Rising Female Leaders Are Leaving. Here’s What the Data Is Actually Saying (... and How to Fix It)

http://www.sherylkline.com/blog

The (anonymous) behind the scenes data is from dozens of my coaching calls with female executives and rising leaders about what they are most concerned about and what is pushing them to the brink.

What I am hearing (combined with what the newest research is confirming) is that most organizations are operating on two significant myths.

Getting clear on both of them is where the real work begins.

The first myth: Saying ‘yes’ is best.

When a team member is excited or a role goes unfilled, rising female leaders are often the ones who absorb the gap… The result is a compounding weight that has nothing to do with capability and everything to do with boundaries that were never clearly set. The solution here is twofold. Rising female leaders can develop the confidence and the language to have explicit, direct conversations with their managers about what they can or cannot take on and what will pull them away from what’s expected in their current role

The second myth: Women leave for family reasons.

The research is now telling us clearly that this is not the primary driver. The far more significant reason is that rising female leaders are being recruited elsewhere (by organizations that are making them feel seen, recognized, and valued) because in their current roles, they cannot see a path forward.

A large piece of the visibility gap comes down to a dynamic that plays out in rooms, meetings, and conversations every single day. Male counterparts, on average, are more vocal about what they are working on, what they have accomplished, and what they want next. They advocate for themselves as a matter of course. Many rising female leaders, by contrast, are deflecting credit to their teams, waiting to be noticed which rarely delivers the outcomes you want and deserve.

This is not a character flaw. It is a gap in a specific, learnable skill set: how to document impact, how to speak about your accomplishments with confidence and without apology, and how to make bold asks... for sponsorships, for stretch assignments, for a real and explicit conversation about what lies ahead. When rising female leaders learn to do this well, everything shifts.

What Makes the Biggest Impact?

• Peer support and executive coaching can help reduce female leader exits, especially by improving resilience, confidence, and decision-making under pressure.
• The strongest results come when coaching is paired with real organizational support, like flexible work, sponsorship, and clear advancement paths.
• Peer groups help women leaders feel less isolated and give them a place to problem-solve shared challenges.
• Coaching is most useful for burnout, boundary-setting, and navigating difficult leadership dynamics.
• It will not fix turnover on its own; retention improves most when companies also change the culture and systems driving women out.

Watch my video for a more in-depth perspective: https://www.sherylkline.com/blog/rising-female-leaders-are-leaving-here-s-what-the-data-is-actually-saying-and-how-to-fix-it

The good news in all of this is that there is a proven process. One that is community-based, practical, and built around exactly the skills that close these gaps. Whether you are a rising leader who is ready to stop waiting and start advocating for yourself, or an organization that is serious about keeping the women you have invested in, I’d love to help you to help them.

Let’s chat about it!

Cheering you on always.
- Sheryl