"I've Got Bad News" - The Phone Call Every Leader Dreads (And How To Stop It).

Phone rings - “I’ve got bad news.”

“Wait you’re not ringing me to gloat your team in the office sweepstakes is through to the next round, are you?”

“I normally would. But I’m serious now.”

“Don’t leave me hanging then!”

“It’s Sarah…she just handed me her resignation!” 

“Oh sh1t!”

“I know. I’m floored.”

“I…just…would never have expected that. She’s a rising star! We had so many plans for her to reach the top. Any way to talk her round into staying?”

“I tried. She’s done. Already has her next role lined up.”

This conversation is based on a real life scenario.

And it is happening in organisations all the time. Maybe you’ve had the same? Or maybe this is what you’ll hear the next time your phone rings.

For Sarah, it wasn't about money, or confidence, or ability. She'd already proven what she was capable of. She was the one flagged as "a future potential," a "one to watch." She'd already made up her mind. She'd taken a role elsewhere and one that paid her for the stretch projects instead of just promising her that one day it would.

Every woman's reason for leaving is different. For some, it really is about not yet feeling worthy of the praise. But for many more, it's something else entirely: being told you're "one to watch" while stretch project after stretch project goes unpaid and unpromoted. 

Having to prove you're ready, while your male peers get promoted on potential alone. Needing flexibility to juggle both a career and a life/family and not being trusted to do it. Watching seniority demand a life where work comes above everything else, and deciding: no thanks.

And on top of all this, there is this thing called "good girl conditioning" too. All the ways women are taught to be nice, kind, care, share and don't take up too much space. This same conditioning that keeps women absorbing all of the above quietly, for far too long, instead of naming it, pushing back on it, or walking away from it sooner. 

And it needs to be deprogrammed, along with appropriate systemic, cultural and attitudinal change, as the world of work was designed by men for men. 

This is a strategic imperative for your organisation to thrive.

Are you committed to having more female leaders at C-Suite, Partner, and Board Levels?

The talent is usually there in the leadership pipeline, but it is likely dropping off at those key transition points.

And this is no doubt confusing, frustrating, and hard to explain when asked what’s going wrong.

Your leadership development and training helps to an extent but do not go far enough. You can invest in negotiation skills, having difficult conversations, confident body language, effective leadership communication, presentation skills, and more.

Yet still, these don't impact what lies beneath. The foundation of understanding why women can't magically be more confident, say no to things and feel guilty all the time. That underlying training, the good girl conditioning, plus your current culture, are sabotaging the outcome you’re looking for.

That promotion gained, that pipeline and succession plan working out as desired, and being able to outperform your competitors in not just having this female talent rise through the hierarchy, but also the bottom-line results that follow. 

And the solution to this major challenge already exists.

We call this Rise Above.

A 12-month transformational programme created by Michelle Minnikin – a Chartered Organisational Psychologist, who literally wrote the book “Good Girl Deprogramming.”

Our first pilot at AND-E Insurance has been hugely successful and, at the time of writing, a finalist for a Training & Development award in the British Insurance awards.

Read more in the impact report here. 

We’re immensely proud of the personal stories and transformation of the 12 women in cohort 1 and the organisational stories of the impact that were tangible each week of this one-year journey.

That transformation is possible for you too.

We can run a programme solely for your organisation or send individuals on our open programme (cohort 2 starts September 9th 2026). We have you covered.

What difference would that make to you, your team, your rising stars, and organisation?

Do get in touch – if nothing else a chat is usually cathartic with Michelle and I!

James

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I co-founded The Deprogramming Company with Michelle Minnikin to unlock the untapped potential of women in the workplace.