Are you a woman in leadership who is tired of feeling stuck in your career? Like your work isn’t getting the recognition it deserves? Like your voice doesn’t have the influence it needs to contribute to better solutions? Like no matter what you do, you can’t get promoted? While these challenges don’t discriminate against gender, women need different solutions to overcome them. It’s not enough for women to simply get leadership training and career advice. They need to learn how to lead with their feminine energy and use it as their biggest advantage. On this show, career success coach Jill Avey and her guests explore how women can rise from director to vice president and beyond by fully leaning into their feminine energy as their biggest advantage. In each episode, you’ll understand how women need to lead differently and how by doing so, women leaders gain influence and respect among their colleagues, restore balance to their role, and receive the recognition and promotions they deserve. Each episode will highlight real-life stories, offer practical advice, and the science of feminine leadership so you can see how women are rising up as far as they want to go, without playing by the old rules that built these male-dominated industries and systems. It took Jill 10 years to get promoted from director to vice president. She’s here to extend her hand to other women leaders to move past that rung of the ladder in months — or even weeks — instead of years — so we can create more gender balance within leadership positions and feel the effects of women’s influence on the world. Jill is the founder of SisterSmart where she offers group and private coaching to help her clients find deep fulfillment in their careers, both personally and financially. You can learn more at sistersmart.com
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August 20, 202618 min
57: How To Identify Your Core Values
You have two real options in front of you. The promotion and the other thing. Or the stretch role and the job you already have. And you are good at making decisions. You make hard calls at work every single day. So you build the list. You weigh it out. You ask your boss, your mentor, your husband, the friend who always tells you the truth. Every answer makes sense and not one of them settles it. Then it’s three in the morning and you’re lying there running it again. Same two options. Same ceiling. Here’s the thing. You’re not stuck because you’re bad at this. You’restuck because you keep asking which one is the better opportunity, and that question has no answer. They’re both great opportunities. the whole problem. There’s a different question sitting underneath it, and almost nobody has ever handed you the tools to ask it. So what is that stuck feeling actually trying to tell you? Tune in to learn: • What a ‘peak experience’ is, and why the small strange ones matter most • How to read the values hidden inside your own life • Why one crushed value can make a good job feel unlivable — Register for the Free Executive Presence for Women Masterclass: The 3 keys to Increase Authority and Influence, happening live on Thursday, August 8 at 12 PST. A replay will be available for those that register! https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAkdOsrDItGdHchQv1BXFozsGRUjL74xlK#/registration — 🌟 FREE MASTERCLASS: Achieve Your VP Promotion: 3 Steps to Success in the Next Year https://sistersmart.com/register-sil — ✈️ FREE PASSPORT TO PROMOTION PRIVATE PODCAST: 7 STEPS TO GET PROMOTED FROM DIRECTOR TO VP Get access to the Passport to Promotion Private Podcast — 👩💻 APPLY FOR THE SISTERS IN LEADERSHIP PROGRAM An 12-month coaching program for women leaders who want to rise up and fulfill their career potential and get promoted from director to VP Join Sisters in Leadership to Get Promoted to VP — 💻 EXPLORE OUR LEADERSHIP COURSES We offer a few leadership courses for you to begin sharpening your skills from meeting management to executive presence and productivity. Sign Up for a Leadership Course — 👋 CONNECT WITH JILL 🌐 Website: https://sistersmart.com/ 🎥 YouTube: https://linktw.in/uWD3ko 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillavey/
August 13, 202625 min
56: How To Find a Strategic Project at Work with Jen
Somebody finally tells you to go be ‘strategic’. So you sit down to pick a project, and you stare at a blank page. You are a doer. You solve problems. Nobody ever taught you how to go invent something big and shiny to sit on top of the fifty things already on your plate. You keep waiting for the right one to come along. And every week you keep quietly mopping up the same mess nobody else will touch. Truth is, that mess is the project. Jen is a senior leader at a professional services firm and she came to Jill completely stuck. One question changed what she was looking for, and what she found had been sitting in plain sight the whole time. It became, in her words, probably the biggest thing her firm has done. Tune in to learn: • The one question that turns a blank page into an obvious project • How Jen built the support to change how very senior people behave • What it did for the firm, and what it did for how the partners see her ABOUT JEN Jen is a senior leader at a professional services firm and a seasoned project manager. She leads internal operations and professional development and is known inside her firm as the person who solves the problems nobody else will pick up. Jen is a graduate of the Strategic Leadership Lab for Women. 💻 READY TO FIND YOUR OWN STRATEGIC PROJECT? The Strategic Leadership Lab for Women is a six-week live cohort led by Jill where you learn to be seen as strategic and walk out with a strategic project of your own. The kind of thing you can point to for years, the way Jen can. The next group starts September 11 and early bird pricing closes August 15. https://sistersmart.com/SLA — Register for the Free Executive Presence for Women Masterclass: The 3 keys to Increase Authority and Influence, happening live on Thursday, August 8 at 12 PST. A replay will be available for those that register! https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAkdOsrDItGdHchQv1BXFozsGRUjL74xlK#/registration — 🌟 FREE MASTERCLASS: Achieve Your VP Promotion: 3 Steps to Success in the Next Year https://sistersmart.com/register-sil — ✈️ FREE PASSPORT TO PROMOTION PRIVATE PODCAST: 7 STEPS TO GET PROMOTED FROM DIRECTOR TO VP Get access to the Passport to Promotion Private Podcast — 👩💻 APPLY FOR THE SISTERS IN LEADERSHIP PROGRAM An 12-month coaching program for women leaders who want to rise up and fulfill their career potential and get promoted from director to VP Join Sisters in Leadership to Get Promoted to VP — 💻 EXPLORE OUR LEADERSHIP COURSES We offer a few leadership courses for you to begin sharpening your skills from meeting management to executive presence and productivity. Sign Up for a Leadership Course — 👋 CONNECT WITH JILL 🌐 Website: https://sistersmart.com/ 🎥 YouTube: https://linktw.in/uWD3ko 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillavey/
August 6, 202615 min
55: 5 Pillars of Strategic Leadership How to Be Seen as Strategic at Work
Have you ever walked out of a meeting knowing you saw the whole thing coming before anyone else did? And then watched someone else walk away with the word 'strategic' next to their name instead of yours? So most of us do the only thing we know how to do. We work harder. We take on more. And still that word floats just out of reach. Here's the thing. Jill doesn't believe that's the truth about you. You're not un-strategic. You're just not being seen that way yet. So what are the women who get promoted doing that you aren't? Tune in to learn: The five pillars of strategic leadership What each pillar feels like when it's missing, and what it feels like when it's there How to tell which pillar is costing you right now 💻 READY TO ACTUALLY LIVE THESE FIVE? The Strategic Leadership Lab for Women is a six week live cohort led by Jill where you work these pillars in real time alongside a small group of women leaders making the same move. Six live sessions. Your own Big 5 of Strategy assessment and report. A real project from your real job. The next cohort starts September 11 and early bird pricing closes August 15. https://sistersmart.com/SLA ✈️ FREE PASSPORT TO PROMOTION PRIVATE PODCAST: 7 STEPS TO GET PROMOTED FROM DIRECTOR TO VP https://joinsistersinleadership.com/7-steps 👩💻 APPLY FOR THE SISTERS IN LEADERSHIP PROGRAM A 12-month coaching program for women leaders who want to rise up and fulfill their career potential and get promoted from director to VP https://joinsistersinleadership.com/ 💻 EXPLORE OUR LEADERSHIP COURSES We offer a few leadership courses for you to begin sharpening your skills from meeting management to executive presence and productivity. https://sistersmart.com/leadership-courses ⭐ SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A REVIEW ON APPLE PODCASTS https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sistersmart-leadership/id1705796088 ⭐ SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A REVIEW ON SPOTIFY https://open.spotify.com/show/14Yh9jytQjaYRwmeiT5pBs CONNECT WITH JILL 🌐 Website: https://sistersmart.com/ 🎥 YouTube: https://linktw.in/uWD3ko 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillavey/ #StrategicLeadership #WomenInLeadership #DirectorToVP #ExecutivePresence #WomenLeaders #LeadershipDevelopment #StrategicThinking #ExecutiveWomen #CareerGrowthForWomen #FemaleLeadership #GetPromoted #LeadershipSkills #WomenInBusiness #LeadershipPodcast #SisterSmart — Register for the Free Executive Presence for Women Masterclass: The 3 keys to Increase Authority and Influence, happening live on Thursday, August 8 at 12 PST. A replay will be available for those that register! https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAkdOsrDItGdHchQv1BXFozsGRUjL74xlK#/registration — 🌟 FREE MASTERCLASS: Achieve Your VP Promotion: 3 Steps to Success in the Next Year https://sistersmart.com/register-sil — ✈️ FREE PASSPORT TO PROMOTION PRIVATE PODCAST: 7 STEPS TO GET PROMOTED FROM DIRECTOR TO VP Get access to the Passport to Promotion Private Podcast — 👩💻 APPLY FOR THE SISTERS IN LEADERSHIP PROGRAM An 12-month coaching program for women leaders who want to rise up and fulfill their career potential and get promoted from director to VP Join Sisters in Leadership to Get Promoted to VP — 💻 EXPLORE OUR LEADERSHIP COURSES We offer a few leadership courses for you to begin sharpening your skills from meeting management to executive presence and productivity. Sign Up for a Leadership Course — 👋 CONNECT WITH JILL 🌐 Website: https://sistersmart.com/ 🎥 YouTube: https://linktw.in/uWD3ko 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillavey/
July 30, 202623 min
54: How to Prioritize When Everything Is a Priority and Your Boss Wants It All
How do you decide what to work on first when your manager hands you a list of ten priorities with no order and no deadlines, and every single item on that list is something she needs done right away? This is the exact same question that our client Mandy was facing when she joined the Strategic Leadership Lab for Women. Tune in to hear how Mandy found her starting point, what she carried into her next one-to-one with her manager and the surprising thing that shifted between the two of them once she did. Mandy walks through all of it in this episode. Where she started. What she built. What she carried into the one-to-one that shifted everything. And the one sentence she began saying to herself before every meeting with her boss. If you are a woman in leadership who is buried under competing priorities and quietly wondering whether you are the problem, this conversation is for you. IN THIS EPISODE YOU WILL FIND OUT ▪︎ The three questions Mandy asked about every item on the list before she touched a single one ▪︎ The rule she pulled out of the Strategic Leadership Lab that finally told her where to start ▪︎ What she built on a spreadsheet and why the tabs were ordered the way they were ▪︎ What she brought to her next one-to-one instead of a status update ▪︎ The sentence she started saying to herself before every meeting with her manager ▪︎ Why her manager never changed her communication style and the whole dynamic still turned around ▪︎ What surprised her most about being in a cohort with other women leaders ▪︎ The question you can ask that makes a boss choose between her own priorities 📚 MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE ▪︎ The Pareto Principle, also called the 80/20 rule. Taught in Week 4 of the Strategic Leadership Lab for Women. ▪︎ The Vital Few, from the Sisters in Leadership curriculum on the busyness trap. ▪︎ Strategic Leadership Lab for Women. Next cohort starts September 11. Early bird pricing closes August 15. https://sistersmart.com/SLA ▪︎ The saying Mandy carries with her: no good sailor was made in calm waters. 👋 ABOUT MANDY Mandy leads a clinical department inside a large hospital system where competing priorities shift by the minute. She is a graduate of the Strategic Leadership Lab for Women and a member of the SisterSmart community. RELATED TOPICS This episode covers how to prioritize when everything is a priority, what to do when your boss gives you too many priorities at once, how to prioritize tasks at work as a manager, the Pareto principle and the 80/20 rule applied to a real workload, how to manage up when your manager does not set a clear vision, how to build trust with a difficult boss, how to run a better one-to-one with your manager, how to stop being reactive at work, prioritization frameworks for leaders, workload overwhelm and burnout prevention for women in leadership, how to delegate and get input from your team, career advice for women in healthcare leadership, executive presence for female leaders, leadership development for women, women in leadership podcast episodes and how to get promoted from director to vice president. — Register for the Free Executive Presence for Women Masterclass: The 3 keys to Increase Authority and Influence, happening live on Thursday, August 8 at 12 PST. A replay will be available for those that register! https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAkdOsrDItGdHchQv1BXFozsGRUjL74xlK#/registration — 🌟 FREE MASTERCLASS: Achieve Your VP Promotion: 3 Steps to Success in the Next Year https://sistersmart.com/register-sil — ✈️ FREE PASSPORT TO PROMOTION PRIVATE PODCAST: 7 STEPS TO GET PROMOTED FROM DIRECTOR TO VP Get access to the Passport to Promotion Private Podcast — 👩💻 APPLY FOR THE SISTERS IN LEADERSHIP PROGRAM An 12-month coaching program for women leaders who want to rise up and fulfill their career potential and get promoted from director to VP Join Sisters in Leadership to Get Promoted to VP — 💻 EXPLORE OUR LEADERSHIP COURSES We offer a few leadership courses for you to begin sharpening your skills from meeting management to executive presence and productivity. Sign Up for a Leadership Course — 👋 CONNECT WITH JILL 🌐 Website: https://sistersmart.com/ 🎥 YouTube: https://linktw.in/uWD3ko 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillavey/
July 23, 202618 min
53: How Women Leaders Get Promoted From Director to VP
Do you keep doing brilliant work and getting warm reviews while the VP title goes to someone you outwork every single day? If you want to know how to get promoted from director to vice president, the answer is not working harder. It is becoming someone your senior leaders can already picture in that next chair. In this episode of the SisterSmart Leadership podcast, executive coach Jill Avey takes you inside one woman's year. The year she went from passed over to promoted. Hidden inside her story are the five things that actually separate directors from VPs. We call them the Big Five of Strategy ®. You will learn why a promotion is a bet on your future rather than a prize for your past, what the feedback "be more strategic" actually means and how to let senior leaders watch you think so your best ideas stop staying locked inside your head. Jill also shares research from Yale, MIT and the University of Minnesota on 30,000 employees that reveals the real reason so many high performing women keep getting passed over for promotion. In this episode you will learn: Why being the most capable person on the team can keep you stuck at the director level The Big Five of Strategy ® senior leaders look for when they fill a VP seat: grasp the present, shape the future, move the system, deliver the results and adapt to change How narrating your reasoning out loud changes how leaders rate your potential Why one gap in the five is enough to cost you a promotion cycle even when the other four are strong Three shifts you can make this week to become imaginable in the next chair Chapters: 📚 MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Study: Potential and the Gender Promotion Gap (researchers at Yale, MIT and the University of Minnesota) : https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4747175 Free Big Five of Strategy self-assessment PDF: score yourself across the five and see in black and white which gap to close first : https://sistersmart.kit.com/fae7bb76e5 STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP LAB FOR WOMEN : the six week program where you’ll get the Big 5 of Strategy ® Assessment and we build all five of these competencies with a small group of women leaders. Next cohort starts September 11. Register by August 15 to grab the early bird special. https://sistersmart.com/sla Whether you are searching for how to be seen as VP material, how to get promoted to vice president, women in leadership advice, strategic thinking for leaders, executive presence, leadership potential versus performance, how to delegate as a leader or how to stop being the dependable doer and start leading at a higher level, this episode gives you a clear path from director to VP. — Register for the Free Executive Presence for Women Masterclass: The 3 keys to Increase Authority and Influence, happening live on Thursday, August 8 at 12 PST. A replay will be available for those that register! https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAkdOsrDItGdHchQv1BXFozsGRUjL74xlK#/registration — 🌟 FREE MASTERCLASS: Achieve Your VP Promotion: 3 Steps to Success in the Next Year https://sistersmart.com/register-sil — ✈️ FREE PASSPORT TO PROMOTION PRIVATE PODCAST: 7 STEPS TO GET PROMOTED FROM DIRECTOR TO VP Get access to the Passport to Promotion Private Podcast — 👩💻 APPLY FOR THE SISTERS IN LEADERSHIP PROGRAM An 12-month coaching program for women leaders who want to rise up and fulfill their career potential and get promoted from director to VP Join Sisters in Leadership to Get Promoted to VP — 💻 EXPLORE OUR LEADERSHIP COURSES We offer a few leadership courses for you to begin sharpening your skills from meeting management to executive presence and productivity. Sign Up for a Leadership Course — 👋 CONNECT WITH JILL 🌐 Website: https://sistersmart.com/ 🎥 YouTube: https://linktw.in/uWD3ko 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillavey/
July 16, 202614 min
52: How to Be More Strategic at Work and Get Seen as a Leader Not a Doer
How do you become more strategic at work and finally get seen as a leader instead of the best doer in the room? Strategic perspective is the single biggest skill that separates senior leaders from middle managers and it is the one capability that quietly decides who rises into executive roles and who stalls out at the director level. In this episode of the SisterSmart Leadership podcast Executive Coach Jill Avey shares a surprising truth for women leaders who want to get promoted from director to vice president. Research shows that women outscore men on 17 of 19 leadership measures and yet rank dead last on strategic perspective. Most women are already strategic. The real problem is that they are not being seen as strategic and that is a much easier fix. Jill walks through the doer to leader spectrum, why strategy lives in your visible behavior and not in your head and how one small shift can set off a visibility flywheel. You will leave with three concrete shifts you can make this week to be recognized as the strategic leader you already are. In this episode you will learn: Why strategic perspective is the number one skill that separates senior leaders from middle managers The signs you are being seen as a doer and not yet a leader Why strategy lives in your behavior and how to make your thinking visible Three simple shifts you can make this week to be seen as strategic MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Free Strategic Perspective Worksheet: rate yourself across the five places strategic perspective shows up Strategic Leadership Lab: six live sessions to build the strategic perspective that gets you seen as a leader RESOURCES AND LINKS FREE STRATEGIC PERSPECTIVE WORKSHEET: https://sistersmart.kit.com/f669e87427 JOIN THE STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP LAB: sistersmart.com/SLA APPLY FOR THE SISTERS IN LEADERSHIP PROGRAM: joinsistersinleadership.com SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A REVIEW ON APPLE PODCASTS: Apple Podcasts SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A REVIEW ON SPOTIFY: Spotify — Register for the Free Executive Presence for Women Masterclass: The 3 keys to Increase Authority and Influence, happening live on Thursday, August 8 at 12 PST. A replay will be available for those that register! https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAkdOsrDItGdHchQv1BXFozsGRUjL74xlK#/registration — 🌟 FREE MASTERCLASS: Achieve Your VP Promotion: 3 Steps to Success in the Next Year https://sistersmart.com/register-sil — ✈️ FREE PASSPORT TO PROMOTION PRIVATE PODCAST: 7 STEPS TO GET PROMOTED FROM DIRECTOR TO VP Get access to the Passport to Promotion Private Podcast — 👩💻 APPLY FOR THE SISTERS IN LEADERSHIP PROGRAM An 12-month coaching program for women leaders who want to rise up and fulfill their career potential and get promoted from director to VP Join Sisters in Leadership to Get Promoted to VP — 💻 EXPLORE OUR LEADERSHIP COURSES We offer a few leadership courses for you to begin sharpening your skills from meeting management to executive presence and productivity. Sign Up for a Leadership Course — 👋 CONNECT WITH JILL 🌐 Website: https://sistersmart.com/ 🎥 YouTube: https://linktw.in/uWD3ko 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillavey/
April 30, 202635 min
50: Why High Performance Wont Get You Promoted To VP with Linda
Are you a high performer who has been waiting for your hard work to speak for itself? You are not alone. Most women rise to the director level by being exceptional individual contributors, then hit an invisible ceiling that no one warned them about. The people getting promoted to vice president are not always working harder, they are working differently, and they understand a set of corporate power dynamics that nobody teaches women in business school, in onboarding, or anywhere along the way. In this episode of the SisterSmart Leadership Podcast, host and executive coach Jill Avey sits down with Linda Reddy, Global Supply Chain Director at Nando's, to decode the invisible games of corporate power that determine who advances into senior leadership and who stays stuck at director. Linda has more than 25 years of leadership experience across South Africa, India, the Middle East, Africa, and globally, and she has watched countless talented women plateau at the same level she once did, until she figured out the real rules. If you are a woman leader, director, senior director, or aspiring vice president looking for a roadmap from high performer to executive, this conversation will reframe how you think about visibility, influence, narrative, and what it really takes to be promoted to vice president. Linda walks through her framework of three career stages, the three elements of power, and the biggest mistakes women make when they pursue promotion. By the end of this episode you will know exactly where to focus to break through your next ceiling. In this episode of the SisterSmart Leadership Podcast you will learn: Why high performance alone will not get you promoted to vice president, and what does The three corporate stages every woman leader must move through to reach senior leadership: high performer, influencer, and authority How to use visibility, influence, and narrative as your real path to executive promotion Why decisions about your career are happening outside the boardroom, and how to position yourself to be in those rooms How to reframe self-promotion as a service that helps others do their job better The high performer trap that is causing senior leaders to see you as an operator instead of a thought leader Why being your own ambassador is the mindset shift that unlocks your next promotion The biggest mistake women make when they say I am not 150 percent ready, and how to stop waiting How to start small with risk and build the confidence muscle that gets you promoted Linda's framework of the 11 invisible games of corporate power and the 22 human dynamics that underpin them Related topics covered in this episode for women leaders: How to get promoted from director to vice president, corporate power dynamics for women, executive presence for senior women leaders, women in supply chain leadership, leadership skills for women, how to be more visible at work, how to build influence as a woman leader, narrative framing for executives, sponsorship and mentorship for women, women in male dominated industries, women in global leadership, breaking the glass ceiling, gender in the workplace, leadership development for women, becoming a senior director, becoming a vice president, women and confidence, women and risk taking, professional growth for women leaders, how to be promoted faster. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Get Linda Reddy's reflection journal on the invisible games of corporate power when you subscribe to her newsletter: https://lindareddy.uk/ Linda Reddy's framework of the 11 invisible games of corporate power The 22 human dynamics that underpin corporate power across identity and status, fear and control, relationships and trust, ambition and survival, narrative and perception, and influence ABOUT LINDA REDDY Linda Reddy is a London-based Global Executive and international speaker specialising in corporate systems, power, and performance. Over 25 years, she has led large-scale supply chain and operational transformation across FMCG, banking, and hospitality in more than 24 countries running complex operations, multi-country P&Ls, and delivering over 400% EBITDA growth at C-suite level. A Harvard Business School alumna, she identified early that corporate success is not driven by strategy alone—but by the invisible dynamics of power, positioning, and human behaviour. That insight was sharpened beyond the boardroom. Summiting Mount Kilimanjaro, climbing Mount Fuji, and carrying the torch for the Olympic Games shaped a defining perspective on resilience, clarity, and legacy. Today, she is the creator of two proprietary frameworks: • The 11 Invisible Games of Corporate Power and • The 22 Human Dynamics used to help professionals understand how decisions are really made, build influence, and avoid being overlooked despite strong performance. Her work sits at the intersection of systems, power, and performance focused on how corporate actually functions, not how it is designed to — Register for the Free Executive Presence for Women Masterclass: The 3 keys to Increase Authority and Influence, happening live on Thursday, August 8 at 12 PST. A replay will be available for those that register! https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAkdOsrDItGdHchQv1BXFozsGRUjL74xlK#/registration — 🌟 FREE MASTERCLASS: Achieve Your VP Promotion: 3 Steps to Success in the Next Year https://sistersmart.com/register-sil — ✈️ FREE PASSPORT TO PROMOTION PRIVATE PODCAST: 7 STEPS TO GET PROMOTED FROM DIRECTOR TO VP Get access to the Passport to Promotion Private Podcast — 👩💻 APPLY FOR THE SISTERS IN LEADERSHIP PROGRAM An 12-month coaching program for women leaders who want to rise up and fulfill their career potential and get promoted from director to VP Join Sisters in Leadership to Get Promoted to VP — 💻 EXPLORE OUR LEADERSHIP COURSES We offer a few leadership courses for you to begin sharpening your skills from meeting management to executive presence and productivity. Sign Up for a Leadership Course — 👋 CONNECT WITH JILL 🌐 Website: https://sistersmart.com/ 🎥 YouTube: https://linktw.in/uWD3ko 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillavey/
April 23, 202632 min
49: The Busyness Trap That is Keeping You Stuck with Lydia
If you are a woman in leadership right now, ask yourself one honest question. When was the last time you felt like you had enough time, enough energy and enough space for yourself? If you had to think about it, you are not alone. For women leaders pursuing VP-level and executive roles, work-life balance often feels like a myth. You are leading teams, running households, showing up for aging parents, raising kids, and somewhere at the bottom of the list you are trying to remember what you used to love doing just for yourself. In this episode of SisterSmart Leadership, Jill Avey is joined by SisterSmart coach Lydia Fogo Johnson for a real conversation about the busyness trap and why the old idea of perfect balance is quietly keeping women leaders stuck at the director level and below. Together they break down the three root causes of overwhelm for high-achieving women, the reality of caregiver burnout, and the specific boundaries every woman leader needs in order to rise up without burning out. Whether you are a director trying to get promoted to VP, an executive managing a big team while caring for kids or aging parents, or a high-achieving woman who feels like you have been saying yes to everything for years, this episode gives you the permission and the practical tools to shift from perfect balance to sustainable integration. What you will learn in this episode: Why the model of perfect work-life balance was never built for the reality of a woman's life and what to aim for instead The three hidden root causes of busyness for high-achieving women: overfunctioning, overdelivering, and overidentifying with work How context switching silently drains up to forty percent of your productivity Why overdelivery is actually a form of waste, and how a minimum viable product mindset speeds up your impact How to recognize when your self-worth has become tied to your output and how to reconnect with who you are outside of work Why caregiver burnout is a structural problem, not a personal failure, and what to do about it How to run caregiving like a project using division of labor, delegation and stakeholder management skills from your day job The mental load trap most women fall into when they delegate execution but keep ownership, and how to actually hand off the whole thing Why sleep, recovery, and personal time are not selfish and how modeling self-care shapes your entire team The boundaries every woman leader needs with a deep dive on time boundaries and digital boundaries for a twenty-four-seven world Three practical shifts you can make this week to reclaim your time, your energy, and your sense of self MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Fair Play by Eve Rodsky Emily Oster on work life balance The SisterSmart personal strategy retreat The SisterSmart time inventory tool: https://sistersmart.kit.com/bcc912c74a ABOUT LYDIA FOGO JOHNSON Lydia Fogo Johnson is a SisterSmart coach who helps women leaders find sustainable balance while navigating demanding careers and significant caregiving responsibilities. Her work focuses on helping high achieving women break out of the busyness trap, set meaningful boundaries, and reconnect with who they are outside of their professional and caregiving roles. — Register for the Free Executive Presence for Women Masterclass: The 3 keys to Increase Authority and Influence, happening live on Thursday, August 8 at 12 PST. A replay will be available for those that register! https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAkdOsrDItGdHchQv1BXFozsGRUjL74xlK#/registration — 🌟 FREE MASTERCLASS: Achieve Your VP Promotion: 3 Steps to Success in the Next Year https://sistersmart.com/register-sil — ✈️ FREE PASSPORT TO PROMOTION PRIVATE PODCAST: 7 STEPS TO GET PROMOTED FROM DIRECTOR TO VP Get access to the Passport to Promotion Private Podcast — 👩💻 APPLY FOR THE SISTERS IN LEADERSHIP PROGRAM An 12-month coaching program for women leaders who want to rise up and fulfill their career potential and get promoted from director to VP Join Sisters in Leadership to Get Promoted to VP — 💻 EXPLORE OUR LEADERSHIP COURSES We offer a few leadership courses for you to begin sharpening your skills from meeting management to executive presence and productivity. Sign Up for a Leadership Course — 👋 CONNECT WITH JILL 🌐 Website: https://sistersmart.com/ 🎥 YouTube: https://linktw.in/uWD3ko 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillavey/
April 16, 202628 min
48: The Leadership Identity Upgrade
Have you ever hit a career level where everything you used to do to succeed suddenly stops working? The problem is not usually a skills gap. It is an identity gap -- and it is one of the most misunderstood moments in a woman's leadership journey. In this episode, Jill is joined by SisterSmart mindset coach Kan Yue to unpack the leadership identity upgrade: the quiet inner shift that has to happen before your next promotion, your next level of influence, or the next version of you can actually show up. Most high-achieving women try to solve this by working harder, taking on more, or adding another certification to their resume. But none of that touches the real issue -- because the real issue is not what you are doing, it is who you believe you need to be to do it. If you have been feeling that quiet nudge that something needs to change, even when you cannot quite name it, this episode is for you. What you will learn in this episode: What a leadership identity upgrade really is and how it differs from just building new skills The three key signs that you have outgrown your current leadership identity The overcompensation behaviors that keep high-achieving women stuck and exhausted Why setting boundaries is an identity upgrade, not just a communication or time management skill What does not work when you try to rise into senior leadership without an identity shift How to begin your own identity upgrade using awareness, acceptance, and ownership How the saboteur work and mindset coaching inside the SisterSmart program drives lasting inner change MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Free Identity Upgrade Guide: https://sistersmart.kit.com/d727218543 ABOUT KAN YUE Kan Yue is the mindset and identity coach inside the SisterSmart Sisters in Leadership community. She works with high-achieving women leaders to unlock the inner shifts required to rise into senior leadership roles with clarity, confidence, and ease. — Register for the Free Executive Presence for Women Masterclass: The 3 keys to Increase Authority and Influence, happening live on Thursday, August 8 at 12 PST. A replay will be available for those that register! https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAkdOsrDItGdHchQv1BXFozsGRUjL74xlK#/registration — 🌟 FREE MASTERCLASS: Achieve Your VP Promotion: 3 Steps to Success in the Next Year https://sistersmart.com/register-sil — ✈️ FREE PASSPORT TO PROMOTION PRIVATE PODCAST: 7 STEPS TO GET PROMOTED FROM DIRECTOR TO VP Get access to the Passport to Promotion Private Podcast — 👩💻 APPLY FOR THE SISTERS IN LEADERSHIP PROGRAM An 12-month coaching program for women leaders who want to rise up and fulfill their career potential and get promoted from director to VP Join Sisters in Leadership to Get Promoted to VP — 💻 EXPLORE OUR LEADERSHIP COURSES We offer a few leadership courses for you to begin sharpening your skills from meeting management to executive presence and productivity. Sign Up for a Leadership Course — 👋 CONNECT WITH JILL 🌐 Website: https://sistersmart.com/ 🎥 YouTube: https://linktw.in/uWD3ko 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillavey/
April 9, 202630 min
47: How to Fast Track Your Promotion to VP
Are you trying to figure out how to get promoted to VP but feel like you are missing pieces of the puzzle? This episode is the career strategy for women in leadership that no one talks about openly. April Little is an executive career coach and promotion strategist who helps senior women leaders build executive-level influence, positioning, and decision authority inside complex organizations. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in English and a Master’s degree in Human Resources. Prior to launching her coaching practice, April served as Vice President of Human Resources at a venture-backed startup. Immediately before that role, she led senior-level recruiting and talent strategy, advising executive teams on leadership selection, organizational design, and succession planning. She brings over 15 years of experience in human resources, recruiting, and leadership development. In this conversation, Jill Avey and April Little cover the exact executive career strategy that gets women promoted faster. You will learn what executive presence for women really means, how to master strategic storytelling as a leader, how to communicate at every level of the organization, how to navigate the broken rung, and how to know when it is time to stop waiting and start looking for a new opportunity. Whether you are a director aiming for VP or a senior manager ready to break through to the C-suite, this episode will give you a clear and actionable roadmap for your next career move. 0:00 --- Introduction: April Little's background and what makes her executive promotion expertise unique 2:32 --- How to assess your executive readiness using the 10 steps to building executive level influence 4:34 --- Executive presence for women: what the internal uniform concept really means and why consistency is everything 5:43 --- Storytelling and strategic communication: the leadership skills that drive influence at the executive level 10:16 --- How to tailor your communication style at every level of leadership from your direct manager to the C-suite 13:03 --- Breaking through the broken rung: shifting your mindset and using what you already have to rise into leadership 15:03 --- Sponsors, mentors, and peer networks: how to build the relationships that get your name in rooms you are not in 20:22 --- How to map your career path and determine what advancement is realistically and ambitiously possible in your organization 23:23 --- When to stop waiting and start looking: recognizing when your organization does not have a path forward for you 27:44 --- Education vs. executive coaching: what actually moves the needle when you want to get promoted to VP In this episode you will learn: How to assess where you stand on the 10 steps to building executive level influence Why executive presence is really about consistent and predictable leadership behavior The 3 back pocket stories every leader should always have ready How to communicate differently with direct managers, skip levels, and C-suite executives Why the broken rung exists and the mindset shift you need to move past it The strategic difference between a sponsor, a mentor, and a peer network How to build sponsor relationships that get your name in rooms you are not in How to determine a realistic and ambitious career path inside your current organization The 18 to 24 month rule for knowing when it is time to leave Why doing your leadership development work before your job search gives you a competitive edge The honest truth about whether an MBA or executive coaching will actually get you promoted faster Topics covered in this episode include women in leadership, how to get promoted to VP, executive presence for women, career advancement strategies, women in executive roles, how to get promoted as a woman, executive mindset, leadership skills for women, career strategy for women, women at work, women leadership podcast, career coach for women, leadership development, strategic communication for leaders, the broken rung in leadership, how to build a sponsor relationship, when to leave your job, women in the C-suite, how to fast track your promotion, and director to VP career path. Mentioned in This Episode April Little - Career Coach for Women: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aprillatoyalittle Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/iamaprillittle TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@iamaprillittle April Little's Website: https://www.aprillittle.co/ About April Little April Little is an executive career coach and promotion strategist who helps senior women leaders build executive-level influence, positioning, and decision authority inside complex organizations. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in English and a Master’s degree in Human Resources. Prior to launching her coaching practice, April served as Vice President of Human Resources at a venture-backed startup. Immediately before that role, she led senior-level recruiting and talent strategy, advising executive teams on leadership selection, organizational design, and succession planning. She brings over 15 years of experience in human resources, recruiting, and leadership development. Resources and Links FREE Passport to Promotion Private Podcast: 7 Steps to Get Promoted from Director to VP - https://joinsistersinleadership.com/7-steps Apply for the Sisters in Leadership Program - An 12-month coaching program for women leaders who want to rise up and get promoted from director to VP - https://joinsistersinleadership.com/ Explore Our Leadership Courses - https://sistersmart.com/leadership-courses Subscribe and Leave a Review on Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sistersmart-leadership/id1705796088 Subscribe and Leave a Review on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/14Yh9jytQjaYRwmeiT5pBs Connect with Jill Website: https://sistersmart.com/ YouTube: https://linktw.in/uWD3ko LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillavey/ #WomenInLeadership #HowToGetPromoted #ExecutivePresence #CareerAdvancement #WomenInBusiness #LeadershipSkills #CareerCoach #WomenExecutives #GetPromoted #DirectorToVP #ExecutiveMindset #StrategicCommunication #CareerStrategy #WomenAtWork #SisterSmartLeadership #LeadershipDevelopment #CareerGrowth #WomenLeaders #ProfessionalDevelopment #BreakingTheGlassCeiling — Register for the Free Executive Presence for Women Masterclass: The 3 keys to Increase Authority and Influence, happening live on Thursday, August 8 at 12 PST. A replay will be available for those that register! https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAkdOsrDItGdHchQv1BXFozsGRUjL74xlK#/registration — 🌟 FREE MASTERCLASS: Achieve Your VP Promotion: 3 Steps to Success in the Next Year https://sistersmart.com/register-sil — ✈️ FREE PASSPORT TO PROMOTION PRIVATE PODCAST: 7 STEPS TO GET PROMOTED FROM DIRECTOR TO VP Get access to the Passport to Promotion Private Podcast — 👩💻 APPLY FOR THE SISTERS IN LEADERSHIP PROGRAM An 12-month coaching program for women leaders who want to rise up and fulfill their career potential and get promoted from director to VP Join Sisters in Leadership to Get Promoted to VP — 💻 EXPLORE OUR LEADERSHIP COURSES We offer a few leadership courses for you to begin sharpening your skills from meeting management to executive presence and productivity. Sign Up for a Leadership Course — 👋 CONNECT WITH JILL 🌐 Website: https://sistersmart.com/ 🎥 YouTube: https://linktw.in/uWD3ko 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillavey/
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