Gillian Fox on Unlocking Confidence...and More

TLDR: Guest Gillian Fox explains that confidence for women in the workplace is about more than just feeling self-assured and gives advice about showcasing value as a way to earn sponsorship.

SUSAN  Hello, amazing women.

This is part one of a series with my accomplished and insightful  guest Gillian Fox.

Gillian has succeeded in her career, both as a senior executive and an entrepreneur, gives her tremendous insight. She is an author, a keynote speaker and a senior executive coach who also leads gender diversity programs for some of the largest organizations in Australia.

Gillian is also the creator and leader of the Rise Accelerate and Rise Elite programs - both publicly recognized women's career programs.  She works with incredible women and the results are amazing.

And she is also the host of the Your Brilliant Career podcast. I had the great fortune of being a guest on Your Brilliant Career during which Gillian and I had a dynamic conversation. So check below to find links to her podcast, where to find Gillian on LinkedIn and her website.

So Gillian, let's dive in. You reached out to me because of my TED Talk.  And because I do my research when people reach out and I immediately knew that you were a kindred spirit because I read this on your website.

"We develop leaders who are confident, capable and committed to adding value to your organization." 

For me, "committed to adding value to your organization" is another way of saying that you develop leaders with business savvy. So let's start off there. I anticipate that many of your clients come in with the goal of being more confident.

How do you get them to also embrace the importance of being seen as committed to adding value?

GILLIAN  I  love this question, Susan, because it connects you and I so beautifully. And you're right, women come to our programs wanting more confidence, they fill out the background questionnaire and it will say that they want to feel more confident in their role, or they want to feel less imposter syndrome.

I remember feeling the same in my earlier days as well. But for me, I want women to have a different perspective on what confidence could be for them in their careers. I hear women talk about these clicky groups, e.g. the boys go and cycle together or they have all these other things.

We, we don't have that visibility opportunity.  It's true and it's frustrating, but at the end of the day, you can't stop people doing what they want to do in their personal lives. So, then the question becomes as you would ask, "What else can we do to be seen as a business savvy leader?"

And then in 2017 I came across your TED Talk and your message resonated so deeply with me.  It literally landed like a thud because I felt I suddenly could join the dots in helping the women that I work with. And my immediate thinking was, if women had the business, strategic and financial acumen  that would help them influence more effectively, they could be compelling presenting a business case, they could understand the numbers and participate in the right conversations.

And now I often ask women, "If you had all that going on, would you feel more confident?"  And of course the answer is yes.  

SUSAN  That's brilliant. I've been trying to explain that business savvy is a foundation for confidence, but you just  nailed it in terms of why that's true.

GILLIAN  I think it's so powerful.

And the second part to this, that connected with me so deeply is that part of confidence comes from  feeling valued in your workplace. We all want to feel valued. So how do you make that value more visible to the right people?  And if you can't cycle or car pool with someone twice a week, you can always showcase your contribution elegantly  through that business, strategic and financial acumen.

And one of the questions I love to pose to the women is, "What is it that you are doing to help your company and yourself get ahead?  Because  if you're seen as an effective value creator, you will demonstrate your contribution and value more effectively, and it will help you progress your career."

SUSAN  Right. So you help them shift the focus from what they want to get out of work, to what they are contributing to work, which in turn will help them get more opportunities, because  they're being able to articulate their commitment to adding value.

In the past they may have taken a heads down approach:  "I'm doing my job," but that's not the same as being able to articulate the value they're adding. So how do you help them make that translation? How do you help them shift their focus from a view of work that is  head-down/'doing my job' focus to one that is a head-up/'expected to move the business forward' focus.

GILLIAN  That's such a good question. In Australia (I don't know if it's global), we have a great expression, "Put your head down and your tail up."

It's this idea of nose to the grindstone. But sometimes I use that analogy asking, "What's your view when your head is down and your tail is up?  And what's everyone else's view of you?"

The point is,  if you just have your head down and your tail up grinding out the work at your desk, you're potentially missing out on important conversations that are shaping the future of the business.

You will only be able to stay relevant and valued in your business environment IF the work that you're doing is aligned with the important work of the broader organization. You only find that stuff out by being head-up, looking across that business landscape and knowing what's going on.

So that is one of the messages. Another thing I often say to the mid-level women I work with is that all the things that got you to this point in your career (saying yes to every opportunity, being a great executor and doing all the tactical work) are not going to make you successful in the next phase of your career. There's an invisible line that you cross and now you need to be more strategic and all the things that you advocate, Susan. It's that old adage, isn't it? What got you here? Won't get you there.  But no one tells us this.

SUSAN  Right.  And it's so powerful when we "get" it.  No one tells us this  and even if we have a sense of it, it's hard to figure out how.

So you've talked about looking broadly and having the business savvy to be able to have those important conversations. How do you get women started?

GILLIAN  I give the women that I work with and who come into my programs an assignment that I think helps them enormously in doing this.I tell them that they have to come up with a value creation assignment. For example, the programs go for five months at the end they have to stand up and deliverdo a five minute presentation to a group of senior leaders.

It's much harder to deliver a five minute presentation than a 15 minute presentation. It brings home the whole idea of being succinct, articulate and compelling all in a five minute presentation. But I love it for so many reasons.

They have to go through this process of understanding not only what it takes to create value, but determine how to articulate/communicate it to a more senior audience. They get to do that in a very supportive framework and the senior leaders love it.

It also connects to my view of sponsorship - that you cannot impose sponsorship, but if you give talented women the opportunity to showcase their thinking and their contribution to the business and senior leaders open to listen and look at talent in that way, then more women are likely to be sponsored.  And we need more women sponsored because at the moment men have twice as many sponsors as women.

SUSAN  That's a brilliant exercise.

So we've, we've come to the end of this conversation. In a way I have asked you to be succinct and compelling. You've jam packed so many valuable and actionable tips that my readers will love.

I especially like the advice to:

• Think about the fact that you add value
• Practicing how to articulate the ways you add value
• Understand the connection between that and being able to attract sponsors.

These are great points to end on.

Keep your eyes open for more with Gillian coming up in part two.

Catch you next time,

Susan

About Gillian Fox

Gillian has succeeded in her career, both as a senior executive and an entrepreneur. She is an author, keynote speaker and senior executive coach who also leads gender diversity programs for some of the largest organizations in Australia. In addition, she is the host of the Your Brilliant Career podcast.

Gillian is also the creator and leader of the Rise Accelerate and Rise Elite programs. Both publicly recognized women's career programs.  She works with incredible women and the results are amazing.

Links below.

Go Deeper Links

Gillian's programs: "Rise Accelerate" and "Rise Elite"

Gillian's podcast "Your Brilliant Career"

Connect with Gillian on Linkedin

Susan's TED Talk on The Missing 33%

Susan on Gillian's podcast

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