Hello, everyone, welcome to another episode of Maximize Your Career. I'm your host, Stacy Mayer, - super excited to be here with you again this week. So, I have a pretty exciting and proud announcement to make. This past week, I was featured in an article inside of Forbes magazine, and you can find that article it's titled - How Successful Women Get Promoted To The Executive Suite - and we'll also make sure we link to it in the show notes, but I just wanted to take a moment to celebrate. And not only am I so proud of this accomplishment for myself, but I am also super excited for the impact that this is going to have on the work that I'm doing. 

So, as you know, my mission is to change the way organizations do business from the C-suite out; and the way that we're going to do that is by doubling the number of corporate badasses - powerhouse successful corporate women - who still aren't getting that voice at the table. We're going to double the number of women promoted to the C-suite each and every year worldwide. And when I get an article in Forbes, when I have a book that you can now purchase when it becomes a bestseller - which it has -  that's when this work, Promotions Made Easy, gets out to more and more women. So, thank you all so much for your support, and I'm just really thrilled and can't wait to see what happens next. 

So, before I get into today's episode, I want to share with you. Now, you know, I love sharing behind the scenes of what we're working on inside of Executive Ahead of Time and this week I have a backwards announcement. So, what I mean by that is it's not always roses and daisies. Well, in fact - actually last week - it was half roses and daisies and the other half a crappy rainstorm. And the reason why I'm sharing that with you - is because sometimes it can feel a bit impossible when I'm saying to you every single week, somebody is making an announcement inside of our private Facebook community that they got promoted. And I'm not lying, this is happening on the regular. But I also want to share with you what else is happening, and that's going to be a really great segue into today's episode. 

So last week, in addition to one of the corporate badasses announcing her promotion and the amazing pay increase that she received as part of that promotion; and as well as she feels like this promotion is putting her on her path to her 3X vision. And congratulations to her and all of the other women inside of the program. We also found out that one of the women was passed over for a promotion, which is not great. That never feels good. But what I was so proud of when she made that announcement and she actually told us when we were doing what I call wins. So, at the beginning of every one of our weekly coaching calls, I check in with the women and they report on some wins. And she said, 'Well, it's sort of a backwards win in that I got passed over for a promotion, but my attitude was completely different about it,' and hats off to her. 

It's never great to get passed over for a promotion, but when you can sort of have what I call a 'next' attitude being like, 'Alright, well, let me figure out what to do next' versus going into the drama of getting passed over for a promotion and the feeling that it's never going to work out for me. And that is really so powerful. And that's what we're doing inside of Executive Ahead of Time - is that we're creating this container for these women to be able to feel uplifted and to say, 'Next - okay, I'm going to figure this out'. And then of course, I'm giving them the coaching to actually figure it out and navigate what would be next for them. So that was one backwards win. 

And then the other one, and this is what ties into today's episode, is that one of the women was directly told that she was being too ambitious. And this is a common thing that happens for a lot of women. Once they start to quote-unquote lean in, put themselves out there, talk about money, promotions very openly, building these relationships, reaching out to your boss's boss's boss. I have a really beautiful story inside of Promotions Made Easy - my book - where I lay out this entire scenario where a woman got exactly what she wanted in that she started to build this really powerful relationship with her boss. Where one of my corporate badasses got exactly what she wanted, she started building this really powerful relationship with her CEO and then in one of the larger meetings at her company, the CEO mentioned that he was having meetings with her and then all of her peers all of a sudden were like, it came down on her, 'You're meeting with the CEO, why are you meeting with the CEO?'. And that is going to happen over and over and over again in our careers as women. 

And I think the sooner that we can realize that that's part of the game as disgusting and horrible - and all of these bad things - is once we can start to really acknowledge that what it does is it takes away the shame. And I am a victim of shame. My whole life, I usually internalize things when something happens; when something goes wrong, I make it my fault. I sort of over-embellish. And this has been something that I've really worked on for a long time, and I feel really proud that I can sometimes come out on the other side. 

And so, what I'm mentioning here is that in this particular case - so she's putting herself out there and now she's being told that she's too ambitious. So, she has to course correct and have to figure out what to do next. That's part of the game. And I could tell when she brought it up, it was more of a fascination. And I so appreciated that attitude. She was like, 'This is so interesting. I didn't actually do anything. But yet people want to be all up in my business'. And this is what happens over and over and over again, especially for women and minority leaders. It happens time and time again. 

And so, this is what we're changing, and a lot of people take the outside-in approach and change the organizations from the outside, as in, through diversity and inclusion measures and trainings. And all of those things are so, so, so important. And we need to address some of the systemic issues in organizations 100 percent. And my hat's off to all of those leaders that are doing that work. And then the work that I'm doing with this podcast and inside my programs, is to really empower you to be able to change yourself so that we can change organizations from the C-suite out - meaning get you into the C-suite so you can really be that change.

And so, I was super proud of this neutral, fascinated approach of what happens to so many people on a regular basis, unfortunately. And then she's able to course correct. And through the coaching, she was able to see, 'Oh, well, here's where I can pull back. But you know what? I think I'm still going to lean in here.' And here's the A-plus outcome to this whole story - is that she actually received a raise. So, think about this, so on one hand - by certain people - she was being told that she was too ambitious. And at the same time, she also asked if it was possible to review her salary and to level-set it in terms of the other people at her organization who are getting paid more than her doing the same work, and she might be doing even more work. And so, she actually received approval on a raise. And so, at the end of the day, and I think this is part of the reason that she was able to look at it as sort of an experiment; and be fascinating with the whole thing, which is that she received the raise, she received the pay increase. And then on the other side, she's being told she's too ambitious. 

So, the work that I do with clients is really recognizing the political world that we live in. What is happening in these quote-unquote disagreeable environments, that we work in every single day. And acknowledging that this is part of the game - and it's not an excuse to say that it's okay - but really, it's an experiment to work on ourselves to figure out what we as leaders need to do differently. So, in her case, what I am working with her on is finding her own authentic power. And I'm going to describe with you today what authentic power means and how you can start finding that for yourself. 

So, the first thing that I want to point out is that authentic power is different Than authenticity and how I see authenticity. So, I actually developed this term through this podcast. And as you know, I interview hundreds of successful leaders and minority leaders who are in the C-suite or senior executive leadership positions and talk to them about their career journey and their secrets of success. And I was hearing time and time again, especially from the black leaders that have made it into those higher-level positions successfully - And I say successfully because sometimes they get promoted into higher level positions and then they get told they're too ambitious and they don't actually have a voice at the table.

But these are successful leaders that were able to bring themselves to the leadership table, to have that genuine voice and also happen to be the highest-ranking black leaders at their company. Whatever that might be, it might not even be in the C-suite. They could be the highest-ranking black leader and have a VP title. And they were saying time and time again - on my interviews’ - that's what got them there, - their secrets of success - was authenticity. And once they stepped into their authentic self, they were able to really have success in their careers. 

And I always question, I always try to understand what that means, and especially when I'm a bit confused by it because this is why I'm confused as well. You know, for women, we're always told to be somebody different. Think about that. We're told not to be authentic. And I think the old approach to women's leadership was to actually act more like a man. And so that means maybe not be so passionate, maybe not be so loud. Maybe not be so enthusiastic. Maybe not cry when we're upset or disappointed about something. We're told to kind of shove all of that down. And then on the flip side, we're told to be more aggressive, to put ourselves out there, to ask for that raise, to ask for that promotion. And then when we do, we get told that we're being too ambitious. So that feels - unfortunately - like the opposite of what being authentic would do for you. And I could imagine - and I can only imagine as a white woman - what it would be like to be a black woman who is being told to be more authentic at work, and you're like, 'Well, that just backfired. That just blew up in my face.'

And so, I didn't understand what it was that they were talking about. So, I dove in a little bit deeper and asked them to describe in more detail what they really meant by being an authentic leader and how that led to their success. And what I heard over and over and over again is that they really had to learn to own their power. They had to learn how to disassociate themselves from the negative behavior that they were experiencing at work. So if they're experiencing microaggressions on the daily, instead of internalizing It and saying, 'Well, maybe I'm not meant to be an executive leader', they realized that these microaggressions or whatever it may be, even blatant racism was happening, had nothing to do with their ability to be a total corporate badass, essentially. And they learned how to stay in their own lane. 

But there was this element of power tied to the authenticity. So, in a couple of these examples, how they would describe themselves is this idea of not giving two shits. Really going all in and knowing who they were. And by who we are, now I want you to remember that as a woman, you are so incredibly powerful. It is actually more authentic for you to own how much of a corporate badass you totally are. And when you really understand that and you really understand the magnitude of your power that you understand that your organization needs you in the C-suite more than you need them; when you know that all the way through and through and through, that's when you can be authentically powerful. And that's when you're going to start to see success at the executive leadership level. 

So, I want to break this down a little bit more. So, I talked about politics at work. So, one of the requirements I believe, to being authentically powerful, is knowing and understanding that you work for a corporation - a corporation that cares about their bottom line; a company that cares more about their stakeholders than you. And hopefully, you don't all work at companies like that. But you know, let's just say that that's true. So, they care more about their organization than they do about you getting promoted. And you getting promoted is your responsibility, not theirs. And so, when we know that that's true, we know that It's important for us to build relationships in order to get promoted into those higher-level executive positions. 

And we also know sometimes we are going to have to just ask for the raise. We know that sometimes we're going to have to go against the status quo and perhaps bring up an opinion that is different than the rest of the room. We also know that if that opinion is not well received, maybe because, simply not because it wasn't a great idea; but because we don't look like the rest of the room, then what we're going to do is we're going to start to have side conversations. We're going to build allies. We're going to tell those allies, 'Look, when I presented this idea, it wasn't very well received. Would you be willing to present it on my behalf?' Now, that does not mean giving other people credit. That doesn't mean that the other person is going to not say that it wasn't your amazing, fantastic idea. Of course, they will. And you need to tell them to do that, and they will do that. 

But the fact of the matter is - is that there's some people at your organization that wield a little bit more power than other people. And I know this Is going to piss some of you guys off because you're like, 'Well, that's not fair.'  And it's not fair. But you know what I want  - what I care more about? I care more about you getting that seat at the table. And if you get that seat at the table in a way that is just power hungry, you spoke up, you told them what you wanted. Maybe you got that seat at the table because you are a woman and they promoted you as the token woman. Then six months in, it's going to feel terrible if you don't actually have a voice if you don't actually have those allies. And so, what I'm suggesting is that we use power - and our authentic power - to know and discern which battles, when do we need to be more assertive and when do we need to back down? When do we need to create an alliance over here? When do we need to pivot and go find another position at another company - somebody else who's going to appreciate me and include me in the conversation - that is authentic power. 

Staying in your own lane while also recognizing that we work with other human beings. And everything that I teach inside of Executive Ahead of Time and also in my higher-level mastermind programs is about creating That authentic power. And in the mastermind, that's when we go deep into that, really understanding who you are and knowing your worthiness and your value and what you bring to the organization, so through and through that literally nobody can shake you. You can be pissed. You can be disappointed. You can be annoyed that you got screwed over once again. But you're going to pivot so quickly, you'll be out of there. You'll already have allies built up; you'll already have other opportunities - because you are the owner of your career. You know that you are the only person that can make the best fit happen for yourself. So that is authentic power. That is that grounded confidence in yourself to make things happen for yourself. 

And that is how we're going to start to change organizations from the C-suite out. I want you to be in that position of influence and power at your organization. And now when you get in that position, your goal is not to have more power over people. It's not to get the title so that you can just do the same old crap and perpetuate the same old negative cycles. You want to be in that position of leadership to have real influence and to influence other leaders at your organization - to become the role model of what it really means to have a diverse leadership table. 

So, you're going to have to bring your ideas, your opinions, to the table; but you're also going to have to do the work of building those allies as well. Because you need to have that real voice. You need to be able to be included. And you could say, ‘Well, you know, a person that looks like the rest of the room and thinks like the rest of the room, they don't have to work so hard, and they don't have to do all of this extra stuff. Why do I have to do twice as much and barely get ahead?' And what I want to say to that is, 'Yeah' - sometimes that is actually true. But what I care more about than the hard work - and I think you do too, because I think if you're listening, you must understand the value of hard work as well. 

What I care more about is actually instituting change. So, I don't care about having more women on board seats so that we can be told that we're being too aggressive. But what I do want to do is empower the women to go after their own board seats and to learn how to put themselves into a great cultural fit so that they can really drive change for that organization, so they can be that diverse voice. And those types of companies, those types of boards, they are out there. But we have to stand in our own authentic power. 

We have to understand that there is a balance to everything. We have to learn how to really respect and acknowledge ourselves, to pivot, to go after what matters most and to really speak up when we need to speak up. And move on when we need to move on. So, this is authentic power, it's very, very exciting to me, and I'm going to be diving more into what this looks like over the next couple of podcast episodes. And also, I have a new high level advanced mastermind group starting in April where we're really, really going to be understanding that balance and challenging ourselves - not to just be better executives - but to really have that influence and impact and to really have success once we reach those higher-level positions. 

So, if that's of interest to you, if you want to get in on this April group, the first step is to join Executive Ahead of Time. We have to learn the rules before we can break them. The rules are of executive leadership inside of that program. Every single week you're going to get coaching from me and then the April group will open up for enrollment in March. So, get inside of Executive Ahead of Time today. 

Get started, learn about the work that I do, and be ready because we are bringing it in 2022.We are bringing our authentic power to the leadership table, and we are going to get paid and recognized on the way. 

Thank you so much for listening and I'll see you next week. Bye.