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Why You Need to Embrace Collateral Damage

Eleanor Beaton

Hi there Fierce One,

When she was in her 30s, Sue Jacobsen was the deputy chief of staff for the mayor of Philadelphia, running the city and simultaneously taking heat for leaving the office at 6pm every day so she could spend the evening with her children.

Her boss, the chief of staff, had her back and so did the Mayor Ed Rendell. But other co-workers — virtually all of them male — didn’t appreciate her decision to prioritize family over late working hours.

She did it anyway. “It was important to me,” she says.

Today Sue Jacobsen runs one of North America’s most successful strategic communications firms (a company she started, incidentally, with the guidance of two of her closest friends, legendary GE CEO Jack Welch and best-selling author Suzy Welch).

Sue shared this story with me on Thursday, when I interviewed her for an upcoming episode of Fierce Feminine Leadership. It was the third time this week that a senior female executive has confided in me the difficulty of dealing with blow-back as a result of setting firm boundaries about what they will and will not tolerate.

Often times, the blowback comes in the form of the disapproval of others…and the resulting implications of that disapproval.

Make no mistake. When you take a stand for yourself, there will be collateral damage.

You simply can’t “abundance mindset” your way out of the reality that when you own what you REALLY want, and then make choices that support that intention, other people might be uncomfortable.

All too often, I see brilliant women subjugating their ambition, intention and desires to avoid that collateral damage.

The things that are most precious to you — family time, your values, your self-care — deserve protection. And in the midst of protection, you will likely make other people uncomfortable.

Do it anyway. Because the price of your freedom…freedom to define success as you choose it, freedom to live a life that is an authentic expression of who you are and what you value — is worth a little collateral damage.

Stay fierce,

Eleanor

PS. We have just released a brand new white paper, 7 Unconventional Strategies to Build Your Personal Brand. You can get your copy here.

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