At 19, Misty Copeland imagined herself not as a member of the corps, but as a principal dancer. In her memoir, Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina, Misty writes that “It felt right. It felt like a promise. Someday, somehow, it was going to happen for me.”
And so it did happen. This week, Misty Copeland at age 32 made history, becoming the first female African-American principal dancer in the 75 year history of the New York’s American Ballet Theatre.
Misty has always been outspoken about her ambition despite the societal norms that frown upon this for women. She knew what she wanted. She worked hard and she reached her goal.
What lessons about ambition can we learn from Misty? For she never wavered from her desire to be a principal dancer despite the obvious physical, personal, and professional obstacles.
Misty owned her story from the onset. She believed she was born to do this. Her deeply held belief and story fueled her motivation to succeed. Many women lack this degree of ownership. They subsequently give up being the central character in their story of career success and end up on the sidelines as a result.
Belief in the end goal is important for one’s ambition to be realized because it provides the impetus to do the hard work necessary to master a skill and stay on track, and mastery is essential for ambition. Without skill, ambition is simply a pipe dream. Misty had a strong commitment to develop her talent and for years she focused on being the best she could be.
According to Anna Fels, psychiatrist and author of Necessary Dreams: Ambition in Women’s Changing Lives, “the motivation to learn a skill or to pursue any endeavor, including an ambition, can be roughly calculated on the basis of two factors: how certain the person is that he or she will be able to attain the desired goal and how valued the expected rewards are.” Therefore our belief that we CAN reach our goal along with the importance we place on reaching it, are critical for our ambition.
Research about ambition, however, teaches us that mastery alone is not enough. We need role models. We need recognition for our accomplishments and encouragement to stay motivated. Yet Misty had no role models. Certainly there were no black female principal dancers at New York’s American Ballet Theatre. And Misty was discouraged at an early age by others who told her she didn’t have the right body type to be successful. She persisted never the less.
Misty’s story of ambition is an uncommon one for women. Her story, however, cannot be directly compared to women’s ambition in the workplace. Misty was competing with other women for the top spot. And we know that girls and women are more likely to openly compete with each other, but not with men. When women are in direct competition with men for leadership roles, their behavior often changes, their confidence is challenged, and they assume more of a back seat. They are uncomfortable with the competition and the rules of the game as men define them.
A recent article in New York Magazine refers to a survey of men and women in the workplace conducted by Bain and Company that “found that women and men were equally ambitious when they had fewer than two years on the job. But those ambitions changed dramatically among mid-career employees. Women's aspiration to make it to the C-suite dropped 60 percent. Their confidence in their ability to reach top management drops in half. And their ambition never recovers as they become senior leaders within their firms. Men, on the other hand, see a much smaller dip in their confidence, and none in their ambition.”
The explanation given in this article for women’s loss of ambition is a lack of role models and mentors in the workplace, as well as the absence of recognition or acknowledgement for their work. Another major factor is that many women have the perception that the top job is not worth the effort. It becomes less important for them to compete. What once seemed like a compelling aspiration fades over time.
Yet despite many structural barriers and gender bias, women do make it to the C-suite. Like Misty Copeland, they overcome all obstacles to reach their goals.
The answer might well be that these women own their story; their unwavering belief in themselves and their ability to reach their goal, mitigates any distractions and allows them to transcend difficult challenges. They never take their eye off the end goal.
If you're ambitious, learn the tools to be successful in my book, The Politics of Promotion: How High Achieving Women Get Ahead and Stay Ahead (Wiley, March 2015). And follow me on Twitter.
