Success

I was just pondering, last Friday, what exactly makes a certain person(s) on my team more influential than me. I have the utmost respect for him: he is very intelligent, expresses himself in a very confident and intelligent way that commands respect and admiration! He speaks slowly and doesn’t rush through things. People stop and listen to him. I have observed both him and his cronies network with other men at work (all men of course). This is the beginning of the Old Boys’ Network at work. It’s amazing that I’m able to observe this happening. Of course I’ve also been quite self-aware when it comes to my choice of relationships at work. It’s a different kind of friendship circle than what was experienced in Highschool… albeit not that far off. This is life and death, and I do remember thinking that it was life and death back in HS, but the networks that we develop as professionals can really mean life or death for a career. I used to think that my inter-personal abilities and easy-going manner were my downfall. But as the years wear along, I can now see that this will definitely work to my advantage. Of course, everything has to be taken with a grain of salt and not taken too far…The idea that popped into my mind had much to do with the different friendship circles that I’m making here. I’m being taken more seriously and am wondering if that has to do with the people I hang around with as much as the way I’m carrying myself…? A question. But I can see that here in France I have a marked advantage over those male colleagues back home. First of all, I made the jump to a foreign assignment. I think this will benefit me in the long run for many reasons. First of all, I’m making a lot more connections. I’m centralized here, and am meeting people from California, Shanghai, Germany… as well as here in paris. Being a woman in Paris has its advantages. Although the number of women in the office seems to be far less than in Vancouver, the way men and women interact here has its advantages for women. I can actually use my feminine wiles to subtly convince my peers of my point of view. Which brings me back to my original thought: whereas my colleagues in Canada and America would use force of will to convince the engineers that their idea is best, since I am female and the power of a soft-persuasion is accepted from me… this is much more easily digested than the typically aggressive male North American style. The NA male style is not as highly looked upon in international circles. This is one reason why I will succeed here and elsewhere. Aside from giving myself a boost in confidence by working with different people and finding that I DO have the skills and MORE, this whole experience is opening me up to more people and experiences! But I have to be careful to not let this get to my head. There will always be people more informed than me, and people less informed than me. I can make this work!