Respected but not chosen? Here’s how to close the gap
Read time: 5 minutes
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I created the brand new Visibility Advantage Bootcamp – a 5-day live experience built around the three pillars that change how women are seen at work: personal branding, strategic networking, and executive presence. We’ll be joined live by senior corporate leaders including Kameshwari Rao (Global CPO, Publicis Sapient), Ranjani Mani (Director & Country Head, Gen AI, Microsoft Asia), Dharani Karthikeyan (Global VP, SAP Labs India) and more – women who have built the kind of visibility we are here to teach.
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The Gap: Respect vs Influence
I want to start with a scene.
A leadership role opens up. The kind of role you’ve been quietly ready for – for at least two years.
The decision is made in a room you’re not in.
Your name does not come up.
Not because you are not respected. Not because your work has not been excellent. Not because the people in that room do not think well of you.
But because being respected and being considered are not the same thing.
And nobody ever told you that.
This is one of the most painful patterns I see among the women I work with.
She is well-liked. Her colleagues trust her. Her manager would describe her as dependable, capable, one of the strongest contributors on the team.
And she is still being passed over.
Not dramatically. Not with any clear injustice she can point to. Just quietly, consistently – left out of the conversations that shape what happens next in her career.
She has spent years building something real. And what she has built is respect.
What she has not yet built is influence.
And these two things – as similar as they sound – are profoundly different.
Three things to get intentional about:
The women I have watched make the leap from overlooked to chosen are not the ones who worked harder. They already worked hard. They are the ones who became intentional about three things:
- Who knows them – not just within their immediate team, but across the organization and beyond it. The senior leaders who make decisions about roles, projects and opportunities need to know your name before the conversation happens – not during it.
- What they are known for – not just their output, but their thinking. A woman who is known for what she delivers is respected. A woman who is known for how she sees things – her distinct point of view, her perspective on the problems that matter – is influential.
- Who advocates for them – not just a manager who supports them, but sponsors who speak up for them when they are not in the room. The shift from mentor to sponsor – from someone who advises you to someone who advocates for you – is one of the most significant career moves a woman can make. And it does not happen by accident.
These three things are not accidents of luck or personality.
They are a practice.
And like any practice, they are buildable.
The Visibility Advantage Bootcamp (Live. Sept 7-11)
Kavita, if you have ever felt the quiet confusion of being respected but not considered – of doing everything right and still watching opportunities go elsewhere – I want you to know something.
It is not your performance that is the problem.
It is your visibility.
And visibility – the intentional, grounded, authentic kind – is exactly what we are building inside The Visibility Advantage Bootcamp this September.
Personal branding. Strategic networking. Executive presence. The three things that close the gap between respected and chosen – in 5 live evenings, with a community of women doing this work alongside you.
Plus – live guest sessions from Kameshwari Rao (Global CPO, Publicis Sapient), Ranjani Mani (Microsoft Asia), Dharani Karthikeyan (SAP Labs India) and four more senior corporate leaders – sharing the exact playbooks that got them to the top.
→ Enroll in The Visibility Advantage Bootcamp
September 7-11 · 6:00-7:30 PM IST · Live on Zoom
Before I go – one question to sit with this week:
If the people who make decisions about your next opportunity were asked to describe what you are known for – what would they say? And is that the answer you would choose?
With warmth,
Bhavna