It’s International Women’s Day so I wanted to talk about career arcs and the stories we are told.
I’ve recently decided I would like to become CEO soon. I’ve been a founder and co-founder but realised that didn’t translate into people trusting me in a CEO role. I was young and CEO roles implied a particular journey and a particular age. So I started on that journey in 2017. In that time, I’ve been a Lead, Head of, CDO and Director. I’m on the board (and a Chair) of three charities. I have been an assessor for multi million pound funds and have successfully won and managed million pound budgets. I’ve also managed big and small teams. So I’m pretty sure I’d do a good job. But when I tell the men in my life I get a real range of responses. From ‘you’ve been ready for 10 years’ from a black friend of mine to ‘oh, will you study an MBA?’ from a white man I’ve known professionally for a long time.
So yeh, you might think you’re ready, or actually be ready, but that doesn’t matter if the people around you aren’t willing to really see you. Here’s to another year of trying to get the men in our lives to see us.
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