by Suzanne Doyle-Morris  (Read about her here.)

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Today, we’re going to talk about one of the most important skills a professional woman can have—the ability to read budgets and be fluent in figures—to take her career to the next level. As we all know, in organizations money talks. Knowing how to show the amounts you save or generate for your organization is a fantastic way to raise your profile.

When I wrote Beyond the Boys’ Club, initially some of the women I interviewed said they hadn’t always seen the political value of presenting these figures in the best light, and sometimes had to learn through trial and error. Angela Mohtashemi, a director at PwC, learned that presenting her budget figures in the right way determined how much she was given to spend on an ongoing basis. It also established her credibility. She learned through developing a strong and much-needed relationship with the finance manager. She explained to me, “The first year I was here, I didn’t understand how focused they would be on the numbers and I didn’t take it seriously enough. I thought if we performed well, the numbers would take care of themselves. My team consistently achieved, but the numbers were not representative of all we had accomplished. The finance manager began to explain to me some of the basics—like why it was better to have a larger number appear in a certain box than in another box, for example—and how important it was for a department to bill small pieces of internal work as well.”

Angela continued, “Or even making simple changes as to which day we billed a client, so that the credit showed for one month and not the next. Small changes made our numbers—the same output we already had—suddenly appear much stronger. What I didn’t realize was that many of my peers were getting that type of support; I just hadn’t known to ask for it.”

The informal training also worked well for the finance team, as they had received criticism that they didn’t communicate their services well enough internally. This gave them valuable practice and helped make others aware of what they could do for specific departments. Similarly, another woman I interviewed, Mary Hensher, head of IT at Deloitte, found the need to move out of always being in the IT department, an area in which she could have become marginalized because of its distinction from the main fee-earning areas of the global firm. She knew she needed to spread her wings and build relationships in other areas. Similarly to Angela, she got the wider-ranging contacts she needed initially by presenting budgets—one of the most important things she could learn to do in an accountancy firm. She said, “If you spend all your time in the IT data centre, you are not going to get to talk to the people who are your customers. You have to put a real effort into being recognizable. I don’t walk around with a screwdriver or a spanner, because there are others who can do that, others who are fundamental to the organization. You shouldn’t have the head of IT doing that.”

Learning to present your best numbers is especially important for women who are not in direct profit-and-loss roles. Most board memberships are given to executives with direct profit-and-loss experience in operational roles. This is problematic for many women who may want to progress to board level positions but work in marketing, HR, or even finance, which are less likely to have many directors visible and reporting to the board. Many women do not know that this type of experience is a virtually unspoken prerequisite to board membership. Some women may unwittingly hinder their careers by eschewing these types of responsibilities or not directly requesting this type of experience early on in their careers.

So, make sure you get comfortable with the language of budgets and spreadsheets so you can use them to your team’s advantage.

Listen to today’s podcast here.

Be sure to visit our site, WomensMedia to get Expert Advice for Business Women.

Or on our website, WomensMedia you should read:

Business Women Can Play in the Boys’ Club or

Budgeting: The “B” Word

For quick updates for Business Women you should follow NancyFClark on twitter here.

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Here are some of the questions about the gender pay gap that we’ve been receiving at WomensMedia. (N- add the numbers when posting)

If A Woman Chooses Full-Time Employment, Does She Earn The Same As A Man?

Do Women Earn Less Because They Work Less?

If A Woman Earns A College Degree, Does She Earn The Same As A Man With The Same Degree?

If A Woman Negotiates Her Salary, Will She Earn The Same As A Man?

If A Woman Moves Into A Typically Male Occupation, Does She Earn The Same As A Man?

You may be surprised to hear what research has shown.

Listen to Gender Pay Gap Is Real

Listen to The Gender Pay Gap Is Not OK

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Do women make less money? They sure do. Let’s gather our facts together here. We’re not even going to consider part-time work—that would make the gender pay gap look even bleaker! Comparing full time working women with full time working men, we find that the women are paid 80 cents for every dollar men are paid even in the same occupations. Are you content with this? Are you going to be a good girl and say, “Thank you for the diminished returns?” Are you going to say, “But what can I do? I need this job. I want them to like me.” Or, are you going to begin making sure this no longer happens to you? I see it as my privilege to tell you two strategies that have worked for women in our WomensMedia network.

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Just like the Fortune 500 companies, your company should be looking for ways to do better financially. Wouldn’t it be a kick if that turned out to be by promoting more women into upper management? Wouldn’t it be great if your stockholders thought this would also be good for their pockets? Well, the kicker is . . . it’s true! Now you need to get the word out. And to do that, you need proof. Catalyst, a New York-based research organization has provided the proof.

(Listen to it here.)

Be sure to visit our site, www.WomensMedia.com to get Expert Advice for Working Women.

The saying “Nice girls don’t ask!” is yesterday’s advice for business.

Today’s advice is “Women ask, and ask, and appreciate what they get.”

—Nancy Clark

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Be sure to visit our site, www.WomensMedia.com to get Expert Advice for Working Women.

Most men are on the lookout for any opportunity to negotiate. It’s a game to them—and it should be for women too, because . . . you get more of the stuff you like. Erase the image from your mind that a negotiation is something that only happens when you sit down to draw up a contract or ask for a raise. It happens much more often than that!

(Listen to it here.)

Be sure to visit our site, www.WomensMedia.com to get Expert Advice for Working Women.

You’d probably love it if your boss walked up to you today and said, “I’ve decided to give you a raise, effectively immediately.” Don’t hold your breath. No one wants to spend any more money than they have to. So, you’re going to have to ask for a raise. Here’s my advice on how to do this.

(Listen to it here.)

Be sure to visit our site, www.WomensMedia.com to get Expert Advice for Working Women.

Whenever I speak to large audiences, I’m always amazed at the surprised reaction I get when I say you should be looking around for a new position without waiting for a year to pass. Men jump around from company to company more than women do. This is one reason for the size of the gender wage gap. Don’t hesitate to take interviews. Here are the six steps you need to take.

(Listen to it here.)

Be sure to visit our site, www.WomensMedia.com to get Expert Advice for Working Women.

The question I want to pose today is why are there certain fields that appear to be off limits to women? Why is it the trades (electricians, plumbers, painters, etc.) are only 2% female? Women would love those wages—particularly the union wages.

(Listen to it here.)

Be sure to visit our site, www.WomensMedia.com to get Expert Advice for Working Women.

Women are paid 80 cents for every dollar men are paid and that does NOT include any part-time workers! If it did, it would be even lower. What do you think is going on? Well, I’ll tell you the 4 things that are going on, and 4 things you can do to make sure this doesn’t happen to you.