Excelle

News+Culture >> Browse Articles >> Featured Writers

News+Culture >> Browse Articles >> Feminism and Women's Issues

News+Culture >> Browse Articles >> General

9 Ways to Be a Powerful Woman

Catherine Kaputa is a brand strategist, speaker, and the founder of SelfBrand LLC, a NYC-based personal branding firm. According to Catherine, now that women exert overwhelming influence in the business world they can make even more progress if they learn how to leverage their distinctly female aptitudes. Here are nine ways women can use their innately female traits to boost business success:

1. Tune in emotionally

Women are especially intuitive and empathetic, thanks in part to higher levels of hormones such as estrogen and oxytocin. Catherine’s advice: Use these emotionally driven strengths to be open and responsive to others’ feelings and build strong and healthy work relationships.

2. Create an attractive package

Attractive people not only make more money, but are viewed as being smarter and more competent than others. Women possess an advantage here, too, having more “visual aids” to work with than men do. Catherine’s advice: Accentuate your best features, and develop a distinct look with a signature color, accessories, shoes, and so on. If you don’t have the body of a fashion model, then do something wonderful with your hair and clothing. Work on your posture and gait. Think about what your visual image conveys, and find visual “props” that add originality and make a powerful statement.

3. Reach out

The larger your network, the more career capital you’ll acquire—great news for women, who are natural-born networkers and team builders. Catherine’s advice: Make and keep friends. Ask others for help, ideas, and feedback. And continually grow your network of colleagues, advisers, and mentors.

Continue reading on the next page →

---