In episode 004 of the Inspiring Women Interviews podcast, Emma McGuigan, Senior Managing Director Technology, Accenture UK and Ireland shared some of her “secrets of success” for to help you to build a successful career whilst balancing it with life and family.
I’ve summarised my 15 favourites from my interview with Emma in this post. Enjoy – and let me know which one is the most useful to YOU right now in the comments section below the post.
- Don’t beat yourself up when things don’t go right. Draw a line in the sand and move on.
- Decide what’s important to YOU and focus on those things. Let go of what’s NOT important to you.
- What is YOUR “set in stone” for managing your work-life balance? For Emma, it’s having one meal a day with her family. Choose yours and do it!
- Your life will continuously evolve. Treat your life an old fashioned radio that continually needs fine-tuning. Be gentle with yourself – guilt is useless.
- How do you reflect on how you are spending your time each day? What works for you? For Emma it is running. Find the thing that helps you to reflect on each day so that you are spending your time on the things that are important.
- Never feel guilty and never live with regrets. Instead, decide what you will do differently next time.
- Positive energy comes from always looking for the learning, not dwelling on the things that didn’t work out and keeping yourself moving forward.
- Don’t place limitations on yourself: STOP saying ‘I can’t do this because…’ and look for a reason you can!
- Measure your success by the outcomes you want, rather than the number of hours you sit behind a desk or spend replying to emails.
- At the start of your day, ask yourself what you’re going to focus on that day and whether that’s the best use of your time in relation to your current priorities.
- Keep asking for feedback. If for example, if you have just chaired a meeting but you’re not sure how you performed, ask others what they thought and what they would’ve done differently. Just ask!
- You can’t go through life beating yourself up about things you didn’t do, just celebrate the things you did.
- Avoid being a victim. When something happens that feels “unfair”, turn that feeling of injustice into something that empowers you. What do you want to happen? Use the “bad” situation to create your own “good” situation.
- Remember that NOBODY cares more about your career than you. If you expect someone else to tell you what you should do next, you could be waiting a very long time! OWN your career management.
- You only get one chance at your life, so make sure you grab every opportunity that comes along – and grab them fast! Get into the habit of going for it rather than deliberating. Give it a go and if it doesn’t work out, try something else!
You’ll get more of Emma’s tips and you’ll benefit from the full impact of the summary above by listening to the interview on the Inspiring Women Interviews Podcast. If you enjoy the show, I would be so grateful if you could leave feedback over on ITunes or Stitcher and share it with your own connections. By doing this, you will help to get the podcast to more women and inspire them to be the best they can!
