Deepening Into the Feminine in Business

Jul 14

2010

Deepening Into the Feminine in Business

by Alexis Martin Neely - Posted in Business, Lead Like a Woman |

Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.

One of my major challenges (and opportunities) over the past several years has been learning how to be successful in business and a powerful feminine woman at the same time.

The vast majority of my role models have been men.

My dad was my first. Then, most of my law school professors. The partners I worked for at the big law firm. And many of the authors I’ve read, coaches and mentors I’ve worked with have been men.

I learned to do business like a man. And got really great at it.

But, it hurt. A lot.

Perhaps you haven’t identified it that way, but now that I’ve pointed out can you see it’s been there all along? Hiding.

You thought it was you. Something was wrong, but you didn’t know what it was. So you allowed yourself to believe if you just kept going and pushed harder it would resolve.

That has not been my experience.

I’ve spent the past 5-6 years exploring an alternative to doing business like a man – discovering a model of powerful feminine leadership that is still (and perhaps always will be) evolving and it’s finally emerging. Deepening.

Because my schedule is so packed right now, I’ve not had a lot of time to write about it. But, I’m hosting an event in LA and have been talking about it on interviews.

So if you are interested in learning more about this deepening and how it impacts you and your business, come to the event or listen in on these interviews I did.

You can hear me as a guest in the Entreprenurial Goddess Telesummit and in the Body Mind & Business Breakthrough Telesummit.

So ladies, talk to me about your experience with balancing the masculine and feminine energies in your business. How is it for you? Where do you find difficulty and challenges? What’s working? Can’t wait to hear!

« My Manifestation Process in Action & Why Oprah and Mark Should Choose Me | Cry and Get On With It »

Susanstaples

Hi Alexis,

It is good to connect with you again. I met you at the Max Simon Event about a year ago. I am so glad that you are connecting with women in this way. As a commercial pilot, we are less than 2% of the population. As a woman Captain it becomes even more dramatic … only 450 of us in the world.

Over the years we also faced the lack of having very many woman mentors and the ability to connect. There is a social organization that emerged to help woman connect… make friends and share our stories and feel not so isolated. I encourage women to participate in the events that you are blogging about and keep that going! It makes a big difference!

When I first started flying, we did not even have uniforms that fit the female body. We looked like little boys wearing our fathers clothes in most cases. We realized how we looked at the airport was important to win the confidence of our passengers and show them that we were capable and able to fly them to their destination. ( yes it was an issue and I actually had one gentleman get off the plane if I was going to fly it!) We usually only have less than a minute to make that first impression as we pass by our passengers on our way to prep the jet for departure… We are also sometimes confused for Flight Attendants and Gate Agents. How we dress is the first step of making a great first impression. Looking powerful without loosing our femininity is possible!
As a new business owner the same is true. We wear our respective “uniforms” with our clients to feel great about doing business with us… and allow ourselves to be expressed as to who we are at the same time.

We do not have to look like men and we shouldn't! We are more in our power looking like who we really are and being true to that.

Evolving is the key… and supporting each woman's success is so vital.

Thanks for bringing this topic to light! It was fun to share with you!

Susan
http://www.randomshelly.com/blog/ Shelly

It is a hard balancing act… I'm in IT have been for well – a while… and it is definitely predominately male (or used to be… woo hoo to the ladies!) Anyway… I learned early not to show emotions or get upset too much because then you were 'emotional' or if you stood your ground, a 'b*tch' – but over the years I think things got better because I would call that out and make a point to show the substance behind the 'emotion'… (seriously – guys get emotional too – upset, etc… but 'that is normal' doesn't work for me…)