You're respected, trusted, and technically strong.
So why do you feel like you're losing momentum as you're having more seniority?
Learn the answer to that in today's episode.
Welcome back to Speak Up, the podcast for high-performing introverts, including you, social introverts where we reveal the charisma and communication secrets of A-listers so that you get the recognition and the opportunities you have earned.
I am your host, Laura Camacho, your magical executive presence coach, pod mother, and strategist.
And in today's short episode you'll learn why silence in certain meetings erodes status, even when the results remain strong.
How identity ceilings form and why time actually locks them in.
And what intentional visibility looks like without becoming loudmouthed inauthentically.
If you're a senior leader who's doing great yes, I bet you are respected trusted strong, and maybe though, you're feeling like the momentum of your career has slowed down.
It's very common in high performers that earlier in the career it's promotion promotion promotion, and then it feels like you're hitting a wall.
You may be wondering if it's the economy or AI related.
Or you may be wondering like is this a plateau right?
Is this it?
But I would more likely think it is an identity ceiling, right?
Because from the outside, everything looks fine, right?
You're in the room.
You're in the senior executive leadership meetings or senior leadership meetings.
You're in the high stakes conversation.
But at the end of the day, while you're in those rooms, you're not influencing them.
So what does that look like?
This is what it looks like.
That you speak when you're asked a question.
You wait your turn.
You stay in your lane.
And other people take the stage and you don't interfere, right?
Not because they're better or smarter or know more.
They may know more about some things, but you know more about other things.
But that's because they have learned how to occupy space in that level.
And this is what happens if this goes on too long for a person.
So you stop questioning your ability and you start questioning your trajectory.
It really is a conundrum, right?
You think, well, maybe I'm not cut out for senior leadership.
Maybe I'm just strong support.
If I stay in this vertical too long, will I get typecast?
You know like it could be security versus marketing, versus a subcategory say, of cyber security.
You can ask yourself like whoa, is this as far as I'm going?
Is this it now?
I know you're not saying that out loud because you are successful.
Nobody that's not successful listens to this and you know you should be grateful and you are grateful, so you're just like keeping that concern inside.
But let me be direct.
Silence is not neutral.
If you did not listen to episode 529, that was like four episodes ago.
I showed you how speaking up and using your expertise can lead to concrete business wins.
And that's also the core message of my speak up and sell your ideas, keynote and workshop.
But the thing is, when you don't speak up, it's the opposite effect.
It just makes you a less valuable leader to the company because they're not getting these ideas, solutions and recommendations out of you.
If your voice isn't landing, your ideas aren't traveling, your name is not coming up.
You're not helping the people above you or in different verticals to make better decisions.
And that means your potential doesn't compound because you're heads down.
And then someone may be perhaps less capable.
Certainly, they don't know everything, you know, maybe not have your experience.
But that person who speaks up becomes the obvious choice.
But not because they're better, but because people can see their thinking, right?
They see them making an effort.
Because when you don't speak up, a lot of people are assuming that you don't care or you don't have anything to say.
And that is how status erodes.
And status is social capital.
It's an asset.
You do not want to lose it.
You want to build it.
What I'm telling you is not just my very well-informed opinion after doing what I do for so long.
There's all kinds of research out of these executive leadership studies that show once you reach senior levels, technical performance stops being the main driver of promotions of visibility and influence.
How leadership experience in you, that is what becomes the deciding factor.
Doing your job exceptionally well is no longer enough to get you where you want to go.
If your thinking is not visible, then your trajectory path flattens, even if your results are not flattening.
And that's why time doesn't fix this.
It just locks you in.
So if you're telling yourself, oh, I just need to be more patient.
I'll grow into it.
I'll speak up when it matters.
I don't think that's going to help you.
The longer you wait, the more those neuron connections in your brain get solidified and it gets harder to change.
And if you wait long enough, leadership stops seeing you as emerging, but they just see you as a fixed asset.
And that's when your options begin to close.
So I don't want to get all negative about this.
I don't want you to try to become louder, become someone you're not.
I just want you to learn how to translate your value upward, to frame your thinking better, when you're in the room where these decisions are being made.
I want you to practice visibility before the stakes are too high.
I want you to practice it with lower stakes so that you get more confident and more relaxed.
I want you to be more intentional about how you speak up and the questions you ask and the recommendations that you make.
Do not confuse comfort with safety.
That is a false pairing.
At this level, staying the same is the riskiest move you can make.
So if you want support building visibility influence, future leverage, check the show notes and book a private conversation with me.
I've seen it over and over and over when quiet, smart professionals start speaking up, It's like the tectonic plates of their professional lives shift right.
Because people start seeing you differently and they place more value on what you have to say.
Because your contribution is leading to better decisions.
I just want you to have that clarity, but I want you to understand that the ceiling that you may be perceiving is not the role.
It's how you're currently known.
And that awareness can be uncomfortable, but it's also very powerful.
But the problem is not your performance.
It's that your value is not being made visible where decisions are being made.
So that's why I created the Executive Presence Mastery System.
If you want more information about that, there's a link in the show notes.
This is episode 533.
Or you can head to the website.
It's www.speakupwithlaura.com slash Speak up.
I love to talk to my listeners.
Have a fantastic and glorious day and I will catch you on the next episode.
