Advocating for Your Professional Goals
Updated: Jul 16, 2022
We've all heard the research that women are less likely to advocate for themselves, or self-promote, than their male counterparts. Deeply ingrained discomfort about advocating for ourselves and touting our own skills adds to the gender gap in promotions, pay, and advancement to leadership positions.
There's some interesting evidence that suggests that women are incredibly powerful advocates for others - the old anecdote is that we'd be happy to advocate for our work bestie for a promotion, but when asked to do the same for ourselves, we hide in a corner.
But advocating for yourself is always a necessary activity.
This field requires professional training in business development skills, management capacities, and emotional intelligence.
When you find yourself needing professional development, a lot of folks' inclination is just to sign up for a course or program and pay for it out of their own pocket. A remember a colleague years ago saying that she was boning up on a skillset by taking a course on her own time in the evenings and paying for it on her own dime. The kicker? The whole organization and our whole team was going to benefit from her investment in herself.
That's exactly why our organization should have been footing the bill!
That's why we are so excited to be launching a new, completely one of a kind service for the international development industry.
The Boss-to-Boss Peer Support Network
Boss-to-Boss is the only community of its kind, founded by global development experts for new business development professionals just like you.
The Boss-to-Boss Peer Support Network fosters authentic relationships, aids you in right-sizing proven strategies, and ensures that approaches support the wellbeing of your team.
Hear it from our current members!
As a member, you get access to individual coaching, peer mentoring and support, and access to exclusive content, workshops, and training.
Currently, we are recruiting members for the following cohorts:
B2B for Solo & Small Teams - for our execs and BD team members navigating BD on teams of fewer than four people
B2B for Parents - for all BD team members trying to figure out their changing balance of priorities
B2B for Leaders - for any team lead who is trying to figure out how to keep winning without burning out their staff
Get on the list to learn more about Boss-to-Boss and sign up to gain tools to:
strengthen your leadership identity
own your voice to lead with authority
hone your management skills
achieve better work-life balance
create a courage community
and get clear with a plan of action to advance your career
Plus, approximately 90% of our Boss-to-Boss members get their boss to cover the cost!
Smart organizations know that investing in their team's development will give them a pipeline of strong leaders to promote from within - and it improves their chances of keeping your talents and skills within their organization for the long-run.
Need help making the case to your boss?
We've got you covered! Check out our handy email template to send to your boss to get them to sponsor your enrollment in Boss-to-Boss.
Want to talk through some of the details? We're both here to talk through the benefits of the program and see if it's a good fit. Hop over and set up a time to chat here.