Being a Woman at the Top: between Empty Applause and Critical Eyes

“The real challenge is not reaching the top, but staying true to yourself when everyone wants to see you fail.” I understood the power of this phrase when I realized that my value wasn’t in the position on my business cards, but in the consistency with which I upheld each decision. There’s no point in crowning an impeccable career if, halfway through the journey, you’ve lost your essence.

The contradictions that inhabit the heights. In all leadership scenarios—whether government, business, academia, etc.—a silent phenomenon repeats itself: the successful woman moves in a terrain where admiration coexists with fear, inclusion mixes with quotas, and appearance transforms into a label that precedes the argument.

Admired and feared. Those who previously encouraged your project become intimidated when your influence becomes tangible. Then, uncomfortable silences arise, veiled challenges, and a kind of tense respect that doesn’t quite embrace your presence and leads you to question whether you are “Welcome for statistics.” Sometimes your seat in the boardroom is less a reward for your career than a justification for the diversity report. The paradox hurts: you’re there on merit, but the merit is minimized behind the word “quota.”

## Five Keys to Leading between Empty Applause and Critical Eyes2021

Today I want to share with you five keys to leading with power and without getting lost between empty applause and critical eyes:

- **Listening to your own voice before the voices of others is the first daily task**. It implies silencing the murmur of external expectations and asking yourself if that project, that alliance, or that resignation reflects your vision and your values. When the decision resonates with your center, the execution becomes firmer.

- **The second key is to normalize the discomfort that your disruptive presence generates.** Each step that challenges a paradigm triggers a gesture of resistance. You have to recognize that upsetting the status quo is a sign of progress "not of error" gives strength to sustain the conviction in the midst of the noise.

- **The third is nourished by your word**: not softening your voice to fit in, but tuning it so that it is really heard. Women often modulate their tone so as not to appear **"too"** something: "authoritarian, emotional, ambitious." The challenge is not to be silent or shout; it is to articulate a message so clear that it does not admit reductive labels.

- **In the fourth place, it is essential to discriminate the scenarios that use your image as a symbol vs. those that validate your vision**. Attending all forums exhausts and diverts energy from the causes that matter; giving up spaces empty of content frees up time and dignity, and it is that you do not need to be in the seven rings of the circus, if what you are looking for is congruence and credibility.

- Finally, comes the decisive choice: **preferring authenticity even at the cost of sympathy**. Being feared, sometimes, means that your authority does not depend on pleasing, but on the coherent respect you inspire. Giving up the edited version of yourself is the most powerful pact you can sign with your legacy.

Challenge of the Week3965

It is a true act of self-love and courage to be faithful to yourself at the summit and mistress of the fall, because whoever reaches high carrying masks soon discovers that the wind blows stronger where there is no root. The top exposes, illuminates, magnifies virtues and errors. If the scaffolding is made of complacency, a storm is enough to tear it down.

The challenge is to build yourself as a lighthouse: tall, but with deep foundations; visible, but fueled by an internal light that does not tremble every time the clouds change. Staying true to yourself at the top requires accepting that falling is possible and, even so, worth it. It means that, if the public decides to withdraw the applause, you will retain the integrity that will make you start again without disguise or shame.

Your authentic footprint opens a gap for other voices. When the structures notice that you are not going to dilute, they understand that the change is irreversible. That impact is worth more than any temporary applause. Let them question you, let them qualify you, even let them fear you. The only non-negotiable thing is loyalty to your essence. And that, once conquered, there is no summit, nor fall that can snatch it from you.

I share the Challenge of the week: Select a scenario where you usually adjust your speech to avoid friction. Apply it this week maintaining your authentic tone: without excuses, with respect and firmness. Observe not only the external reaction, but the internal resonance: the relief of inhabiting your voice without asking for permission.