Abasto Magazine

Thriving in Male-Dominated Work Environments By Cindy Sorensen I was recently invited, by the Retail Dietitian Business Alliance (RDBA), to speak at their annual "Retail Dietitian Exchange". is is an annual event which brings together the membership of the RDBA to exchange " best practices" utilized among its registered dietitian membership in the grocery industry. e RDBA (www.retaildietitains.com) was founded by Phil Lempert, aka "e Supermarket Guru" (www.supermarketguru. com) seven years ago with the mission to: "foster the continuing business education and career development of current and future retail dietitians." e registered dietitian occupation is one which is primarily held by women and the membership of RDBA is almost entirely all women. I have 36 years of experience in the grocery industry and during that time, while I have seen some increase of women in the industry, it remains very male-dominated. Even after 36 years, I am still often the only woman, or one of few women, in attendance at industry meetings. Because of my 36-year successful career track in a male dominated industry, the subject on which I was asked to speak at this conference, was: "riving in a male-dominated work environment". As I prepared for my presentation, I realized the advice, recom- mendations and skills I was preparing to talk about, are really those skills which are necessary to thrive in work environments, regardless of the gender make-up of the workforce. erefore, I changed the title of the session to the following: " THRIVING IN MALE-DOMINATED WORK ENVIRONMENTS". While I observed the indus- try was male-dominated when I started my career in 1983, I never t hought about my success being hindered by that, but rather I focused on what I needed to do to be the best in the industry. Yes, unfor tunately, there were times I faced outright d iscr iminat ion aga inst me because I was a woman; such as the time, when the grocery department buyer at one of my designated accounts refused to talk to me because, he said: "you are a woman and you took a man's job. I won't buy anything from you". Over the years, I learned the way to thrive in the business world is about how one "thinks, talks and acts". e gender make-up of an organization might play a role in some areas such as communication or management styles, but the overall success of a company is grounded in successful execution of business practices. e common thread to being successful in how one thinks, talks and acts is to do so strategically. I based my advice to the RDBA group on how to go about doing these activities in a stra- tegic way. Oftentimes, our roles within an organization, are very tactical and tactics are critical to achieving the company's mission and vision. But to be successful in carrying out the tactics, one must understand their employer's mission, vision, strategic initia- tives and how the role tactics play to achieve the organization's strategic plan. is strategic knowledge is key to institutional success, and along with my advice to know and understand an organization's strategic plan, I reinforced the personal work ethic which must accompany this knowledge: "Show up, put your head down, and work hard every day". ere is no substitution for these time- tested behaviors! But most impor ta nt ly, I shared with the attendees they must build and maintain their reputation every day. It is their reputation which w il l u lti- mately make them successful. Building one's reputation is about being: • Consistent • Reliable • Honest • Trustworthy • Memorable • Credible • ….AND Incredible! T he reputation we build, fol lows us t hroughout our careers. It takes years to build it, one action and one day at a time. Be intentional about building a positive one. ENGLISH BONUS 74 abasto.com | Julio/Agosto 2019

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