Suffer from lack of visibility and recognition of your efforts in the workplace…

Are stuck in a rut in your career with no sign or indication of a promotion …

Know for a fact that you are better than your peers but they are the ones whose careers are going places not yours, then this message is just for you.

Here’s why…

You need to fill the Executive Presence Competency Gap that's preventing your translating Merit into Promotion

And you need to realize, there is a cost to not dealing with this…

If You Ignore It, It Just Gets Worse

What most people do when facing career progression issues is start complaining about the unfairness in the workplace, get obsessed with petty issues and even threaten to leave or simply resign and leave for allegedly greener pastures or end up sitting at home praying for a new job.

Your technical mastery is assumed.

What's more important is how you lead and influence others through relationships and communication skills.

I’ve got an answer that works, and it's backed by experience. Here’s the story:

Very early in my career as a trainee-chartered accountant, I missed a promotion that meant a lot to me, in terms of opportunities, pay increment and peer competition. I was young at the time. It felt like apocalypse had happened.

Considering I was a top performer and had done 2 prestigious industrial secondments, one of which was the 1988 Big Bang in London, my shock and anger is understandable.

When I look back in time, the details of that day are still fresh in my mind.

I was working on an audit assignment at a client’s premise when I got a call from the Group Secretary to let me know that the Group Manager wanted to talk to me and could I come back to the office after lunch?

I thought it would be about some audit assignment and didn’t give it much thought.

I was completely unprepared for what happened in that meeting.

My Group Manager was a great boss. Our meeting started with cordiality about how my work was coming along, my preparations for the exams and also when I was planning my next holiday.

Then, looking out of the window, he said he wanted to share an important bit of news with me first before the rest of the department found out.

Our annual promotions were going to be announced and I was not getting promoted.

I sat there quietly with my hands clasped in my lap while I heard the reason. I was being overlooked because my Group Managers thought I was ‘too nice’ and needed some tough skin.

Clients commended my work and considering that I was also studying towards my professional qualifications which I passed with flying colors each time, how on earth did my being nice get in the way of a promotion that carried a solid pay rise along with the coveted chance to lead an audit?

I couldn’t believe my ears and asked lots of questions. Why wasn’t I guided earlier if there was a problem? I got a ton of wishy-washy replies that didn’t make any sense to me.

Our meeting was basically to give me a chance to digest the information and prepare for the announcement.

My Group Manager mumbled away about rectifying this deficiency and informed me that the solution was a 6-month transfer to the Insolvency Department to toughen me up.

His idea was that if I heard screaming creditors baying for blood on the telephone demanding money from companies that didn’t have any, I’d overcome this deficiency.

I did – my way.

I spoke about it to an older lady friend who had an international equity financing company and was well networked. She put me in touch with her company’s audit partner and I got a meeting with him.

This Partner gave me a patient hearing and asked lots of questions including how the meeting with the Group Manager had gone. It was a complete audit of the event!

Then after thinking for a while, he told me that he would be happy to offer me a job and take on the training, but he was more concerned about how this would affect me in the years to come.

His concern for me was whether I would look back in 20 years’ time and wonder if I could have faced the situation and how I would have handled it.

His words were sage as he told me to be professional, focus on my studies and work towards getting that promotion.

The deed had been done but victory in war could be mine IF I was willing to step into my power and demonstrate that I had what it took and challenge the view of one of the influential managers who had created the situation.

I should focus on the upcoming Insolvency assignment and make it a success because people would be watching me for my next step. He showed me how to play positive politics.

At that moment, I realized that 1 person’s opinion really didn’t matter. The Group Manager had felt obliged to give me advance warning. Our Group Partner wasn’t able to look me in the eye. Besides, I had achievements to my credit.

I took the challenge head on.

6 months later, I got the promotion, pay rise and yes, led audits and even trained new aspiring-chartered accountants.

A year later I qualified and set off to trail blaze in the deserts of Qatar as the first lady auditor in the profession and that too during the Gulf War. Many more firsts and career achievements would follow in the years to come.

Looking back at an event that took place more than 30 years ago, I realize that my managers were unable to actually tell me about the exact deficiency in explicit terms. I'm grateful for the transfer to Insolvency where I learned a lot.

They weren’t trying to demoralize an otherwise good employee but didn’t know how to give effective feedback and tell me that I needed more Gravitas.

Rather a specific element called demonstrating decisiveness.

I learned to play the game the way I was supposed to while maintaining my integrity and ethics.

I used my time in the Insolvency department to be mentored by my reporting manager to be more confident in my communications with clients on the telephone. I worked on my voice – to be polite but firm.

My coaching clients and consults have a similar issue where they don’t know why they aren’t getting promoted.

Sometimes there are more specific concerns like confidence, delegation, project management or even ability to manage stress (based on a one-off assignment)that are being masked by trite industrial jargon like leadership or wow factor or even personal attributes that have nothing to do with their overall performance.

And its not just for me.

It Worked For These Women Professionals, And It Will Work For You

This course is being facilitated by an intuitive, analytical, no-nonsense, experienced Executive and Career Coach who simplifies things without reinventing the wheel.

Like my coaching and consulting clients, I like to get to the core of the problem and find the simplest solution without creating stress or worry.

When you’re facing a challenge like this, you don’t need more information.

You need to apply the information that you have with the help of a coach who will hold the space for you to discover and leverage your strengths and find ways to reduce the impact of your weaknesses.

That’s why I created this course for women professionals who want to understand the basics of Executive Presence and apply it to further their careers.

I’m confident that you will see a difference in the way others see you and more importantly in how you see and manage yourself.

The course content will be delivered by video, audio, written lessons and includes worksheets plus bonus resources to help you get the most out of the course.

You’ll be held accountable in the discussion sections of the lessons.

Post completion, you'll also receive a Certificate of Completion.

And you are 100% safe to try this out. That’s all I’m suggesting. Just try it for 30 days and you’ll see it working for you.