12 Months to GM: Coaching Program for Ambitious Women
- Make the move to senior leadership
- Increase your resilience and self-belief
- Develop an agenda for your leadership
- Create strong relationships that will support your progress
Wondering Why You've been Overlooked?
Are you watching others get promoted to more senior leadership while you don't seem to get the tap on the shoulder?
Maybe you're puzzled, even frustrated by seeing people less qualified or experienced or hardworking than you get the promotion.
Perhaps you work extra hard to meet all your stakeholders' demands but it only results in more requests!
We can hardly work any harder! Why don't others seem to see us as GM material?
Do you Tell Yourself You're not Qualified?
Do you look at the job spec and think 'Well there's a couple of things on there I'm not brilliant at'?
Perhaps you tell yourself you'll wait a year or two till you get more experience or a chance to strengthen your skills. But perhaps you said that last year too!
Are you waiting till you know you can do the job with ease?
Or perhaps there are skills you do need but haven't got a plan of how to get.
If you don't address this, you'll never act.
Have You Been Rejected for GM Before?
Having mustered the courage to apply, being turned down can damage your self-belief.
Does an inner voice tell you you're not GM material and that having been turned down just proves it?
Did you react by telling yourself you didn't want/weren't ready for the job anyway?
Have you really analysed what you need to get to GM?
It's too easy to put it in the too hard basket.
Women Sell Themselves Short
Research shows that while women are as capable as men, they can often be less confident at work. For example, while men will apply for jobs when they don't meet all the criteria, women will wait till they meet all the criteria and feel they probably do so more than others before applying.
Women leaders also have a tendency to want to be liked which can mean they hold back from putting themselves forward or rocking the boat.
And the pandemic and working remotely has had a negative impact on women getting their views heard and even getting promoted.
The 4 Consequences for Women when they Don't Step Up
The 3 Consequences for Businesses when Women Don't Step Up
How Ready are You for GM?
Where do you sit on the GM Readiness Ladder Ladder?
Perhaps your path follows this ladder, perhaps it is a little different. Where are you now and how does it feel to be there?
What's holding you back?
Perhaps you are at LEVEL 1: Reluctant. You're avoiding this opportunity, believing it would be overwhelming. Perhaps you have other life commitments right now. That's OK, just revisit it a few years down the track.
Perhaps you are at LEVEL 2: REHEARSING. You dare to think about it, but self-doubt holds you back.
At LEVEL 3 REASSESSING, it's about hesitation - on repeat!
At LEVEL 4: READY are all in! Are you super-confident - probably not! But you're going to give it your best shot.
So where are you now and how does it feel to be there? What are your frustrations?
How would it be to be at LEVEL 4? What could you get done and how would it feel?
Take a look at this Venn diagram. This is how you're going to get there.
VISION
What will You Do with Your Power?
The GM role wields power. And it takes someone with vision to make good use of it.
What vision do you have for your area of responsibility that you will commit to executing if given the role?
And what value will that be to the business?
Executing the Vision
It's not enough to have vision that benefits the business, you need to show you can develop a plan and execute it with the resources given to you.
EMPOWER OTHERS
Delegating to the Team
In order to deliver value to the business, we need to have everyone in our teams working at the top of their games - all day.
When we delegate effectively, we are spending more time on those senior consultative tasks which show the business our thinking.
It also empowers the team to develop and take greater responsibility which increases satisfaction, attracts talent and reduces churn.
Empowering Others in the Business
The best way to achieve your goals is to help others achieve theirs.
When we collaborate with others form strong relationships which smooth our progress
INFLUENCE
Effectiveness
Businesses are made of people. If we can't influence others we can't get anything done. We need to demonstrate our value to the bottom line so we need to recruit others to our cause. The more influential we are, the more effective we are.
Communication
In business, especially at a senior level, we are always 'selling'. Not products, but ideas. It is our ability to engage others, which drives profitable action. Information is not in itself engaging. We need to tell a story, work with left and right brains. We need to listen in order to understand and harness the drivers of others
Relationships
How much do others trust you? Do they trust your reliability? Your knowledge? Your intent? If you can deliver against these your influence will grow.
GRIT
Courage
Leadership is about pushing outside your comfort zone. This includes initiating difficult conversations sooner rather than later.
Persistence
Being turned down for a role reduces willingness to re- apply for everyone, but even more for women.
Women need to keep getting back up and trying again.
Resilience
While abuse and bullying are never acceptable, leaders need to be able to take criticism, knowing that it's about the work, not about them.
Tough times will come and go. We need to develop grit.
COMMERCIAL LENS
Know the Financial Tools
Ensure you are familiar with the company's financial tools, especially as effects your area of the business and the one you want to move into. Go on a short course if you need to.
Focus on driving profit
Everything the business does needs to drive profit and serve purpose. Your vision and its execution need to be born from driving profit. What currently drives the profit in the business?
How can you affect that
Have commercial conversations
Ensure the conversations you're having are business conversations. You have your area of specialist expertise but you are now discussing how you'll use this to drive commercial outcomes
MARGO CASHMAN
CEO: BREAD & BUTTER
Let me tell you, I did.
Get Out of Your Own Way!
Book Your Spot
This Coaching is Right for you if ....
- You run a team or function
- You know you could make even more of a difference if the organisation would let you.
- You have expert opinions you wish would have more of an impact on decision-making.
- You have been considering applying for GM but hesitate to do so
- You have applied for GM and not been successful
- You would benefit from greater support and accountability
This Coaching is not Right for You if ...
- You don't have ideas or opinions to share
- You are not prepared to be 'all in' for the GM journey
- You are not prepared to change some of your behaviours and try something new
- You want others to change but are not prepared to change yourself
- You are not prepared to engage with others
- You are already leading the decision-making on major issues in your organisation
REBECCA HARRISON
FOUNDER: MOSAIK CONSULTING
"I could not recommend Sara’s coaching highly enough."
It has helped me enormously both to grow as a person, as well as build the necessary resilience and positivity for my new venture, with lots of great frameworks and tips and tricks to fall back on should I waiver!
It's a brilliant mix of carefully curated and thought-provoking sessions, combined with personal check-ins and the flexibility to ensure it is very much tailored to your individual needs and where you want to get to.
There is discipline to ensure you are always building on your learning and can constantly envision and monitor your end goal.
Yet, there is also the ability to spark off Sara’s own diverse career and life experiences.
And it is huge fun too, as Sara makes it all the more enriching with her fantastic sense of humour and making it feel ‘real’ and applicable rather than theoretical and pie in the sky!
Don’t miss out, there are golden nuggets to draw on for a lifetime. Thank you Sara!
What You'll Walk Away with
(12 month program)
- A plan to get to GM and inspiration, accountability and support for getting there
- An authentic stretch identity that will facilitate your growth
- Self-belief and a strengthened approach to challenge
- A well-articulated profit driven vision you can pursue for your function
- A way to empower your team and step up further into a consultative role
- Stronger relationships with senior management
- A framework for identifying a way to communicate effectively with everyone
- Energy and vocabulary which enable you to engage others
- A way to increase trust and rapport with others so you can build powerful relationships
- Improved collaboration skills
- An understanding of the financial tools for running your part of the business
WAYDE BULL
FOUNDER AND STRATEGY DIRECTOR, PRINCIPALS
"I've had lots of feedback from the leadership team that they find the communication work and the follow up that Sara does really useful."
Sara’s personal experience, solid frameworks, and really robust thinking is really helpful.
As the business continues to grow and evolve it requires many more people to be involved in the company and for us to harness those skillsets and talents Sara's frameworks and experience were really useful in helping us to understand each other much, much better and how we could better work with one another.
It's a confronting idea that business is not all just about managing performance and managing numbers. It's about managing people; which Sara's work demonstrates really ably. For this reason, I'd really recommend that management teams open themselves up to the training that Sara provides.
I've had lots of feedback from the leadership team that they find the communication work and the follow up that Sara does really useful.
Sara Garcia
Sara is a self-leadership coach and speaker specialising in empowering women leaders and increasing their influence in organisations.
She works one-to-one with leaders to increase influence, help them be more effective in their organisations and get the roles they want. She also works with teams to increase their impact on the business.
She lives to help others discover the fold-out page of their lives in which they discover how much more they have to offer and enjoy, and what they can achieve when they increase their courage and remove their blinkers.
Sara has a background in psychology, a government accreditation for management in the UK, she's built businesses in London and Sydney, influenced global brand strategy for companies including Coca-Cola and Nike and performed on the London stage.
She loves labradors and hates tinned tuna.
