Reporting Manager – Ministry of Defence
I Am Definitely Taken Seriously and Stand Out in Meetings
‘Sue’ came to me as a Reporting Manager at the Ministry of Defence, two years into a role she was good at but never quite felt she looked the part for, in an industry that isn’t exactly generous with handing out permission slips for confidence. It’s male-dominated and high-stakes, and it doesn’t forgive you easily if you get it wrong. When we started working together, ‘Sue’ was clear about what she wanted, which was simply to feel like she represented herself properly, not louder or different, just more her and more credible with it. That’s always where I start with a client, because style was never going to be about following a set of rules for “looking professional.” It was about identity, about working out what she actually wanted to say about herself before we touched a single item of clothing.
Challenges
The surface challenge was style, but the real challenge was something Sarah had been carrying for a long time, which was the experience of being undermined, spoken over, and occasionally belittled simply because she was a woman in a male-dominated environment. That kind of thing chips away at you quietly, and it’s rarely one big moment so much as the accumulation of small ones, which over time can make you shrink a little even when you’re good at your job and everyone around you knows it. ‘Sue’ wasn’t looking for a wardrobe refresh. She was looking for a way to walk into rooms and be read as someone who means business, and to feel able to speak up and put herself forward without having to prove it over and over again, which is a much bigger ask than “what should I wear” and exactly the kind of work I love doing.
Results & wins
Since working together, ‘Sue’ has seen genuine, tangible shifts, not just in how she feels but in how her career has actually moved. She now gets dressed with ease, in a way that used to feel like a minefield and now feels like a pleasure, and she feels her style communicates that she means business and is to be taken seriously in a room where that used to be an uphill battle. She found the confidence to speak up and put herself forward in ways she hadn’t before, and that confidence led to a sideways promotion, with her now leading a project she suggested herself. She’s also been headhunted for other roles since starting the programme, interviewed for a permanent position, and got the job, and she’s noticed a real shift in how colleagues and superiors perceive her, including being noticed and complimented on how she presents herself in meetings.
Her own words say it best…