You've earned your place at the leadership table. You have the experience, expertise and track record. So why do you sometimes find yourself holding back from saying what you really think?

Perhaps you rehearse your contribution in your head, wait for the right moment, then start questioning whether it's worth saying. And before you know it, someone else has made exactly the point you were going to make.

In this episode, Sarah explores why successful female leaders can still struggle to own their voice, the five traps that can keep us silent, and the career cost of not speaking up.

She shares three practical ways to start contributing more confidently, influencing conversations and making sure your expertise is heard.

Because you've spent years earning your place at the table. You don't need to keep waiting for permission to use your voice.

• Why having the experience and expertise doesn't always translate into speaking with confidence.
• The five traps that can hold women back: perfectionism, credibility, likability, comparison and permission.
• How organisational culture and psychological safety can influence your willingness to contribute.
• The impact of staying quiet on your visibility, influence and career progression.
• Three practical ways to own your voice and contribute more confidently.
• How to challenge the story you're telling yourself about your right to speak.

TimeStamps

00:00 Welcome to Unstuck & Unstoppable

01:35 You've earned your seat at the table. So why are you holding back?

02:40 The familiar meeting scenario and why I understand it

04:00 Five traps that stop women speaking up

04:00 The perfectionism trap

05:00 The credibility trap

05:40 The likability trap

06:40 The comparison trap

07:30 The permission trap

08:00 The role of organisational culture and psychological safety

08:45 The career cost of staying quiet

11:30 Three practical ways to own your voice

11:45 1. Stop waiting for the perfect contribution

13:20 2. Prepare before you enter the room

14:20 3. Practise taking up space

15:20 The deeper shift: stop waiting for permission

16:20 Your challenge for the next leadership meeting

17:00 Your experience, perspective and voice matter

Useful Links

Listen to Episode 101 The Career Tax: What Your Success Is Costing You

Sign up for Weekly Career Inspiration

Learn about Leadership & Advancement Coaching Programmes

Book a Free 121 Clarity Call

Join The Love What You Do Facebook Group

Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn

Rate & Review the Podcast

If you found this episode of Unstuck & Unstoppable helpful, please do rate and review it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

If you're kind enough to leave a review, please do let Sarah know so she can say thank you. You can always reach her at: sarah@careertreecoaching.co.uk

Are you the person everyone turns to when something needs fixing? The one who solves problems, keeps things moving and makes sure everything gets done?

Being reliable and capable may have helped you build your career. But if you're still doing too much yourself, it could be holding you back from becoming the leader you want to be.

In this episode, Sarah explores why successful women leaders can become trapped in doing mode, the hidden career costs and how to make the shift from doing to leading.

Building on the previous episode, The Career Tax: What Your Success Is Costing You, Sarah shares three practical shifts to help you develop your team, create more space for strategic work and increase your impact as a leader.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Why the habits that made you successful can hold you back at senior leadership level.
• How being the fixer, having high standards and needing control can keep you stuck in doing mode.
• The hidden career costs, from exhaustion and bottlenecks to missed opportunities for visibility and progression.
• Three shifts to help you move from solving to coaching, being indispensable to building independence, and reacting to creating space.
• How to recognise what's really stopping you from letting go, whether it's confidence, trust or your identity as the person who gets everything done.
• A simple experiment to help you create more time for the work that really matters.

Timestamp

00:00 Welcome to Unstuck & Unstoppable

01:35 The leadership trap: when doing it all stops you leading

02:45 Are you the person everyone turns to?

04:15 How your success habits can keep you stuck

05:30 The fixer, perfectionism and the need for control

08:20 The hidden career costs of staying in doing mode

10:45 Three shifts from doing to leading

11:00 Shift 1: Move from solving to coaching

13:20 Shift 2: Build independence instead of being indispensable

14:30 Shift 3: Move from reacting to creating space

15:45 What's really stopping you from letting go?

18:00 Your leadership experiment: what could you stop doing?

19:30 Connecting the leadership trap to the career tax

20:15 Final thoughts and how to work with Sarah

Your leadership experiment

Choose one task, problem or decision you would normally take on yourself. Pause and ask:

• Does my role really require me to own this?
• Could I delegate it, coach someone else through it, or decide it doesn't need doing?
• What could I achieve with the time and headspace I create?

Your next level of leadership may depend as much on what you're willing to stop doing as what you're prepared to take on.

Connect with Sarah

If you're ready to develop your leadership, increase your impact and create a more sustainable way of working, get in touch with Sarah to explore how coaching could help.

Useful Links

Episode 101 The Career Tax: What is your Success Costing You?

Sign up for Weekly Career Inspiration

Learn about Leadership & Advancement Coaching Programmes

Book a Free 121 Clarity Call

Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn

Rate & Review the Podcast

If you found this episode of Unstuck & Unstoppable helpful, please do rate and review it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

If you're kind enough to leave a review, please do let Sarah know so she can say thank you. You can always reach her at: sarah@careertreecoaching.co.uk

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to Unstuck & Unstoppable, leave a review and share it with a woman who needs to hear it.

You're capable of more than you know. Shine brightly. Lead boldly.

You’ve worked hard to build your career. You may have the seniority, salary, recognition and reputation you wanted. But what is that success costing you?

In this episode Sarah explores the career tax: the hidden personal costs we can pay for professional success. From running on empty and sacrificing time with loved ones to losing sight of what we really want, these costs can creep up on us until we start asking, “Is this really worth it?”

I share five common career costs, examples from my coaching work and my own experience as an HR Director, plus questions to help you decide whether it’s time to make a change.

You’ll discover how to:

• Recognise the five hidden costs of career success.
• Understand why it can be difficult to change, even when your career is taking a toll.
• Review the psychological contract you have with your work.
• Rethink what success means to you at this stage of your life and career.
• Identify what you could change, renegotiate or do differently without automatically having to leave your job.

00:00 Welcome to Unstuck & Unstoppable

01:30 What is the career tax?

02:30 The hidden cost of career success

03:00 Cost 1: Your energy

05:30 Cost 2: Your freedom and creativity

08:30 Cost 3: Your relationships

09:45 Cost 4: Your sense of self

10:30 Cost 5: Your future potential

11:30 Why do we keep paying the career tax?

13:30 Three questions to help you reassess your career

14:30 What can you change without leaving your job?

15:00 Rethinking what success means to you

16:00 My experience as an HR Director

17:30 How to rebalance the cost of your career

18:30 Final thoughts and next steps

Take a moment to consider:

• What does my career give me that I genuinely value?
• What is it costing me that I can no longer ignore?
• If nothing changed in my career over the next 12 months, how would I feel?

You don't necessarily need to leave your job to make things better. But you do need to be honest with yourself about the price you're paying and whether you're still willing to pay it.

Useful Links

Episode 99: Tough Job Market? How to make your current leadership role work for you

Sign up for Weekly Career Inspiration

Learn about Leadership & Advancement Coaching Programmes

Book a Free 121 Clarity Call

Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn

Rate & Review the Podcast

If you found this episode of Unstuck & Unstoppable helpful, please do rate and review it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

If you're kind enough to leave a review, please do let Sarah know so she can say thank you. You can always reach her at: sarah@careertreecoaching.co.uk