Building a Path to Future Success
CHICAGO — Women play a key role in the convenience store industry today, but many still struggle with workplaces that systematically disadvantage them. By investing in themselves, building beneficial relationships and self-advocating, women can establish themselves as leaders and advance in their careers.
Kelly Roehm, career strategist and founder of The Resume Realist, shared insights and advice on how female c-store professionals can make all of this happen during a recent webinar, "TWIC Talk: Paving Your Own Way to Career Advancement," presented by Convenience Store News and Altria Group Distribution Co.
The webinar was offered as part of CSNews' Top Women in Convenience (TWIC) program and The Convenience Inclusion Initiative, a CSNews platform that champions a modern-day convenience store industry where current and emerging leaders foster an inclusive work culture that celebrates differences, allows team members to bring their whole selves to work, and enables companies to benefit from diversity of thought and background.
"It's often easy to place your career as the lowest priority," Roehm said. "You're busy investing in your team, spending time building others around you, and all of a sudden you may look around and you're wondering, what about me? What have I put into my career and how can I build today?"
[Read more: Creating & Maintaining a Top Workplace for Women]
It's common for women to "hit a wall" at some point in their careers, according to Roehm — regardless of industry, career level or title. Data from the "2023 Women at Work Survey" conducted by CNBC and SurveyMonkey found that although 88% of women say they are ambitious, only 20% say their career advanced in the past year.
"We're overlooked for a promotion, but we get feedback that we're not strategic enough. We run circles around everyone else around us, but somehow we're still paid the least. We do the most work on a project, we bring it over the finish line, and then we're told that we're too good, that we can't afford to be lost on the team," she said.
Rather than a glass ceiling, Roehm described a "glass block" — something that feels thick and unbreakable, and is so opaque that one can't get a view through it or a sense of how to get around it.
Yet that doesn't mean the glass block is actually impassable. Roehm noted that there are many ways to achieve career advancement, and it doesn't have to mean advancing to the C-suite. It could mean making more money, having more flexibility or doing work that makes one feel good.
"At the end of the day, your goals are right because they're your goals," she said. "You don't have to climb a corporate ladder."
Climbing Past the Broken Rung
Too often, she noted, it can feel like the next step is impossible to achieve, and nothing that does happen in one's career is happening intentionally. This can feel particularly true when women encounter "the broken rung" — a time when it feels like her career is moving forward until it hits a spot she just can't get past, which is exacerbated by data that indicates women advance at rates less than their male peers.
According to McKinsey's "2023 Women in the Workplace Report," for every 100 men that are promoted, 87 women are promoted, and the imbalance grows when including only women of color. This can be due to bias or other factors, such as taking time off to care for family and encountering challenges upon returning to the working world.
[Read more: Majority of Americans Support Workplace DEI Initiatives]
Breaking this cycle takes a combination of self-advocacy and grit. However, 73% of women express fear of how they might be perceived when they self-promote at work.
"You also may remember times in your career when you've been told you're too much or you move too fast, you're not moving at a pace that is right for everyone, or you're too bold, too loud, too much of anything," Roehm said. "And so, we throttle ourselves in our own momentum to make others feel comfortable in that moment. But if you don't advocate for yourself, for your salary, for your role, for your title, who will?"
To build and use skills in self-advocacy, Roehm recommends women focus on four key areas:
- Start Strong — Get clear on what you're great at and consider what makes you uniquely strong, what you have built through thought leadership and expertise, spaces and places that capitalize on your unique strengths, and what spaces and places prevent you from flexing your strengths.
- Build Your Unique Value Proposition — Come up with a clear, compelling and concise way to differentiate yourself and communicate that you're distinct and unique. Identify your expertise, define your approach and clarify the outcome.
- Plan Where You're Going — Know your audience and what matters most to them. Consider what skills and experiences are valued in the market; what are the most common goals, KPIs and outcomes that your audience cares about; and what pain points your audience has.
- Assemble Your Power Tools — These can include a resume, LinkedIn profile and a professional brand that incorporates interview skills, network and a portfolio or website.
"The art of self-advocacy and this ability to understand and sell your own unique value is a skill that you build over time," Roehm said.
While there are multiple ways women can lean in and start doing this in their careers, she urges them to start with salary negotiation.
"More than 60% of women have never negotiated their salary with an employer, and that leaves a lot on the table," she said. "When you are clear about what you do and what makes you great and how it impacts your employer or decision-makers, you have leverage to negotiate for your salary."
She recommends that everyone document their wins and achievements for either interim promotions or the job search process. In either situation, women should have confidence in what they bring to the table.
"Your salary is the company's subscription for the value that you generate," Roehm said. "Negotiate that and own the unique value and the strengths that you bring, and use that as your positioning tool."
A replay of "TWIC Talk: Paving Your Own Way to Career Advancement" is available here.
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