Prep, Push, Pivot. Octavia Goredema

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CHAPTER 1 Know Your Worth

      Building your career is the most valuable, and the most personal, investment you'll ever make.

Navigating your career as a woman of color in the workplace, however, continues to be an uphill struggle. We are the fastest growing demographic group in the United States,¹ but we are the most underrepresented group in the corporate pipeline. As a career coach, I have one mission—to help you move forward.

      Knowing your worth underpins everything. Your worth will be tested by the systemic inequities that women of color face every single day.

I know how important it is to cement your career values because it took me a long time to figure this out for myself. I started my career just over two decades ago. Landing my first job after graduating from my university started a rollercoaster that has included being promoted, leading teams, international relocations, taking a career break, returning to work as a parent, and making a career pivot.

      It took me a long time to realize my career values were the foundation for everything. Countless times, I found myself in roles or situations that did not support my values. Despite this, I endeavored to do my best work, and yet even when I delivered results it just didn't feel right. In the past, the only time I considered my worth was when I was asked to prepare for a performance review. Even then, it was a struggle to self-assess my skills, and I calculated my worth through my employer's lens versus my own. Over the course of my career, I've created and pursued professional goals, but there were also hard times when I felt lost and uncertain of what I should be aiming for. By discounting what mattered most, I was working hard, but without a true purpose.

      So, what exactly is your worth? For many of us, it's how much we earn, but in truth your worth runs way deeper than that. It's about understanding what enables you to do your best work, defining your nonnegotiables for your career, and embracing your unlocked potential.

      As a first step, I'd like you to cement your career values, as this provides the foundation for the professional goals you will pursue.

Cement Your Career Values

      Your career values are your guiding light, in good times and tough times. They underpin everything. Jobs will come and go, bosses and coworkers will come and go, but your values remain—and they are unique to you.

      Remember, you have choices, and when it comes to your career you decide what matters most. I recommend documenting your career values using the following question prompts and reviewing and refining your responses several times a year. This makes your values a priority.

Your career values encompass the following core principles:

      Career values provide the foundation for you to create goals that align with your purpose and principles. In chapter 9, you will find a worksheet you can use to save your responses to the following questions:

When you start to think about your career values, your responses to the questions may require deeper and longer reflection, and your responses may change or evolve over time. There are no right or wrong answers and it's not a test. Your responses are for you to define. This is a space for you to consider what matters most in your career so that you can build a platform for goal setting and actions that will get you closer to where you want to be.

Get Your Goals Ready

      Most people are asked about their goals roughly once a year when the performance review cycle rolls around. Somewhere in the self-assessment form you're asked to complete for your supervisor there will be a question along the lines of “What do you want to accomplish in the next year?” or “What do you want to be doing five years from now?”

      Some of us may be tempted to answer, “I want to be working somewhere else” or “I want to have your job and your salary.” Most of us panic a little about the question and try to figure out an СКАЧАТЬ