There is a lot of focus now on empowering women to successfully climb to the top of the business ladder. We are working to remove historic barriers, opening the doors of opportunity and educating more women than ever before.
We are talking all the time about balance and told to lean in, we mentor and establish networking grids and yet I suggest to you that:
The MOST important issue for Women in Business is their HEALTH!
1. HEALTH is your center of gravity.
When we talk about walking or moving… your center of gravity is the the place where you are most centered and if you support your center of gravity your body is in equilibrium in any position you get into…. you won’t fall down and can move as fast as you can.
HEALTH is your life’s center of gravity. If you support your health and and to stay centered in a healthy place with smart choices then your whole life can focus on things like work, family, friendships….your rapid progress in business…BUT if your health is unbalanced, off center…ignored… you will constantly be using energy you could be devoting to promotion to regain our health balance. You will not be a position for success
2. HEALTH is our common circumstance.
We don’t all look the same, we don’t all have the same backgrounds or career trajectories but the one thing we all have in our common experience is our health. We all need it, we all have to make small daily investments in it to stay at our health “center of gravity” and we should be talking about it…a lot. At your next “Women in Business” meeting I content that your health should be the topic.
3. HEALTH is your ticket to the CEO suite.
Well….okay….there are many things that will move your career into the CEO suite and business acumen may be one of them;) but studies have shown that there is 1 factor that can profoundly effect your ability to make it to the top of the ladder. YOUR HEALTH…as manifested by your weight. If you are about t0 throw tomatoes at me I will assure you that I am just reporting the facts coming out of many studies and that I am just as upset as you will be by the double….quadruple standard I am about to describe. Multiple studies have shown that on overage 33% of men occupying the CEO suite are clinically overweight or frankly obese. The same studies show that less than 17% of women climbing into that office are overweight. YES….the data don’t lie. Somehow we tolerate heavy and less healthy men in the big office but seem to make a judgement about capacity for success in leadership and business and even “capacity to keep it all together” by a woman’s weight. I’m as enraged as you may be but if optimizing your performance means optimizing your health this is a win-win.
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