Leading Her Introvert Way: Conversations about executive leadership, career growth, business and mindset for mid-life Black women.

60:Mastering Career Wealth: How Introverted Women Can Lead and Thrive Today Without Selling Out

• Nicole Bryan • Episode 60

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Unlock the secret to redefining wealth and leadership as an introverted woman.  We explore the idea of career wealth, extending far beyond financial gain to encompass social, health, and time and energy wealth. How can introverted women navigate leadership roles while challenging societal myths and organizational barriers? We discuss four essential currencies of career wealth.

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Speaker 1:

Hey, lady leader, welcome back to another episode of the Leading Her Way podcast. I am Dr Nicole Bryan and I executive level ranks. If you are an introverted woman who is looking to leverage your introversion, as well as your feminine strengths, as part of your leadership journey, then this is the right place for you, and I am so excited that you are here. Every time I have the opportunity to pick up this mic and have these deep conversations with you, it is really, really an honor and, whether this is your first time here or you are a returning OG, I truly appreciate the time that you spend with me and I, even more, have appreciated the way that you have been sharing these conversations, sharing the podcast, forwarding and inviting your colleagues, your introverted female leader colleagues, to listen, because it's through you sharing with others that this podcast continues to grow others, that this podcast continues to grow Every week. I am surprised so pleasantly surprised by how fast this podcast continues to grow. We are in just about every city. We have listeners in just about every city across the United States and we are covered in six out of the seven continents. Listen. Over a year or so ago, this podcast didn't even exist, so I am really grateful for you continuing to show up and spreading the word and sharing the podcast with others. So thank you, thank you so much for that. If you are getting you know what, not if I already know that you are getting quality information because you guys keep showing up and you guys keep spreading the word. So, as you continue to listen to this episode, I want you to do me a favor, right? If you want to show me a little love and show the podcast a little love, go ahead and leave a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you are listening to this. In fact, I'll probably put a link in the show notes where you can just click a button and leave a five-star review. And if you want to share a little bit, as you leave your review in terms of what you learned or what you enjoy most about the podcast, that would be a great help as well. As you know, every time we get a review, every time you hit that button, it tells the algorithm that people enjoy the podcast and it helps us to continue to spread the word and grow and get even more female introvert leaders listening and learning from our discussions. So if you are feeling so inclined, definitely do that, and I will start. Actually, one of the things I want to do going forward is start to or get back to, I should say, reading out loud and acknowledging some of the reviews that you leave. Right. I want to shout out and start shouting out reviewers so that we can kind of share the love and keep it moving from there.

Speaker 1:

So, with that said, let's talk about today's topic. We are actually revisiting the topic of wealth. One of the things that I am continuing to see and wanting to tackle is this phenomenon that we have as introverted women and continuing to shy away from discussions or open discussions about salary, compensation and building wealth, and the source of that comes from many different things. It comes from likely how women have been conditioned in the broader society. It definitely comes from our introversion and not necessarily being in positions to advocate for ourselves. It comes from the conditioning in working in larger organizations where our voices are not always valued or prioritized many different reasons but one of the things that continues to happen is that we, as introverted women, are not embracing or not feeling as if we can embrace being both a leader and simultaneously building wealth. I want us to challenge that. I want us to keep challenging that, because it's a myth that if we don't challenge it, we will continue to damage ourselves right, Continue to keep wealth out of our hands. It's bad enough that other people, other institutions, society at large tries to keep us in a box, but when we keep our own selves in a box by not acknowledging that we can have all of these things simultaneously, it really, really bothers me and I believe that we are doing ourselves a huge disservice when we do that. We are doing ourselves a huge disservice when we do that.

Speaker 1:

So in episode 57, if you have not already listened to that episode, that was the first time that I broke down, at least on this podcast a different definition of wealth. So when we normally hear the word wealth and I think if you ask anybody man, female, extrovert, introvert what is the definition of wealth, most people will likely immediately respond and talk about financial wealth. What I am proposing is that wealth should be thought of in a more broader and holistic manner. Right, so of course there is financial wealth, but in episode 57, I talk about a broader definition of wealth that I think would help all of us as we think about and start exploring building wealth for ourselves. So there are four components that I talked about already in terms of wealth and what wealth looks like. One is obviously financial wealth. A second component is social wealth, like your relationships. A third component is health, so health as a version of wealth. And then the fourth component is time and energy wealth. So those are the four segments, or four aspects of wealth that we discussed in episode 57.

Speaker 1:

Today I want to continue that conversation, because there's one aspect of wealth that we did not already cover. So there's a fifth aspect of wealth career, and growing your leadership career into the executive level and senior level of organizations. I felt like talking about career wealth, that we should carve out this particular time that is dedicated to just talking about career wealth. So you might be thinking, okay, well, what is career wealth? Not only what is it? How can I get that for myself? How can I build career wealth? And you may already have career wealth, but let's talk about that concept and let's break it down here. So career wealth is not just your job title, it's not just your salary although those are definitely nice perks and things that have to be taken into account but career wealth is your complete portfolio of professional power. Today, what I want to do is break down the four essential currencies you need to be banking for career wealth it's identity, influence, intentional career strategy and and impact. I call these the four I's of career wealth. So if you already have not grabbed your notebook or broken out your notes app, you're going to want to do that because this is going to be really, really good. All right, so let's start with identity.

Speaker 1:

So earlier in my career, I struggled because of my introverted nature. I chose to work for larger organizations and in larger organizations. It is very easy, particularly when you are a junior associate or a new leader. It's very easy for your voice to get lost. You're amongst lots of people every day. You are as an introvert. You might be on the quieter side or you might not have the energy. You might not be quiet but not have all of the energy to constantly be on in a larger organization, and that was me. I was always feeling like I was working 10 times as harder or 10 times as hard as other people around me because of my introversion. I felt like I was fighting myself constantly to be able to show up and to show up in a way that would be recognized and would be valued, and it took me a long time to accept who I was as an introvert. It took me years almost a decade to actually accept who I was as an introvert and recognize how that played into my career and my career progression.

Speaker 1:

All of this to say, a part of me was fighting my own identity, and I don't know about you or if you experienced this now or maybe experienced it earlier in your career, but when I was fighting with my own identity, when I refused to accept who I was, I found myself pretending to be extroverted even though I was not. I found myself pushing against my own personality. I found myself not telling untruths, but often kind of hiding truths about myself. When I was in the company of colleagues and my boss, I would do things, go places, say things that weren't aligned with who I was, and it made me feel like a fraud was. And it made me feel like a fraud. I constantly felt like I was showing up as a fraud, but I also thought that it was what I had to do to be able to fit in these organizations, to be accepted, to be recognized, and it wasn't until I literally almost burnt myself out showing up in this way. That was not me that I had to make you know. It was then that I made like a complete shift, meaning I could no longer do it. I was so misaligned that I was physically exhausting myself. I was emotionally exhausting myself, trying to show up as this leader who I truly was not. It was almost as if I was someone outside of work, and when I went to work, I was a completely different person. Once I accepted that I was an introvert, and I accepted that because I was an introvert, how I showed up was going to be, look and feel different than other people. That's when things again shifted for me.

Speaker 1:

I think it's important that we all take the moment and wherever you are, and think about your unique introvert strengths. Maybe it's that you have deep listening skills. Maybe the best way that you communicate is actually through listening. Or it might be that your analytical skills are right, like you process information really well and you're able to analyze the hell out of that information and come up with new ideas. Or it might be your ability to see connections and make connections that other people don't make. Whatever it is that your introvert strengths are, it is important for you to recognize those and determine how you can best leverage them, versus trying to pretend that those don't exist and trying to show up in your work environment every day as somebody that you are not. So the first part of that career wealth is identity knowing who you are, knowing what your strengths are and leading with those, versus trying to watch other people and see what other people are doing and imitate other people and their strengths which are not yours. Imitate other people and their strengths, which are not yours.

Speaker 1:

The second I is influence. So let's talk about that, and no, I don't mean having the most LinkedIn connections or being an office social butterfly. What I'm talking about when I talk about influence here is something that is much more powerful, and that's strategic influence. Now, as introverted leaders, we build influence through depth, not volume. So when you think about networking, for example, most of us think about networking in terms of high numbers how many people do we know, how many people can we pick up the phone and call and ask for a favor, or how many people do we have connections to? As an introvert, we are not necessarily focused on breadth, we are not focused on volume. We're actually focused on depth. It's about being known for your thoughtful insights, your well-researched decisions and your ability to write compelling proposals. It's about having and what I've said before on this podcast is focusing on quality versus quantity. It's about creating systems and processes that continue influencing outcomes, even when you're not in the room. That is influence. So this is where your introversion really shines. While others are influencing through charisma, you are influencing through credibility.

Speaker 1:

The third I is intentional career strategy. Now, listen closely, because this is where most professionals, introverted or not, miss the mark completely. Building career wealth requires intentional moves. It's all about strategically collecting experiences that compound over time. So think of it like building an investment portfolio. Every role, every project, every challenge you take on should be deliberately chosen to increase your career wealth.

Speaker 1:

What so many of us do, and the mistake that we make, is we do not intentionally and I think the key word here is intentionally. We do not intentionally make decisions when it comes to our careers, or we wait for someone else our boss, some other leader, our companies to tap us on the shoulder and tell us what comes next in our career journey, whereas what I am saying here and what I'm suggesting is that when you are intentional, when you are in the driver's seat of your career, versus waiting for someone else to drive it for you, then that is, in fact, an aspect of career wealth. When you get to be the decision maker, you get to decide when, how, why you move or make a change in your career, versus waiting on your organization or someone else or some other circumstance to dictate it for you. You having the intentional decision-making and setting a strategy for your career is one of the biggest signs that you have career wealth and you are embracing career wealth. So what you can start doing now is actually start thinking about your next two or three career moves, not just the next, your immediate next one Like what experiences do you want? What experiences do you need? What skills will matter in five years? What problems will your industry face that you want to be positioned to solve? Where is your company going and do you, and in the future? These are all questions that you can and should be asking yourself if you are wanting to continue to increase your career wealth.

Speaker 1:

And then the fourth segment the fourth I is impact. Now, I talk a lot about impact because I know that that drives many, many leaders, particularly you as an introverted leader, when I'm having conversations with different women about what they want from their career. One of the very first things that they will say is I want to make an impact. They may not know what that impact is, but they know they want to make an impact. Another word for impact could be legacy.

Speaker 1:

I know I want to leave a legacy. That is something that I hear consistently. And so the fourth piece is impact, which is the ultimate measure of career wealth. Now, impact is about creating lasting change that continues long after you've moved on to your next challenge, your next role, even if you leave the company. That impact that you make is felt years, decades after you have gone. This is where everything comes together, like your authentic identity shapes how you lead, your strategic influence determines what you can achieve, your intentional choices for your career position, you where you need to be, and all of that combines, all of that comes together to create meaningful impact.

Speaker 1:

So remember when we talked about in episode 57, all the different forms of wealth career wealth is the fifth form and it is the multiplier that makes all of the other forms of wealth possible. Your financial wealth grows through career advancement. Your time wealth expands with executive authority. Your health wealth becomes prioritized when leadership is influenced right With your leadership influence. Before we wrap up for today, the reason why, like I said, I wanted to talk about career wealth is because of a few different reasons. One we simply have to start talking more openly, as introverted women leaders, about wealth in general, wealth in general, and to do so doesn't mean that we have to sacrifice ourselves or our own aspirations for security and building wealth if we want to be great leaders. There was a time where it was looked down upon if you talked about your personal wealth, about building wealth, financial wealth or any other, and we have demonized wealth in this society. We have said no, you can't be. You know, the greatest leaders should not have a lot of money, right? You know the greatest leaders should not have a lot of money, right? And I think a lot of that has to do with many of our social leaders. Many of our people that we admire are not necessarily out there flaunting their wealth. They are, in fact, having to do a lot of grassroots leading. Having to do a lot of grassroots leading, which is fine there's a time and there's a space for that but when I think about women in particular, us and us being more empowered, the truth of the matter is wealth allows us to make decisions. Wealth allows us freedom and flexibility that we need and that we deserve. In the 60s, we didn't have these choices. In the 70s, we were just starting to scratch the surface. Even now, today, 50 or so years later, we're still behind. We're still coming up from the rear, we're still having to fight for our place at the table, our place as leaders, our place in this economy, and so what I don't want us to do is continue with the myth that we can't be servant leaders or we cannot be. You know, leading from out front as well as making money for ourselves, for our families, for our communities that we have to choose between the two, because we don't and we shouldn't choose between the two, because we don't and we shouldn't. If we are, in fact, going to take our rightful place as female leaders in any organization the one you're in today, the one you go to tomorrow or whatever right In any organization then we also have to ensure that we are also talking about how we have the flexibility and the freedom to make the decisions that we need to make for ourselves, for others, and part of that freedom comes with having financial security as well as with wealth. So let me give you just an example of that right.

Speaker 1:

So, for me, as I was coming up, one of the things that was very important to me was to never be in a position where I could not say yes or no to an opportunity because of money. So I wanted to make sure that I had enough money in the bank that if, for example, a company asked me to do something that I didn't want to do, that I could walk away, that I could literally be like you know what? No, this is not something that I agree with. This goes against my moral code, this goes against my values, and I could walk away knowing that I had enough financial security to be able to sustain myself for six months to a year. That was always in my mind, and having that financial security meant that I felt confident, that I could keep myself afloat. It meant that I didn't feel tied to any one organization. It meant that I could make decisions ethically about the things that I wanted to do and not wanted to do If I didn't want to work till all hours of the night. I didn't have to work till all hours of the night because I knew that I had a financial cushion that would allow me to walk away, and walk away basically unscathed.

Speaker 1:

That is what I mean by having financial flexibility. That is what I mean by when you have a certain level of finances or wealth or whatever you want to call it. Then you are not tied or bound to any one organization. You are not tied to your boss. You are not tied to the company. Unless that is what you want, you are making a proactive choice to do that. It is not by default, or out of scarcity, or out of fear, or out of not knowing how you're going to make your rent. You don't continue to work for this organization. That is what I want for everyone.

Speaker 1:

That is my hope for everyone that is listening, that you who are listening, the next sister leader who is listening and those who listen in the future that we get to a point where we are not tied to any one organization or to any one person as part of sacrificing ourselves. My hope is that we get to a point where we are comfortable building wealth for ourselves as well as leading and being in a place where we are always able to make the right decision without thinking about scarcity, without worrying about finances. And the only way we're going to get there is if we stop tying leadership to self-sacrifice, we stop equating those two things, that we start thinking more strategically about our careers and the decisions that we make about our careers, and that we get into the more senior leader and executive leader roles where we are not only able to make better money from a salary and compensation standpoint, but we're also able to make deeper level of impact. We become the decision makers rather than the order takers. All of these things are connected, and until we start talking about them openly and we start leveraging the power and authority that we can build for ourselves the power and authority that we can build for ourselves if we don't do that, then we will continue to be picking up the rear when it comes to careers and power and impact inside organizations and outside organizations.

Speaker 1:

So that is how career wealth kind of fit into the bigger picture of in the broader definition of wealth that we started to talk about a couple of episodes ago, and so what I would want to make sure that we walk away from this conversation. Understanding is that building wealth for yourself is not a bad thing. In fact, that is something you want and should want for yourself, and that talking about it openly is important, acknowledging it and not trying to hide it is a part of the empowerment, it is a part of what will make you stronger, is a part of what would make you the better leader, and so we'll continue this conversation as we move forward, particularly as we move into 2025. We will talk more openly about money. We will talk more openly about how you can leverage that to create even more freedom in your decisions for yourself, and we will talk about frankly how we will continue to leverage this concept of wealth, the broader concept of wealth, and how we can pursue that in a way where we feel like we are leading with integrity and we continue to give of ourselves but not sacrifice who we are in the process.

Speaker 1:

Okay, lady Leader, I would love to hear your thoughts about this broader definition of wealth, particularly around career wealth. As a reminder, there are four I's when it comes to career wealth. The first I is identity. The second is influence, the third is intentional strategy and the fourth is impact.

Speaker 1:

Okay so, lady leader, if you are ready to take your leadership career to the senior leader and executive level, then I would love to talk to you and work with you in my one-on-one coaching program.

Speaker 1:

I would encourage you to book a sales call with me.

Speaker 1:

Just go to the link in the show notes and book a time for us to have our conversation, and what will happen is we'll talk, maybe for about 30, 45 minutes.

Speaker 1:

I would love to take part of that time to hear about your career so far, what your goals are, what's been working for you to grow your career, what hasn't maybe been working for you and what you've tried so far, and we will talk about what makes the most sense in terms of putting together a plan and a strategy for you to take your career to that next level.

Speaker 1:

You might want to, and you may already know that you want to stay within your company, or you may already have made the decision to leave. Either way, we'll take all of that into account and what I will do is, after hearing more about your unique situation, I will help you put your plan together and put your strategy together in terms of what exactly it will take for you to secure your first executive position, and then we'll decide whether or not it makes sense for us to work together. So go ahead and book that call. I am looking forward to our conversation and until next time, keep leading your introvert way message on LinkedIn and if you enjoyed today's episode, subscribe and please take a minute to write a quick review on Apple Podcasts.

Speaker 2:

Your review will help spread the word to other ambitious females so they know they're not alone and that this podcast is a community of support for all of us. Leading her way to the top. Remember your leadership is needed, your leadership is powerful, so lead boldly Until next time.