CONFIDENCE FOR FEMALE LEADERS
BUILD YOUR PERSONAL POWER & CONFIDENCE
Executive coaching and group coaching for women in majority male industries
The problem
Adapted from Steve Siebold's 5 Levels of Mental Toughness
When I came across this model by speaker and author Steve Siebold, I immediately saw a pattern that reflected the experiences of gender inequity that my coachees brought to the table again and again.
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These high-achieving women at various stages of their career found that they were usually safest when playing at Level 3​. When they strayed or were perceived to be stepping into Level 4, that's when they got cut down to size.
Therefore the systemic and structural mechanisms that safeguard the status quo (the gender pay gap, the glass ceiling, informal networks and relationships that tend to exclude women, etc.), and also by the daily exposure to bias, microaggressions and sometimes hostility served to undermined their confidence in spite of excelling in their roles and having decades of knowledge and experience to draw upon.​
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Not being acknowledged or respected for who they are keeps these women on the treadmill of Level 3, eternally having to prove themselves, their capabilities and their worth in the workplace, while managing on a daily basis the damage that this did to their confidence and self-esteem.
The solution
Through my experience of coaching women working in majority male industries since 2021, I developed The Confidence Dynamic™ framework, through which I support women with building both the two components that I recognise as essential to overcoming the disempowerment that they encounter as a result of their lived experiences particularly in majority male industries:
PERSONAL POWER (självkänsla in Swedish) which is the inner component or our self-esteem
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CONFIDENCE (or självförtroende) which we project externally in the workplace or in other areas of our lives​
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Moreover, I believe that both your inner personal power and your external confidence serve to anchor other vital qualities that you rely on as a woman in leadership: emotional resilience, presence and influence, and that they are also crucial in supporting your wellbeing, mental health and sense of identity.
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I have tailored my coaching programmes to resolve the specific challenges that erode both the personal power and confidence of women like you at various stages of your careers:
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Discomfort: This is particularly common in early career when a woman starts doubting herself and her contribution to her team and projects, which she addresses in the Leadership Lab.
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Denial: Many mid-career women (whether or not they are mothers) are conditioned to put everyone else before themselves. This undermines their leadership style and therefore limits their progression into senior roles, so she helps them realign their priorities with their goals through Power Pose.
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Distractions: Even with a great track record, senior leaders are being judged or held back on account of trivialities that have no bearing on their achievements or capabilities, so she designed Director's Cut to help them lead from their vision and values, rather than get sidetracked.
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You can find out more about those programmes below.
Working with Ishoo
Ishwariya Rajamohan FRSA is a former architect and pastry chef, now an accredited executive coach and speaker supporting mid-senior female leaders in majority-male industries with building the confidence to take the next step in their career or business, thus paving the way for gender equity and better representation of women in leadership in our workplaces.
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She set up her practice after training as a coach in 2021. Ishwariya is accredited with the Association for Coaching and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.​​​​​
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Having now supported nearly 200 women in overcoming imposter syndrome and other limitations that set back their career progression when their confidence takes a hit, Ishwariya has developed programmes that serve the needs of women in every stage of their career.
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If you are interested in working with her, you can use the summary above to identify which programme might be right for you:
"My coach helped me finding the answers that were already in me, although we started from a different topic. Thanks to my coach I understood I have a different challenge first to face before jumping on the one I've set up for this call originally." Recipe Developer, HelloFresh UK
What makes coaching such a valuable investment?
As stated above, the discomfort, denial and distractions caused by the status quo can hijack your focus and diminish your sense of personal power and the confidence that you project externally to your team, managers, stakeholders and clients. Often the women I coach have received feedback from their managers and mentors that they need to project more confidence, even when their work should speak for itself.
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Unfortunately, we all hold blindspots that prevent us from seeing clearly how we present to others, and a coaching container can a safe, non-judgemental space where you can unlearn old ways of being and doing that do are not currently representing you in your best light to the outside world.
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Creatives, athletes and world leaders have always worked with coaches to optimise their strengths and mindset, rewire past negative conditioning and anchor powerful new identities in order to accelerate their path to attaining their goals and to uncover blindspots that would otherwise sabotage their success.
When you similarly put your time, energy, money, focus and attention on your own growth or in the things that take you closer to achieving your goals, three things automatically happen:
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Your value increases within yourself: Nothing anchors inner confidence like taking yourself seriously. This is particularly important for us as women because for most of our lives, we were taught that putting others first was our currency. But that hardly creates the optimal conditions that allow us to do our best work.
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You value increases in the outside world: When you have skin in the game is like telling the rest of the world that you matter, that your goals matter and that you mean business in a status quo that doesn't automatically guarantee your position or your place.
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You start making the big leaps: When you stop doing everything yourself and invest in external support to achieve your goals, that’s when the big change happens. As Einstein said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used to create them.” ​
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"I came to the session without a clear idea of what I wanted to work on other than the fact that I wanted to be a better leader. My coach helped me identify a specific area I wanted to improve on and gave me reassurance of the skills I have to improve." Manager, Selina Finance
Contact Ishoo
If you want to discuss coaching or training for your team, then please book a consultation at a time that suits both you and the budget holder/decision maker in your organisation so we can discuss your objectives, your proposed budget and whether a collaboration would be a good fit.​​