If You Want that Promotion, Be Intentional: Part One of a Series for Introverted Women Leaders

I often receive enquiries from women who are leaders who want to get promoted to the next level. If you're wanting to get a promotion, over the next few weeks, I’ll share some of the things that you can do to prepare and position yourself for it:

“There is no way to become great overnight, but in the marathon of success, it takes a lot of intention to see you through each day of the journey”.?~ Lewis Howes

Intentions provide the foundation for our goals and actions.?When you live with intention, you become more mindful of the choices and decisions that you make. Being intentional about what you want to achieve, helps you to define your goals and the steps you need to take to make things happen.

Are you tired of being turned down from promotion, or not getting an external position that is a step up? If so, being intentional will help you to increase your chances of securing that role.

Develop a vision for what you want to achieve

What are your long-term desires, not just for your career but for your whole life??How far do you want to go in your leadership career? Having a vision for what it is that you want to achieve (and developing a strategy as to how you will achieve it), makes it easier for you to not be swayed by the many distractions and knock backs you may encounter along the way.

When thinking about your vision, it is important to think about both your professional and personal life as well. Also, think about your values. What are they and how aligned is your life and work to them? If you are thinking of moving on, in order to move up, what values does an organisation need to have to align with your values and who you are?

Our values go to the core of who we are, and it is important that when we think about what we want in life, we make choices that align with our values. When we honour our values, it helps us to feel fulfilled, and make our lives and work meaningful. Working for an organisation whose values are not aligned with yours can lead to dissatisfaction and feeling unfulfilled.

Create a vision for your long-term career, getting as clear a picture as possible in your mind of what you want it to look like. Don’t worry if you can’t imagine what the specifics will be but think about the type of role you want to be doing, the kind of organisation you want to work in and the type of people you want to be working with.

You may find it helpful to create a visual representation of your vision. Not only is this empowering, having a visual reminder of what you are working towards can help with the motivation to keep going.

Get clarity on what is needed

Get clear about what it is you want to achieve and what is needed to make it happen. If you have had unsuccessful attempts at promotion, what can you learn from the feedback and how can you apply that learning?

Once you have clarity about what you want to achieve, setting goals that take into account what you have learned from feedback will help to provide you with focus and direction.

Be strategic in your approach

Prior to starting my coaching business 10 years ago, I got my second to last promotion as a result of strategically positioning myself for it. I had been at a leadership conference and spoke to someone who worked in another area who, being in the early stages of pregnancy, told me she was going to be going on maternity leave. She told me this meant a position would become available at the next level up to me.

Rather than waiting for the position to become available, when a position came up at the same level as I was on, I applied for it, got the role, and made a sideway move. I did this so that I could raise my visibility in the area where the position I wanted was.

Once I was working in that area, I took on area wide responsibilities and led on area wide initiatives. This helped me to raise my visibility and profile. When the position I wanted became available, I applied for it and got it. Whilst I got it on my merit, I am sure it helped that I had raised my visibility and self-promoted by taking on those extra responsibilities and leading on those initiatives.

What can you do to be strategic about your approach? What strategy can you adopt?

Stay focused

How consistent are you with the action you need to take? Did you start the new year full of motivation but are now doing things half-heartedly??Did you say you were going to network regularly on LinkedIn, or write an article for an industry publication but haven’t done anything to raise your visibility or promote yourself for months??

If you’ve lost motivation, don’t sit around waiting for the motivation to come, take action and the motivation will follow. Sometimes you’ve got to take the action even if you don’t feel like doing it.

Whilst giving things a miss on the odd occasion may not be too detrimental, if you consistently let things get in the way, or don’t take the action that is needed, you won’t get the results that you want.

There are many distractions that can get in the way of us achieving our goals. Sometimes things happen and we have no option but to put things on pause, or even abandon them, and that is ok. But if you’re being distracted by things which are within your control, remember, focused consistent action gets results. Remain focused on taking the action that is needed to get the results that you want.

Next week I’ll cover mindset and how to deal with the negative self-talk that causes you to lose confidence, or to doubt yourself about putting yourself out there and securing your next role.

?What can you do to be intentional about getting that promotion?

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Throughout these unprecedented times of the Covid-19 pandemic, more and more people have been questioning and rethinking what they have, or don't have control over. ?Work is a big part of this questioning and rethinking. On the Quietly Visible podcast, career and executive coach, and author of 'Work from the Inside Out: Break Through Nine Common Obstacles and Design a Career That Fulfills You', Tammy Gooler Loeb encourages you to listen to your internal voices, and find more meaningful work by transforming from the inside out. Click on the podcast link above to hear what Tammy has to say.

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Upcoming Events

Below are events coming up that I am speaking at which may be of interest and you are welcome to attend. I would love to see you there. Click on the links to find out more:

Do you recognise the diversity within your diverse groups? What are you missing and what’s the impact of that on your colleagues and customers?

On 24 March at 8.30am GMT, myself and a panel of other executive coaches will unpack this term and what it means for you, your teams and your organisation.

This event will provide valuable insight, new perspectives and challenge your thinking. Register at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/what-do-we-mean-by-intersectionality-and-why-does-it-matter-tickets-224578990807

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LET'S MAKE A GLOBAL DIFFERENCE

Welcome to the 2022 EXCEPTIONAL Woman Tour!?

This 3-day event will connect women globally to powerful speakers, authors, educators and entertainers worldwide. This will be a virtual interactive event. I will be speaking about how to unleash your introverted superpower. This AMAZING experience was designed to empower, inspire, and UNITE women around the world while providing applicable tools and resources to take YOU to your next level! Do not miss your opportunity to change your life, elevate your status and make a LEGENDARY impact for future generations to come!?It is free to attend and you can register at https://whova.com/portal/registration/qoewc_202109 /.

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Tickets are now available for #WeAreTechWomen’s #OneTechWorld Conference - 1 April!

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If you are interested in enhancing your knowledge of all things tech, join them for keynotes and panels where they will, along with over 100 speakers, be discussing AI, Cyber, Data, Digital, Fintech, AR, VR, Robotics, Startups, Scale Ups, D&I in Tech plus much more. I will be talking about how to thrive as an introverted leader.

See their amazing agenda and topics here: https://wearetechwomen.com/one-techworld virtual-conference-2022-agenda /. And discover their line up of inspiring speakers: https://wearetechwomen.com/virtualconference-2022-speakers /. Book your ticket now for a chance to learn, network and discover: https://wearetechwomen.com/conference/

For bulk tickets, please email [email protected]

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I am delighted to be speaking at the AFBELive Conference taking place on 22nd April 2022, at the IET Savoy Place in London. Join me for a full-day engagement as we share ideas and collaborate to highlight the importance of diversity and inclusion to the future of engineering, sustainability, and innovation.

>> Information, tickets & registration >> https://afbelive.com/register /

#AFBELive22 #NextBigIdea #FutureOfEngineering #DiversityandInclusion

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About Me

I am an Executive, Career and Leadership Coach specialising in introverted women who are senior leaders. I've been the featured expert in Women and Home Magazine, Good Housekeeping Magazine, the Telegraph, on BBC Radio 5 Live, named a LinkedIn Top Voice UK 5 times, and received awards for my work developing women leaders.

Through my work I have helped 1000s of women across the globe to increase their confidence, influence and impact as leaders, and overcome imposter syndrome, increase their executive presence, improve speaking performance in meetings, get a promotion, and much more.

My vision is that ALL women achieve their full potential and become influencers of positive change in their respective fields.

If you are an introverted woman and a senior leader and want to increase your confidence, influence and impact, take my free assessment and get a report identifying areas to develop. You can take the assessment?here .?

My book Quietly Visible: Leading with Influence and Impact as an Introverted Woman addresses many of the challenges that introverted women face as leaders and shows you how to overcome them. It was listed as one of the 10 best self-development books written by women to read during lockdown by BeYourOwn. You can get your copy?here ?along with a FREE recording of my How to Overcome Imposter Syndrome workshop.