About Harvard Business Review (HBR)
The Harvard University Management Magazine has been published for a century and gathers articles based on research and data. Its authors include the best international management and business experts in a variety of fields, including leadership, negotiation, strategy, marketing, finance and operations. Harvard Business Review articles are translated and published in Globes three times a week: on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays (G Magazine).
About the authors
Brenda P. Vancil is a principal at Bravanti.
Winifred Ernst, Ph.D, leads research and facilitates learning and development as a Bravanti consultant.
Jackie began her career as a scientist involved in the discovery of new drugs. After a few years she realized that she wanted to move to the strategy side of the business, but every time she tried, she was rejected. “They kept telling me, ‘You’re just a chemist,'” she recalls. The same thing happened when she tried to get accepted for external positions. No one could see beyond her current expertise. She felt stuck.
Jackie encountered a problem that many women face in their careers: the feeling that they have lost momentum. As coaches for women in leadership positions, we wanted to understand why some women manage to maintain momentum in their careers, despite the structural and systemic problems that women face in the workplace. We conducted interviews with 37 women in senior management positions whose experience encompassed more than 75 companies.
The qualities that build leadership
We asked these leaders to describe key moments that helped them maintain career momentum. Analyzing these moments helped us understand the key characteristics that helped them move on when they felt stuck. Although the women we spoke with came from a variety of backgrounds, interests, personalities, and careers, they used at least two of the three behavior patterns described below to maintain momentum during these key moments.
Focused drive: Call it tenacity, determination, or persistence. When faced with obstacles, these women recounted turning to inner strength that helped them place short-term difficulties within the context of larger goals.
For example, Lydia never deviated from the goal of becoming CEO of an investment company. She saw every career opportunity as a means of building momentum for that. “I had a variety of experiences that helped me develop and get to know all parts of the business,” she said. “I moved to the pension sector and then from banking to insurance. It is important to prepare yourself for the position you want.”
A constant desire to learn: These women demonstrated not only an ability to learn. They were motivated to seek opportunities that provided them with new experiences, challenges and knowledge.
For example, Mary, now president and CEO of a public company, started out as a lawyer. She agreed to manage regulatory affairs, then became director of the finance department, where she says she started from scratch. “I recruited analysts a few levels below me, and I told them, ‘Teach me an introduction to finance’.” She asked the right questions, reviewed the data, made decisions and watched stocks soar.
Flexible thinking: All the women we spoke with demonstrated flexibility of thought, and the ability to quickly assess a situation and determine a path forward. As far as careers are concerned, they reinvented themselves or changed the face of the projects they worked on.
“Jen” was a vice president before the age of 30, and the doors continued to open for her until she was a VP of administration so good that no one could look at her as a VP of finance – and she was passed over twice in two different companies. After consulting, she decided that she needed to present her work, her success, and her reputation in a different way so that she could also be seen as a potential CFO. Once again she changed jobs, helped build the new company’s financial client base, worked with the product development team on prioritizing properties, sold it to other administration managers and managed the company’s business in Europe. These extensive successes secured her transition to CFO and president of an international corporation.
Resetting the momentum in your career
To maintain momentum or create it when they were stuck, most of the women we spoke to made a change, moved sideways rather than upward, gained more experience or moved to smaller companies at some point in their careers. 70% changed direction two or more times to gain momentum. Of the 27% of women who stayed at the same company, more than half described a geographic move, a change of the entire line of work within an international company or other flexible maneuvers to survive mergers and acquisitions. The women we spoke with recommended the following strategies when deciding on a change of direction.
Let your career goals guide you: if you are offered an opportunity for a role outside of your area of expertise; Or you are encouraged to take a step aside to study new fields or acquire new skills – of course the decision is based on your ultimate career goals.
Achieve extraordinary clarity about your personal brand: 83% of the women we interviewed said that clarity about purpose and brand management was essential to maintaining momentum. Brand research values about yourself. Is your reputation as you want it to be? What do they say about you when you’re not in the room?
Look for every opportunity to learn: knowledge is power. Hi is aimed at identifying the things you need to learn, whether it is a new product, a new automation tool, competitive information or a new market, and how you will learn it. You want people to see that even if you don’t currently understand in some area, you are the type to learn and will grasp the subject quickly.
Jackie, the chemist who wanted to work in strategy, completely changed industry and position and joined an independent brewery. She made sure to learn every side of the business and then began redefining her brand as an innovative and experienced leader. After a few years and further transitions from sales to consulting, she returned to the pharmaceutical field as a senior manager and eventually obtained a position as vice president.
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