4 Signs You’re Navigating an Uneven Playing Field at the Top, And How to Shift It

Over the past month, I’ve been in deep conversation with founders, CEOs, division heads, and senior leaders across industries, women whose resumes could make you pause mid-scroll.

They’re brilliant. Accomplished. Respected.
And they’re all telling me similar things about the challenges they face at work as executives in their roles.

1. Stuck in the “Fixer” Lane
One client, a leader in a creative field, told me: “If there’s a fire, they call me. Every time. I can’t remember the last time I had a week without a crisis project.” She’s exceptional at problem-solving and is a high performer, which is exactly why she keeps getting pulled into operational clean-up instead of staying in strategic, high-visibility work that would expand her influence. McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace report has found that women leaders are more likely than men to take on “extra” work that doesn’t lead to promotion and less likely to be recognized for it.

2. Walking the Double-Bind Tightrope
Another, a first-generation woman of color founder in the high tech space, described the constant calibration: “I can be direct, but if I push too hard, I’m ‘abrasive.’ Then, if I’m softer, I’m not listened to or respected. People outside the company assume my most junior (white, male) employee is the CEO, going to him instead of me.” Research from Catalyst shows women leaders are judged more critically for the same behaviors praised in men, especially around authority and communication style.

3. Delivering Results, but Without the Credit
This one hits close to home for me. In my VP days, I led initiatives that dramatically improved my team’s performance, engagement, and visibility. but because my leadership style was collaborative, empowering and trust-driven, the credit was shared across the team and my role in the team’s success was overlooked. The Harvard Business Review has documented how collaborative leadership drives better results, yet is often less visible and undervalued in performance reviews.

4. Isolation in a Room Full of People
For a senior client with over 30 years experience, board and executive team meetings are both high-stakes and lonely. “I’m constantly translating my ideas so they’ll land. But even so, too often, I find they don’t. We then end up re-litigating the same point multiple times (sometimes for months or even years) before landing on my original idea.” The isolation of being “the only”, especially when layered with queer identity, race, neurodivergence, or being a woman in male dominated industries (e.g., STEM), can make even influential roles feel exhausting.

So, What Can You Do?

One shift I often work on with clients is protecting their strategic bandwidth. That means setting boundaries around operational “fixer” work, saying yes only to projects that align with your visibility and impact goals, and intentionally making your contributions more visible without compromising your values.

Now, this is very hard work.

It’s not just blocking time on your calendar or delegating more. It’s flexing leadership muscles you may have rarely (or never) used in this way. It’s changing how you show up, what you prioritize, and even how others experience you. That’s uncomfortable territory, especially in environments where you’ve built trust by being the go-to problem solver or the steady hand in a crisis.

Making these shifts can feel like swimming upstream. The system isn’t necessarily designed to make space for you to operate differently. You may get pushback, even subtle resistance, when you step out of the familiar role others rely on you to play.

That’s why having the right support matters. In my work with senior women, queer leaders, and neurodivergent executives, we create both the strategy and the scaffolding, so you can try new approaches in a safe space, process the inevitable discomfort, and keep going until these shifts become part of your leadership toolkit.

It’s not about “fixing yourself” to fit a broken system. It’s about giving yourself the tools and the support to play the game differently now, so you can thrive, define success on your own terms, and use your seat at the table to change the system for those coming behind you.