My corporate career looks amazing on paper. I made it to VP, and then EVP, and although my career journey was far from a straight line to the top, I’m really proud of it. I'm proud of the impact I created and even more so, the women I was able to mentor along the way.
And I'm so proud that I didn't give up, because as you probably already know, the road to get to the exec suite was messy, and honestly, messier than it needed to be.
I think a big reason I’m able to help so many women today is that I made a lot of the same mistakes I now watch you make.
So this week I want to do something a little different. I’m not going to teach you a framework or walk you through three steps… I’m just going to tell you the truth about what I’d do differently if I were starting my VP push today, knowing what I know now (almost a decade later!).
There are 4 things that really stand out that I would go back and coach the younger version of me to change. Today, I'm going to walk you through each of them.
Let’s dive in…
I’d slow down to speed up
For years, I equated being busy with being successful. My inbox was full, I was jumping from meeting to meeting, and I was putting out fires all day. I wore it like a badge of honour. If I'm honest, it made me feel important.
Early in my career, this behaviour was exactly what got me raises, praise and promotions. I could bang out work faster than anyone, and never dropped a single ball. I was willing to travel 50% of the time. I cared about every detail. The problem is that I didn't realize that as you get more senior in your career, this is no longer the best way to operate.
To be clear, I was doing a lot! But what I wasn’t doing was any deep work. I wasn’t carving out time to actually sit and think about the biggest problems the business was facing. I was so reactive and focused on execution that the idea of spending hours thinking was not only uncomfortable, it was almost impossible for me!
I remember my boss telling me I could work out during work hours if I wanted to, and thinking, “Are you crazy? We’re not even at our goal.”
So many of the women I coach operate exactly the way I did. You're so busy heads down in the work that you can't see the real strategic opportunities right in front of you.
But the women I know who get promoted fastest aren’t the busiest ones. They’re the ones who are intentional about where they put their energy.
When I first tried to slow down and start spending time on strategic thinking, I had no idea what to do with quiet time. I had never stopped before! So I scheduled a recurring meeting on my calendar every single morning with 3 prompt questions to get me started:
- What’s the goal?
- What’s the bigger picture?
- What’s been successful for others or in the past?
This helped me shift the way I thought about problems and the business, and if you haven't ever stopped, I highly recommend it once you do.
Oh, and if you can’t imagine giving up two hours a week for this, I get it. This was me to a T! But believe it or not, slowing down will make you a better executive. I promise. It will help you identify the real problems that need solving, and help you solve those same problems.
I’d communicate my thinking more proactively
This one took me years to realize, because I thought I was doing the VP job and just wasn't getting the recognition. But the truth is, although I was thinking a lot of the time strategically, I wasn’t telling anyone, because my focus was all on output. And this was having a huge impact on the way I was perceived as a leader.
For example, I'm a big fan of doing a 30-day check-in, and I was actually doing this with my CEO at the time, but filling it out in a very execution-based way: I would list what I’d done or what the team had delivered on, but I wasn’t sharing the strategic thinking behind it.
As you may be able to see, this is tightly linked with my first lesson. You often need the space to think strategically and be intentional about how you're messaging insights and updates to your manager and the leadership team. If you're reactive 99% of the time, you're probably not doing this.
This is something I now tell every woman I work with to do, because most of my clients are already thinking strategically; they just need to start sharing that with the people around them. And once they do, they almost always get immediate feedback about how valuable their insights were.
I’d have invested in my health and my habits way sooner
This one’s personal. Around the time I became a director, I also became a single mom, and I wasn’t coping with that in the best way. During those years, I drank wine most nights. I had no morning routine to speak of. I had undiagnosed, unregulated ADHD. I ended up in a relationship that turned abusive, and I was under a lot of stress with very little support.
The truth is, I was spending a lot of time in survival mode, and some of this was on me. Sure, some of my circumstances were bad luck, but I wasn't helping myself by skipping the gym, downing coffee while still in bed and finishing off the night with 1/2 btl of wine. Not surprisingly, being reactive and dysregulated is the opposite of what people need to see from a VP-level leader.
If I could go back, I’d build in a 30-minute morning routine. Cut back on the alcohol. Get an ADHD diagnosis sooner because, let's face it, I had suspected I had ADHD for a while. Start a mindfulness practice years earlier instead of writing it off after one failed attempt at meditating.
Now I move my body every day, meditate every morning, and skip the alcohol except for rare celebrations. I focus on fueling my body with food that's healthy and that I love, and I never skip a meal. And it’s changed how I handle stress completely.
People often tell me how calm I am, and I think that comes from this shift more than anything else. People react to your energy, so ask yourself what kind of energy you want to put out into the world. My energy before was anxious and reactive, and that wasn't helping me show up as a VP. When you’re grounded and feeling great, you pull people toward you instead.
I’d have used my voice in the room
When I first joined the senior leadership team as a director, I was the only woman and the only director in a room full of VPs and C-level men. I felt like a newcomer, and I held back, even on topics where I had real value to add.
I had the highest EQ in that room, and our strategy sessions often turned circular and heated. My boss told me directly that I should weigh in in those meetings, because it was real value that only I could bring. He admitted that the rest of the team wasn't good at this. I remember thinking: there’s no way in hell.
I left real value on the table because I was too afraid to use it. When I stepped into my VP role, I made a conscious decision to show up differently from day one, to share my opinions and my value without holding back. And it changed how people saw me.
When I became an EVP, I shared these same types of insights and was told by many members of the team just how much they valued me for it. It allowed me to become a trusted advisor to our CEO.
These are all linked…
All four of these things are connected. When I wasn’t taking care of myself, I was too reactive to think strategically. When I was reactive, I wasn’t communicating my impact. And when I didn’t feel good about how I was showing up, I didn’t have the confidence to speak up.
I share these as the woman coaching other women to VP today who made every one of these mistakes herself. And I love that I get to help other women avoid some of my painful mistakes!
What’s next?
If you read even one of these and thought, that’s me right now, I’d love to help you figure out what’s keeping you stuck.
Registration is open for my free masterclass on September 8th: The 3 Things Holding You Back From VP (and how to fix them). It’s 90 minutes, and I’ll help you identify which pattern is holding you back today, plus specific next steps. I’ll also be sticking around live for Q&A, so bring your questions.
If you've been wanting to step into a VP role, don't miss this!
Until next time friends… ✌️💜
Katy
