The Pink May/June issue includes the results of a poll the magazine did of more than 2500 women who attended a series of conferences in six cities during 2007. Among the findings is that 98% of those polled believed that they have a responsibility to help other women.

So, if you too feel a responsibility to make the workplace a better place for other women, don’t just think about it, take action.

• If your company has a formal mentoring program, consider participating in it. If it doesn’t, think about starting one. Or at least mentor another woman on an informal basis.
• If your company has a women’s affinity group, join it. Volunteer to help in whatever capacity you can.
• If you lead people, be sure you offer the same opportunities to the women on your team as you do to the men. Don’t be blindsided by the gender schemas that affect both men and women.

What other suggestions do you have? What kinds of help have you given to other woman? Let’s make each other’s day!

TAGS: competition, Cultural diversity, look and sound of leadership, servant leadership, Volunteering at work, Women at Work, Women In the Professions, women leaders, women not trusting women, women role models, women working for women

Do you really want to know the truth about what it takes to get and keep the job you want?  Can you handle the truth?  It’s not that hard — yet most people miss the mark entirely.  It’s not about doing your job.  Those are just table stakes.  It’s not even about you.  It’s about serving others — putting yourself in the shoes of others and treating them better than you’d want to be treated.  Or as a colleague of mine says, “The Golden Rule is not do unto others as you would have them do unto you, it’s about treating people as they want to be treated.”

What made me want to write about this today is my disgust with the state of customer service in America today.  One thing you can count on, is that most people can’t be counted on to do as they say.  My three year old Maytag dishwasher has been out of commission since Halloween.  I’ve had four different people in to look at it — and none them of have followed through with what they said they were going to do to fix it.  I even wrote to Maytag — and I got a response that included the line, “We apologize that you are experiencing a concern with XXX.”  Yes, XXX was in the e-mail. 

I constantly tell clients and readers that if you really want to distinguish yourself from your colleagues, just do what you say you’re going to do.  Do it with their needs in mind.  The late Robert Greenleaf coined the term “servant leadership.”  He believed that serving others is the most noble action you can take.  I agree.  Not only is it noble, it’s smart.  Serving others isn’t demeaning or only for people lower on the food chain than you think you are.  Doing as you promise and doing it in a way that serves others will distinguish you wherever you go… not to mention making you a pretty darn nice human being to boot.   

TAGS: Customer service, personal brand building, servant leadership