The rules for career growth have changed.
For years, women in go-to-market leadership roles were taught to keep their heads down, work hard, deliver results, and trust that recognition would follow. But in today’s environment—where AI is reshaping work, communication is faster than ever, and career paths are increasingly nonlinear—that approach is no longer enough.
For women in revenue leadership roles aspiring to the C-suite, career acceleration today requires an intentional combination of visibility, advocacy, communication, adaptability, and self-belief. The leaders who grow fastest are not necessarily doing more work. They are operating differently.
At the recent webinar Your Career Operating System Isn’t Broken—It’s Outdated, leaders Sameera Adusumilli, Kat Hill Contag, Emilia D’Anzica, Emily Ferdinando, and Lori Zalaznik Gross with moderator Jane Serra shared what women need to rethink about leadership, career growth, and the future of work.
AI Won’t Replace Leadership—But It Will Change How You Lead
AI is not just a productivity tool. It’s a strategic advantage for leaders who know how to use it intentionally.
Emily Ferdinando shared one of the most compelling applications—turning your AI agent into a stakeholder doppelganger.
“(You can) use AI to create digital twins for executive stakeholders or digital twins for your own skill sets—a replication of their skill sets to duplicate and permeate the organization chart.”
First, this is a powerful and immediate way to gain feedback on ideas and be able to iterate concept and storytelling before presentation or pitch to a decision maker.
Secondly, this practical shift allows you to demonstrate opportunities or requirements for scale. How do you amplify your thinking, communication, and strategic impact beyond your own bandwidth?
But while AI can accelerate execution, it cannot replace human authenticity.
As Emilia reminded attendees, “AI can’t replicate your raw authenticity. Nothing can ‘check in with your body’ other than yourself to identify and manage your personal energy.”
That balance is critical for women leaders navigating rapid change. AI can help you create, organize, summarize, and communicate more efficiently—but emotional intelligence, intuition, and presence remain your differentiators.
Visibility Is No Longer Optional
One of the biggest myths women in leadership still hear is: “Your work will speak for itself.”
Sameera Adusumilli challenged that long-held advice directly: “Actually, you have to speak for yourself; market yourself, advocate for yourself.”
In today’s workplace, visibility drives opportunity. Decisions about promotions, strategic projects, and leadership potential are often formed long before formal review conversations happen. That means waiting to be noticed is a risky career strategy.
Women leaders need to proactively communicate their impact, clarify their value, and connect their work to business outcomes.
“You have to understand the problem and the measurable outcome, then drive toward projects, practices, and behaviors that link your work to those measurable outcomes,” said Lori.
Leadership visibility isn’t about self-promotion for the sake of vanity or ego. It’s about helping decision-makers clearly understand the business value you create.
Emily Ferdinando added another modern reality: remote and hybrid work environments have made intentional visibility even more important. “You have to be programmatic, intentional, decisive about sharing and giving yourself and your team visibility.”
This could look like:
- Sending proactive updates before meetings
- Sharing strategic wins consistently in communication channels, e.g. Slack, team newsletters
- Connecting your work to executive priorities, e.g. company goals or OKRs
- Speaking publicly about your expertise, e.g. show-and-shares, board meetings
- Building relationships, and more importantly, sponsorships across functions
Communication is not a soft skill. It is a leadership skill.
Scope, Advocacy, and Communication Create a Career Flywheel
Hot take: what unlocks career acceleration fastest—metrics, visibility, communication, scope, or advocacy?
The answer: they work together like a flywheel. But several panelists highlighted how women can focus first.
“Scope before everything else, because you can’t measure, advocate, or plan without the clearest understanding of scope,” said Sameera.
In parallel, Emily articulated that advocacy is often the foundational skill: “Without advocacy, it’s hard to get clear direction (aka scope) and clear support.”
Both perspectives reveal the same truth: career growth does not happen passively.
Women leaders who accelerate fastest are intentional about:
- Expanding their scope strategically and inline with company objectives
- Advocating for themselves and their team members
- Communicating early and often to avoid surprises
- Translating their impact into metrics that executives can easily understand
“Apply emotional intelligence. Know who you are serving,” said Emilia. It’s easy to get lost in our team or function jargon. Adapting communication style and language to your audience and context is paramount for making an impact.
The Career Path to the C-Suite Is No Longer Linear
Panel agreement: there is no single “correct” leadership path anymore.
For years, many women were told that people management was the only path to advancement. “There are so many other directional paths to grow your career—from being an IC, to a practice expert, to embracing AI-powered agents and teams,” said Emily.
Today’s leadership landscape rewards adaptability and specialization as much, if not more, than traditional hierarchy.
“You can carve your own path. Going off the beaten path is going to be more normal, more expected, and more supported,” said Kat. This is a shift that should feel empowering, freeing and accelerating for women in revenue leadership roles.
Your career path may include:
- Fractional leadership
- Advisory work
- Community leadership
- Building a personal brand
- Deep subject matter expertise
- AI-enabled team leadership
- Entrepreneurial pivots
- Cross-functional career moves
Your Homework: Upgrade Your Operating System
We don’t create an entirely new operating system overnight. But, we can start to make upgrades. Here is one action each of the experts recommended women can and should take immediately to start to making their upgrades:
- Advocate for someone else.
- Invest in yourself and your energy.
- Build something, anything you have an idea for, with AI.
- Share your work in a public channel or forum.
- Map your work to executive priorities with metrics to match.
- Believe in yourself before asking others to.
The women who accelerate into leadership roles and the C-suite are not necessarily the ones doing the most work. They are the ones who understand how to align visibility, communication, advocacy, adaptability, and confidence into a modern career operating system.
The future of career growth belongs to women who stop waiting for permission—and start designing careers intentionally.
——————–
Your Career Operating System Isn’t Broken—It’s Outdated panel was the concluding webinar of an exclusive Women in Revenue mini-series.
The mini-series and panel was hosted by career experts and WIR members, Lori Zalaznik Gross, SPHR, Emilia D’Anzica, Kat Hill Contag, Sameera Adusumilli, Emily Ferdinando and Jane Serra
To gain access to all Women in Revenue events and resources sign up to be a member here.
