This week I hosted three masterclasses where I walked women through the three big things that hold you back from becoming a VP, helped them determine where they need to focus and also shared more about my program.
This is a big topic. My goal with these masterclasses is always to help women gain an insight or two into what may be keeping them stuck today. With that said, we only have an hour or so together, so it’s difficult to dive too deeply into some of the more nuanced topics.
In today’s newsletter, I want to zoom in on a subset of what I call the Perception Problem. Specifically, I want to talk about three pitfalls that create this problem and keep women stuck.
These are things that most women think are helping them or they simply don’t realize are hurting them, but in fact, are sending a message to the people around them (and their manager) that they are not ready for the next level.
So, let’s dive in…
What’s the Perception Problem?
If you haven’t heard me talk about the perception problem, this is a term that I coined to describe a scenario I see many women find themselves in, including me when I was a director trying to land my first VP role.
Essentially, the Perception Problem happens when you have the knowledge and skills to get to the next level, and perhaps you are 100% ready for it, but you’ve unintentionally created the perception with leadership and your manager that you are not ready.
I talk about this in my program, and a lot of what I cover in the exec skills portion of the program solves this problem. It both teaches you how to develop as a strategic executive and how to demonstrate that strategic leadership to the people around you.
The problem for many women is that we are great at working to get better, but we’re not always great at showcasing our expertise or our strategic ideas.
The other thing I’ve noticed is that sometimes we engage in behaviours that may have been formed because of conditioning or old habits, and they are contributing to the Perception Problem in a big way.
Three of these behaviours tend to come up again and again. Here they are:
#1. The high-performing executor
The High Performing Executor is the woman who’s amazing at her job, hits all of her goals, and crushes any task you give her. Unfortunately, at promotion time, she’s not seen as being ready for the next level.
What’s happening here?
The key issue with focusing 100% on doing your job perfectly is that you probably aren’t spending time demonstrating that you are ready for that next level.
Instead of spending all of your time focused on your individual goals or your team’s goals, you need to spend some time thinking bigger and more broadly about the business and finding new problems that you can solve that will have an outsized impact beyond your role.
Something to remember is that doing your job perfectly does not tell leadership that you are ready for the next level. Demonstrating the skills for that next job is what they want to see before they promote you.
The high-performing executor is usually going a million miles a minute. Spoiler alert: if you want to escape this pitfall, you need to slow down.
#2. The ‘can’t say no’ people-pleaser
The ‘Can’t Say No’ People Pleaser is someone who, you guessed it, can’t say no. This is you if you say yes to every task or ask, regardless of whether you feel it’s a promotable task or whether you even want to do it.
I’ve worked with women who are still saying yes to requests related to a job they did two jobs ago before their promotion. They tell themselves that it’s faster to just do it themselves instead of redirecting the person to the new task owner, but the truth is they are people-pleasers to the core and struggle to say no.
They often admit that they get a bit of a dopamine hit from feeling useful to others.
People may appreciate your help, but this is an issue for a few reasons:
- You are communicating to others that your time is not valuable. If you say yes to everything, you clearly don’t prioritize your calendar.
- You’re communicating to your manager that you don’t exercise good judgment if you are saying “yes” when you should be saying “no.”
- When you say yes to everything, you’re not leaving yourself time to do the strategic work required to demonstrate you are ready to be at the next level.
#3. The ‘do it myself’ non-delegator
This third pitfall is an issue for so many of the high-achieving, perfectionist women that I know. They struggle to delegate to their team because of some crucial flaws in their thinking:
- It’s faster if I just do it myself
- They won’t do it as well as I can
- This is a crappy task that I should not burden my team with
You may think you’re doing a really nice thing by keeping these tasks for yourself because the work product is better, things get done faster, and your team is not bogged down with these tasks.
The problem is, by doing this, you’re communicating something very different to the people around you.
Just like with the second pitfall, you’re unintentionally telling your manager and leadership that you don’t have great judgment and that you’re not ready to operate at the next level. If you’re not delegating, you’re probably also way too overloaded with work to spend time on strategic thinking.
A final note on delegation: getting great at this is good for you AND your team, because it allows them to step up and take on new responsibilities.
What now?
If you’ve identified yourself in any of these personas, it may be holding you back from getting to that next level. Here’s what you can do:
If you missed the Masterclass and want to catch the replay, email me here and let me know. I can give you access until Sunday at midnight.
If you see yourself in the leaders I described today, my group program may be the perfect fit to help you get unstuck and finally land that VP role. Sign up below, and let’s make 2026 your year of getting promoted.
Until next time friends… ✌️💜
Katy
