting the fact, go get your hammer.