11 Ways to Become a Strong and Successful Woman in the Salesforce Eco-System

To celebrate International Women’s Day I wanted to share some key ingredients which I feel help women to be strong and successful in their life and work.

Many of these aspects you will already know about and appreciate, but we often forget to deploy them in our life as we are too busy or tired. The side effects of this however can be detrimental to our self-esteem and personal confidence and can lead to burn-out, poor mental and physical health.

As a professional coach I have spent the last 15 years helping people to achieve their goals. I now love helping mums to redesign their lives to achieve their career goals as part of our Salesforce Supermums programme. Over the last week we led a well-being retreat in Portugal for women in the Salesforce eco-system to help them renew, reflect and revive their own personal goals for the year ahead. 

Collectively the women shared perspectives and summarised nicely some of the key aspects that help women to draw strength and to feel empowered. I have written this blog to share this wisdom with the wider eco-system so others can benefit.

From a personal perspective, over the last year I have re-deployed many of these aspects back into my life and it’s made a huge difference to my own psychology and personally well-being. Let’s face it – life is never going to run smoothly as we face new challenges each week, but if we are in a good place emotionally and physically, we are able to manage the roller coaster ride of life much better without reaching for chocolate, coffee and wine every time we have a bad moment.  

Any women can achieve their goals if they believe in themselves and take action to put in place a positive infrastructure to support themselves. So check out the list below and ask yourself if you have this in place. If not take steps to make it happen…

1. Surround yourself with other empowering women

One of the strongest forces is women collectively supporting each other, lifting each other up, making each other laugh, and being there to share the tears. Whether it’s making a pact to go out with your girlfriends once a month for dinner, arranging social’s with work colleagues, hiring women to support you in your life e.g. as employees, a cleaner, a VA, a personal trainer, nanny, coach etc. Create this group of empowering women to support you in life and work.

2. Reinforce positive thinking

Use the power of positive mantras in your everyday life and surround yourself with positive people.  Be aware and don’t be afraid to distance yourself from people with negative energy, who can be draining – whether it’s friends you have grown part from or work colleagues that don’t share the values, you might need to take steps to see them less or work with them less. Top tips include using positive mantras on your computer desktop, for your passwords, in meditation, or displaying them on your walls at home to lift yourself up throughout the day. If you find yourself with negative voices in your head or in a negative environment, think about you can change, shift or reduce this.

3. Make time to recharge

Mindfulness is now a hot topic and for women it can be one of the best ways to recharge by investing in your body and mental well-being whether it’s a meditation, a spa treatment, yoga, exercise, Reiki etc. Relaxing and getting away from daily distractions is the best way to feed our soul, mind and rejuvenate. Think about how you can book in time each week or month to recharge your battery.

4. Look after your physical wellbeing

It’s a known fact, you will have gain more energy if you exercise, it’s a given, but how many times do we say we are too tired to exercise. It’s a catch-22 situation. If you aren’t self-motivated or find it a struggle to make the time to exercise either:- hire a personal trainer, embed it into your daily routine e.g. walking instead of getting the tube, or commit to doing a group activity with friends so you can’t let them down. Whether it’s outdoors, at the gym, online, at your local hall or in your workplace, look at ways that you can embed exercise into your daily routine. A healthy body definitely supports a healthy mind.

5. Learn from experienced mentors

We know there are individuals who work in our industry or sector who have oodles of experience that we can learn from. We can accelerate our success, boost our confidence and avoid painful mistakes if we learn from others. You can either pay for mentoring from an experienced consultant and trainer, or you could just approach people and invite them out for lunch for a conversation or arrange a longer term volunteer mentoring relationship. Explore your options and reach out to people. You’ll be surprised at how many people feel honoured to be asked for their advice. It gives them a boost too.     

6. Work with a coach

Whether it’s investing in a Life, Career or Business Coach at different stages of your life. Coaching creates the opportunity to talk to a qualified person about your goals and challenges and helps you to reflect on what you want, need and desire in life. Their structured guidance and questioning will help you to see the wood for the trees, create focus, gain some accountability and take action to achieve your ambitions. Coaching is a powerful discipline and tool that you can tap into throughout your life to give you a kick up the bottom.

7. Find your creative outlet

Investing time in activities that support the use of the left and right side of the brain is beneficial for your intelligence, well-being and mental health. Many women who work in Salesforce might use their left side of their brain predominantly, so think about how you can create a creative outlet to stimulate the right side of the brain.  One of the ladies on the retreat is keen to create a creative Ohana at Salesforce as she is now an internationally signed artist alongside being an AE at Salesforce! The world is your oyster.

8. Invest in life long learning

I’ve been inspired by the number of women who are actively learning new languages via apps, signing up to creative evening courses, completing trailheads in their own time, and gaining new qualifications to empower them in life and work. We shouldn’t finish learning at age 18 or 21 we should continue to invest in our learning with both time and money inside and outside of work to inspire, educate and further ourselves as women.

9. Remember to help others  

Whether it’s helping someone off the train, opening a door for someone, helping your colleague to learn a new trick or gain a promotion. Think about how you can help others each day and the support will be returned. I have heard about workplaces that are full of fear, competition and passive aggression, and I think we can change this by each playing a part in a team to achieve shared targets and ambitions whilst also achieving our individual goals.

10. Achieve your work/life balance  

Become clear on how you want to live your life and the flexibility you desire in work and life. If you don’t have the balance right now, what is stopping you achieving it. Is it fear of the unknown?  One of the biggest impacts I’ve had in the last year is people quitting their job to find something more suited to them. They have heard me speak about flexible working and salesforce careers at community events, on our webinars, or even speaking to alumni. Men and women are quitting their jobs and joining our Salesforce Supermums programme and they haven’t looked back. They have taken action and achieved a positive difference in their life through changing their job.

11. Finally: believe in yourself

Remember what you have achieved so far, forgive yourself and don’t self-sabotage. Celebrate progress and think through what else you want to achieve over the next year reflecting on the above elements that can help make you stronger. Start to plan your actions today to create a stronger you. You don’t need to do it all at once but take baby steps to progress closer towards your goal of becoming a happier you. Feel the fear and do it anyway, it’s an exhilarating ride and with the right support in place you are strong enough to achieve.

The team at Salesforce Supermums are here to help you succeed if you want some support.

If you are interested in starting out in the Salesforce sector or already working in the sector and want to change jobs, companies or change direction then talk to us about our training courses, career coaching and job opportunities in the Salesforce eco-system.

We are passionate about helping women and men to achieve their goals.

Happy International Women’s Day – may the force be with you!

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