Hello, Reader
I want to tell you about Zainab.
Fifteen years at the same company. Director of Strategy. Brilliant analyst. The kind of woman who could walk into chaos and walk out with a 40-page deck that solved it.
Her performance reviews were exceptional. Her deliverables were the gold standard. Other Directors borrowed her frameworks.
And every time the VP roles opened up, three times in five years, the email always came to someone else.
The first time, she told herself it was timing.
The second time, she told herself the other candidate had more years in the function.
The third time, she stopped telling herself anything. She just quietly updated her LinkedIn and waited.
Here's what nobody had told Zainab.
Her work wasn’t the only thing being evaluated. Her presence was too.
In meetings, she waited her turn. Spoke only when called on. Delivered facts, not perspectives. Stayed three rows back, literally and figuratively.
She was the woman whose name leadership recognized but couldn't quite place.
"Zainab? Oh yes, she's solid. She's on Adaora's team, right?"
She had spent fifteen years building competence and zero years building presence.
And presence is what gets promoted at the VP level.
Zainab came for coaching and started to track something for two weeks.
Her behavior in meetings.
- How often did she speak before being called on?
- How often did she offer a perspective, not just a fact?
- How often did she sit near the people making decisions?
- How often did she state a recommendation without softening it first?
The numbers were honest. They were also brutal.
So she built four shifts, one at a time.
1. She stopped waiting to be called on.
She started offering her perspective in the first ten minutes of every meeting, even when uncertain, even when uncomfortable. This was the hardest one. For the first two weeks she felt physically unwell speaking up unprompted.
She did it anyway.
By month three, leadership started turning to her for the strategic read of the room.
2. She stopped delivering only what was asked.
She started naming the second-order implications no one else had spotted. The risk hiding behind the proposal. The opportunity buried in the data. The political dynamic everyone was working around but no one was naming.
This is what shifted her from analyst to advisor.
Analysts answer questions. Advisors reframe them. Different role. Different rewards.
3. She stopped sitting in the back row.
Physically. Literally. She started arriving five minutes early and choosing seats closer to the people making decisions. She stopped letting the room arrange itself around her.
Where you sit broadcasts how much you believe you belong.
4. She stopped saying "I think maybe we should consider."
She started saying "Here's what I recommend."
No softening. No qualifying laughs. No "I might be wrong, but…" before stating her position.
The same expertise. Delivered with conviction.
The room responded immediately.
It took eighteen months.
Today, Zainab is an SVP at a different company. She didn't need a new title to start operating that way.
She needed to operate that way to earn the title.
The principle
There's a ceiling that most accomplished women hit somewhere between Director and VP that has very little to do with their competence.
It's the ceiling where performance stops being the only thing that gets measured, and presence starts being the deciding factor.
Your work cannot promote you past that ceiling.
Only how you show up can.
Competence is the entry fee. Presence is the currency that buys the next level.
Before you close this email
I want you to ask yourself one question.
Have you ever been Zainab?
Delivering flawless work and watching less qualified people get promoted ahead of you. Wondering what they have that you don't. Quietly updating your LinkedIn and waiting.
If the answer is yes, I want you to know something.
You're not failing.
You're missing the second half of the equation.
And the women who finally figure that out don't just get promoted. They stop needing to be promoted.
They start operating like the women they're trying to become. Long before anyone hands them a new title.
That's the next chapter I want for you.
Before you go…
Which version of Zainab are you today?
Reply with just one number:
1 – I speak up less than I should.
2 – I share facts but not recommendations.
3 – I avoid visibility and senior stakeholders.
4 – I soften my expertise too much.
5 – All of the above.
Just hit reply with the number.
I’ll share the results with Coachivate Insiders next week.
Talk soon,
Cheers To Your Next Chapter,
Coach FAA
P.S. Forward this to a woman you know who is delivering flawless work and watching less qualified people get promoted ahead of her. She needs to read it.