Closing the Influence Gap for Women Leaders with Carla Miller

My guest today is Carla Miller. She is a women's leadership and confidence coach, trainer, and keynote speaker. Her mission is to empower women in their careers and close the influence gap that exists for women in the workplace. Carla is the author of Closing the Influence Gap: A Practical Guide for Women Leaders Who Want to be Heard, which empowers women leaders to successfully navigate the workplace and to learn to lead their way.

On this episode of The Growth Guide, we explore the art of influence and how to overcome obstacles when presenting ideas to senior stakeholders as women. We discuss how to handle personal leadership branding and create a unique personal brand, and how to identify and utilize our strengths to excel at work. We also discuss the impact of disempowering phrases, particularly for women in the workplace, and how to replace them with empowering ones.

 The episode touches on the importance of cognitive flexibility and self-reflection for personal and professional growth, and how to boost confidence before important meetings. 

Additionally, we tackle the subject of radical responsibility and how it can fuel career success. Tune in to discover practical tips to sharpen your influencing and leadership skills.

[08:56]  Inner critic – Self-doubt prevents speaking up, recognizing and reframing beliefs and inner critic, accessing inner leader and behaviors to reduce burnout.

[23.11] Reframing – Carla walks us through the steps of her own reframing process of imposter feelings.  

[29.43] Personal leadership brand – How to create a personal leadership brand 

[39.32] Owning identity – When you show up differently in front of people, they are going to treat you differently. 

[43:33] Meeting Preparation - Prepare for meetings by setting an achievable goal, claiming a desired perception and using body language or music to feel powerful.

[54.53] Qualifying statements – Women tend to make qualifying statements to soften challenging points in meetings, but this disempowers them; instead, they should ask questions and end strong.

[1.07.11] Authority and gravitas – Distinguishing between authority and gravitas, using appropriate tone and body language to be taken seriously as a leader, and challenging the assumption that women's voices must be lower to be respected.

[1:20:39] Cognitive flexibility - The skill of listening to other perspectives and having a discussion rather than asserting your own to be right.

[1.25:59] Radical Responsibility – Carla shares her view of radical responsibility as being able to create change and no longer being able to be a victim and complain.

Connect with Carla

Website: https://www.carlamillertraining.com/ 

Instagram: instagram.com/thisiscarlamiller/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlamiller1/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/carlacmiller
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/influenceandimpact 
 

Resources

 Book by Carla
Closing the Influence Gap: A practical guide for women leaders who want to be heard

Book by Valerie Rein
Patriarchy Stress Disorder: The Invisible Inner Barrier to Women's Happiness and Fulfillment

Book by Mary Ann Sieghart
The Authority Gap: Why Women Are Still Taken Less Seriously Than Men, and What We Can Do About It