HBR Article January 16, 2023 - How Successful Women Sustain Career Momentum by Brenda F. Wensil  and Winifred Ernst   

After a few years engaged as a drug discovery scientist Jackie, realized she wanted to work on the strategy side of business. Unfortunately, every time she tried to make the shift, she was turned down. she kept hearing, ‘You’re just a chemist,’. The same thing happened when she applied for external roles that would expand her marketing or business experience. No one could see past her current expertise. She felt stuck and facing a problem that many women face in their careers: feeling like she had lost momentum. The authors being executive coaches for women leaders, wanted to understand why some women are able to sustain and maintain career momentum, despite the systemic, structural problems women face in the workplace.

They interviewed 37 women in senior leadership roles (senior director, vice president, senior vice president, C-suite roles) whose experiences spanned more than 75 corporations.  They asked these leaders to describe pivotal moments that helped them maintain career momentum. Analyzing these moments helped to understand the key traits that assisted them persevere when they felt stuck. Though the women they spoke with had varied backgrounds, interests, personalities, and careers, they employed at least two of the three following behaviors to sustain momentum during these pivotal moments.

Call it tenacity, sheer determination, or persistence. When they faced setbacks, these women told stories of tapping into their inner mettle that helped them situate short-term difficulties in the context of their higher goals, and how important it is to package yourself for the role you want by accepting roles that support your growth towards the desired role.

These women showed more than the capacity to learn, they were motivated to seek out opportunities that provided new experiences, challenges, and knowledge. These women demonstrated flexible thinking, an ability to quickly assess a situation and determine a path forward. When it came to their own careers, they reinvented themselves or transformed the projects they were working on. To have an agile mindset is about being versatile and open to new options and ways of getting to a goal. Most of the women interviewed, pivoted, moved sideways, gathered more experience, or moved to smaller companies at some point in their career in order to maintain momentum or to create it when they were stuck.

1. A focused drive 2. An incessant desire to learn 3. An agile mindset

Resetting Your Career Momentum Most of the women interviewed, pivoted, moved sideways, gathered more experience, or moved to smaller companies at some point in their career in order to maintain momentum or to create it when they were stuck.