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In my last newsletter I spoke about how women stop themselves from going for the top jobs because they believe that they cannot be who they really are if they do.
Well, in my coaching I have found another way that women get in their own way, en route to the top jobs.
And it’s something that women tend NOT to do that gets in the way.
Any idea what you think it might be?
Unless women are in sales or finance, they tend NOT to speak in clear financial or commercial terms FIRST, and I’m not really sure why. Here are some of the answers I have got from coaching clients:
“The financials are obvious aren’t they?”
“I work in HR so it’s not my role to focus on those – other people do that”
“Yes but what really interests me is diversity and inclusion – that’s what I get passionate about”
“My manager has told me that what I need to develop is my confidence and my presentation skills”
Now…
Yes the financials are obvious, but if you don’t talk about them how do you communicate that you not only understand them but that they also drive your decision making and your focus?
Yes you may work in HR but the commercial aspects of any business are crucial in all departments – you may not need to produce the balance sheet or set of accounts but you need to be able to read them and link what you do to that information.
Yes, Diversity and Inclusion may be your passion (and a great one it is too among many others), AND the more you can speak about it from a commercial perspective and link the work there to the commercial benefits to the organisation as well as other benefits, the broader the audience you will have and the more support you will get for your work. AND YES! There is a positive link.
AND…
YES! Your manager may have told you that you need to work on your confidence and your presentation skills, but what they may not have told you, is that they consider the business strategic and financial acumen to be a given and if you are not demonstrating and continuing to work on those, then no confidence or presentation skills work is going to cut it.
There is a great TEDTalk on just this topic that one of my coachees recently sent me. Here’s the link to it:
https://www.ted.com/speakers/susan_colantuono
I would love to know if this resonates or not with any of you.
I work with some very commercial and strategic women in senior leadership positions and what I find is that some of them take this for granted too and therefore don’t express it as often as they may need to…
What are your views? Let me know in the comments below
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Speak soon!
Sonia xx
