Why Hardworking Women Don’t Get Promoted | Nicole Johnston

Why do hardworking, highly capable women get overlooked for promotions, even when they consistently overdeliver?

Executive leadership coach Nicole Johnston reveals how invisible labor, workplace bias, vague feedback, emotional labor, and unspoken leadership rules can quietly keep women from advancing in their careers.

Nicole has more than 30 years of senior corporate leadership experience. In this candid conversation with Julie Fairhurst, she explains why doing excellent work is not enough to make a woman promotable, and why your boss may not understand your contributions unless you learn to communicate your value.

We discuss the non-promotable work women are often expected to carry: taking notes, organizing celebrations, managing emotions, cleaning up, supporting everyone else, and accepting responsibilities that provide little recognition or career advancement.

Nicole also exposes the problems hidden inside phrases such as “executive presence,” “be more confident,” “you’re too direct,” and “you’re not quite leadership material.” You will learn how to ask for specific feedback, protect your ideas, reclaim credit, build visibility, and have direct conversations about your next promotion.

In this episode, you will discover:

•  Why hardworking women are frequently overlooked for promotions 
•  How invisible and non-promotable work damages career advancement 
•  Why competence alone does not demonstrate leadership potential 
•  What executive presence should really mean 
•  How gender bias can hide inside vague professional feedback 
•  What to say when someone calls you intimidating or too direct 
•  Why overdelivering can make you less strategically visible 
•  How to stop accepting work that was never yours 
•  The difference between being valuable and being promotable 
•  Why women need coaches, mentors, and sponsors 
•  How to build relationships with people who advocate for you 
•  What to say when someone interrupts you or takes credit for your idea 
•  How to manage your career instead of waiting to be noticed 

Nicole is also the author of Taboo Topics: Things Women Should Talk About But Don’t, a practical guide addressing personal and professional issues women are often discouraged from discussing.

If you have ever worked harder, taken on more, stayed agreeable, and proven yourself repeatedly, only to remain stuck. This conversation may help you understand why.

Your hard work matters. But if no one sees your thinking, leadership, results, or ambitions, your competence can become the very reason they leave you exactly where you are.

Watch until the end to learn the simple sentence every woman can use when someone interrupts her.

Connect with Nicole Johnston

http://www.innate-power.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolemjohnston

https://www.instagram.com/innatepowercoaching/

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=122100179066765813&set=a.122100179132765813    (iP Facebook)

https://www.facebook.com/nicolejohnstoncoach  (nmj Facebook)

If this conversation stirred something in you… good. That’s where change begins.

Make sure you’re subscribed, share this with someone who needs it, and if you’re ready to tell your story, step into your voice, or build a life that actually feels like yours… You’re in the right place.

I’m Julie Fairhurst, and this is where stories turn into power.

Go to my website if you would like to be a guest on the Women Like Me Stories & Business in the toolbar click Let's Podcast

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