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January 2021 - Career Resolutions

  
Written by Katie Murphy

Typically, when it comes to New Years Resolutions, people focus on their health, their spending or their ‘bad’ habits. This year, I want to challenge myself (and you) to do something for yourself and for your career once a month. That could be reading that new book by your favorite author who just so happens to be a leader in your field, or attending one of many great events (many of which are not only virtual but available nationally - meaning you can accomplish this goal from the comfort of your home!). 2020 was difficult on all of us in our careers - even if we maintained our jobs and for the few that took new ones or got promotions! It’s been harder than ever to connect with our peers, to find mentors to ‘grab a coffee with’ - especially when you can’t really see your coworkers in person! Not having those small hallway chats will continue to be difficult as we approach the 1 year mark of this pandemic in a few short weeks. 

So my challenge to myself was to do something for my career once a month. This requires effort on my part - I didn’t want to just set up a one-on-one with a coworker - it had to be outside of my normal day to day and something that would stretch my brain into new territory. Thankfully, WISE National decided this year to host a virtual and national Speed Mentoring Roundtables event in mid-January. Usually this is one of the most energetic and exciting events we do in person, so I was curious how it would adapt to the virtual environment, and let me tell you -- it didn’t miss a beat! There were hundreds of people who signed up and you were assigned a table (just like in real life) where you ‘sat’ and met the other people and waited for your mentor to ‘arrive.’ Just like in real life, small talk was easy and even meeting women from other chapters I instantly found connection points and things to talk about. And as the mentors rotated through, it felt instantly comforting and familiar to how Speed Mentoring Roundtables of years’ past were run. 

There were three rounds/themes to discuss and three mentors who came through, and with each one I learned something new that I want to take back to my team! For instance I learned about how a woman at her organization participated in a virtual retreat which actually sounded fun! They all were challenged to come up with a marketing campaign for a certain product and the best team won gift cards to a food delivery service. It’s no leadership retreat of years’ past, but it was nice to know it can still be done! And in another example, someone hosted a weekly Friday coffee chat. It was an open invite on her calendar that people on her team could join (or not) and drop in for a quick coffee. You didn’t have to talk about anything serious, but it certainly filled that void I’ve been missing of those random hallway conversations! 

2021. A new year. A fresh start. It all coincides well with the new branding that WISE National underwent at the end of 2020 and the new leaders we just inaugurated to lead our country. And for the first time ever - a woman in one of the top jobs! There’s a lot to look forward to this year that’s for sure, but when I think about how that will happen, how any of the steps we’ve taken forward as a country and an organization, those all happened with one person saying to themselves “today is the day.” So… what are YOU going to do for yourself and for your career today? There’s no better day than today to do it. 

WISE Boston will be hosting their own Speed Mentoring Roundtables event on Thursday, February 25th at 5 pm. Register here https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wise-boston-speed-mentoring-round-tables-tickets-136958114407  

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