With April coming to a close, I’m still mad about March! March was chock full of Super Women and Confidence. Here are more things I learned about how ladies need to give and take more credit for themselves and for other ladies!
The third week of March was the Data + Women Tableau Users Group web conference. I haven’t talked about Tableau on this blog yet, but it’s coming. I absolutely LOVE this tool for visualizing descriptive and predictive analytics for all kinds of data sets – from hire data for a Fortune 500 company to automotive breakdown data from the world’s second largest member organization.
Lots of other companies are using it, too. Because of this, there are TUGs (Tableau User Groups) all over the world. The Data + Women just happens to be for any lady in the world (so it’s a big group).
The conference had two hosts and some panelists. All but one were YOUNG. Like twenty-something young. So a lot of the conversation was about building your confidence with not just the tool but with yourself!
One woman said that we have to get in the habit of volunteering for projects that we think we only know how to do about 70% of. The rest you should figure it out as you get into it. This reminded me of the “Confidence Code” book and how it mentioned that most men will apply for a job if they think they only know how to do HALF OF IT. Our overachieving lady selves have to convince ourselves that 70% is an acceptable number in order to wing it.
This brings me to the final week of March. I’m working with a good friend who was interviewed by another friend on her podcast, Orlando Lady Boss. The title of the segment was “Take the Credit with Erica Jacobs.” Diana Griffith, the mother of OLB and Erica discussed the fact that women do not have the confidence to take credit for their accomplishments. We downplay the achievement and deflect the recognition. And because we lack that confidence we have to remember that all other women do that, too, therefore, we have to learn how to recognize and celebrate other women’s work and that will help boost their confidence and pay it forward.
After listening to the podcast, I was craving another book to listen to on my way to work. I had used my Audible credit for the month and so I looked to the Orange County library for inspiration. In the OLB podcast, the lady’s mentioned that March is Women’s History Month. On the app, there was a button for that and on that page, I found a speech from Gloria Steinem from 1993 called “Scholars, Witches! And Other Freedom Fighters.” She had given the speech in Salem in conjunction with the 300th anniversary of the Salem Witch Trials.
The audio wasn’t actually discovered and published until 2012. And it was AMAZING and still relevant. Learning how many women didn’t get credit for their work (like Mozart’s sister) or got the “Fake News” credit of being witches and being burnt at the stake for it. She, too, talked about confidence and how women need to stick up for each other so we don’t continue to get buried in history.
I left March with a strong desire to practice taking credit and to promote more ladies’ work. I’m also going to try to form a new women’s organization. If I can get the ladies on board to help me build the foundation for it, I am confident it can be a great place for women to help build their confidence and support others in their efforts.
Patti is still learning 