The Best Advice for Women Looking to Advance in Their Career

There are a lot of women looking to advance in their careers, but they’re afraid they don’t have what it takes or that they aren’t “management material.” Perhaps you’ve had mentors in your life, even other women, telling you that you should never ask for a promotion — believe it or not, that was actual advice that was given to me. Maybe your own fear and self-doubt are sabotaging the courage you need to advance. Whatever it is keeping you stuck in the shadows, I have one solid piece of advice that you can and should take if you’re ever going to level up in your career. Here it is:

Stop waiting and take action.

Many people, women especially, allow fear and self-doubt to swallow their dreams whole, resulting in a life of sitting, waiting, and wishing just like that one Jack Johnson song.

There are legitimate reasons why we wait around for advancement:

1. We find it more rewarding for someone else to notice our hard work.
2. We’re afraid of rejection and someone telling us “no.”
3. We’re afraid we will get the position and not be ready
4. We’ve tried asking before in the past and haven’t gotten the results we wanted.

If it’s been a while since your last advancement or you’re still in the same place you were years ago, maybe it’s time for a little re-evaluation of your skills, qualifications, and opportunities. If you find that it’s time for a level-up in your career, then all that’s left is to take the following steps in the right direction:

Step 1: Believe you are capable of more. Whenever I struggled to advance in my career, I didn’t actually believe I was capable of being an executive. When my husband tried to encourage me by telling me all the reasons why I was qualified, I gave him every possible excuse as to why I wasn’t. The truth was, I was unsure of myself because I had never been in that position before. But the more I sat with reality, the more I realized I was capable and the confidence to ask for a promotion only grew from there. This leads us to the next step…

Step 2: Decide what you want out of your career and make it known. The absolute worst thing you could do for your career is to want more…