When I was in my director role, I felt as though I was doing VP work without the title. I was running the whole commercial function: sales, marketing and sales ops, and reporting to the CEO. And I was convinced that the only reason I wasn't being given the VP title was that we hadn't hit the revenue milestones to tell my boss that I was ‘good enough' to be a VP.
So I kept grinding away and working harder at my job, trying to produce a result that (in retrospect) was likely impossible due to factors outside of my control. It's worth noting that it was also not necessary for me to produce these results in order to be seen as a VP, but I was unable to see this.
In my mind, I was leading my team successfully and getting things done. I was hitting milestones and creating results. So the only thing missing was hitting the revenue milestones that we'd been unable to hit.
And I stayed stuck for five years.
Here’s what I didn't realize at the time and that nobody told me: the problem was never my work ethic or the metrics we were hitting. The problem was in how I was showing up and presenting myself.
But I couldn’t see the actual gap between where I was and VP, so I continued pouring all of my energy into the wrong things, and I had zero idea I was doing it.
That gap, the one between where I was and where I needed to be, was invisible to me. And it stayed invisible until I finally became a VP and started showing up differently, and then I noticed the women around me getting stuck at the same places I did. And because I didn't want to give them the same vague feedback I had always received, I became somewhat obsessed with understanding what “VP-readiness” actually looks like to the people around us.
No one really talks about this, and it's SO important. So today I want to talk about why so many talented women stay stuck, and what you can do about it right now.
Let’s dive in…
There are two groups of women who get stuck
The first group already has the skills. They’re strategic thinkers. They're capable of influencing people and communicating well. But they’re not demonstrating any of it to the people who matter, because they’re too busy executing. They’re VP-ready and don’t even know it. Their gap isn’t capability – it’s visibility and positioning.
The second group is working incredibly hard, but they’re building the wrong skills. They’re always busy getting another certification to prove their technical competence. They believe their value lies in their knowledge, so they go deep on everything and ensure they are the expert in their function. They’ve become indispensable in their current role, but they haven't built any relationships outside of their department. And all of that effort is actually reinforcing the perception that they’re a great director, not that they’re ready to be a VP.
Both groups are stuck for the same reason: they can’t see where the real gap is.
I was firmly in the first group for years, and I had no clue. In fact, if you had asked me, I probably would have told you that I was one great quarter away from the promotion or that I needed an MBA.
Why working harder won’t fix this
Here’s the thing: early in your career, working harder IS the recipe. You outperform, you get recognized, and you move up. Manager to senior manager to director, it’s basically the same playbook: work hard, deliver results, put up your hand and do more.
But the jump from director to VP is a completely different game.
The skills that actually determine whether you’re seen as VP-ready are invisible. They're things like:
- Strategic thinking
- Cross-functional influence
- How you communicate in senior rooms
- Whether you’re advocating for yourself
None of these are on any job description, and they’re likely not in any performance review. Oh, and nobody teaches them to you.
So what do most of us do? We double down on what’s always worked. More execution. More hours. More putting up hands for the extra project. Basically, more “proving ourselves.”
I did this for five years. It didn’t work because it was never going to work. The recipe had changed, and I was still using the old one.
This is why blind spots are so dangerous
The whole reason they’re called blind spots is that you can’t see them yourself. You need something or someone outside of yourself to show you. Almost every woman I know who's made it to the C-suite has told me that – at some point in their career – another more senior woman took them aside and pointed out the changes they were going to need to make to get to the next level.
Many of us rely on our managers to give us this critical feedback. But often, instead, we end up with vague feedback like “be more strategic” or “you need more executive presence”, which doesn’t help. Your boss can tell something is off, but if they can’t properly articulate what it is and what you need to start doing differently, you’re left nodding, going back to your desk, and doing more of the same.
I've seen this so many times with women I've worked with. They have no idea why they haven't gotten that promotion yet. They're considered indispensable on the team and are consistently told to keep doing what they're doing; they're well-liked by leadership, and their team loves them.
But there's still something missing, and until they uncover what it is, they stay stuck.
I know this because I lived it myself. I nodded at that feedback for years without understanding what it actually meant. And for the record, the feedback was legit in the sense that I wasn't yet showing up as a VP, and I needed to make some changes. But it wasn't helpful, because it didn't tell me the key areas I needed to work on and how to do them.
What I needed wasn’t more effort. I needed a clear picture of where I actually stood, so I could see the gaps and do something about them.
That’s exactly why I built the VP-Ready Assessment
It takes about two minutes. You answer a short set of questions about how you’re showing up across the areas that actually determine whether you’re seen as VP-ready, and it tells you exactly where you stand.
You’ll get one of four results:
- The Undervalued Expert
- The Emerging Influencer
- The Trusted Executor
- The Visionary Executive
Each one comes with a breakdown of what you’re doing well and what specifically needs to shift. No vague feedback. No “be more strategic.” Actual, specific areas to focus on.
Because you can’t fix what you can’t see. But once you can see it, everything changes.
I also go much deeper on what VP-readiness actually looks like in this week’s episode of More Women Promoted. If you want the full picture after you take the assessment, check it out. Listen on Apple or Spotify
Until next time friends… ✌️💜
Katy
