Hello everybody, thank you so much for joining me. This is Michele Heyward. And this is mentor Monday. And I want to say Happy New Year because it is the first mentor Monday of 2019. I can just remember when it was 20. It was not 20 is 2000, or is 1999. And I can’t believe it is 2009 teen Oh my god, where did 20 years ago, but from those 20 years, I’m here to mentor my women of color STEM professionals, so that you can go further in your career than you ever thought possible. And we are simply going to start with how to create your career goals, because oftentimes, we get stuck with thinking, Oh, well, we have a planner, or we have it, what do we call it? Um, one of our performance reviews, and we’re going to talk about what we want to do in our career. But what happens oftentimes, is those don’t focus long range enough for us, it’s really what do you want to get done in the next 12 months, and maybe you’ll have one or two follow ups, or maybe no follow ups with a manager. And actually, that manager may not even be on board with you, with you going and achieving those goals, right? Because oftentimes, we are looking for our manager to buy in, and sometimes they don’t see us going that direction. So what do we do? We end up having to change, where are we going, and it’s like, I don’t want to go this way, this is not what I want to do. So today, I want to give you five things you need to get started with your goals. And over the next few weeks, I’ll be giving you different steps and different actions that you want to achieve. Okay? Now, first up, you want to be sure that you are very specific with your goal. Now when I say specific, you do not have to make this a one year goal, this could be actually a five year goal, or 10 year goal where you want to go in your career. Because if you are that specific now, you can then start laying the path, laying the path and doing the work to get to that position and 510 15 years. Oftentimes what happens is, we kind of migrate, we look for a job, I’ll figure out what I want to do later. But for those of us that start earlier, saying this is where I want to go, we’re able then to easily lay the breaks, laid a foundation for where we want to go in our career. So that is what I want you to do. Write down that goal. It does not have to be short term, it can be a very, it can be a long term goal. But be specific. And when I say be specific, not just the job title, but the job duties. Um, how many people report to you? Do you work remote? Are you even in your native country, some of you may want international assignment, some of you may want to be able to work remotely, at least part of the time. Hey, thanks for joining me. So I want you to be very, very specific when it comes to your career goals. Now, once you’ve this specific, write down a date when you want to achieve this goal. Are you like Michelle? I want to be the VP of engineering. But I’m just five years into my career. I don’t know how long that’s going to take out, I’ll tell you a secret. You can be the Vice President of Engineering right now. You can be the CEO if you start your own firm. So don’t worry about what you don’t know pick a day as to when you see in the future, you would like to have that role. Does that particular role me that you need a master’s degree? Does it mean you may need to have more experience perhaps in a special niche because maybe it’s the Vice President of Engineering and on that old technology company. And right now you are working in a plastics manufacturer as a chemical engineer, right? So you may find that you need to change where you are in your career and go and get a different type of job or a different employer to get to that particular position that you See yourself obtaining. So that’s why it’s really important to set a date. Because if you don’t have a date, it’s really a dream. Because a goal is a dream with a deadline. So you always want to put a date behind your goals.

The next part of setting your goals, you want to make sure they are trackable. And you like to share with me trackable. Okay, so you are saying when you’re very specific with your goal, and this builds, I’m talking high level goals. So you’re saying Okay, before I am, I’m an engineer, two or three right now, I’m going to be a supervisor, engineer, and then a department engineering manager, and then I will be the director of engineering and then I’ll be the VP of engineering, right? You may see all of those levels that you think you have to you think you have to have? And truthfully, you don’t you really don’t have to fill every single one of those roles, you could absolutely positively skip some of those steps. Right? So what does that look like? And what does that mean? That means for you, when you’re looking at something trackable? Is it okay, I wanted to hit that manager, I wanted to manage 20, a team of 20 or 25. It didn’t say you were going to be the manager of over 25 people that you want to have the experience of managing 25 people. And you want it somebody out of finance, maybe accounting marketing, and you want to be able to manage that team of people from different backgrounds working together on a project. And guess what happens? opportunity presents itself. But because you have it written down as to what you want to do, you say, you know what, I’ve never done it. But I know this is what I need, what I want to do in order to get to this long range goal, guess what you do? You go do it, and it’s trackable. Now you can say I’ve managed a small team or medium size, I don’t think really 25 is a small team. So it’s 25 people is a good amount of people to manage, trust me been there. Um, it’s a lot of stuff that goes on when you do that. Um, you may want to say you want to lead a project or manage a department that does $10 million or revenue a year, then that is trackable. Right? So be sure whatever you have written down has some way to measure it. Yes. Thank you. No, ELLs guard, I mean, Shelley. Okay, now, how does this look in everyday life? What are you doing, so you need to take daily actions towards these goals. And that daily action really comes up and not just showing up for work, but showing out at work, and you like, Michelle, that does not sound good. It does not? For the way, many of us may know it culturally. But what happens as women of color, they see us, but they don’t see us. So you have to be present and in the presence of people who are decision makers in your workplace. So those daily actions will include you not only attending meetings, but you adding value to meetings, you’re not only receiving emails, but you’re responding to emails with value and action, right? You’re not always taking action, you’re giving action items. So you want to take daily action that not only moves your career ahead, by doing work, we always do work, but you have to take action will get you noticed. So it’s truly truly important. We work hard, we do damn good work. But we need to be noticed outside of our supervisor who oftentimes will not tell anybody who is really doing the work within their team or their projects. And then oh, great job, your team get a drink. Okay, thank you. And they are getting a promotion and the raises and guess what you’re getting more work. So there’s a saying I’m more work gets you. The squeaky wheel gets the oil, right. More work gets you more work. So you have while you’re doing the work, be sure you’re being noticed. And you have to do this in your daily actions that can be networking at the coffee machine. That could be participating in out outside projects or things whether you’re doing volunteer work, it could be the softball team. You’re like Michelle, I don’t play sports. I don’t either. But sometimes you just do those things because you know, somebody in upper management is part of that team. And they know people join because they’re part of that team. But it’s a great way for you to be noticed and be known by this particular person or people who have authority, who have power within your organization and A lot of times within your industry, okay? Now the next thing you need to do, the next step is reviewing your progress. Where are you in hitting your goal?

Right? And part of that is not beating yourself up. what’s truly saying, okay? This is where I plan to be. This is where I am, and really analyzing why you aren’t where you thought you’re going to be. Did you have personal things to come up? Were you told Oh, don’t worry about it. Don’t apply for that we have something else for you. Did you get laid off? What are the things that happened that may have delayed you making progress in you’re reaching that career goal? Others of you like, you know what, Michelle, I skipped some steps. And I’m ahead of where I am Yes, you still need to review why you are ahead of where you thought you would be. Because you want to continue to replicate that. And you won’t be able to replicate that if you don’t document it, if you don’t write it down, if you aren’t tracking it and reviewing it on a regular basis. Now. So we talked about Be specific having when you write your goals, having dates at your goals, because if you don’t have dates, those are just dreams. You want to make sure your goals are trackable that you’re taking daily actions to achieve your goals and that you are consistently reviewing your progress with your goals. But I have a bonus for you because I love bonuses. Don’t you love bonuses. It’s like getting an extra, a few extra fries in your bag, or I don’t know, an extra piece up of I don’t know, extra chicken strip or something. But what is a bonus? Okay, resources. When you’re developing your goals, what resources do you need. And those resources could be other people could be certifications, it could be a vacation, because you just really need to clear your mind. It could be a career coach, it could be a resume writer, what are the resources, you need to really move ahead, and you need to really list those down. And then kind of figure out at what stage you think you will need to have those resources, it could be mentors, you will need a sponsor at some point in time, right? Do you need to partner with other people within your organization, or within your industry, your friends to help you move ahead in your career. And the reason I really say resources, because a lot of times you need your spouse, your significant other and your children to be on board with you to make that progress. Because you will see that you will decrease your time with your family. But when you do have your time with the family, you want to shut everything off. So sometimes those resources also come in building a team that understand that when you go home, you’re home, you’re not responding to texts, phone calls and emails until you get back in the office, right? Or you may have a window between six and nine you don’t respond to anything and nine to 1030 you do and then you’re in bed by 11, right? Something like that. So write down the resources that you need to get ahead. And a lot of us need a team, right? So you may need a housekeeper. You may need an after school care, nanny, write those things down so that you understand other times you may need concierge services. So you need somebody picking up your groceries, you’re having groceries delivered to that we get delivery services that great your dry cleaning delivered, what are those things you really have to have in order for you to move ahead. And oftentimes we forget about these things. We have such bold and outstanding career goals and they really make me excited, we often forget about the resources that we need so that we still have great lives and we enjoy our downtime and our time with our family and time in the gym, or whatever I girlfriends. But it’s truly important that we also understand the resources we need to get us to where we want to be okay, so everybody this is mentor Monday I’m Michele Heyward woman of color stem civil engineer, and I have found it the tech company positive hire to help more women of color STEM professionals get management roles in corporate America. It is not about getting a job. It is about career advancement. And that is what I am here for you. Hey, I am just winding up but I appreciate everybody coming in tonight and joining me and I will see you next time. Bye bye bye.