Leverage Office Housework into Creating Visibility? Yes. [Part 3 #SponsorshipSeptember]

Like life, work is about relationships.

When moving up in leadership, cultivating relationships with sponsors -- senior leaders who will open their Rolodex and advocate for your development and promotion -- can be the golden tickets women need to make meaningful strides toward impactful positions.

Welcome to the 3rd installment of #SponsorshipSeptember. The other two are here and here.

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Like the many women I connect with each week, you've no doubt observed some people move up the ranks while others get stuck in the vortex of doing more than the leading mountaintop.

And sure, that's fine in that early career life, but not after 10+ years of post-collegiate work, when some women shift away from their conditioning and taking what's given to making their own luck.

No, sir.

But this is easier said than done.

If you find yourself collating when you should be coalition building, you're doing 'office house work' and women, particularly women of color, get asked to do more of it than men, which infuriatingly, keeps them too busy to make time for bigger picture initiatives that might help them get seen as "leadership material."

And though there's no silver bullet to kill the two-headed werewolf of sexism and racism, we can do our best to riddle him with as much lead as possible -- starting by finding ways to architect opportunities for visibility that elevate your profile.

Let's look at how my client, Manisha* leveraged her professional story, bypassed office housework and created massive visibility...

Manisha was on fire after we discovered her professional mission: to deliver the best in class electronics and content to millions.

She also knew she wanted to retire by 45, so she had some hustling to do. Knowing this, she’d signaled to her manager exactly what kind of directorship she sought.

She also knew her work needed visibility to higher levels of leadership STAT. So when her manager “asked” if she could assign roles for an interdepartmental review of the electronics business, she assumed she’d waste energy on organizational minutiae instead of elevating her leadership story to potential sponsors.

Not so. Acknowledging her boss didn’t care how the meeting went down, as long as it got done, we were free to structure the reviews to her benefit. Manisha identified the brands with the greatest impact to the company’s overall business (aka, the ones senior leadership cared about most) and decided to run point on those.

What could have been yet another dead-end exercise in “office housework” turned into an opportunity to reinforce her mission and by setting up a monthly call on which she would present, Manisha gained visibility by becoming the face of the electronics accounts senior leaders were deeply invested in.

The key here was a mentor that trusted Manisha to present. 

Not everyone has a supportive manager. 
Not everyone works at an organization that would allow them to present. 
But everyone has value. 
Everyone has a professional mission. 
Everyone has a professional vision. 
Everyone has a story. 
And despite the very real roadblocks, the sooner you discover yours, the more possibilities open up to deploy it... even if it's somewhere where they *will* appreciate your talents and ambitions. 
  

What opportunity is sitting in front of you?

How could you, with some thought, structure it so you HAD TO be in the right room, call, zoom to impress your next sponsor?

What programs, speaking platforms, development opportunities exist at your org that would put you in front of the right people? 

Keep dreaming big.