Ten Tips for Professional Success

As a female business owner, I know firsthand the value of and effort it takes to make a difference in the professional world and to continue to make positive changes in my personal life. If you’re a professional business woman who is climbing the corporate ladder or who owns your own company, the following are 10 tips to help shape yourself, your people and your businesses.

Tip #1: Play the Game, Play to Win
Is anyone in doubt that the business community as a whole is still a man’s game? Well you can fool yourself—deny the truth, or get with the game. We can play it better if we learn the game. It is a team sport, not an individual playing field.

Tip #2: Create a Unique Ability Team
Play to your strengths. Everyone will be more successful if they are given the ability to use their unique talents to benefit the team. They are more productive and happier as they contribute.

Tip #3: Invest in Human Capital
Everyone should be a life-long learner. You choose to be second best when you fail to invest in human capital. SAS, a software solutions firm located in Cary, North Carolina, decided 28 years ago to be different by implementing work-life programs and creating a unique work environment. SAS continues to receive wide news coverage and accolades and have been ranked among Fortune magazine’s list of "100 Best Places to Work" for seven consecutive years. Realize that your most valuable asset is yourself and your team—the human capital. It takes an investment of time and money to make the most of that asset.

Tip #4: Inspect What You Expect
Typically the more talented a professional, the less they like being micromanaged. Whether you work for yourself or have others work for you, develop a system where you inspect what you expect to have happen. In our firm, professionals know daily where they are on their road to success. With very little effort, we can see what our month will be like, and how to take immediate action to plan for success. There is never an excuse for a bad month.

Tip #5: Take Moments to Care
We move so rapidly to success. Sometimes we forget that we are not working with, for and because of a machine; it is about people, because of people, and for people. Relationships count; I challenge you to take a moment out of your busy life and schedule to care every day.

Tip #6: Network Before You Need It
Network before you need it—everyone needs help along the way to the top and to stay on top.

Tip #7: Forgive Easily
Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines the word “forgive” as “giving up resentment against or the desire to punish and offense or offender.” I have observed that success is measured in many ways: one is peace and another is joy. Neither can be obtained by someone who will not forgive themselves or others. I recently heard someone say that the poison of “unforgiveness” kills you, not your offender.

Tip #8: Don’t Conform—Add Sparkle and Spice
Many women are faced with forgoing comfort for style in fashion trends, such as with the latest pointed shoe phenomenon. With my size 9 1/2s and the slope that usually accompanies them, I have confirmed my commitment not to conform, but to sparkle and spice it up. I don’t want to walk like an elf, but I enjoy being a girly girl. There is nothing quite so disarming as a woman business professional who is a lady. We do not have to claw our way to the top, leave a trail of carnage, and hate who we are and what we have become as we survive at the top. You can have it all—just don’t sell it out or give it away on the way.

Tip #9: Laugh Out Loud
Laughter is the best medicine. I recently had lunch with a business owner who is a multi-millionaire, but you would never have known it to meet him on the street. What was immediately apparent was that he loves life. At 70, he still has a bounce in his step and a sparkle in his eye. His laugh warmed the whole room and made everyone in the area envious that they were not part of the conversation.

Tip #10: Love What You Do
This should be your professional motto. If you’re good at what you do, then you should believe in this adage and love what you do.