Women’s Leadership Success Podcast — Episode 161

Executive Summary: In 2026’s era of mass layoffs and rapid restructuring, talented women leaders are being thrust into expanded roles before they feel ready. Executive coach Sabrina Braham reveals the 3-move framework — drawn from 30+ years of client breakthroughs — that transforms overwhelm into executive presence and lasting confidence.

Quick Takeaways:

• 75% of executive women have experienced imposter syndrome — even after earning their seat (KPMG).
• The skills that made you successful at your last level often stop working at the next one.
• Confidence is not certainty — it’s steadiness while uncertainty still exists.
• Silence creates anxiety; even imperfect clarity helps teams move forward.
• Leadership doesn’t begin when confidence arrives — it begins when you decide to move anyway.

The Role Just Got Bigger. Your Confidence Hasn’t Caught Up. Now What?

You didn’t plan for this. The promotion path you imagined — deliberate, supported, well-timed — isn’t what happened. Instead, a reorganization happened. Layoffs happened. Two managers left in the same week. And suddenly, you’re carrying responsibilities that didn’t exist in your job description six months ago, with a team looking to you for answers you’re not sure you have yet.

If this sounds familiar, you’re not behind. You’re right on time.

I’m Sabrina Braham, MA, MFT, PCC — executive leadership coach with over 30 years of experience helping senior women leaders step into bigger roles with confidence and clarity. The Women’s Leadership Success Podcast has surpassed 900,000 downloads and is ranked in the top 1.5% of podcasts globally. Clients include leaders at Stanford University, Ernst & Young, Autodesk, and companies of all sizes — from high-growth startups to global enterprises.

In Episode 161, my husband and co-producer Tim Warren turns the microphone around and interviews me — because over the past year, one challenge has shown up in virtually every coaching engagement I’ve had: talented, proven leaders being asked to lead roles that expanded faster than their confidence. This episode — and this guide — is for you.

The 2026 Reality: Forced Expansion Is the New Normal for Women Leaders

What’s happening in the workplace right now isn’t a temporary disruption. It’s a structural shift — and it’s disproportionately landing on the shoulders of high-performing women.

Grant Thornton’s 2026 Women in Business research found that women’s representation in senior U.S. leadership dropped from 35% to 31% in just two years — precisely as layoffs consolidated organizational structures and eliminated the middle-management layers that once served as leadership on-ramps. Fewer women are getting promoted through deliberate paths, and more are being pulled into expanded roles through organizational necessity.

Meanwhile, a March 2026 Stanton Chase study of 132 women executives across 45 countries found that the single most consistent piece of advice from women who had reached the C-suite? Move before you feel ready. More than 50 of the 132 respondents — independently, across industries and continents — said some version of: “Don’t wait until you feel 100% prepared.”

And yet KPMG research shows that 75% of executive women have personally experienced imposter syndrome — even those who have objectively succeeded at the highest levels. That gap between external achievement and internal confidence isn’t a character flaw. It’s a predictable psychological pattern — and one you can navigate strategically.

What “Forced Expansion” Actually Looks Like

Forced expansion is what I call the pattern where leaders aren’t stepping into bigger roles through a thoughtful promotion path — they’re being pulled into them. Someone leaves. A division gets cut. Departments combine. Budgets tighten. And suddenly, one capable leader is carrying the work of two or three.

One of my clients last week illustrates this perfectly: an engineer was hired at a top company into a manager role. On his third day, the two other managers in his division quit — and he went from overseeing one section to overseeing all of them. That’s not an edge case anymore. That’s Tuesday.

Another client — a leader in manufacturing — inherited a second, highly technical department she had never led, after a round of layoffs. Her first instinct was: I need to know everything before I speak with confidence. That belief was slowing her down. We changed the model. She stopped trying to be the smartest person in every room. Instead, she began asking sharper questions, clarified priorities, built accountability, and used the expertise already around her. Within months, executives stopped seeing someone who was overwhelmed — and saw someone who was expanding. That changed everything.

Why High Performers Struggle Most When Roles Expand

Here’s the uncomfortable truth that most leadership advice doesn’t address directly: what made you successful at your last level often stops working at the next one.

High performers are rewarded for execution, reliability, doing more, and fixing problems personally. But senior leadership rewards something different: direction, judgment, influence, composure, and decision-making without certainty. Many smart leaders try to win the next level using the habits from the last level — and that creates burnout fast.

You may recognize yourself in any of these:

• More responsibility, but less clarity on what success looks like
• Greater visibility with senior leaders — with bigger expectations and fewer instructions
• Pressure to lead confidently while still learning the terrain
• Feeling capable, but not fully ready
• Wondering how to be seen as promotion-ready when you’re still figuring out the new scope
• Being strong technically, but stretched strategically

If any of this feels familiar, you are not behind. You are in the exact transition where careers accelerate — or stall. And how you navigate it determines which direction yours goes.

The Trap: Waiting for Internal Permission

The most common behavior I see in leaders experiencing forced expansion is what I call waiting for internal permission. They over-prepare. They hesitate. They second-guess. They believe, somewhere deep down, that they need to know everything before they can speak with confidence.

That belief is expensive. It costs you time, opportunity, and the trust of the team waiting for you to lead.

The mindset shift that changes everything: stop trying to prove you deserve the role. Start acting like you belong in it. Presence is built in motion. Confidence grows through reps. You become ready by leading.

The 3-Move Framework for Leading Before You’re Ready

When I work with leaders navigating forced expansion, these three moves consistently separate the ones who rise from the ones who stall.

Move 1: Define Success Clearly

Get a vivid picture in your mind of what it looks like when you’re truly succeeding in this role — not performing, not surviving, but succeeding. What decisions are you making? How is your team showing up? What are senior leaders saying about your impact?

Write it down. Specificity is power here. And remember: not everything matters equally. Forced expansion often means 10 priorities land at once — but only two or three actually move the needle right now. Identify those and protect your focus fiercely.

Try This Now (10 minutes): Open a blank document and write your answer to this question: “If I’m wildly successful in this expanded role 90 days from now, what is true?” Don’t edit. Don’t filter. Let yourself see it clearly first.

Move 2: Build an Advisory Circle

Leadership is not a solo performance. One of the most powerful things you can do in a stretch role is identify the people — inside and outside your organization — who have the expertise, context, and candor to help you navigate.

This is not about admitting weakness. It’s about operating strategically. The executives who rise fastest in times of organizational change are the ones who mobilize the intelligence around them, not the ones who try to contain every answer personally.

Your advisory circle might include: a peer in another department who knows the terrain you’ve newly inherited; a mentor who has navigated similar transitions; a coach who can help you build your next-level skillset; and experts on your own team whose knowledge you can leverage while you’re learning.

The Stanton Chase 2026 study found that securing sponsors — people who advocate for you behind closed doors — is the second most consistent differentiator for women who reach the C-suite. A mentor advises you. A sponsor walks into a room where your name isn’t being mentioned and makes sure it is.

Move 3: Communicate Often — Even Without All the Answers

Silence creates anxiety. Clarity creates momentum. Even imperfect clarity helps teams move.

Your team doesn’t need you to have all the answers. They need to know someone is navigating — that there is direction, even if the path is still forming. The strongest leaders I know can say: “We don’t know everything yet. Here’s our next move. We’ll adjust as we learn.”

That kind of leadership doesn’t weaken trust. It builds it. Establish a communication rhythm immediately: weekly team check-ins, regular updates to your senior leadership, brief touchpoints with stakeholders in areas you’ve newly inherited. Don’t wait for perfect information. Communicate your thinking, your priorities, and your progress — and invite input along the way.

The Confidence Misconception That’s Holding You Back

Confidence is widely misunderstood — and the misunderstanding is costing women leaders at every level. Most people think confidence means certainty. It does not. Confidence is steadiness while uncertainty still exists.

When you’re not feeling confident, you’re thinking about something in the past — a mistake, a gap, something you don’t know yet — or something in the future you can’t control. The antidote is presence. Being where you are, with what you have, right now. Making the next decision from clarity rather than fear.

The leaders who perform best in expanded roles aren’t the ones who have all the answers. They’re the ones who have learned to lead from “I don’t know everything — and here’s what we’re going to do next.” That’s not weakness. That’s executive presence in action.

What Authentic Confidence Actually Looks Like in Practice

• Saying “I don’t know, but I’ll find out what we need” — and following through
• Asking sharper questions instead of having every answer
• Being willing to be vulnerable and learn on the fly, visibly
• Making decisions with 70% of the information rather than waiting for 100%
• Communicating your thinking process — not just your conclusions
• Staying composed and regulated when the stakes are highest

Inside the Playbook: What You’ll Learn

Sabrina’s Leading Before You’re Ready playbook addresses the exact gap between where you are and where the next level of leadership requires you to be. It was built for high performers who are done waiting to feel fully ready — and who need a practical framework for what actually changes at the senior level.

You may be experiencing more responsibility with less clarity. Greater visibility with senior leaders, but bigger expectations and fewer instructions. Pressure to lead confidently while you’re still learning the terrain. Feeling capable — but not fully ready. Wondering how to be seen as promotion-ready. Being strong technically, but stretched strategically.

The playbook helps you:

• Lead with greater confidence and clarity from day one of any expanded role
• Increase visibility with decision-makers who determine your next opportunity
• Build executive trust faster — in any new team or inherited department
• Strengthen influence across stakeholders you didn’t previously lead
• Make better decisions under pressure, with or without complete information
• Position yourself for bigger roles and promotions — actively, not passively
• Lead effectively now, not someday

“Leadership does not begin when confidence arrives. It begins when you decide to move anyway.”

— Sabrina Braham, MA, MFT, PCC

People Also Ask: Leading Before You’re Ready

How do I know if my role has grown faster than my readiness?

The clearest signals: you’re regularly operating in areas outside your previous expertise, your team is larger or more complex than you’ve led before, and you feel constant pressure to know more than you do before speaking. If your scope has grown through layoffs, restructuring, or promotion without a ramp-up period, you’re leading before you’re ready. That’s not a problem — it’s the new normal in 2026, and it’s navigable with the right framework.

What’s the fastest way to build executive presence in a new or expanded role?

Executive presence isn’t built by knowing more — it’s built through how you show up. Communicate with clarity even when your direction is still forming, ask high-quality questions in stakeholder meetings, and maintain composure under pressure. Research confirms that gravitas — confidence, decisiveness, and emotional intelligence — accounts for 67% of how executive presence is evaluated by senior leaders.

Is it normal to feel like an impostor when promoted or given a larger role?

Completely normal — and statistically expected. KPMG research found that 75% of executive women have personally experienced imposter syndrome, even those who have objectively succeeded at the highest levels. The feeling isn’t data. Your selection for the role is the evidence that someone believed you could grow into it. Trust that — and move.

How do I lead a team in an area I don’t know deeply?

Stop trying to be the expert and start being the leader. Ask your team for their expertise openly. Clarify priorities. Build accountability structures that leverage the knowledge already in the room. You don’t need to know everything — you need to know what matters most right now, and how to create the conditions for the right people to deliver it.

How do women leaders stay confident during high-stakes transitions?

Get present. Confidence collapses when you’re replaying past mistakes or projecting future failures. Return to this moment: what decision needs to be made right now, what information do you have, what does your team need from you today. Building an advisory circle and communicating often also stabilize confidence, because isolation amplifies self-doubt and connection restores perspective.

What’s the difference between mentorship and sponsorship for women leaders?

Mentors give advice; sponsors use their influence. A mentor helps you think through a challenge. A sponsor walks into a room where your name isn’t being mentioned and makes sure it is. The Stanton Chase 2026 study found that securing sponsors ranked as the second most consistent strategy among women who successfully reached the C-suite.

How long does it take to feel ready in an expanded role?

Most leaders report meaningful confidence in an expanded role develops within 90 to 180 days — when they’re actively leading, building relationships, and receiving feedback, rather than waiting for internal permission to begin. The leaders who accelerate this timeline are the ones who seek support early: a coach, a mentor, a peer network. Trying to figure it out alone is the slowest path available.

Traditional vs. Senior-Level Leadership: What Actually Changes

Common Mistakes Leaders Make When Roles Expand Suddenly

Mistake 1: Over-preparing instead of acting

The urge to research everything before making a move feels responsible — but in an expanded role, it signals uncertainty to the team and delays the trust-building that only comes from leading. Set a time limit on research phases. Make the decision with what you have, then adjust.

Mistake 2: Trying to master new territory alone

Isolation is the fastest path to burnout in a stretch role. The leaders who thrive build their advisory circle in the first 30 days — not after they feel like they’ve earned the right to ask for help. Help is a strategy, not a weakness.

Mistake 3: Applying old-level skills to new-level challenges

Doing more, working longer hours, and personally solving every problem worked brilliantly at your last level. At the senior level, it signals that you haven’t transitioned into strategic leadership. The upgrade is from doing to directing, from fixing to building accountability, from executing to influencing.

Mistake 4: Staying silent until you have perfect answers

Silence reads as absence. Your team, peers, and senior leaders need to hear from you regularly — not because you have all the answers, but because you’re navigating with intention. Communicate your direction and thinking, even when it’s still evolving.

Mistake 5: Measuring confidence by the absence of doubt

Doubt doesn’t disqualify you from leading. Every successful leader I’ve coached has experienced it. The measure of leadership confidence isn’t the presence of certainty — it’s the ability to act decisively in its absence.

Your 7-Step Action Plan for Leading Before You’re Ready

1. Write your 90-day success picture (15 minutes today). Describe what success looks like in vivid, specific terms. What decisions are you making? How is your team functioning? What are senior leaders saying about you? This becomes your North Star.
2. Identify your top three priorities for the next 30 days (30 minutes this week). Forced expansion often means 10 priorities arrive at once — but only two or three actually move the needle. Determine what matters most and communicate that focus clearly to your team.
3. Map your advisory circle (30 minutes this week). Who are the three to five people — inside and outside your organization — who can help you navigate this transition? Reach out to at least one this week. Don’t wait until you feel like you’ve earned their time.
4. Establish a communication rhythm (implement this week). Schedule your weekly team check-ins and regular stakeholder touchpoints now. Consistency of communication builds trust faster than the quality of individual messages.
5. Audit the expertise on your team (this week). Schedule 1:1s with team members — especially in newly inherited areas — to understand their expertise and signal that you value it. You don’t have to be the expert. You have to be the leader who finds and uses the right ones.
6. Identify one sponsor to cultivate (this month). A mentor advises you; a sponsor advocates for you. Who has organizational influence and has seen your work? Invest in that relationship intentionally. Visibility with the right people is a career accelerant.
7. Get on the early access list for the playbook. Sabrina’s Leading Before You’re Ready playbook was built specifically for leaders in this exact transition. DM Sabrina directly on LinkedIn to get it free at launch — and explore whether executive coaching is the right accelerant for your next step.

The Closing Truth: You Were Chosen Because Someone Believed You Could Grow

If the role feels bigger than expected — good. That usually means growth is happening.

You were not chosen because everything was mastered. You were chosen because someone believed you could grow into it. The question now is whether you trust that enough to lead — not perfectly, not with complete certainty, but with intention, presence, and the willingness to adjust in real time.

Trust it. Move. Learn. Adjust. Lead.

The leaders who thrive in 2026 are not the ones who waited until they felt ready. They’re the ones who built their advisory circles, communicated with clarity, and chose presence over perfection every time the uncertainty got loud. You have what it takes. You just need the right framework, the right support, and the permission to begin.

About Sabrina Braham, MA, MFT, PCC

Sabrina Braham is an executive leadership coach with over 30 years of experience in behavioral psychology, leadership development, and executive coaching. She helps senior managers and directors step into VP-level leadership with confidence and clarity.

Her clients include organizations such as Stanford University, Ernst & Young, Autodesk, and other global enterprises. Sabrina is the host of the Women’s Leadership Success Podcast, ranked in the top 1.5% of podcasts globally with over 900,000 downloads.

Connect with Sabrina on LinkedIn — and DM her directly to request early access to the Leading Before You’re Ready playbook.

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