What is a Glass Ceiling
“A glass ceiling is the invisible systematic barrier that prevents certain people from rising to senior level positions within a company or organization” writes Julie Kagan. Check out more on this article at https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/glass-ceiling.asp.
What are the glass ceilings in your life? Or perhaps in your company or organization? What are the areas within you that feel squished up against the glass, pressed on all sides, and desperate to break through. BUT you just don’t know how? Although Kagan gives a decent definition of a glass ceiling, I have to admit that there is so much more to it. Sometimes it’s a feeling, sometimes it is a fact, sometimes it’s an emotion, but it’s always a challenge.
This glass ceiling principle so easily presses in on all that’s familiar, driven by an intense obsession with uncovering more of what you’re capable of, and it ultimately directs you towards a choice for success or familiar. What do you do when you feel the glass ceiling pressing you? Do you shirk the discomfort, allowing yourself a pass? Sometimes, I do. Or do you love to embrace the change?
Attitude Towards the Glass Ceiling
I believe so much of the break-through progress that we’d like to see with the glass ceiling comes to our mentality. How can we set ourselves up for success, creating an environment that makes us grow? To be honest, most of the time, it’s easy for us to believe that an environment that makes us grow is one that we feel confident and happy in, but perhaps that isn’t true? Perhaps, the real breakthrough comes when we put ourselves into the environment that we get squished in. But for us to do that, and not break, we have to set ourselves up with an exit strategy.
What is your exit strategy from the glass ceiling holding you back right now? You’re feeling stuck, squished, pressed against the glass, you know how you got here, and you know that you’d like to see breakthroughs, but how.
Do you tap the glass and watch it shatter? Do you find a staircase to climb to the rooftop? Do you look for a loophole?
Sometimes tapping the glass translates as really brave conversations. Sometimes it means taking a courageous step forward and asking for what you want? Asking God, asking your boss, asking yourself. Perhaps finding a staircase to climb to the rooftop means following the rules and looking for progress slowly. I suppose it could mean that you are willing to wait it out, throwing yourself on the good hope that it’s worth the climb. Or perhaps you are one to look for a loophole in the situation? A compromise for the growth because it’s simpler and ultimately gets you to your goal even with a few losses.
I don’t know that any one of those is wrong, but which one is right for you?
Count the Glass Ceiling Cost
I didn’t realize that there’d be such a cost to the glass ceiling. Sure, it’s worth it if the growth is what you would like to see. It’s worth it if the other side is where you’re called to be. But I didn’t know that the glass ceiling wasn’t just about the cost to get there, the cost to breaking through. But it’s also got a cost attached to those around you. And how do you function within that?
It doesn’t mean to back down. It doesn’t mean to shirk the task at hand. But it does mean there’s a cost, that must be realized, approved of, agreed upon, and enacted.
Find that cost. Weigh it. And make your choice.
This world is waiting for you to break-up and breakthrough!
Check out more from me at: https://purposefullyput.com/2024/04/11/magic-in-the-mundane-big-love-in-small-moments/
Leave a Reply