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How High-Achieving Women Can Avoid Burnout While Confidently Climbing the Corporate Ladder
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In today’s episode, Leanna explores the hidden beliefs many women and working mothers carry about compensation and overworking as they rise in leadership roles. As salaries increase, so do the unspoken assumptions: more money must mean more hours, more sacrifice, and less balance. But is that actually true?
Leanna challenges the unspoken contract many high-achieving women are holding themselves to: that they must prove they’re worth it by constantly over-working, over-delivering and being available 24/7. She walks through common mindset traps, including imposter syndrome, tying self-worth to work ethic, and believing value only comes through output.
This episode invites you to reflect:
- What do you believe you owe your employer in exchange for your salary or title?
- What do you bring to the table beyond your work ethic?
If you've recently taken on a new role or are negotiating your next promotion, this is a must-listen conversation to help you step into leadership with clarity, confidence, and balance.
Full transcript available here.
Connect with Leanna here.
If you're ready for deeper transformation, check out The Executive Mom Reset — Leanna’s six-month coaching program designed to help ambitious moms stop merely surviving and start thriving. Book a consult now!
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Transcript
Introduction: Supporting Women in Work-Life Balance
00:00:04
Speaker
Welcome to the Executive Coach for Moms podcast, where we support women who are attempting to find balance and joy while simultaneously leading people at work and at home.
00:00:15
Speaker
I'm your host, Leanna Lasky-McGrath, former tech exec turned full-time mom, recovering perfectionist and workaholic, and certified executive coach.
00:00:27
Speaker
Hi everyone. Welcome back to the show. Thank you so much for joining me today.
Confidence, Compensation, and Hidden Costs
00:00:32
Speaker
Today. I want to continue this conversation around confidence. And i specifically today want to talk about confidence and how it relates to compensation, especially as we climb the corporate ladder.
00:00:47
Speaker
and we are compensated more. So what I have found in coaching many women is that as women climb the corporate ladder and see our compensation rise, there's often ah hidden cost.
00:01:04
Speaker
There's this belief that we owe our employer more, more of ourselves. We have to give them more because they're giving us more. And so the question i kind of want to explore today is what do we believe we owe our employer and what have we agreed to? i think that this is something that I recognize has been running in the background of some of my clients' minds.
00:01:30
Speaker
And until they're aware of it, they're not really able to do much with it. So that's what I want to talk about today.
The Myth of Time Sacrifice for Pay
00:01:39
Speaker
So the thought error that we often have is because I'm making more, I have to give more of my time of my energy,
00:01:49
Speaker
more of my whole self and I have to give up more. And i think what happens a lot of times is that we feel some level of imposter syndrome.
00:02:00
Speaker
Am I actually worth this amount that they're paying me? What if I don't give the company their money's worth? What if I mess up and they realize that they shouldn't have been paying me this much all along?
Rethinking Expectations: Strategy Over Hours
00:02:15
Speaker
This is a crazy amount is way beyond what I'm worth. And so I think we have these thoughts that are running in the background, might not be aware of them. But they then to take actions.
00:02:27
Speaker
to take actions That we might not otherwise take if we didn't have this set of beliefs. So the unwritten belief or the unspoken belief is really that higher pay demands that I am constantly available, that I am sacrificing my family for this job that I'm prioritizing.
00:02:48
Speaker
work over everything else. I should be thinking about work more. I should be actually working more. I should be stressed out more. And the more money I make, the more ah of myself I need to put into this job. It's just like more equals more, more money equals more of me.
00:03:09
Speaker
And so is this really true? Is it really true that when I get paid more money, that I need to give more of myself and of my time and of my energy and of my focus and my presence. What I hear so often is I feel like I have to have work running in the background constantly. So when I'm with my kids, I can't actually enjoy that time because I'm thinking about work.
00:03:36
Speaker
And more money more money may equal more. That might be true, right? That there's an expectation of, hey, we're paying you more, so we expect something more from you.
00:03:49
Speaker
I think very often we assume it means hours, labor, energy, time on our mind, stress, And I don't know that's always exactly what the company wants more of.
00:04:03
Speaker
Maybe the company wants more strategic thinking. Maybe company needs you to do more difficult decision making. Maybe you have more of a span of control, more employees on your team.
00:04:19
Speaker
So there is a trade. There is more. But our assumption is that the more has to come at the sacrifice of ourselves.
00:04:30
Speaker
And that may not be true. I think especially if you were an internal candidate and this was an internal promotion, then the company has seen your performance and promoted you based on that.
Origins of Work Value Beliefs
00:04:43
Speaker
And unless it's stated in your job contract or discussed in the interview process that you need to be working 24 seven now, or, you know, that you have more hours now with this new role.
00:04:57
Speaker
Oftentimes those assumptions come from us. We make those assumptions because we're like, ah, I got to cover this gap. So where does this come from? Because it's really interesting because I've seen this actually from a lot of my clients who have gotten promotions or have gotten new jobs where they're paid significantly more than what they were paid before.
00:05:18
Speaker
I think a lot of it comes from number one, the idea that we trade time for money I think depending on how you were raised, what income level maybe your parents were at, maybe what income level you've been at in the past or you started your career in, you may have a belief because, you know, there are such things as hourly jobs that you're trading time for money.
00:05:46
Speaker
But of course, if you started out your career making fifty k a year, and now you're making a year, that obviously doesn't mean that you're working five times as much.
00:05:59
Speaker
doesn't mean that you go from working 40 hours a week to 200. That's not physically possible. And I'm sure if it was, We would make it possible, but there are only 168 hours in a week, so we can't do with that.
00:06:12
Speaker
So I think that's one thing is when we believe that time gets traded for money. I think another thing is something that is a very ingrained in us as women by our society, where we aren't really taught that we have inherent value. We're taught that we have to earn it.
00:06:34
Speaker
And so women usually believe that our value comes from being a hard worker. Our value comes from what we do, not who we are.
00:06:46
Speaker
It comes from the hours that we put in not the value that we give the majority of women I have coached have said something along the lines of, I didn't get here because I'm the smartest.
00:07:01
Speaker
I didn't get here because I'm the most talented. I got here because I'm a hard worker and myself included. I used to believe this as well. We have a tendency to believe that our differentiator, what makes us special is our work ethic.
00:07:19
Speaker
is the fact that we can outwork anyone. And I think that part of the reason that we like that is because it's within our control, right?
00:07:29
Speaker
We can work harder. We don't have to have any of these ingrained talents. We don't have to bring anything ah else to the table, but we can just outwork everybody.
00:07:41
Speaker
And when you tie your value to being a hard worker, and then your value goes up, your value to the company, they're paying you more. you believe it means that you need to work harder.
00:07:52
Speaker
First of all, i just want to say that i think this mindset is very normal. So if you have recently gotten a promotion or gotten a new job and you're feeling this pressure to perform and you feel like, oh my gosh, this is so much more money than I was making before, or it's such a higher title than I had before.
Self-Awareness and Employer Obligations
00:08:14
Speaker
I need to make sure that I prove myself and i show my worth and my value and just overwork and over prepare and overcompensate to make sure that they believe it's a fair investment that, that they're getting their money's worth.
00:08:33
Speaker
Just notice that. And I just want you to recognize that it's very normal for you to feel that way. Nothing has gone wrong. And so What I think is important to do is to build some awareness around this.
00:08:48
Speaker
So one of the things that I have charged some of my clients with to try out is to essentially write the contract. What do you believe your contract is with your employer?
00:09:01
Speaker
And not what is the actual contract, but when your employer pays you x amount of money, it means that I owe my employer, X, Y, and Z, and write it out and just become aware of what you deep down or subconsciously believe you owe your employer for paying you that salary or giving you that title.
00:09:30
Speaker
So in exchange for this amount of money and benefits, i owe the company this, and here are all the things that you're giving them. How much of your time, how much of your energy, how much of your attention do you believe the company deserves for that salary or that title?
00:09:47
Speaker
What do you believe you owe your employer? And then also another reflection exercise is once you get aware of that, another question you need to ask yourself is what do I believe I bring to the table beyond my work ethic?
00:10:06
Speaker
And if you have always believed that your work ethic is all you bring and that's all you need, this might be a little bit destabilizing because suddenly you're thinking, what value do I bring if I can't give them all these hours? This was really hard for me whenever I became a mom because I didn't want to work 80 hours a week anymore as much as I loved doing that before or was doing it so that I could prove my value to a company but I didn't have the capacity to do that as a mom.
00:10:39
Speaker
And so you don't have the capacity to do that either, most likely. And so in this new role, How are you going to bring value to the role that does not involve you killing yourself to overwork and overthink everything and make sure that you bring work with you everywhere so it feels like you're giving them enough?
Balancing Work and Avoiding Burnout
00:11:04
Speaker
Because, you know, it would be unfair of you to go and spend time with your kids without thinking about work when they're paying you this kind of money. So I just want to bring some awareness to that because i have not heard that talked about anywhere.
00:11:21
Speaker
And I think it's really important because of course, as we climb the corporate ladder and get higher and higher on up there. We're going to make more money. We better be making more money.
00:11:33
Speaker
We hope we're negotiating. And if we're not, then let me know and I'll help you. I'll help you do that. But of course, we're going to make more money. And then with that may come this set of questions, this set of beliefs that really cause us to overwork and overextend ourselves beyond the kind of balance that we want to have with our work in our life.
00:11:58
Speaker
So I hope this is helpful to bring some awareness. If you're in a new role, then i would love to hear any reflections that come of this. Or if you're looking back, like I have on rules that you've been in before and when this might've showed up for you, did it show up? I would love to hear about how it showed up.
00:12:18
Speaker
I think bringing awareness to any parts of us is really helpful because the next time you go into a new role or if you get a big promotion, then you'll have thought through it a little bit.
00:12:30
Speaker
So I think that the unspoken contracts that we live by are so important to bring to the surface because there is a contract that you have with your work, with your company that may not be actually what they expect, and it may not be actually matching up with your actual contract.
00:12:56
Speaker
And i just want to tie this back to confidence because i think that what we have the opportunity to do here is to rewrite that contract.
00:13:08
Speaker
We have the ability to decide what are we going to give to work? How are we going to bring our value to work if it's not in overworking and overthinking and making sure that we take work with us everywhere.
00:13:22
Speaker
How are we gonna show our value? You do not owe your company every minute of your waking hours and some of your sleeping ones too when you're dreaming about work.
Self-Care and Career Ascension
00:13:32
Speaker
You owe them excellence, of course, within reason, and above all, caring for yourself so that you can stay there at that company and give them what they need and give them your best and not completely burn out.
00:13:47
Speaker
Because of course, that's not good for anyone. It's not good for you. It's not good for your company who needs you and wants you to be there. It's not good for your family who need you and want you to be there.
00:14:00
Speaker
It's not good for anyone if you burn out. And I think that one of the things that it's important to remember is that as we move up, the corporate ladder in a company, we are expected to take care of ourselves to make sure that our needs are met.
00:14:18
Speaker
We cannot rely on people above us to be paying attention to that as much as maybe people had time to pay attention to that earlier in our careers.
00:14:29
Speaker
It is also up to us as we ascend the corporate ladder to set the example for other people. So if the example has been set for you that the contract is that you work all of your waking hours and you prioritize work over everything and you are constantly on call and you are thinking about work when you're trying to spend time with your family, if that's what leaders in your career have shown you and you want to
00:15:00
Speaker
continue passing that along to other people, then you can choose to do that.
Leadership's Role in Sustainable Work Models
00:15:06
Speaker
Or you can say, you know what, I'm in this position now, and I'm going to do it the way that works best for me.
00:15:12
Speaker
And I'm going to set the kind of example where we create sustainable, balanced careers and lives. I want to show that to other people that it's possible.
00:15:25
Speaker
And as you get into those higher level positions, you have the ability to do that And you also have the responsibility To make sure that you're paying attention to these things and that you're deciding how you work, how you get your job done, how you get those amazing results that you've always gotten that you have a track record of getting, and you are still able to do and continue getting without giving up everything.
00:15:52
Speaker
And so, so much of yourself. So I hope this is helpful to think about. I'd love to hear from you. Thank you so much for joining me today and I will see you next week.
Invitation to Coaching Program
00:16:01
Speaker
bye
00:16:07
Speaker
If you're loving what you're learning on this podcast, I'd love to invite you to check out the Executive Mom Reset. It's my six-month coaching program for ambitious, success-driven, career-focused women who are ready to stop surviving and start thriving.
00:16:22
Speaker
Together, we'll tackle the stress, guilt, and overwhelm that come with being a high-achieving executive mom. You'll learn how to set boundaries, prioritize what truly matters, and build the confidence to show up powerfully at work, at home, and for yourself.
00:16:37
Speaker
Head on over to coachleanna.com right now to schedule a free discovery call. We'll spend an hour talking about where you are now, what you want to create, and how I can help you get there. Because every woman deserves to live the life of her dreams.
00:16:50
Speaker
Let's create yours together.