SisterSmart Leadership

Should I stay or should I go? This is a question many of my clients come to me with. You've invested years at your company, built strong relationships, and know how to do your job well. But something feels off. Maybe you've gotten too comfortable in your groove. Maybe the company culture has shifted. Or maybe you know deep down that you're ready for more. Our client, Dorothy, a negotiations coach...

Have you ever been told you need to be 'warmer' in a meeting... and then told you need to be 'more assertive' in your next review? This is what researchers call the 'likeability trap.' And it's one of the biggest reasons talented women get stuck in their careers. In this episode, you'll learn what the likeability trap actually looks like at work so you can spot when it's happening to you. Jill sha...

How can we change the gender balance in traditionally male dominated fields?  The tech industry is one that's been known to be male dominated. I have a lot of clients in the tech industry, and some of them feel very daunted by this problem, often wondering if they'll ever get a chance to get the recognition they deserve.  So I'm so excited to have this conversation with a leader in tech...

Mid-career women often have an allergic reaction to how to build their network.  They don't want to feel cheesy, sleazy, or like they're only out for themselves. They've seen others doing this and they don't want to be perceived in the same way.  But the problem with this is it holds them back in their careers because your network is more important the higher your rise. In this episode,...

You’ve likely heard the saying, “you can’t control the situation, but you can control how you react to the situation.”  That can be easier said than done, but that’s exactly the skill great leaders are able to develop. Our client, Wendy, was initially a little resistant to the mindset work, but when she was laid off from a role she didn’t enjoy, she used that time to reflect on her unique str...

Every leader with an eye on a senior role needs to understand how to find a mentor.  When you seek out the right mentors, they become an advantage that will help you rise into senior leadership roles more quickly and easily.  In this episode, Jill and SisterSmart Career Success Coach, Sarah, share how to determine what you want to get out of a mentorship, find the mentors that are right...

Everyone's heard the phrase, your network is your net worth. Then why do so few mid-career women have the robust network that will get them into senior management?  According to McKinsey, even female CEOs have networks that are several times smaller than their male colleagues and the numbers get even worse the farther down the ladder you go. So if men have this all figured out, why is this st...

What happens when you have a failure? Like when you make a mistake at work — big or small — or you get rejected for something that you thought was a sure thing.  It’s tempting to hide away or play small after a failure has happened. Sometimes people let it derail them or even end their career.  But what happens when you use failure to propel you forward?  That’s what Jessica Ba...

Are you afraid of taking risks because you don’t know how to bounce back from failure?  You’re likely nervous that if you fail, you’ll be “marked” forever or side-tracked for a promotion because of it.  This is a common fear that women can hold, and for good reason. Women are criticized for not taking enough risks and being held back from further success because of it. A lot of this has...

Your mental skills are likely what’s holding you back from being a senior leader.  Our inner emotional life is like a governor for our success, and we need to work through our mindset limitations to avoid getting stuck behind outdated ways of thinking. Our growth gets stunted and our potential gets cut off unless we work to expand our mindset into new territory. The mental game is every bit a...

Senior and executive leadership roles bring more responsibility, but that doesn’t have to mean taking on more work and sacrificing your personal time or well-being in the process. In fact, prioritizing work-life balance and self-care becomes more critical as you rise through the ranks because you need the capacity to navigate more challenging situations, lead more people, and make more prominent d...

You need to get comfortable with failure to be a successful leader and rise into more senior roles.  We all make mistakes and we all have failures, even big ones. Women often take failures hard and it can be debilitating and even derail your career if you don't recover effectively from it. In this episode, you’ll understand why you need to be failing if you want to earn senior leadership role...

As women, we easily fall into the mentality of “we have to do it all.”  But we can’t rise up without the right support. (Or if you somehow muster up the determination to do so, you’ll end up burned out and unsatisfied pretty quickly juggling all those responsibilities). In this episode, Chumi Khurana, vice president of sales and marketing at J& J Oncology, joins Jill to share how she lean...

Whether you received your promotion recently or you want one in the next few months, have you ever felt like you didn't really deserve it?  This is a common feeling that leaders have, While men certainly feel this way at times, the problem tends to be bigger for women and underrepresented groups because this feeling of being an imposter can come from feeling like an outsider.  Plus, wome...

Do you ever feel like all the eyes are on you and you have more and more fear of making mistakes as a leader and pressure to work harder?  The higher you go, the higher this pressure becomes, especially for women due to gender bias and socialization. Many leaders in this situation just work harder and harder, without it ever feeling like enough.  This might get you to the director level...

As ambitious leaders rising up in our careers, it’s inevitable to encounter career setbacks along the way.   Sometimes you have to restart your career because you had kids or you moved to another country. Or maybe you've done everything right and that promotion you were looking for doesn't pan out or you get laid off right on your way up the ladder.  Many leaders let these kinds of...

An employee is only as good as their team. There have been studies that show this.  So why is the team dynamic so important? No one gets to the top alone. Even in roles that might seem like they're solo endeavors like sales.  We feed off one another and we have a human need to belong to a larger group. And when these interpersonal dynamics are missing, we simply cannot be our best selves...

If you want to improve your ability to create stronger relationships, not only with your team but also with your peers and senior leaders, you're going to want to listen to this episode because we are going to let you in on the secret to how your physiology could actually be holding you back from being the best that you can be. In this episode, SisterSmart coach, Sara Spencer joins Jill to share t...

Understanding how to develop your conversation skills for work is one of the skills that will allow you to confidently navigate any situation you encounter as a leader.  So many conversations don't go anywhere or worse — they create a negative situation between two people or different factions. These types of situations are exactly what can get your team stuck or underperforming. In this...

Setting SMART goals can lead you to feel like you’re on a “goal treadmill.” Set a goal. Check it off. Set another one. Repeat. This usually results in goals that are good for the company, but not necessarily good for you. Many women we’ve talked to who set SMART goals share they end up feeling unfulfilled and not in alignment with their purpose.  In this episode, Jill and SisterSmart Coach Li...

It's been proven that companies prosper more when diversity increases and we improve gender balance.  Yet the workplace is the same experience for all women.  In fact, white women are at a distinct advantage in terms of promotions, pay, and dealing with microaggressions. When we can understand how our experience is similar and different from women of color, we can work together towards a...

It can feel difficult to set boundaries with your coworkers, but learning how to say no at work without making enemies is the very thing that will make you more successful — not saying “yes” to everything.  When you set boundaries at work, the way you spend your time, your money, your energy will all become in line with what you really want and you’ll experience how saying “no” helped you go...

If you're like most people, you've taken career opportunities as they've come rather than intentionally thought about how to develop your career plan to get you where you want to go and what you'll need to get there before setting your goals. When you simply take opportunities as they come, you can end up in a place that you never wanted to be by the end of your career, and it's disheartening to t...

For most women leaders, learning how to stop working too much is one of the most difficult tasks they face in their career.  There are social and psychological reasons that you stay stuck in a busyness trap unless you understand these influences and create a plan about how to work through them. If you've ever struggled with feeling like you have too much on your plate, wondering why you can't...

When you’re feeling burned out at work, the initial thought tends to be, “If only the company would change their behavior, then I could change my own behavior.” But recovering from work burnout is an inside job. SisterSmart client, Jenny, found herself completely burned out, so when she eventually got a new dream job, she wanted to approach it differently to make sure that wouldn’t happen again.&n...