How Women Get Promoted

It was a Monday morning, the conversation was about speaking up, asking for what you need, and positioning yourself for leadership opportunities. The audience, 50 women in STEM working for a well-regarded, successful, and committed Fortune 100 tech giant. Then one workshop attendee spoke up:

"The only way to move up as a woman in tech is to get out. Companies aren't incentivized to promote, they'd rather just hire new!"

Although leaving often seems to be the choice many women in tech, bio, and finance make when seeking a promotion or a raise,?I thought it was a broken rung thing, not a company policy. She was adamant, however, that leaving is the easiest - if not the main - way to move up the ladder.

Whether by design or accidental, the other women in the course seemed to agree that more often than not it's easier to get promoted by changing companies than by trying to position yourself internally. This is not just this company or these women, in our line of work we hear some version of this over and over again at Noteworthy.

Curious, I decided to find out whether or not promotion by exit really is the method of choice for women seeking leadership opportunities. Noteworthy ran a poll in our newsletter, and on LinkedIn . Close to 200 women responded. Here's what they had to say:

Numbers Don't Lie

The question we asked was whether leaving your company is the only way for ambitious women to get promoted. 41% of women responded "Definitely" and another 45% felt that most of the time 'promotion by exit' was the way to go. That's 86% of women who feel like growth opportunities in their current companies are difficult if not impossible to access.

But what story are they telling us?

I don't believe these numbers reveal a new truth about company policy around women in leadership. I do know they say a whole lot about women's frustration and sense of helplessness around professional growth and career ascension. Companies that genuinely value and want to retain the talent women bring to their organizations cannot ignore the data.

Your women are leave because they want more. Women leave because they have ambitions, they desire to do something meaningful and impactful with their work. When they don't see those opportunities readily available where they are, they're left with few options other than to leave.

If you are losing women at a high rate, it's time to ask yourself where the broken rungs are on your promotional ladder.

Pragmatic Optimist

At Noteworthy we are pragmatic optimists. We genuinely believe that the companies we partner with want to elevate women and benefit from their expertise and ambition. We believe that a system that was neither created by nor designed for women can adapt because it's to everyone's advantage. We're also pragmatic, changes of this magnitude take time (and there's that pesky issue of bias). To address those pragmatic issues we work both with women - to support and shore up skills that allow them to better navigate the existing system. And we consult with companies to help them identify, dismantle, and replace systems that work against women and against the best interest of the company.

How Do Women Get Promoted?

Visibility

One path to promotion is to position yourself for a better opportunity at another company. In many ways that can feel a lot easier than moving internally. Another option is to build the visibility, relationships, and opportunities you need within your organization to be seen, recognized, and valued. Visibility matters, it makes it so that when you ask for a promotion every stakeholder is clear about your value and the impact you can make. And when opportunities arise your name is on a shortlist of people who need to be considered for the job.

Corporate Action

Women can't be the only ones making an effort, companies need to take a closer look at their own internal systems. If you are losing women at a high rate, it's time to ask yourself where the broken rungs are on your promotional ladder. We at Noteworthy can help . Another great resource is your own people - both existing employees and former employees. When Noteworthy women are looking into to join new companies we often recommend they talk to former employees who have left the prospective company at least six months earlier. These folks have enough distance from their former job to share the truth about their experience without fear of burning bridges or the heated lense of a potentially recent unhappy experience. There are many companies that nwould benefit from auditing former employees to better understand what is and isn't working in their systems.

I'm curious how would you have answered our poll?

Please share your response in a comment, and if you need help accessing the opportunities you want in your company, or holding on to those ambitious women whose talent you really can't afford to lose, contact us at Noteworthy; we can help.

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Invisible to Unforgettable - An Opportunity For Women In STEM and Finance

Noteworthy is launching its Spring session of?Invisible to Unforgettable .

We are looking for 20 women in STEM and Finance (preferably director levels and up) who are eager to grow their visibility, articulate their value with confidence and clarity, showcase their thought leadership and impact, and build the skills and network to propel their careers.

If you are interested in applying, please message me here on LinkedIn for next-steps. If you know of a woman in your organization who could benefit from this support message me as well.

Our next cohort launches on May 20th, 2022. Applications are open, space is limited, the value is undeniable (ask any of our Noteworthy women, most would be glad to connect with you in person to share their experience).

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About Dr. Alessandra Wall & Noteworthy

We have a big problem to solve. Every day thousands of incredibly smart, driven, hardworking, and accomplished women are feeling unseen, undervalued, and underpaid. They're falling out of love with their work and contemplating leaving their jobs when there's so much left for them to achieve.

At Noteworthy we're committed to helping women in leadership show up more powerfully and own their value so they can be successful and change the world.

Personally, I want to see so many women in positions of leadership that it's no longer noteworthy.

To achieve this vision we work directly with?women leaders in STEM and finance?to help them articulate, plan, and build careers that are wildly successful and deeply satisfying. We also realize that some serious change is needed at the systems level, so?we collaborate with companies and forward-thinking leaders who genuinely care to retain, support, elevate, and attract amazing professional women in STEM and finance.

• Connect with me on LinkedIn?here
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