Ep 190: Do you pick up everyone else’s slack at work?

Ask someone chasing a promotion whether they should work at the next level before they get it, and plenty say no thanks. Ask the person doing the promoting and the answer’s almost always yes. In this ep, Nat and Kristen take a middle ground. Things like speaking up in meetings like a peer, linking your work to revenue, cost or culture, and making the value you add easy to see (visibility for its own sake just makes everyone groan). Where they draw the line is taking on a whole second job, or covering the gaps for a colleague who got the role instead of you. A rule of thumb is to spend your first three to six months in any role getting wins on the board, then start spotting gaps you could fix. And if you want a place to start this week, get curious about what would make your manager’s life easier (and no, that doesn’t mean picking up their sandwiches). Loved it? Share it and leave us a 5-star review! More from Powrsuit: 🔗 Podcast: https://powrsuit.com/podcast/ 🌐 Website: https://powrsuit.com/ 📩 Newsletter: https://powrsuit.com/newsletters/ 📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCORJdS-WlYOWA20mSOGG2ug 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/powrsuit 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/powrsuit/

We've noticed a trend lately: Powrsuiters sharing that they want to back themselves more when under pressure. Getting the words out is the first step, but it’s the uncertain twenty seconds after, when you’re braced for someone to question you, that stops many of us speaking up at all. In this ep of Powrup, Nat and Kristen talk through both. They share a four-point sticky note to fill in before your next meeting (your position, what it rests on, any trade-offs, and what would change your mind) and why speaking first beats waiting for the perfect moment. In a Powrsuit LinkedIn poll, half of you said preparation helped most - which supports researcher Herminia Ibarra's point that you can’t think your way into acting differently, so at some point you just have to say the thing!

The usual advice when a job ends is to work out what you want first, then make a move. Kristen has given that advice to plenty of Powrsuit members, and in this ep of Powrup, Nat and Kristen question it. They talk about the awkward in-between stage after a redundancy, time at home with kids or outgrowing your role (there's even a word for it: liminality). They draw on Herminia Ibarra's year-long study of 23 career changers, who figured out what they wanted by trying things first. Her advice is to spend a little time reflecting to come up with three ideas, then test them in real life to see which one sticks. That could be a 15-minute virtual coffee where you ask someone what a typical Tuesday looks like for them, or saying yes to an unpaid spot on a local sports club board. Confidence usually turns up after you've started, so you don't need to wait for it.

Neutrality used to cost you nothing but now it costs reach. We start with the flashpoints doing the rounds: Ed Sheeran, Sydney Sweeney, Meghan Markle, Jacinda Ardern, return to office mandates, private school vs public school (we could go on). Then the work version, where you can't mute anyone and the project's still due. Using Jessica Tarlov's new book 'I Disagree' as a frame: leave room for people who choose differently, because if every disagreement is a character test you'll run out of colleagues. Go in to learn rather than to win. Nat's opener is to ask whether someone's open to changing their mind, and if they're not, leave it there. Loved it? Share it and leave us a 5-star review! More from Powrsuit: 🔗 Podcast: https://powrsuit.com/podcast/ 🌐 Website: https://powrsuit.com/ 📩 Newsletter: https://powrsuit.com/newsletters/ 📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCORJdS-WlYOWA20mSOGG2ug 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/powrsuit 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/powrsuit/

Queen bee syndrome is when senior women pull the ladder up behind them. It's real, it's been studied, and the research points to structure rather than personality. We start with the Sydney Sweeney ad and the pick me girl label, then get to the thing Powrsuiters say in hushed tones on calls: one of my worst managers was a woman. A few reasons it happens. There's often only one seat, so enter fierce competition thanks to scarcity. Survival mode sets in, because if proving you're not like other women is what got you there, distancing is the strategy that works. And helping really does cost us, since women who champion other women get worse performance ratings for it while white men doing the same don't....(?).