SOPY Strategy For Breaking Glass Ceilings & Optimizing Opposite Roles

SOPY Strategy

Situation, Other People, You

Glass Ceilings

Negative stereotypes build glass ceilings.

Glass ceilings exist for people who face cultural and political hurdles:

Black people

Indigenous people

LGBTQ+ people

Neurodivergent / Autistic people

Older people

People of color

People with disabilities

Sensitive white men

White women

Etc.

Glass ceilings exist in all kinds of situations. Some of the ceilings are unbreakable.

My mother created a family glass ceiling for me the day I was born
because I was her second daughter instead of her first son.
I could never be the son she wanted, so that glass ceiling was unbreakable.
After my loving father died, I walked away from my unloving mother and siblings.
I wasted more than a decade trying to get love from people
who had no intention of giving me love.

Breaking glass ceilings starts with breaking negative stereotypes.

Positive stereotypes ignore evidence of ineffectiveness, gaslighting, lies, etc. Positive stereotypes that ignore evidence may also need to be broken.

Glass ceilings can be easier to break when you:

Understand the situation

Recognize 3 groups of people in the situation

Present what the situation and each group of people require

When negative stereotypes are permanent, other solutions become necessary.

Limiting your exposure to the negativity or involvement in the negativity

Walking away

Walking away from my mother and siblings
gave me the ability to go from
silenced voice to international voice.
Leaving that glass ceiling behind opened doors
to unimagined opportunities for me.

Opposite Roles

People who break glass or concrete ceilings can find themselves in opposite roles.

Women in male professions

Men in female professions

Younger people in older people roles

Older people in younger people roles

Blacks, Indigenous People, and People Of Color (BIPOC) as CEOs

People with disabilities as business owners

Etc.

SOPY Strategy

Situation

Glass ceilings exist in at least 2 stereotype situations:

Stereotypes about people

Stereotypes about roles

When I was in my 20s and living in Chicago,
the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun Times
listed classified employment ads as
men’s jobs and women’s jobs.

In today’s world, these employment openings
can be listed as men’s jobs or women’s jobs
inside of employers’ minds.

Other People

Each situation you are in probably includes 3 groups of people.

With you

Against you

Waiting for an invite

Many situations have bystanders who are just there and may not be in the 3 groups yet. More on bystanders below.

You

In each situation, your attitudes, behavior, and presentation can:

Invite loyalty and limit backlash.

Loyalty can break stereotypes.

Invite backlash and limit loyalty.

Backlash can use stereotypes.

BIY Ceilings: Build It Yourself Ceilings

Opportunity Oblivion creates BIY ceilings.

Opportunity Observance opens up the sky.

Build It Yourself ceilings exist anywhere you create them, including in person and online. You might not be able to dismantle BIY ceilings you’ve already built. You can stop creating BIY ceilings this minute to open up the sky instead.

You can radiate an Open Up The Sky attitude or you can radiate a Build It Yourself attitude.

You can demonstrate Open Up The Sky behavior or you can demonstrate Build It Yourself behavior.

You can do an Open Up The Sky presentation or a you can do a Build It Yourself presentation.

Build It Yourself Attitude

All Girl High School That Expects Loyalty But Refuses To Give Loyalty

“Show your loyalty by donating money.”
(“Only alumnae who donate money deserve recognition for their accomplishments.”)
(“Alumnae who put their own survival ahead of funding the school deserve shunning.”)

~~~~~~~~~~

CEO With A Bad Attitude

“Adidas CEO says his worst career setback was getting fired from HP for having a bad attitude”
Tom Turula
Business Insider
2017

~~~~~~~~~~

Women’s Podcast That Excludes Women

“We do not allow people to put links to our episodes on their websites.”
(So what if we’re limiting women’s participation in the same way many men limit women’s participation, limiting our audience makes us feel special.”)
(“Only special women deserve equality, and we decide who’s special.”)

Open Up The Sky Attitude

Business Owner who Opens Up The Sky For Herself & Others

“Wow! I just ran upon this moments ago! Imagine! Getting paid for using your imagination!!! It’s every creator’s dream! Can you believe that there’s a grant for that! Up to $100k in grants! It’s for the ultimate creative types like me and perhaps some of you in here! I was going to keep this one secret for myself because I don’t need any additional competition! However, I decided to share because even if I don’t win it, if one of you guys did that would warm my heart!! So, I decided to share. If it’s meant to be then it will be. The deadline is fast approaching so don’t sleep on this if you are interested. Everyone isn’t going to win but you can’t win it if you aren’t in it. I won my very first grant last week so I apply for everything I qualify for and see because if I see it by chance then that’s for a reason. Good luck!”

Natasha Williams
Facebook post
August 22, 2024
Reposted with permission
BossLadiesTV.com

Build It Yourself Behavior

More CEOs Creating BIY Ceilings

“All my numbers were great, and therefore I thought I could act however I wanted to. But I couldn’t.”

“Number of CEOs who exited after bad behavior grows”
Kevin McCoy
USA Today
June 21, 2018

Open Up The Sky Behavior

Substitute Teacher Found A Permanent Position With Friendly Behavior

Marsha Porter was looking for a teaching job, but could get hired only as a substitute. Permanent jobs were scarce. She found lunchtimes in her substitute jobs lonely.

Walking into a staff lounge one day, she saw another woman eating alone. Sitting at the same table, Marsha smiled and made pleasant conversation. The other woman said she worked in the front office and asked about Marsha’s education and career plan.

A week later, that school called Marsha and asked her to come in for an interview. Marsha’s pleasant conversation had been with the principal, who hired her for a permanent position.

‘I thought you’d be a great addition to our staff.”

Respectful, friendly behavior opened up the career sky for Marsha.

“A new friend offered me a job!”
Marsha Porter
Women’s World
September 26, 2011, page 42.

Build It Yourself Presentation

Professional Woman On Facebook

“I can’t think of…”
(“I can’t do research to find…”)

~~~~~~~~~~

Professional Woman On LinkdedIn

“No clue what you are talking about”
(“No interest in getting a clue”)
(“Don’t know how to get a clue”)

Open Up The Sky Presentation

Inviting Referrals By Thinking About The Customer

Pawn Stars is a cable television show on the History Channel. It mixes history with price discovery (determining the fair market value of an object) and the reasons people should do their own research on whatever they want to sell. The hosts are Richard (Old Man) Harrison, his son Rick, Rick’s son Corey (Big Hoss), and employee Chumlee.

One seller came in with an electric guitar that had once been owned by singer Mary Ford. Ford had performed with husband Les Paul, a pioneer of the electric guitar and new recording techniques. Les Paul helped make rock & roll music possible.

The seller asked for $30,000. Old Man was too honest to cheat the seller because he knew what he could sell it for. He explained the importance of the guitar and paid the seller $90,000. He sold it for $110,000. Old Man knows his profit will be more than the $20,000 difference:

“He’ll send customers to me for the next 10 years.”

Pawn Stars presented themselves as respectful, honest, and caring. They opened up the sky for new customers from referrals.

“Price Points”
Bill Saporito
Time Magazine
March 5, 2012

Positive Control Opens Up The Sky

Taking positive control in the small spaces of situations and relationships means delivering the attitude, behavior, and presentation that opens up the sky.

I took positive control in the small spaces of my childhood. That positive control attracted my first unimagined success at age 11. I am still attracting unimagined success in my 70s.

Soft skill power strategies for taking positive control usually require only moments of time.

Bonus

Taking both short & sweet online self-study courses will give you access to SOPY Strategy SuperStars on LinkedIn or Facebook. The groups are invitation only private groups that are also hidden for members who need to feel safe.

You can network other course graduates.

You can share success stories and strategies you develop yourself.

You can ask questions.

I show SuperStars how to work on creating genius focus groups.

Membership is free.

Podcast / Radio Interview Topics

For podcast interviews about SOPY, I will discuss these topics:

Grad School Study

Grad student Kate Reck and I interviewed men and women in opposite roles. They all took the same action.

Situation

People stereotype situations with talking points

Role stereotype situations with talking points

Other People

How to cope with people who are against you so you invite loyalty from bystanders.

You

My PME Strategy (Physical, Mental, Emotional) for chipping away ceilings and optimizing opposite roles.

One P Strategy goes against some current advice, but real world examples show it’s effectiveness.

You’ve probably never heard of one M Strategy before.

All three of the E Strategies invite loyalty.

For an example of PME Strategy watch the 1:51 minute free lesson, 3 Behavior Transforming Steps.

Using PME for SOPY requires approaches different
from the approaches for improving relationships.

Breaking glass ceilings requires more time than
transforming a relationship requires.

Improve your networking today.

4 Steps To Networking Success.

Opening Up Unimagined Skys

The E strategy from PME can expand the network of people able to create unimagined success for you.

Sincerity is required.

Podcast / Radio Interview Links

I will add links for all of my interviews to the bottom of this page. My first interview is recorded. Link coming when available.

~~~~~~~~~~