I just got off a Zoom session with a very senior leader in the product and software space, who has some great choices for career movement right now.

She’s done the work: she’s led the teams, designed and owned the road maps, she’s grown consensus, shipped like crazy, modeled the finances, rebuilt organizations, engineered growth and increased adoption.

She’s the one you were hoping for when you heard a new VP was hired.

By undergoing our unique senior candidate mock interview and coaching process, we uncovered that instead of telling the truth about her leadership and incredible value she was relying on an old set of operating instructions.

My client needed love and support around telling the truth. Telling the truth about the scale and breadth of her achievements. Telling the truth about her futurism and intellect.

Old instructions that she learned in childhood taught her to stay humble, and even place herself in a secondary status through phrasing, tone and body language.

These instructions were relevant to fitting in and being accepted way back then, but now they are still running the show and frankly, endangering her advancement.

It takes trust, leadership coaching and practice to upgrade your ability to communicate your seniority (I joke with clients that I only have 1 setting: “the truth”).

At the most senior levels, practice is key for performance.

How do you think Zuckerberg prepared for the congressional hearings? By skimming his resume?

No. He wore fabulous clothes, had an A-team grill him in mock interview preparations, and just like we do in our private work together– they devised frameworks to rely on for when the performance conversation gets tricky (he also got a booster seat but we don’t include that).

I tell the truth with you in our executive coaching sessions about where you are abandoning yourself and your power, where you are downplaying your content expertise, or diminishing your value.

We practice until your new approach, message and presence come shining through. How you own and drive conversations is fundamental to engendering trust, creating believers and showing up in your full leadership. We need you performing at your highest level.

I tell the truth with you so that you can tell the truth in your professional life –about your vision, drive and achievements. You’ve done the work, we just let it show.