Lessons from the Top of the Corporate Ladder
Today we have a guest post from Susannah Breslin, a friend and experienced corporate consultant. She combines emotional intelligence and strategic savvy to give women the tools they need to empower themselves and break through the glass ceiling. Susannah's clients include some of the world’s biggest brands, and her experience includes salary negotiation, business development, and mergers and acquisitions.
Without further ado, here's Susannah:
In the eight years I’ve been a consultant advising C-suite executives, I’ve learned a great deal about how men operate at the highest levels of the corporate ladder. Most of my clients are men, and I’ve found these men operate differently than most women in the workplace. Consistently, the men I’ve worked with are more willing to be more strategic, more ruthless, and more aggressive in pursuing their aims than their female peers are. This doesn’t mean that women are any less capable of being strategic, ruthless, and aggressive in pursuing their goals. But it does mean that women, I’ve found, are more likely to feel inhibited about leaning into their more aggressive natures when it comes to the workplace. Here’s what I’ve learned from my male C-suite clients about getting ahead, being strategic, and negotiating your worth.
Men are more willing to fake until they make it
Surely, you’ve heard the adage to fake it until you make it. The theory being that by pretending to be what you want to be, others will be more willing to buy into this superior version of yourself. When it comes to faking it in the workplace, men are less inhibited about presenting themselves as superior versions of themselves—who are smarter, more capable, and more accomplished than who they really are. When women get locked into imposter syndrome, men dive into the unknown of presuming they’ll figure it out along the way. Take a page from the guy who landed the corner office by faking it until he made it. He isn’t any more capable than you. He’s just more capable at pretending that he’s more capable than you.
His role model is Machiavelli
My male clients have one thing in common: They’re willing to work behind the scenes to strategically acquire as much capital and power as possible in order to establish themselves as a dominant force in the workplace. Generally, these men are less interested in working collaboratively, being transparent about their methodologies or agendas, and are willing to be disliked if it means gaining a strategic advantage. From the time we’re girls, women are encouraged to be accommodating, to serve as helpmates, and to offer support. If you want to get ahead, get machiavellian. Devise a strategic plan. Share it with no one. Execute it ruthlessly. As Machiavelli wrote: “Never attempt to win by force what can be won by deception.”
They’re shrewd negotiators
Everything I’ve learned about negotiating, I’ve learned from Victoria Pynchon. She taught me how to be strategic, how to claim my worth, and how to command rates that are aligned with the value that I add. She helped me increase my net worth, leverage myself into new roles with new titles, and secure a healthy revenue stream. All of that is great, and I feel so lucky to count her as a mentor and friend. But what’s not great is that it wasn’t until I was in my forties that I learned how to negotiate strategically. Women aren’t taught how to lean into difficult conversations about money, how to wrestle with men who are attempting to rob them of their value, how to negotiate with the big boys. It’s only by claiming our value that we can empower ourselves.
Susannah Breslin is an author, editor, and consultant. Email | Twitter | LinkedIn | Newsletter
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Good negotiating to all!