As Sheryl Sandberg noted in Lean In (see Page 63), too many women suffer from “The Tiara Syndrome.” Symptoms include keeping your head down, delivering excellent work and hoping that the right people will notice — and place a tiara on your head!
Although that can happen, it’s rare. Hope is not a strategy!
It’s naive to think that delivering excellent results are all that it takes to succeed in the workplace. The playing field is not yet equal for women; the fact is that women have to negotiate for things their male colleagues can often take for granted.
In addition to the obvious issue regarding compensation, women should negotiate for high visibility assignments, the resources they need to get the job done, support from those senior in the organization and buy-in from colleagues. They should also negotiate in their personal lives for the things that will enable them to be successful in the workplace.
Effective negotiation is a prerequisite to “leaning in”.