Being a woman in the corporate world can leave a ladder-climbing lady leader feeling frustrated from time to time. You may have found yourself knocking at the C-suite door without a response and it may have caused you to wonder if the lack of response was due to the company culture or your own leadership style.

If you are willing to entertain the idea that leadership style might get in the way of success, this article will take you through the experience of Heather, a highly respected leader that felt her years of hard work were in vain due to her inability to reach her career goals.

However, Heather decided to do something about it, beginning with taking a good hard look in the mirror as she went through a facilitated process of leadership development. Heather received valid data about her leadership practices through a 360° assessment process and then face-to-face feedback, facilitated by an external coach/consultant.

She learned about her behavior right from the source (direct report, peers, and boss) and was able to see how her leadership style was helping and hindering her ability to continue her climb to the C-suite. The insightful process gave her hope that she had the power to get back on the fast track and reach her career goals.

How did it help?

Heather and her coach proceeded through a set of steps in getting her ready to effectively ask for and receive in-person feedback, and then conducting these coach facilitated feedback sessions with each group. While sitting face-to-face with her observers, Heather asked a series of powerful questions seeking a more in depth understanding of her leadership, including specific examples of her behaviors and the impact these behaviors had on others; both the good and the not so good. Heather got it! Heather learned many things about her behavior and leadership practices.

Following are some sound bites:

- Her direct reports loved her approachab lity and empathy demonstrated by the way she focused on them and listened whenever they were in her office. They also shared with her that at times they felt micromanaged when she seemed to be checking in on assigned tasks only moments after delegating something.

- Her peers respected her technical capabilities and HR knowledge. However, her peers also shared that while she excels at putting out fires and promoting HR programs, she tends to ignore the larger business context.

- Her boss said she seemed to hold back in order to not rock the boat when asked for her thoughts, so rather than turning to Heather for input on decisions, her boss deferred to others.

Along with other feedback, Heather got an insightful look into how she was possibly preventing her own C-suite potential. Beyond the feedback sessions, Heather created an action plan based on the insightful feedback and her own career goals. With help from her coach, she was able to try some new and occasionally uncomfortable behaviors with her direct reports, peers and boss.

She worked on voicing her opinion in various venues, made progress towards more strategic thinking within her department and how to find ways to tie that strategy to theorganization's future. All of this helped her to become more visible to her peers and other top executives, opening the door to career catapulting opportunities.

While it is true that factors including gender discrimination prevent women from moving up in organizations, it is important to consider holding up the mirror to one's own leadership practices. Taking a good look in the mirror with the help from a coach and receiving feedback from co-workers has the potential to reveal the secret hand-shake required for legitimacy at the C-suite table.

Emily Lewis, M.O.D, Consultant, Ralston Consulting Group

Emily works with individuals, teams and whole organizations to improve relationships, effectiveness, and ultimately the bottom line through leadership development, team building, process improvement, and organization assessment.