#141 3 Things My VP Client Did to Get a Dream Promotion in 6 Months

Lucy Gernon (00:01.582)
Did you know that in 2023, proportion of women in senior leadership roles has dropped by 10 % to just 32%. This stark statistic comes from the Global Gender Pay Gap Report and it highlights the persistent gender gap at senior leadership positions. So those at vice president, director, C -suite, etc. So many women play small and are hesitant to put themselves forward for new opportunities despite their obvious talents. And then often for the women who do,

When they get there, lack of boundaries and people pleasing means they find it all too overwhelming and they quit. But it doesn’t have to be that way. So if you’re operating at the next level, I am lacking the title, I promise you this episode is going to help because I’m going to be revealing the three things that my VP client did to get her dream promotion with more balance than ever before. Are you ready? Let’s dive

Lucy Gernon (01:00.11)
Hello there and welcome back to another episode of the 360 Leadership Podcast. I am back today, Lucy Gernon, your host with a solo episode. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve done a solo episode and I’ve really missed having the chats and just connecting with you guys one to one. So it feels really, really special to be here in my studio recording this for you today. So today we are going to be talking about three things my VP client did to get her dream promotion in six months.

But before I teach you, I would really love to ask you to rate and review this podcast. Somebody said, I love Lucy and the 360 Leadership podcast. The content is so valuable to me. Thank you. And if this sounds like you, please, please consider just rating and reviewing the show because it really helps me to support more women, get my mission out there, helping more women in leadership to reach their potential. All you’ve got to do is go to Apple podcasts, click on the show, scroll to the bottom, top rate with five stars and select writer review.

or if you’re listening on Spotify, simply hit those five stars and let me know in the Q &A box what you love about the show. So today, let’s just dig straight into it. Not going to fluff. The reason I wanted to talk about this today is because it is September right now as you’re listening to the episode. So we are about to go into quarter four. And I don’t know about you, but I always feel like quarter four starts in September, even though it doesn’t start till October.

Cause it’s like the kids go back to school. It’s the second new year. We have one last final sprint towards the end of the year so that you can really, really make the impact that I know you’re capable of. And one of my clients, it has a huge success story and I’d love to share that with you. So she’s one of my clients and she is a powerhouse, absolute powerhouse. She has.

serious business acumen. She has great attention to detail. She’s highly strategic. She has a serious ability to build high performing teams. And in her recent 360 review that she requested, we worked together on her leadership and her executive presence. And all of her scores were absolutely amazing. But before all of this, behind closed doors, she was battling intense imposter syndrome, which manifested in her, I suppose, with perfectionism.

Lucy Gernon (03:25.912)
holding herself back, doing all the doing, not promoting herself, and at the same time, she saw her male colleagues being promoted and getting ahead and getting new opportunities while she remained static in what she called this like, please pick me, recognize me type of an energy. She was tired of playing small. She was tired of burning herself out and not getting the recognition. And as well, like she had a couple of young kids and

She kind of felt like she nearly had to downplay that part of her identity as a working mother. Not sure if you can relate to that, but I can definitely remember being in the corporate world and nearly being afraid to say that you couldn’t go to a meeting because you had to go to your kids show or maybe one of your kids had a dental appointment and you kind of don’t really want to bring that up in case it looks like you’re not committed, right? But that’s just a narrative that we tell ourselves, I believe, as women.

which is a conversation for another day. But if you’ve ever felt that way, you’re definitely not alone. But through working together over six months, we worked on her mindset, we worked on her leadership, we worked on her entire approach to how she showed up, her personal brand, and the results were extraordinary because she didn’t just get the promotion she deserved. She rediscovered her authentic voice as a leader. She’s so comfortable in her own skin.

And she is now sought out as a role model by more senior leaders than her, even in her organization, as to how she’s managed to really hone in and double down on this whole area of authentic leadership and while still having a great work life balance. Because I know I talk about balance a lot and to really and truly have what I call the holy trinity of success, balance and happiness. It requires huge mindset shifts.

huge mindset shifts because as women, I think we often think that we have to work really, really hard. We take on the responsibility of everything. If there is a big, I suppose, initiative happening in your company, which, by the way, is happening in all organizations. If I had a dollar for every time I heard work is busy, I wouldn’t even need to be a coach. But it is busy and there are there is shit that comes your way, but it doesn’t mean

Lucy Gernon (05:51.756)
that you have to prioritize the growth of your company over the growth of yourself. So I’m going to say that again. It doesn’t mean that you have to prioritize the growth of your company over the growth of yourself, your personal growth, because at the end of the day, guys, right, you are all only a number on a spreadsheet. Yes, you’re very important, but you’re there to add value to grow a business. Bottom line.

So why not try to do that and do that really, really well while also focusing on your career aspirations? What lights you up? What you want? And that’s what I’m all about. So today in the show, I’m gonna share three pivotal strategies that made this possible for my client. So whether you’re a director or you’re aiming for your first director role, or you’re already at a senior level and you wanna get to managing director or C -suite level,

Once you are a committed, ambitious senior female leader, I know these insights will be super valuable for you. OK, so the three things that my client did, the first thing she did is she invested in executive coaching. Side note, I really don’t like talking about my services. I know it sounds really weird. I’m confident in what I deliver. I know what I do works. I know I’m good at my job. It’s not imposter syndrome.

at all. But I think sometimes when when we talk about like investing in ourselves and money, because we all have a relationship with money, it can bring up a lot of feelings for people. And I’ve done episodes on money mindset before. If you literally just search for them on Spotify or Apple, you’ll find them and a great money mindset coach on. But side note, executive coaching, I have to coach the juggler, is the missing link between where you are now and where you want to be.

So first things that she did was she invested to work with me. And as a coach, I have over a thousand hours of coaching and mentoring experience. I’m a triple certified coach. have studied and been taught human psychology, positive psychology, leadership, executive presence. I study hard, I read, and I do all of that so I can save my clients time.

Lucy Gernon (08:13.022)
I am a credential coach to PCC level, which is a, an accreditation by the international coach federation, which is for coaches who are meet a certain standard of, you know, a certain standard of coaching, which would be kind of far beyond where you would kind of start out. And as the reason that there’s executive coaches or leadership coaches is because we do all the kind of hard work of looking at what’s working, looking at trends, helping you to really see your blocks and move past them fast.

And that’s so powerful. Now, there’s a statistic actually out there that shows that I think it’s something like 68 % of male leaders have coaches as opposed to just 34 % of women. And we wonder why there’s more men in senior leadership. We wonder why the boys are able to just log off and go play golf. Sorry, lads. I know there’s some boys who listen to this. It’s not everyone.

But more power to you, right? More power to you if you’re able to hold down a really, really powerful role as a senior leader and have work -life balance. That’s what I want for women. And it’s so possible, but it is not possible. And if you’re multitasking, please come back to me unless you shift your mindset, unless you work with a coach. I believe, honestly, it’s a game changer. I cannot tell you.

how much my life has changed since I’ve invested to work with my coaches, many of them over the years. It has enabled me to build a multi award winning business really, really quickly. It’s enabled me to, you know, get to my potential and to fulfill my career ambitions with such confidence because I know I have someone in my corner. It’s the same with my client. She showed up to the sessions. She, we worked on her limiting beliefs because originally she was like, my God.

We’re in the middle of this merger, right? She was in the middle of a merger. She was handling redundancies like it was a huge project. And she’s still prioritized showing up for herself to our sessions. And I’ve seen it over and over again. The reason that you are not moving as fast as you want in your career is because you’re focusing the wrong stuff. OK, and that’s what a coach can support you

Lucy Gernon (10:33.324)
So the second thing that she did, which I supported her with, of course, was getting clear on her strengths, owning her value and really busting imposter syndrome. So you might have downloaded some of my free guides and my content, and you might listen to the podcast, which I’m so grateful for because I absolutely love being here with you. But when you work with me privately, it’s personalized. It’s not cookie cutter advice.

I am highly intuitive and I can see your gifts and talents. have tons of frameworks and worksheets and like lots of exercises we do together so that you can see that too, so that you can really have the confidence to advocate for yourself, to really align your, I suppose, your strengths and your values to where you want to go in the organization. So just like I shared with my client, like she is just a shining example of what’s possible because

She realized that she had been playing small. She had been bending to what the organization wanted and where they wanted her to go. And I’m sure you can relate. There was a business need and they asked you, would you take on this extra responsibility? And of course, like a good girl, you said, yes, right. Whereas this was more her taking control of her destiny, of what she wanted.

And as a result, she literally got her dream promotion. She is excelling in the role. She’s having a great time doing it. And I promise you, it’s so possible. OK. The third thing she did after she worked in her strengths and we kind of worked on imposter syndrome and confidence is that she had the conversation with her boss. Now, this is where I see so many women going wrong is in communication. And if I’m really honest.

I was that person too. I didn’t have the skills or tools to influence because I had never been taught. was like, might as well have been talking Swahili to my boss the times I would have asked for promotion. And I was in this kind of permission energy, like, would it be OK if I applied for this role?

Lucy Gernon (12:48.598)
Maybe I’ll just test the water and just tell them really quickly that I kind of want a promotion and then skim over it because I was afraid of them thinking I was like disloyal to my current role or something like how messed up is that? But I know some of you can relate to that. And it wasn’t honestly until I started my business and I did like thousands of hours, probably at this stage of business training specifically around.

communication, influencing skills, sales, all those things that I have to do as a managing director of my company. I realized I had been communicating all wrong. And so I developed what I call my magnetic influence method. And I have another method that I also share with my clients and my 360 leaders, love ladies. And I really, I suppose, supported her to hold her accountable, I guess, and give her the encouragement and the motivation to just do it.

So there’s something about being in my energy, guys, just so you know, when you get in my energy and we’re the right energetic fit, I cannot tell you the momentum that happens between the two of us. It’s like our hearts and our souls align and I am with you every single step of the way. And because our energies, I help you to see what’s possible. I help you get excited and motivated about what’s possible for you. If you are ready to do the work, I promise you.

Like getting to your goals is inevitable. So that’s the three things that my client did. Very, very simple. Nothing crazy. Okay. And I’m going to recap again, but before I do, if you enjoyed this episode and those three things, there’s a couple of other episodes I think you’ll find super powerful. The first one is episode 129, which is about influencing or how to be seen and heard using my magnetic influence method.

where I’m giving you six critical questions that you must ask yourself before attempting to have any discussions about anything like this. You’re going to want to know the six questions. And then episode number 86, which is a top performer, which is how to ask for a salary increase and actually get it. And as part of that episode, there is a fantastic checklist that my team and I developed based on research with HR recruiters.

Lucy Gernon (15:13.972)
We did tons of research all over the internet, speaking to people. We developed a really, really robust checklist that people, you can download for absolutely free that you can get to help you to organ or to negotiate your salary. So please go check those two episodes out.

In summary, the three things that my client did to get her dream promotion within six months was number one, she invested in executive coaching. She committed to herself. She knew she needed someone to hold her accountable. She knew she needed somebody to support her with communication, executive presence, leadership, owning her worth. And most importantly, she still wanted to be a mother to her children. So we figured all of that out together. And I promise you, she’s living her dream life.

The second thing, she got cleared her strengths and really owned her value. And this enabled her to curb imposter syndrome. Now, again, this is very generic, of course. All right. This is quite generic. And depending on your situation, I would do different things because imposter syndrome is something that manifests because of different reasons and different people. And again, I’ve got amazing mindset tools and stuff to support with that. And the third thing that she did is

She had a conversation with her boss with confidence because I taught her how to influence appropriately. she had so much confidence in herself at the time of the negotiations. She not only negotiated a pay rise and she got additional benefits within her package. She also negotiated, she also got approval for additional coaching with me as part of her package, which was so cool because while I absolutely love, like I don’t mind who invests whether it’s you or the company.

But I always love to see companies investing in their female talent. And the reason a lot of them don’t at the start is because you don’t have the confidence to be able to articulate your value and what it’s going to bring. Whereas after you work with me, you will be all over it. You’ll be like, listen, you better pay for this next time because it’s given such value to the organization as well as yourself. So that’s it. Very simply, that’s what she did.

Lucy Gernon (17:24.638)
I just want you to know that I know you are fantastic because all women are. You’re educated. You are ambitious. You’re driven. You care so deeply. But please care about yourself a little bit. And let’s let’s just get rid of the imposter syndrome. Let’s just boost your confidence and let’s just take fucking action because I hate to break it to you, gorgeous girl. But life is short and you’re not getting any younger. Now is your time. OK, now is your time. Now I do.

Have something exciting if you’re listening to this live. I am hosting a free webinar this week all about imposter syndrome. It is called the Imposter Syndrome Breakthrough Masterclass. And I can tell you, I’m going to be sharing a massive mindset shift that all my clients make, huge mindset shift that is going to enable you to absolutely step in and step up into your potential. OK, so please come along if you just go to lucygarden

forward slash master class, you can sign up right there. There’s a couple of time options. We’ll be sending out the replay if you can’t make it live, but please, please come to this for yourself. It is the first step towards your next level of success. And if you can’t wait until then, you can download my free Impostor Syndrome tool, which we will link in the show notes below.

That’s it. What a nice little energetic episode. I really hope that you found it valuable. I want you to know that whatever you want is entirely possible for you, entirely possible for you. And I cannot wait to support you again really, really soon. So I’m off now to go and collect one of my kids. She’s at a summer

at the moment because as I’m recording this, it’s summertime. We don’t record in advance. That’s another little strategy, by the way, to work life balance is being really strategic and intentional with your time getting ahead. So I’m going off to collect my little girl, Kate, now. And then I’m going out to my sister’s house, actually, to meet my nephew. She’s due her second baby. So she needs a little bit of big sister TLC.

Lucy Gernon (19:29.228)
So that’s my plan. hope you’ve got some lovely plans. As always, I’d love to hear from you. So if you’re on Instagram or LinkedIn, like just send me a DM. I’m always happy to have the chats. And if not, I will see you at the master class later this week. And if not, I’ll see you same time, same place next week. Bye for now.