Underestimated? Yes. Use it to your advantage and you can change the playing field.

Anyone who has faced a protective female in the wild or at home can attest to her fortitude and ability to hone in on an argument, voice impactful counter-arguments, and win with conviction while aligning the troops. It is a common trope that women rule the household. And, those same strengths translate into powerful CEO potential at work.

The top fifteen traits for a CEO ready candidate include, but are not limited to the following: passion, grit and courage, decisiveness, backbone and heart, connection to culture, no ego, ability to anticipate and navigate challenges, EQ, fine-tuned intuition, and relationship-building skills. [1] Do these sound like the traits of the strong women that you know? Absolutely! Furthermore, when we look at the characteristics of leaders in general, men and women check off the boxes equally, and where there are differences, women score higher.[2] Embrace these leadership traits and unleash them unapologetically in the workplace to seize the opportunities that will enable us to move into CEO roles faster.

We are natural-born leaders. We are natural CEOs. Own this, lean in and create the opportunities to accelerate our rise into the power position.

And, we all know the statistics - inside and out - about how the leadership pipeline favors women college graduates over men based on performance and early career success then reverses over time to favor men starting with the first promotion into management.[3] No, these trends have not shifted meaningfully in the past five to ten years despite concerted industry efforts.

The reasons are multi-faceted and include the well-documented impact of unconscious biases[4], leadership selection based on potential versus demonstrated competence, and relative self-confidence in our ability to succeed in – and pursue - new roles. It is also true that the majority of CEOs are insiders with strong track-records of making strategic, operational and financial impact often with P&L responsibility; over 30% of the Fortune 500 CEOs last served as CFO. With less than 25% of the roles in the C-Suite held by women, and roughly 60% of those as CHRO and CMO and only 12% as CFO, the prospects for women rising from the existing ranks into CEOs remain low.[5]

Even though the evidence and financial business cases are extremely compelling for increased diversity at all levels of leadership[6], the numbers are not shifting meaningfully. To be sure, no power structure willingly wants to cede power even when the rational reasons that abound - like higher financial returns - would otherwise drive a slew of strategic, operational or investment changes. Who wants to give up the comfort of the known organizational composition for the promise of some higher, yet uncertain, financial return in the future? We don’t have to look far for current examples of power structures stating boldly that they support the greater good yet exclude themselves from the recommendations when they directly hit home: the college entrance scandal of 2019 and the affordable housing crisis in California are just two examples of how the high and mighty advocate for change to support the disenfranchised only to cheat or fight the system when it is about to impact their own children or neighborhood. Why would we expect this to be any different in the top rungs of business or government?

Change is uncomfortable. Losing power and authority is extremely uncomfortable – voluntarily or involuntarily. Our primitive brains are wired to embrace control and predictability - anything else is viewed as a threat to be guarded against. It is the natural human response. And, if we are to move the ball forward, we need to recognize that everyone is going to need to get uncomfortable and that includes you and me. It’s about all of us taking risks and moving beyond our comfort zones with focus, determination, and compassion to get our seats at the table and to change the playing field.

In order for these numbers to move in a positive direction, we have to play both a long and short game. The long game includes continuing to bring awareness to unconscious bias and holding ourselves accountable to minimizing the impact, ensuring that the hiring and promotion rungs are not kicked out from under women early in their career and that opportunities across any business have diverse teams. We need to keep the collective foot on the pedal to continue to drive the current diversity initiatives towards longer term change.

And, the short game means embracing ourselves as natural born leaders. While societal conditioning and cues have eroded many of our natural instincts over time, we can resuscitate our natural instincts. We need to commit to developing the skills of resilience, grit and confidence in the workplace to take on the challenges ahead.[7] We have demonstrated these skills many times in our private lives with great success (and perhaps professionally). The ability to turn the corner in business means that we need to unapologetically bring these skills into the workplace in order to increase our opportunities to reach the C-Suite power roles and, ultimately, the CEO seat.

These strengths are needed to take on the workforce reality that plagues most women and to reframe it as an opportunity. We are far too frequently underestimated and not given the challenging opportunities that companies value and use as steps up the leadership ladder into the power C-Suite roles.

When you are underestimated, you have the opportunity to shine like a radiant sunbeam on a fine summer day in the role that you do have. Exceeding expectations can open doors for you that were otherwise closed. At a minimum, you have gained incredible confidence in your own abilities as well as an experience that expands your career toolkit and can be repackaged for the highest bidder. Ideally, it will position you as a HIPO - HR speak for a high potential employee that is on the ‘it’ list for career development opportunities and succession pipelines. If you find the company is not willing to reward your awe-inspiring work that exceeded everyone’s expectations with development opportunities in high value organizations or meaningful promotions to advance your CEO ready agenda, you can take your experience to a company with a more compatible culture and make the leaps up from there. The greatest advocate for you is you. Bet on yourself and your potential.   

CEOs are strategic, decisive and driven on their way to the top and at the top. They see opportunity where others see risk and make career moves like chess players. Use your chance to ‘Wow’ as a chess move with a broader set of options mapped out to establish CEO readiness and be positioned to pounce.  

As you think about your CEO readiness profile, scan the environment opportunistically to identify and secure leadership development rotations in sales, product, operations and finance to demonstrate your ability to make a strategic impact, influence culture and own P&L results. Demonstrating your competence in a turnaround or rapid growth environment will serve to further solidify and accelerate your path to CEO. There is no single path. It is achieved via a strategic pursuit of challenging high impact business opportunities.

Of course, you can always choose to go straight to the top by starting your own business and assume the CEO seat. Making changes within existing power structures is a long road to change. We can accelerate societal and cultural change by building our own businesses that express our values and lead the way by example. Why wait!?!

The surest path to have autonomy as a CEO is to have a self-sustaining business that requires no outside funding. We reduce our autonomy when taking on debt or investors. Outside investment is not something to avoid per se, but it is something to pursue with your eyes open with respect to governance trade-offs. Outside investment can accelerate your business growth, improve odds of competitive success and market penetration, and, if you are looking to exit, improve the speed to exit.  To ensure more women retain the CEO seat, we also need more female investors on both sides of the debt and equity equation.

And, the final recommendation to increase your opportunities to find and secure CEO roles, and to reduce the likelihood of being underestimated, is to build a strong and diverse network. You are invested in yourself and others – it is a win-win investment of time. Human nature dictates that we are faster to hire the people that we already know and respect. It reduces our perception of risk. Thus, the stronger and more diverse our network is, the faster we will find and secure opportunities to build diverse leadership teams across industries. We have to invest in this. This is not comfortable for many women – but growth requires change and change is uncomfortable. Networks work because they are founded on trust, respect and working relationships.

Will we continue to see barriers to change? Yes. Will we continue to be underestimated? Yes. But, if you are willing to embrace your natural leadership skills and think strategically about how to reframe and seize opportunities to build your CEO ready credentials like a chess player, then you can get to the top and into the CEO seat. From there, you can change the landscape and bring more opportunities to other leaders.

You are a natural-born leader. Embrace it unapologetically and lean in future CEO boss lady.

[1] Forbes Coaches Council, “If You Want to Be ‘CEO Material’ Develop These 15 Traits”, December 12, 2017. Top 15 Traits: Vision, Passion, Grit & Courage, Decisiveness, Self-Confidence Tempered by Vulnerability, Track Record Of High Performance and Potential, Backbone and Heart, Connection to Culture, No Ego, Curiosity, Ability To Anticipate and Navigate Challenges, Emotional Intelligence, Finely Tuned Intuition, Relationship-Building Skills, Mindset To Embrace Obstacles

[2] The Conference Board, “17 Truths About Women’s Leadership: Insights from the 12th Annual Women’s Leadership Conference”, June 16-27, 2016.

[3] Lean In and McKinsey & Company, “Women in the Workplace”, 2019.

[4] Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead, Sheryl Sandberg, 2013.

[5] Korn Ferry, “Women in Leadership”, 2019.

[6] McKinsey & Co., “Diversity Matters”, Page 3, February 2, 2015. Authors: Vivian Hunt, Dennis Layton, Sara Prince. “The companies in the top quartile for gender diversity were 15 percent more likely to have financial returns that were above their national industry median, and the companies in the top quartile for racial/ethnic diversity were 35 percent more likely to have financial returns above their national industry median.”

[7] McKinsey & Co., “Fostering Women Leaders: A Fitness Test for Your Top Team”, 2016. Author: Lareina Lee. “Resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties – a form of toughness. Grit is resolve, courage, and strength of character. Confidence is a level of self-assurance arising from an appreciation of your own abilities and qualities. In business settings, resilience allows us to get up after making a mistake or encountering a challenge, girt allows us to push through walls and rise above challenges, and confidence helps transform challenging experiences into greater self-assurance, not self-doubt.”

Libby Unger is an advisor for CEOX. She works closely with senior business leaders to identify and deliver the capabilities required to compete and win in the dynamic markets they serve. From startups to the Fortune 50, accelerating product innovation, margin expansion and growth starts at the top with the right leadership and culture. She has created significant strategic value for businesses from her start in investment banking to turnaround executive to venture capital backed tech CEO. Doing the right thing - and making the tough trade offs - for customers, partners, employees and shareholders is not just good business - it is great business. She knows it and lives it.