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EP14 Top Career Derailers of Aspiring Women CEOs

Eleanor Beaton
Eleanor Beaton
EP14 Top Career Derailers of Aspiring Women CEOs

According to research, over half of today’s workforce is made up of women professionals, but far less have achieved their goals of landing a top position within their company. Statistics show that by mid-career, these powerful women with leadership potential lose their desire to reach the top midway in their careers.

In this episode, I am going to share with you the top three career derailers that are the most common reasons for great, aspiring women to lose their desire and confidence in landing that top spot.

  1. Broaden Your Career Focus

Women tend to specialize in specific roles within their company. Specializing in a particular field can all too often limit your chances for successfully landing a top position or becoming the company’s next CEO. Ladies, if you want to become an influential woman leader, you need to learn and appreciate how your organization works as a whole, and to do that, you need to start making lateral moves into unknown territory.

Until you learn how your company works as an entity, you won’t be able to lead it.

  1. Become a ‘People Person’ – Learn How to Work with People You Don’t Like

Being a “people person” does not mean that everyone has to like you – or that you have to like everyone. It means that you have successfully mastered the art of communicating and working with people whose personalities may conflict with your own. Mastering this skill is an incredibly important attribute to have when you are trying to land a top seat in your company or organization.

After all, you don’t think Sheryl Sandberg likes
everyone she ever worked with at Facebook and Google, do you? Of course not, but by learning how to build solid working relationships with people, it enabled her to become a top women leader.

  1. Take Smart Risks

Being a CEO often involves taking smart risks. If you want to be a CEO of your company, you need to learn how to get out of your comfort zone and make the decision to take a smart risk. Ask for tough assignments, even if they are only short-term projects. Raise your hand at the next meeting and allow your voice and opinions to be heard. Volunteer new ideas to your boss and ask for new and different roles in the company. Some new positions may require you to accept a demotion, but that’s okay! It will only help your career in the long-run.

There are too many women in the workforce playing it safe at work. If you want to be CEO, you cannot be one of them. Get the courage to speak up, take risks, and lead your career YOUR way.

Only you have control over the direction of your career. It’s time to get the courage you need to take action and be the Fierce Feminine Leader we all know you can be!

If you’d like to learn more about the top 7 career competencies for women CEOs, feel free to click the link below and enter your email address, so we know where to send the checklist on the critical skill sets women need to obtain the top spot in their company.

Also, don’t forget to subscribe to our channel so you never miss a single episode of the Fierce Feminine Leadership show!

Until next time…

Stay Fierce!