Woman in finance

I was wrong about what it means to be a woman in Finance

I thought it is about:

😐Ignoring emotions to seem rational and cool blooded.

🤕Working extra hard (and extra hours) to confirm my dedication and passion for my role.

😒Putting career high on my priorities.

😐Becoming less intuitive and more fact-driven.

📌Why I was wrong:

🙄ignoring emotions doesn't make them go away. They will continue influencing our behaviour, the way we perceive things around us, the way we filter information.

We have to acknowledge them in order to manage them.

We are all (men and women) emotions-driven and we need tools to enhance our perspective.

🙃Working more doesn't bring proportionally more results. Resting and decoupling from work is equally as important for getting results and staying creative.

❗We have to stay aligned with our values to be able to have consistent motivation and sustainable results.

When feeling overwhelmed, unbalanced, nervous about work or unhappy I learnt to ask myself: What is important for me? I write down the list that comes to mind (eg. Family, learning, career, flexibility etc) and then analyse it:

🔦What does each of these mean for ME?

🔦Why do I want them?

🔦Are there inconsistentcies between them?

❗Finance is about numbers and yet intuition is not to be ignored. We learn so much in our lifetimes that some of these learnings are unsconsious and manifest themselves as intuitions. Whether we feel like something is not right in a certain regard, we have a hunch about something or an unexpected idea we need to attend to these intuitions. We need to read into them and judge if it is wise to act on them.

✅I understood over the years that being a woman in Finance only has to be about being Human and liking this sector.

✅Being conscious of that only makes us more likely to be more rational, get better results and live more balanced lives.