Episode 25 How to Advocate for Yourself as a Leader

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Welcome to Unstuck and Unstoppable,

the podcast for ambitious female

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leaders who want to create more impact,

income, and influence in their careers.

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feel connected to their passion

and purpose, but without

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selling out or burning out.

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I'm Sarah Archer, a leadership coach

and career strategist, helping women

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like you thrive in leadership roles

while staying true to your values.

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I'm the founder of CareerTree

Coaching and have over 15 years of

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coaching experience and significant HR

leadership experience to share with you.

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I know as a female leader it can

be hard to find time to focus

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on your career aspirations.

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The day job can be all consuming.

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Plus, no matter how senior you are,

there are always going to be times

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when you feel stuck, when you have

self doubt, or feel like an imposter.

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And that's where unstuck

and unstoppable comes in.

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Each week I'll be sharing practical

strategies, insightful interviews and

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inspiring stories to help you boost

your confidence, lead with purpose

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and achieve sustainable success.

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If you're ready to stop playing

small and unlock the incredible

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potential you have within you and feel

unstoppable, you're in the right place.

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Let's get started.

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Welcome to episode 25.

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I'm really pleased that you're joining me.

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Today, we're going to talk about how

to advocate for yourself as a leader.

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We're gonna look at what it is

why is it hard, how to do it,

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and the benefits of doing it.

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What is self-advocacy?

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In the very basic sense, it's

being able to speak up for

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your own needs and interests.

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And it means taking a more proactive

role in making sure your actions align

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with your goals rather than being swept

along with the general flow of things.

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And to be honest, self-advocacy

and resilience are crucial

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skills for female leaders.

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I saw a post yesterday from Mary s the

England goalkeeper in the women's team,

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and she was posting about self-advocacy.

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, if we don't do it for ourselves, you

know who is going to do it for us?

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We have to be able to position ourselves,

talk about ourselves in a way that means

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that we get what we need and what we want.

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And so that's what we're

gonna talk about today.

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And when I was thinking about this, I

think I learned how to advocate for myself

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when I worked for amnesty International,

which is a campaigning organization.

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I was surrounded by people who

were really skilled advocates.

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'cause that's what they were paid to do.

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They were paid to be able to advocate

for people who couldn't advocate for

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themselves, and they were all skilled

at it, both in the external environment.

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Also in the internal environment,

and I was the HR manager there.

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I put it into the CEO.

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And I worked alongside other

C-suite leaders and managers.

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And I had to be able to advocate not

just for myself, but also for the

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HR function and in a sense for the

people that I was representing the

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employees and the management team.

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I had to learn quickly how to be

able to advocate effectively and.

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In a way, a great opportunity to

observe people who are really good at

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it to reflect on what I did and to get

clear about what I needed to advocate on

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effectively, which is obviously what we're

gonna talk about today is how you do that.

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But let's talk about why it's hard.

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'cause I have to say

I didn't find it easy.

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I'd never had to do that kind of

self-advocacy previously, but it was

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my first leadership role and I had to

step up and learn how to be an advocate.

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A recent survey by Indeed showed that only

43% of women, so fairly, chunky amount

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of women, but certainly below, 50%.

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So 43% of women feel they advocate

the right amount for themselves.

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So that means 57% don't, and they don't

because of anxiety, fear of retribution,

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fear of being labeled aggressive or

pushy being perceived negatively.

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It is hard for women, and often in,

in the workplace we can experience

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microaggressions, about , the

gender pay gap that exists.

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There's also, systemic barriers to

advancement that women experience,

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which all contribute to making it

harder for us to self-advocate.

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And then we've got.

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Some internal stuff as well

that we have to navigate.

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It can feel awkward and

uncomfortable to self-advocate.

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I was brought up with a rule, if you

like, and you might resonate with this,

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I want doesn't get, so being clear about

what you wanted, expressing what you

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wanted as a child was told if you do

that, you're not gonna get what you want.

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And those internal rules can.

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Trip us up and hold us

back later in life too.

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We have to get over

those internal barriers.

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And then we might also feel that there's

no point in speaking up because we don't

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see change happening in our organization,

or we don't see or we see other women

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doing it, but not making a difference.

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So we maybe feel like.

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What's the point in doing it?

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But I would say that, even if your

organization isn't an organization

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that's open to you being an advocate

for yourself, you have to start stepping

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into that person that you want to

be, because otherwise you take that

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non-self advocacy into your next role.

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So practicing our self-advocacy, even if

you're not getting the results you want.

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Puts you in a better place

to continue that journey of

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self-advocacy through your career.

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Let's think about how to do it.

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But before we do that, I wanna

tell you about a client that I've

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worked with because sometimes it can

be circumstantial as well, so she.

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Previously had been able to self-advocate

pretty well, and then in her role

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that she was in, she was working for

a female leader, which is interesting.

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Who, was very good at advocating for

herself, but put my client into a

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situation where she took the back seat

in the meetings that she was in.

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She wasn't enabled to lead

on particular projects.

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Her boss took the lead, took the

credit for the team, and, she

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felt her role wasn't clear either.

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And so she felt she lost

her confidence and lost her

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ability to be a self-advocate.

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And what we're doing now is we're working

on her strengths and, understanding

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the value she brings and some of the

things that I'm gonna talk to you about

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in terms of how you can self advocate.

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So notice that sometimes it can be the

environment that we're in that isn't

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conducive to us being self advocating

and that we have to be aware of that

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and have strategies to be able to

manage that if that is happening for us.

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The first thing, and I talk about this a

lot with my clients, is having clarity.

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. You have to understand your own

needs and your own wants because

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if you don't understand what they

are, how can you advocate for them?

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Knowing what you need in order to do

your job well, knowing what you want

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in terms of where you want to go

means that it's easier for people to

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understand what you want to do in terms

of your career advancement and your

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development, and they can better help you.

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It's also about getting clarity

about knowing where you thrive.

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Like the client I just mentioned, knowing

what the conditions are that enable you to

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be a good self-advocate is really helpful.

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So getting that clarity.

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Also, part of that is

understanding your boundaries.

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Knowing what you will say yes to, knowing

what you will say no to will help you.

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Advocate for what you need

in order to deliver your job.

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And knowing what the available

resources are will help you

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to advocate for what you need.

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Knowing what's possible can

help with those in a sense.

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Negotiating sometimes what you want

or what you need in your career or in

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your particular work for your team.

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The next thing to think about, is getting

used to talking about , what you do.

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And this plays into positioning

yourself for what you need as well,

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and it's advocating for your value.

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If you imagine you have two members

of staff and one of them you ask

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them how the project's going and they

go, yeah, it's going really well.

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We're on schedule.

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I had a few things to iron

out, but it's all happening.

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It's doing really well.

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You think.

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Great.

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Brilliant.

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Then you ask the other employee,

how's your project going?

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And they say, yeah, it's on track.

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But I've had to renegotiate

things with a client because

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I flagged an issue with them.

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I've had to manage resources because

we had somebody go on long-term

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sick or whatever it might have been.

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I've had to deal with this

particular challenge, and the

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way I've done that is X or y.

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You'll be thinking, great they've

really great problem solver.

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They've managed things really

well, and they're still on track.

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Then when it comes to promotion or

an opportunity you might think your

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second staff member is more ready

for that particular opportunity or

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challenge or project or promotion

because you think of them as being a

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skilled problem solver, a negotiator

of , strong client relationships.

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Whereas the other person in your

team, . You might think they're great

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at delivery, but you think they have

it easy because they never flag the

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complexity of what they're doing for you.

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They just deliver.

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And sad that it may be because those

two people, those two, staff members,

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are probably equally skilled because

employee one isn't articulating and

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advocating for themselves in terms

of, this is what I do, this is how

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I do it, this is how I add value.

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It's not seen.

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So part of being a self-advocate

and asking for what you need and

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what you want is also being able to

articulate the value that you bring.

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It's getting used to stepping

into your power and articulating

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the value you bring.

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And women definitely find that

harder to do because we just.

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Get on with stuff, don't we?

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We just deliver.

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We don't often spend time talking about

the way we do it, and particularly when

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you are working as a leader, you sometimes

think my boss, they're really busy.

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They don't want all this detail.

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But actually it can be helpful to your

boss to understand what's going on.

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It's getting that balance right.

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Then you want to think about being able

to know your worth, which is part of this.

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Self-advocacy and

communicating what you do.

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Understanding your strengths and

your contribution and knowing your

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value, and again, articulating that.

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So linking it with strengths,

and that's with my client.

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That's what we're working on at

the moment, is getting clear

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about strengths and the value that

she brings to the organization.

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And , being able to communicate

those similarly, communicating what

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you need to people who can help you.

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Not being afraid to ask for help when

you need to, when you need that.

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It's part of self-advocacy is not

going alone, but recognizing I need

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some help or support with this and

articulating and asking for that.

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And being prepared for

pushback because when we.

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Advocate for ourselves and ask

for what we need, what we want.

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People aren't always gonna say

yes, often you're gonna get a no.

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You're gonna get rejection.

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And it's being prepared for that

and building that resilience.

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As I mentioned before, self-advocacy

and resilience are two really

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key skills for female leaders.

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Being resilient to that pushback and

not letting it deflate you and think.

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I'm not gonna try again.

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Reflection is a superpower for leaders.

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When you have advocated for yourself,

when it's perhaps not gone well,

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it's taking that time to go, okay,

what did go well in that conversation?

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What didn't go well and what would

I do differently to get a different

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outcome is a great way of being able

to build resilience and also continue

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to advocate by not taking it personally.

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You can also think about collaborating

with other female leaders in your

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organization to advocate together

for what change you want, because

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there's obviously more power in doing

that as a collective, as a group.

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If you feel, you are on the senior

leadership team and maybe something like

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wellbeing isn't being prioritized enough,

coming together as a group to advocate

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for that for change can be more powerful.

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Or it could be something else, resource

allocation, whatever it might be.

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Doing it together can

actually affect more change.

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And then there's always the inner work,

which , I talk about a lot because

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the reason we might not advocate

often is, that fear of rejection,

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fear of retribution fear of being

labeled too aggressive, too bossy.

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All of those things.

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Can get in our way plus the

programming that we've had.

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Being able to practice positive self-talk.

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Tracking your achievements.

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Thinking about skills you want to improve

so you can boost your confidence and not

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being afraid to ask for help is going

to be helpful in terms of advocating

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for yourself because your confidence

has got to be in the right space.

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For you to be able to self-advocate

and they are a symbiotic relationship.

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The confident you feel, the more

likely you are to self-advocate.

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The more you self-advocate,

the more confidence you feel.

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They do support one another.

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It's taking small steps if

you feel I'm quite far away

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from being able to confidently

advocate for myself at the moment.

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And of course, as always, if you feel

you want some coaching or some support

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with this, then do obviously message

me and we can have a conversation about

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your particular situation and what you

might need to put into practice to get

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to the point where you are confidently

self advocating for what you need.

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Why do this?

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What are the benefits of

advocating for yourself?

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Obviously in the long run, it means you're

better equipped to deal with difficult

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situations 'cause you've built that

resilience and you're clear about asking

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for what you want and what you need.

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You're gonna feel empowered

by, standing up for yourself

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and advocating for yourself.

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And again, that's going to give

you greater self-confidence.

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And as we talked about, those

things support one another.

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It's gonna enable you to become

more open and transparent about

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what you need, what you want.

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And that's obviously gonna help

in terms of people being able to

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support you in your career growth

because they're clear about what

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you are looking for, what you need.

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It's going to improve your communication

skills if you can be, open about where

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you are, what you need, what's going on,

what you're doing, et cetera, et cetera.

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And it's gonna help you to be a better

leader , because you can encourage your

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team and you can enable them and empower

them to also become self advocating, which

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again, improves performance of the team.

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A very quick recap of how to do it.

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Key is getting clarity, what you

want, what you need, what enables you

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to thrive, what your boundaries are.

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Get used to talking about you,

what you do, how you do it.

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Know your own worth.

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Collaborate where possible

with other female leaders.

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Don't be afraid to ask for

help and do that inner work.

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That means you can build your confidence

in order to advocate well for yourself.

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Do let me know how it goes.

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If you've got any success

stories, please do share them.

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If you've got other tips that you feel

would be useful in terms of advocating

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for yourself, then please do share them.

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Thank you so much for listening

to this episode of the Unstuck

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and Unstoppable podcast.

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I have lots of free resources you

can access on my website, ww.career

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tree coaching.co

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uk, and I'll also put

links in the show notes.

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If you found this episode

helpful, then please subscribe

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so you don't miss the next one.

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And please do share it with a

friend and leave me a review

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and I will personally thank you.

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Remember, you're capable of

more than shine brightly.

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Lead boldly and unlock the

extraordinary potential within you.

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Be unstoppable.