Essentially, they abandon the goals, ambitions, and dreams that once fueled their optimism and drive. Many begin to settle for less, pull back on their desire for promotions, or take less senior roles and focus on other priorities. Women develop their technical skills and talents to the point of qualifying for advancement, but then many hit a point where they are told they don’t have “what it takes” to be effective at senior levels and that, in essence, they are not leadership material.įeeling helplessly sidelined by the power players and structures of their organizations, women often decide that “what it takes” to get to where they want to go just might not be worth it.
Through no fault of their own, they have been socialized to speak and behave in ways that are antithetical to what is necessary to advance in most corporations. Women have been conditioned to communicate in a style that can undermine their power and effectiveness at work, ultimately thwarting their advancement. Women who have not yet mastered these skills are often missing the biggest piece of the puzzle. Women who have mastered these skills gain power and thus feel powerful. The ability to leverage communication to influence, inspire, and build alliances requires a high level of skill and confidence in the public arena. I have seen strong communication skills accelerate careers-and weak communication skills stall them. Over the course of my career, I have observed women at all levels of management and leadership communicating in corporate environments. However, my lens as a communications coach has allowed me to see another force hindering women’s advancement-one that women have the capacity to influence and change today: how they use language. This conversation is critical, as the more light we can shine on the structural forces that unfairly hold women back, the closer we can come to eliminating them once and for all. The conversation about the forces that challenge women’s ability to rise to leadership levels, earn salaries commensurate with those of their male counterparts, and break the glass ceiling tends to focus on institutional barriers.
BOOKED IN BALDWIN PROFESSIONAL
As a clinical psychologist who works as a communications and leadership coach to individual clients and teaches workshops to large groups of women, I have listened to scores of women share their professional aspirations, fears, hard pursuit of advancement, and disappointment when it doesn’t come for reasons they either don’t agree with or don’t understand. I know this because I have worked with so many women like you, who are trying to make it into management and leadership roles and confronting barriers and frustrated ambitions along the way. I know how hard you work and how much you have to tolerate to work within this environment. We may have never met, but I promise I know the difficulties you experience as a woman trying to progress in today’s professional world-a world that remains predominantly run by men, with biases toward male leadership and barriers to women’s advancement.
If you are a woman in the business world, I know you.
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