Episode 44 How To Avoid The Glass Cliff

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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 44.

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I'm really pleased that

you are joining me today.

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We've got a really interesting

topic, how to avoid the glass cliff.

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Obviously this doesn't come up very often,

but it is important to be thinking about

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whether you are potentially taking on a

role that is effectively a glass cliff.

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And if you are.

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Making sure that you are protecting

yourself as much as possible so that

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you can, enable success to happen in

that role or avoid taking on that role

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if it does look like it's something

that is really insurmountable.

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I hope you really enjoy today's

session and,, if you are experiencing

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a glass cliff yourself or you have

done, I'd love to hear from you.

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So do drop me a line.

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Let's dive into the topic then.

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What is the glass cliff?

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We all know about the glass ceiling,

but what is the glass cliff?

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This is where a female leader or a

person of color is appointed to a senior

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role when an organization is in crisis

where, often the problem hasn't been

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solved previously, it can be a really

exciting opportunity to get your foot

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in the door in leadership and be able

to do something really exciting in

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terms of turnaround, but there's also

high risk that comes with it because

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the chance of failure could be high.

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Now obviously the organization isn't

consciously putting people into

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roles to get 'em to fail, but and

we'll explore why people might be

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appointed in a glass cliff scenario.

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When the organization might be in

crisis, and that could be to do with

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financial difficulties or challenges.

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It could be things like

a natural disaster.

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It could be a reputational issue.

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It could be some departure of

a leader after a long period.

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It could be a whole raft

of different things.

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It could be challenges in the industry.

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But the organization is finding it hard

to achieve its organizational goals, and

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so it needs to bring in somebody to turn

that around in fairly short space of time.

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If we think about a glass cliff recently,

the most office one we could think

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about is the presidential election

in America, where Kamala Harris.

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Was suddenly thrust onto this glass

cliff, she could either succeed

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or fail dramatically without

necessarily having the chance to do

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the things that we're going to talk

about today that could mitigate or

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avoid that glass cliff scenario.

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Often leaders, when there is a, an

issue, a crisis in the organization,

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they are seen as part of the problem

and they're seen often as ineffective.

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And, you don't want to walk

into a no win situation.

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So what we're gonna explore today is the

due diligence that you can do to assess.

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Is it a glass cliff?

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And if it is it the thing that

I need to be able to walk away

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from or actually say yes to?

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There are three common reasons why

women might be appointed to leadership

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positions in times of crisis.

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And the research also tells us that,

it's real 'cause poorly performing.

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Fortune 500 companies were found to

be more likely to appoint a female

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CEO than when they're performing well.

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And similarly boards are more likely to

appoint female directors following a fall

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in the stock market of their company.

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Three reasons could be that

the organizations wants to

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have a symbol of change.

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So putting in a leader who

is very different to previous

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leaders, I, female leader.

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Or a person of color into that

senior role is making a statement

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that actually we're going to do

things differently around here.

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Things are going to change.

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So it could be, that's one of

the rationale, or it could be

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particularly around female leaders.

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'cause female leaders tend to be

thought of as more collaborative.

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Have a more participative style of

leadership, be more understanding,

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more intuitive, have higher levels

of social and emotional intelligence.

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And if the crisis is linked to morale

or engagement or culture, it might be

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thought that that style of leadership

is going to be more effective.

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But the third reason, which does

feel a bit uncomfortable, is that the

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organization might be more willing

to sacrifice a female leader if

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things don't go well, that they might

be seen as a acceptable casualty

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if the crisis can't be resolved.

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So if you are thinking the job that I'm

currently going for or the promotion

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that's being offered to me could be

potentially a glass cliff, you do need

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to think about how to navigate it.

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First things to think about is how is that

going to be part of my career strategy?

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Could I see that if I managed to be

successful in this role, that it could

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springboard my career and open doors for

me in a way that it would take me much

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longer if I didn't take this opportunity.

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So is there a real motivating factor

in terms of your career positioning?

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The second thing is how you like to lead.

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If you are somebody who thrives in those

crisis situations, who is somebody who

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likes to make, decisions quickly and

fast-paced, difficult situations, then

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it could be that the glass cliff scenario

is going to be more suited to you than

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if you're a very reflective leader and

you like to, to bring stability and

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more down to earth grounded leadership

that it might not be a turnaround

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scenario is right for you because,

not everybody's going to respond well

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in those situations and that's fine.

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Not everybody wants to deal

with these crisis situations.

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So understanding yourself will

also help you decide whether it's

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something you want to explore or not.

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If it is something you want to explore.

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Then it is about doing this due diligence

during the selection process, which can

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feel quite challenging because obviously

in an interview scenario, whether you're

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first, second, third stage, you only get

a small window to ask your questions.

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It's worth thinking about can I have

a offline conversation with the hiring

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manager or somebody in the organization

about this particular challenge?

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So it could be either between first

and second stage interviews, or it

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could be at off a stage before you say,

yes, you are having this due diligence

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conversation because you need to know.

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What you are walking into, you

need to know what's happened.

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You need to know what the risks are.

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You need to understand what

they've tried, what hasn't worked.

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You need to understand.

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So that's the past.

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You know what's gone on.

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You need to understand the present,

what the expectations, what

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resources are available to me,

what are the performance targets,

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? You need to understand the future

as well in terms of what support's

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going to be available to me from

people working with or, to me, but

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also in terms of senior leadership or

board, what is actually going to be

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available and what's the expectations

so that you are really gathering this

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information to be able to know what's my.

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Response to that, because it can be

very exciting and alluring to thing.

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I could go in and I can make a real

difference, but you do need to understand

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what is the real problem here and how

deep is it and how entrenched is it and

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what's available to me to turn it around.

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And that might also be going out and

talking to people in your network

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or in the industry to understand

maybe a supplier's perspective

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or a customer's perspective.

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So that you are building a clear picture

of, what what you are walking into.

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So you're really equipped to

be able to know whether this

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is going to be doable or not.

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Because for your career, you don't

want to walk in and find, actually

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this really is a poison chalice

and I can't turn this around.

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There's just no way I can do that.

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, I did have a client who, was the financial

director in a manufacturing organization.

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This was during and post COVID

where obviously they were

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affected hugely by what we were

all experiencing in the world.

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Their sales had, their production

processes were challenged, their

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sales outlets were challenged

and their MD left suddenly.

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And she was asked by the board to

take on the MD role, which she saw as

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a great opportunity for her career.

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And obviously she had access to

all the information to do the due

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diligence because she was the fd, she

knew the challenges for the business.

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She knew the, the figures, the

information, what was gonna be available.

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The one thing she hadn't really done due

diligence on was board support for her and

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for the decision she was going to make.

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What quite quickly became apparent

when she was trying to then turn

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things around, was that the board?

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Were not united in

supporting her decisions.

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And she began to realize that she was

going to be really hampered in terms

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of making any changes or significant

changes because the board weren't able

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to give her the go ahead to do it.

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And so she had to make a decision

about did she stay or go, and

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she did actually decide to go.

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It didn't damage her

career because she hadn't.

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Failed.

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But it damaged her confidence.

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And it had taken its toll on her in

terms of the stress that was involved.

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So her reflection, she would definitely

have done more due diligence about

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what the support was going to be

like for her in terms of the changes

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that were going to be necessary.

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'cause while organizations often want

change and see the need for change,

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they don't always want to say yes to it.

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So that's definitely part of your

due diligence, is also understanding

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the stakeholder relationships and the

senior stakeholder relationships and

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what the support is going to be like

and the genuine appetite for change.

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So that you definitely know

what's going to be involved.

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And then once you've gathered all of that

information and you've talked to people,

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the right people, you really understand

what's happened in the business, what's

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needs to happen, and what's available to

you, you can then think about creating

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a plan for this particular challenge.

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So maybe a short, medium, long-term plan

to really understand what is going to be

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possible and what you're going to need.

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Because you want to negotiate for

what you're going to need before

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you say yes to taking on that

particular challenge or opportunity.

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And you can only do that if you've

got a plan about what, what it's gonna

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look like to turn these things around.

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You are in a stronger position

to negotiate that support

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those additional resources.

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Whatever it is you need before

you say yes to the organization.

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And also you checking out their

organizational commitments.

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And if they say no to some of

those resources that are your

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must haves, then you know that.

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Gives you information

about do I say yes or no?

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Because I know I'm not going to

get this, but I might get this.

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So yeah, watch out for any red flags

really about whether the organization

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will commit to what you need and

also whether the organization will

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have those conversations with you

before you're joining the business.

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'cause if they won't, then again, that

is a red flag that you need to either

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walk away from or try and explore more.

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So then when you've done your plan and

you've had that chat around resources and

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know what's gonna be available to you, you

can then decide, do I take this plunge?

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Do I jump, onto this , potential glass

cliff, or do I walk away from it?

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And it's okay to walk away from

it for sure because you don't

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want to be setting yourself up to.

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To fail.

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You want to be taking on something

that's going to definitely give

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you opportunity and great experience.

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To recap, if you realize you are on

a glass cliff, what you want to be

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doing is doing your due diligence.

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So checking out past, present, and future

so that you understand what's involved.

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You know the risks, you know the

challenges, you know what's available

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to you in terms of support and

resources, and you've had that agreed

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because you've thought about plan.

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And then you can make a decision

about whether it is the right

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thing for you, which of course

you would do with any criticism.

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Whether it's internal or an external

appointment, and if you are going

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to say yes to it, putting in place

exactly what you need in terms of

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support to make sure that you are

setting yourself up for success.

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If you are on a glass cliff at

the moment or you are thinking

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of taking on a glass cliff role

and you like some support around.

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Navigating it in terms of

should I take this role?

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Or if you are in it making sure that

you are putting success in place for

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yourself, you're putting things in

that you need, then do get in touch and

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we can have a chat about how coaching

can support you in making sure that

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you deliver that role successfully

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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 you know, shine brightly.

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Lead boldly and unlock the

extraordinary potential within you.

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Be unstoppable.