How Women in the Corporate World Can Get Promoted This Year

Do you KNOW this is your year to get promoted?

Unfortunately for women in the corporate world, it isn’t always an easy feat, despite how much you may deserve it.

In my experience and from working with hundreds of clients, women at the top still have to do more… show more, achieve more, be more, give more than male colleagues to get promoted. Meaning many women at the top end up feeling resentful, frustrated and undervalued then losing their confidence.?

Men are promoted more on potential, whilst women are promoted on performance... so it’s a daily commitment to show up, perform at your best and constantly deliver. Heaven forbid you have a wobble, burn out or take time off for your family.?

Study after study reveals myriad ways that women are held back in their career growth, silenced in the workplace, and straight up discriminated against – by both themselves and by others!

So in this blog, I’m sharing some statistics about the separation between men and women and how there’s still a shockingly big gap… and why that might be.

Then I’m going to give you five steps to help you to get that promotion, to help you be really purposeful and really proactive rather than waiting for it to happen.

This IS all in your hands.

So let's make it happen.

Why are women not being promoted as much as men?

1. ? ? Unconscious Bias

During the pandemic, men were three times more likely to be promoted than women.

Research from McKinsey and Lean In, who surveyed 68,000 employees across 329 organisations, found that for every 100 men that were getting their first promotion, 72 women were promoted. And for women of colour, the numbers were even lower with 68 for Latinas and 58 for black women.

With the gender indifference, this step from being part of the team into actually running a team and starting the career ladder, has been described as the broken rung or the missing first step into management. That broken rung is indicative of the challenges that we're facing that creates that gender parity.

This is really where the inequality begins and leads to an even wider gap in higher levels of management.?

If women aren't having as many opportunities to be promoted at that first step into management that flows through to the more senior levels, or if women are struggling to get to that step, it destroys their confidence of knowing that they can actually get to that next level.

Unfortunately this is all largely a result of unconscious bias.

Think about it… many leaders in organisations are middle-aged white men – this is reflected in the stats.?

And as a middle-aged white man, even if you don't realise, you're going to naturally feel more comfortable and more kinship with another middle-aged white man, even if a woman has more experience and the qualifications needed.

I'm not saying it's a conscious thing, it's unconscious bias, a framework of beliefs and stereotypes. It's not intentional, it's not purposeful, but it's still very much alive and kicking in the workplace.

And this isn't something that's going to go away overnight, it’s going to take time to shift and change.?

It’s about taking away the blame and judgment and being really honest about the frameworks that you carry and the stereotypes that you might be seeing based on that.

This isn't about men vs women, this is about how do we move this whole situation forward.

2. ? ? Lack of support

Another reason women might not be promoted as much as men is lack of support and company commitment from leaders at the very top. There’s little focus on creating gender parity and making sure they’re doing the work to make sure there isn’t any disparity.

This needs to change at the very top of organisations and needs to be at the very heart of diversity and inclusion agendas.

It needs to happen in a way that every person supports it. Where there's a culture that allows for inappropriate behaviour to be called out and where someone who's making assumptions or unconscious bias are given support to change rather than being blamed or shamed.

For example, there was a survey from Lean In that found women are not granted the same chances as men for support and guidance - especially women at the very top. The study discovered that women are 24% less likely to be offered advice from a senior leader than men.

This lack of support contributes to holding females back and adds to the idea of the ‘old boy’s network’.

It's perfectly natural, if you are in the majority, that you don't see and understand the lived experience of the minority.?

You're not going to have the same lived experience so it's natural that men are going to support men more and assist each other to climb the corporate ladder. The way our brain works is to look for people that are so similar to you, that's just being human.

But this leads to women feeling unappreciated and not having the same level of visibility in organisations as their male colleagues.

3. ? ? Lack of self-promotion

Unfortunately there’s an epidemic amongst women in the corporate world and that is that they struggle to really own their impact and promote themselves.

Self-promotion means talking about the things that you've done, achieved, and are really owning. It means owning the impact that you're making and not just recognising that you’re doing an incredible job but telling people about it…. share it, shout it from the rooftops, promote it!

I know for a lot of women that feels really uncomfortable, icky and not something that you're naturally used to doing.

You’re more used to putting your head down and getting the job done. And if you’re not feeling appreciated or respected, you might question the point in sharing anyway. But your reputation is your responsibility and it’s up to you to show up, to speak up and to shake things up.?

I talk more about this in my blog 5 steps to help women in senior leadership self-promote… you can read it here.

4. ? ? Women’s relationship to ambition

Women’s relationship to ambition is a big factor of why women are not being promoted as much as men.

Firstly, this can be seen in the words that are used to describe men vs. the words that are used to describe women.

A man might be assertive, a go getter… a woman is described as aggressive or bossy.

A man could be described as driven and ambitious… women as hard and relentless.

A man is passionate about their work… whereas women are emotional.

And as part of that, it's seen as selfish for women to want that career and have that drive and ambition.?

Especially if they're a mother, it often comes with added guilt when making those decisions… like what is the most important thing to me? Do I need to make a choice between family and a career? Whereas men don't often need to make that choice.

A lot of this goes back to really childhood beliefs, something I spend a lot of time working with clients on. A big framework I grew up with was ‘good girls are seen and not heard’… a limiting belief I see impact my life even still to this day.

Have a think of which childhood beliefs you grew up with, how they may be affecting you and your ambition and, most importantly, how you can rid yourself of them.

5. ? ? Gender Stereotyping

For me, I grew up in the late seventies so a lot of the stories I heard were Disney or about the beautiful princess who wasn’t capable on her own and needed rescuing by a knight in shining armour.

A lot of the gender stereotypes people hold and cultural norms are built from these experiences.

Also, the way we compliment children… Often for girls it’s on how pretty they are or the dress they're wearing, whereas for boys it’s often on their strength or what they’re doing. These are cultural norms. They are assumptions we make that we need to learn to break down so that we can empower women to know that they can step outside of these stereotypes.

Especially as the gender spectrum is ever evolving, we need to really help children to be praised for being themselves and let the little girls who are bossy know they are the leaders of tomorrow. We need to help them to see that it's not a negative, they’re just being themselves and that’s the best thing they can do.

5 steps to get that promotion

Now we’ve identified 5 reasons why women aren’t being promoted as much as men, it’s time to think about what we can do about it.

So here’s 5 steps that you can take this year to be proactive and purposeful about getting that promotion.

Step 1: Dream Big

Make sure you really open your horizons to allow yourself to dream BIG.

Don’t just look at where you are, or the next job, and think that’s for me. If you want that promotion, don’t talk yourself out of it with all the reasons you can’t get there.

The reason this is so brilliant is that it takes you past any self doubts, lack of self belief or lack of competence you might have right now. You're just allowing yourself to get used to that bigger purpose, vision and version of you.

Almost like you’re trying it on and seeing how it fits.

Inspired Action: Think about where you ultimately want to get to? What your absolute dream job title would be? What would the organisation be? What would the industry be? Don’t talk yourself out of it before you even start… just allow yourself to dream.

Step 2: Think About How You Can Add Value

Think about what your value proposition is in your current company and outside of that… How can you really add value? How can you support your senior management team?

Then really think about your leadership style and all the brilliant parts of you… i.e. being vulnerable, empathetic, an incredible networker, assertive… how do you bring all that together and mould it into your leadership style?

And then on the flip side, think about other leaders you admire or would like to be similar to. What is it about them that you like? How can you use that within your own leadership style?

Inspired Action: Capture your feedback and any great results you’ve received in a folder – and read it! Remind yourself of the value you bring. Also share it with your boss or HR and get clear on that value proposition and know where you really add value.

I call this your feedback folder AKA your brag folder!

Step 3: Share Your Goals

Share your goals.

Talk about your potential.

Speak about where you want to get to.

Heck, tell your boss that you want their job!

The more you voice it, the more that you’re trying it on and getting used to it.

And you're also making those around you super clear on where you want to get to and what your ambitions are. It starts conversations and an awareness that is a really powerful way for you to own it.

Inspired Action: Share your goals, your ideas, your plans and really OWN them. Talk about them with your partner, peers, mentor, boss, everyone! The more we talk about things, the more we're going to manifest them into our life.

Step 4: Plan Your Pathway to Promotion

Once you know that brilliant job or level that you really want to get to, whether it be a board directory or head of a different department, whatever it is, think about your pathway there.

Ask HR, your boss, your peers, and your friends that know you incredibly well for their help and make sure that you're supported with mentors, managers and role models that inspire you.

Be super clear and identify the steps you need to take to get there.

Think…

Do you need experience in a different area?

Would it help you to have a qualification?

Do you need more experience?

How can you broaden your experience?

Inspired Action: Where you are now is point A and where you want to be is point B, what are your exact steps to get?

Step 5: Focus on Self Promotion and Raising Your Profile

Make sure that you set aside regular time to focus on your development and really own your reviews. Make certain you book them in consistently, set the agenda, the time and the place and ensure they’re honored by your manager.

In terms of raising your profile, it’s all about self-promotion. Think about what you’ve done this year, what have you achieved? What have you delivered? Then share it… in team meetings, newsletters, wherever you can.

Inspired Action: Sit down and write out a list of wins you’ve experienced at work… achievements, challenges you’ve overcome and what you’re proud of. That lady is WHO you already are, right here, right now. That’s your value and worth and what you should be promoting!

And that’s it! 5 steps to help you be purposeful and proactive in getting that promotion this year.

Give the steps a go and message me here to let me know how you get on – I would love to hear from you!

I have created space for 5 women in senior roles who want to spend 4 weeks getting clear, confident, and fired up ready to make some serious changes in their organisation. So click here to book a call NOW if you want to lock in your life changing self-development.

If you found this useful please share, and here’s my Overwhelm to On Fire: The 5 Minute Head Clearing Checklist for Women in the Corporate World… just click here to download your FREE copy!

Big love

Nic x

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