As I mentioned last time, my goal with this new format is to give you the most value from my years in the corporate world and my previous eight years of coaching women and leaders, including many women of color like me, as they’ve navigated their careers. 

Since 2017, I’ve had the privilege of working with talented individuals and partnering with organizations to support their leadership teams; for the past three years, I’ve served as an executive coach for Women in Financial Markets (WIFM) and supported McKinsey & Co.’s Hispanic Latino Executive Leadership Program as an external leadership coach.

Throughout my experiences engaging in these environments, I’ve seen patterns emerge—the recurring fears, limitations, and challenges women and leaders face. Today, I highlight the patterns that emerge around companies supporting their talent to grow and advance within their organizations, helping them attract and retain top talent. 

Identifying the Barriers

As organizations, we must address what keeps your company’s talent from being fearless about pursuing their true talent potential. On an individual level, let’s address why you are not living your full potential—perhaps because of limitations, doubt, and worry you may continually fall back to.

Organizations and individuals operate primarily from what my mentors, such as Tony Robbins and neuroscientist Dr. Joe Dispenza, call “old programming.” 

What are the telltale signs that your organization is operating from old programming? The signs might manifest through phrases such as “We’ve always done it this way” or “This has worked so far, so we’re going to continue doing it this way.” 

As individuals, we may find ourselves engaging in negative self-talk, thinking, “Nothing that I do is going to change what happens, so why bother?” or “If I keep my head down and keep working, they’re going to tap me on the shoulder and provide me with the opportunities.”

These non-progressive ways of thinking create an environment of stagnation—and they will not support you in creating a future that aligns with your vision for yourself or your organization.

The perspective we foster is crucial, as it affects our teams, how we support our family, and how we act as role models to our daughters, sons, nieces, and nephews.

As companies and as individual women and leaders, it is crucial for us to address and eliminate whatever is stopping us from reaching our true career potential. The key here is to recognize these limiting beliefs and “old programming” patterns and understand that they are at the core of keeping your talent from tapping into their true talent and potential, keeping them stuck in old, ineffective ways. 

Shifting Perspectives and Unleashing True Potential

In many of my leadership coaching programs, which aim to build resilient leaders with growth mindsets, I have encountered many instances where limitations, disempowering stories, and fears stunt individuals from pursuing their healthy career ambitions.

I’ve learned that the word ambition tends to have a negative connotation, implying greed or grandiosity. When I use “ambition,” I refer to acknowledging your potential—when you know you are capable of much more than what you do in your current role. 

How can you bring more capability dimensions to your role to add value to your environment and company?

Your market value as a leader increases when you increase your impact–based on the expertise you bring to your clients, shareholders, and team. When your skills are highly specialized, making you the go-to person, opportunities start to open up. You gain sponsors who advocate for our growth within your company.

How do you increase your market value and achieve this goal? You squash the inner conflict and limiting beliefs embedded in your current perspective and mindset.

The number one pathway to free ourselves from these mentalities is to truly connect with what would be a compelling vision for your future as a leader and that of your company. 

What would happen if, as a company, you saw unlimited possibilities? What if, as an individual, you saw yourself as someone who could make your most exciting goals a reality?

How fulfilled would you feel if you weren’t trapped in a jar of limitations? 

Creating a Fertile Environment for Growth

To get out of our “jar of limitations,” we must address the obstacles to our leaders’ continuing development. What’s preventing your team of leaders from pursuing leadership development?

One challenge I’ve noticed is our talent’s hesitation to invest in their professional and self-development. Leaders and talent often hold back, uncertain that their hard work will lead to recognition, advancement, and growth. 

With an outlook toward a brighter future, our companies must create an environment where employees see that investing in their growth, time, effort, and resources creates a constructive pathway within their organizations.

As senior people leaders, our leadership teams must focus on professional development. The people and talent are the ones executing the senior leadership’s vision. If that vision is diminished by the limitations the leadership team perceives, then we are operating from history–the “old programming,” not from opportunities.

If you recognize this situation, your team is likely struggling with innovation, creativity, collaboration, and alignment. This behavior hinders precisely what you need most from your teams: a shared vision, collective commitment, and the focused effort to bring the organization’s vision to life—propelling your company to new levels of maturity, growth, profitability, and alignment with your mission.

These limitations create a perfect storm of inadequacy, complacency, and lack of self-efficacy within the organization. 

If you can’t envision yourself thriving in work that excites you—where you’re fully engaged, leveraging your unique strengths, and building collaborative relationships to solve problems—then we miss out on the full potential of both our talent and our organizations.

Overcoming these obstacles will take a two-prong approach. It will require us to examine our environment on the one hand and the individuals on the other to provide tailored and customized development for our leaders that address their inner conflicts.

Companies must create conditions where talent feels valued and sees a clear, constructive pathway to the next level. This effort involves mentoring, coaching, and meaningful conversations—skills many leaders lack as they move up the corporate ladder without additional training.

In particular, senior leadership-level women tend to feel isolated, with very few role models they can emulate to enrich their personal and company-wide goals. Let’s create an environment that mentors and sponsors senior women to set them up for success in leadership roles.

I focus on developing these exact skills in my practice with ExecutiveBound and Fearless Women at Work members. We empower women and leaders to harness their unique resources and bring their true potential forward on behalf of the organizations they serve. 

This process demands rigorous self-awareness and an honest assessment of your workplace’s existing cultural and systemic issues. Addressing individual inner conflicts is as crucial as tackling institutional barriers. Only by combining these efforts can you unlock the full potential of your talent.

Ultimately, this approach leads to more innovation, better collaboration, and a more dynamic and competitive organization.

Call to Action

Let’s connect if this topic resonates with you and you need help assessing your progress in building a resilient leadership pipeline that nurtures healthy ambition, encourages leaders to grow, and increases retention KPIs! You can always reach me at www.callwithginny.com or email us at info@executivebound.com.

We know our potential better than anyone—let’s own it and identify what’s holding us back from reaching it, particularly as it impacts our earning potential. Our goal is to leave our families in the best financial, emotional, and spiritual place possible so they can build on our progress—which is what I tell my son as he prepares for college. If being a role model for your family and team resonates with you, let’s pursue that vision together.

If you’re ready to unleash your highest potential in your career, I invite you to join our FREE Women’s Fearless Leadership Masterclass when we convene again. 

In this complimentary masterclass series, I share the four key principles that have supported my career growth over the last 30+ years. Together, we’ll explore how these strategies can elevate your leadership team and help individual women and leaders achieve the next level of success within your company.

Over two powerful leadership development sessions, I’ll guide our members in clarifying their vision, embracing their unique value, building crucial relationships, and creating a clear plan for advancing their careers. We’ll also identify the internal blocks limiting their career growth and advancement.

I want to partner with you to help you overcome existing barriers and pursue your vision and goals with confidence and courage. If you’re ready to reach your true potential, invite the talented women and leaders in your organization to reserve their virtual VIP seats when registration opens at https://DrGinnyBaro.com/events

Live with purpose, live with joy! 

Coach Ginny