
Glass ceilings, sticky floors
You’ve heard of glass ceilings that limit women’s careers, but what about sticky floors? Kate Coleman explores with Chris Rolfe the big issues female leaders must tackle to excel in their God-given careers.
Four years ago, Kate Coleman met a woman at a conference. She had a vision to be the first person to bring palliative care to her country. She was hoping God would bring this about, but as she shared her story Kate sensed the Lord saying, “No, I’m actually calling her to do this.”
As an experienced coach of female leaders and as founding director of Next Leadership, Kate was keen to help and started mentoring the woman, quickly addressing two main issues: her lack of self-belief and her overflowing job list because she said yes to everything. Change came fast as a result.
“Within weeks she had recruited the queen of her country to become a patron of her project. She also spoke to the national bank which agreed to help with finance and to other businesses which began to raise money too,” Kate says.
“Just last week she told us she had been invited to be involved in the strategic plan for her nation for the next five years.”
This is the transformation that’s possible when you address the foundational beliefs and attitudes holding you back in your leadership.
“People talk about glass ceilings, but there are internal barriers too, which act like sticky floors, keeping us stuck down and making it very difficult to be effective,” she says.
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