UNSHAKEABLE HER: Silence imposter syndrome, build real influence and get promoted on your terms
Doing brilliant work and still getting overlooked?
Unshakeable Her is for ambitious, capable women tired of second-guessing themselves and exhausted by navigating workplace rules nobody explains so you can grow your influence & get promoted.
Hosted by Caroline Esterson, who has spent 30 years helping thousands across hundreds of organisations uncover what is really going on and still get promoted.
This podcast offers practical, repeatable ways to build influence, confidence, and career momentum.
Each week, you’ll learn:
- How to grow your influence without becoming someone you don’t like
- The science behind imposter syndrome and what actually works to overcome it
- How to build confidence so you can stop being overlooked, and finally get the promotion you deserve
With new episodes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, ‘Unshakeable Her’ delivers stories, strategy, and insight to help you become someone nobody can shake.
New here? Start with fan-favourite #56 or jump into Imposter Syndrome with #7
UNSHAKEABLE HER: Silence imposter syndrome, build real influence and get promoted on your terms
#49 | Why Your Decisions Are Quietly Undermining Influence and Promoting the Wrong People
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
International Women’s Day can spark great conversations… and then Monday arrives and everything snaps back to “busy.”
This episode is the follow-through.
If you manage people, this is your practical guide to turning fairness from a once-a-year moment into decision hygiene: the everyday habits that shape who gets seen, backed, and promoted.
In this episode, you’ll learn
- Why most workplaces don’t have a “women problem” - they have a decision hygiene problem
- The hidden ways careers get shaped: credit, access, opportunity, clarity, protection (and why “treat everyone the same” isn’t fairness)
- The difference between confidence and confidence performance (and why “be more confident” is lazy feedback)
- How to stop rewarding “the ask” by default - without turning work into a bureaucracy festival
- A simple, repeatable leadership habit: Give Audit → Give Plan → Give Proof (15 minutes a week)
Key moments
- The uncomfortable truth: how informal decisions quietly shape progression
- Brain stuff (without the TED Talk): why “equal treatment” doesn’t create equal outcomes
- Career Quote Crime: “Just be more confident” (and what to say instead)
- Listener dilemma: “I’m being overlooked - how do I ask for support when my manager is slammed?”
- The manager-proof ask: how to request visibility and growth with clarity, not emotion
- Your weekly system: the quickest way to rebalance credit, access, and opportunity
Practical scripts you can steal
- If you’re the team member:
“Can I grab 15 minutes? In the next 4 weeks I’d like to own one visible stretch piece and present it to [X]. I’ve got two options that would help the team - which would you back?” - If you’re the manager (instead of ‘be more confident’):
“I want more visibility of your thinking - let’s define what that looks like in meetings and stakeholder moments.”
Your action for this week
Book 15 minutes on Friday and run:
- Give Audit: who got credit, access, opportunity, protection?
- Give Plan: one deliberate “give” next week
- Give Proof: one line you can point to (so it becomes a habit, not a hope)
If you want to go further
Try the “Create a moment” move:
A thank you is a compliment. A moment is a reputation.
Name the person, name the value, name the result - where other people can hear it.
New episodes are released every Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings.
Stuck, simmering, or onto something juicy? I want to hear it. Drop me a line at caroline@inspireyourgenius.com - I read them all.
This podcast explores resilience, imposter syndrome, and credibility while unpacking how boundaries, conflict, and feedback shape the way we handle pressure, influence, and guilt at work. It also looks at promotion, work-life balance, people pleasing, decision making, and visibility, offering honest conversations about how to grow professionally without losing your confidence or yourself.
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