Feeling Stuck...or Blocked in Your Career?
The Untold Reason You’re Not Advancing
Feeling Stuck or Blocked in Your Career?
Address the Unspoken Cause
If you’ve done everything right — worked hard, built relationships, delivered results — and you’re still not moving up the way you expect, I want to tell you something almost no one in your organization will say out loud.
It’s probably not your leadership presence.
It’s probably not your communication style.
It’s almost certainly not your confidence — at least not in the way you’ve been told.
Here’s what it likely is: you’re missing the third of the leadership equation that almost no one talks about.
Why Women Plateau
I’ve spent decades studying why talented women plateau — and why companies lose the very women they claim to want in senior roles. What I found changed everything about how I think about women’s career development.
Most leadership development for women focus on executive presence and interpersonal skills. Those matter. But the leaders who get tapped for bigger roles — who get invited into the room where strategy is decided — are the ones who demonstrate something else: Business acumen. Financial acumen. Strategic acumen.
That’s The Missing 33% of the career success equation.
My TED Talk on this has been viewed by millions of people. And yet the organizations those viewers work in are still developing women’s communication skills while quietly overlooking the business savvy that actually drives promotion decisions.
Most women aren’t lacking business savvy because they aren’t smart enough or ambitious enough. They’re lacking it because no one ever explicitly told them it was required — let alone showed them how to develop it.
That’s what Be Business Savvy exists to do.
Start here. Join free.
But here’s something else I’ve noticed in twenty years of this work.
Even women who recognize the gap often hesitate to invest in closing it. They’ll forward every development opportunity they find to a colleague who might benefit — and quietly archive the ones meant for themselves. They’ll pay for everyone’s growth except their own.
It’s not carelessness. It’s a pattern. And it’s one worth naming, because the hesitation to invest in closing the gap is itself a symptom of the gap.
The women I’ve watched advance most effectively made a decision at some point to treat their own development the way they’d treat any other sound business investment — not “can I justify this?” but “what is the cost of not doing this?”
That shift changes everything.
What You’ll Find Here
Free Subscribers
Free subscribers get full access to my articles — practical, research-grounded writing on business acumen, financial acumen, and strategic acumen, and how to use all three to accelerate your career.
Monthly/Annual Subscribers
At the Monthly/Annual level, subscribers get:
Highly actionable guidance — including the Quick Start Business Acumen course a structured learning sequence built around my Business Savvy framework, designed to move you from skill development to successful demonstration of those skills.
Monthly live working sessions — every month I host an open Zoom for all paid subscribers. Bring a real situation — a budget conversation you’re preparing for, a strategic initiative you’re trying to influence, a leadership challenge you’re not sure how to frame. We work through it together. This is not a webinar. It’s direct access to someone who has spent decades on this specific problem. Come with something real.
The full archive — every article, fully accessible, searchable, yours.
Founding Subscribers
Founding Subscribers to the Be Business Savvy Course get:
All of the above AND
The complete Be Business Savvy course — This includes the complete Business Acumen course, the Financial Acumen course, and the Strategic Acumen course — the full arc of what I’ve spent decades developing and refining. Not too hard. Not too mathy. Designed for a full plate.
What’s the Value of a Paid Subscription?
If you’re like me, it’s uncomfortable to pull our that credit card on our own behalf (clothes, jewelry and makeup aside). Paid subscriptions are intentionally priced to be expensable — this is professional development, and you can make that case to your organization. And if you’re paying yourself, I’ve priced them to remove that barrier too. Discover more about the value of a paid subscription.
I hope to see you as a paid subscriber.
For Organizations
Corporate memberships are available for organizations serious about building leadership pipelines that actually reflect their talent pool. If you’re investing in women’s development and want something that addresses the gap most programs miss, contact me.
If you’ve been wondering why the leadership advice you’ve followed hasn’t moved the needle the way you expected — you’re in the right place.
Start with the articles. Subscribe when you’re ready. And when you’re a paid subscriber, bring your real situations to our monthly sessions.
I’m glad you’re here.
Lead ON!
Susan
One more thing — About the logo
In 2000, I discovered The Missing 33% of the career success equation for women. When I updated the research in 2023, the finding held: managers consistently rated men as outperforming women in business, financial, and strategic acumen.
“Close the Missing 33%” is a mouthful. Instead, I chose something more aspirational.
Be Business Savvy.
A shorter way of saying: build your business, financial, and strategic acumen and close the gap that’s likely holding you back.
Now look at the logo again.
See the star at the center?
That’s you — shining with greater Business Savvy.
Read to shine? Join us!
Celebrating with friends in Amsterdam after riding in Andalusia - where the horses are magnificent and the desire to return grows ever stronger.
Hi Susan! Thank you for writing this article. It’s such an important point and I resonate. And I feel frustrated that there aren’t better systems in place to support women to gain experience that would develop their business and financial acumen.
Thank you for the important work you’re doing!