Building confidence, presence and resilience for women in sales

Women working in sales often walk a tightrope. You’re balancing demanding targets, shifting priorities, complex customer dynamics and, for many, the added pressure of navigating environments where senior rooms still lack gender balance. It takes more than skill to thrive. It takes confidence, presence and resilience — three qualities that aren’t innate but are built through awareness, practice and the right support network.

This year, our Women in Sales leadership series explored two themes that sit at the heart of professional growth: Executive Presence and Building Resilience. Across both sessions, led by inspir’em coach Maura Lightfoot and joined by Herringbone Search’s Eliza Jones, we unpacked the skills that help women progress, perform and lead with impact.

Here’s what we learnt — and how you can apply these ideas to your own sales career.

Why executive presence matters for women in sales

Executive presence is one of those terms that can feel intangible, even unhelpful, especially for women who’ve been conditioned to “fit in”, minimise themselves or avoid appearing too assertive. But research shared in our July webinar demonstrates that executive presence is not about becoming someone else, it’s about elevating the strengths you already have and presenting them with clarity and confidence.

According to Sylvia Ann Hewlett’s decade-long study, executive presence is built on three components:

• Gravitas (the most influential)

• Communication

• Appearance (the least important and the most changed in recent years)

These are supported by behaviours such as decisiveness, inclusiveness, authenticity, respect and the ability to communicate with clarity and warmth. The message was clear: you don’t need to master every trait. Instead, focus on two or three in each category and build from your natural strengths.

Presence is learnable

For many women, this is the breakthrough: executive presence is not something you are born with. It’s something you can develop.

Through confidence-building techniques, reframing self-limiting stories and understanding both task and trait confidence along the S-Curve of Learning, we learnt how confidence ebbs and flows as we stretch into new challenges. What matters is inner confidence; your belief that you can learn, adapt and succeed even when you’re tackling something new.

Your personal board of directors

One of the most valuable strategies shared was the concept of a Personal Board of Directors - a curated group of mentors, peers, champions and challengers who support your growth, broaden your visibility and help you build a stronger personal brand.

This is particularly powerful for women, whose informal networks in sales often aren’t as established or visible as their male counterparts'. Leveraging advocates inside and outside your organisation strengthens your confidence and ensures your work and potential are seen by the right people.

"The Personal Board of You Inc." by Emma Maslen

If you want to go deeper into building and maintaining your own Personal Board of Directors, Emma Maslen’s book The Personal Board of You Inc. is an excellent next step. It shows you how to choose the right people, how to work with them, and how to keep your board active as your sales career evolves. 

Buy your copy here

The link between presence and career progression

We also explored the P.I.E. Theory, which breaks down career success into:

• Performance (10%)

• Image (30%)

• Exposure (60%)

In other words, the way you're perceived and who knows about your contribution matters significantly to your progression. That’s not always fair, but knowing this empowers you to take ownership of your visibility and professional brand.

For women in sales, this can be a game-changer. Instead of feeling that you must “work twice as hard”, you create intentional opportunities for others to see your strengths, skills and results.

Building resilience in today’s sales environment

Next, we turned to resilience, a critical capability in a profession where rejection, pressure and complexity come with the territory. The session explored resilience as defined by the American Psychological Association: the process and outcome of adapting well to difficult life experiences. It isn’t about pushing through; it’s about bending without breaking.

Understanding your stress response

Sales environments intensify stress. Daily interruptions, shifting targets and emotional labour all take their toll. Recognising your own signals — whether that's impatience, overwhelm, disrupted sleep, anxiety or difficulty concentrating — helps you pause before reacting and move from stress-driven behaviour to intentional action.

Women often carry additional expectations, both inside and outside work, which can compound stress further. The webinar’s core message was simple: self-awareness is the starting point for resilience.

Practical strategies for resilience

Participants were encouraged to create a resilience toolkit, made up of simple but effective practices:

• Separating facts from stories to challenge catastrophic thinking

• Pause techniques, including mindful breathing and the GLAD journaling method

• Energy management, not just time management

• Reflection and journaling to understand patterns and celebrate progress

• Building relationships, including drawing on your "personal board of directors" for support

Consistency matters more than intensity. Small, regular actions strengthen your resilience muscle long before you hit a moment of crisis.

You don't need to “go it alone”

A standout theme was the power of connection. Resilience grows through relationships, whether that's a supportive team, trusted colleagues or the wider Women in Sales community. High-performing women often feel pressure to stay composed and independent, yet the research is clear; strong networks improve emotional regulation, decision-making and wellbeing.

As Maura reminded us: resilience isn’t built in isolation.

Executive presence and resilience: Two sides of the same coin

Across both sessions, a powerful thread emerged: presence and resilience amplify each other.

When you develop executive presence — confidence, communication and a grounded sense of who you are — you’re better equipped to handle pressure. You regulate stress more effectively because you trust your abilities, understand your triggers and communicate clearly.

When you build resilience, your executive presence strengthens. You bounce back faster from setbacks, show up with steadiness and sustain high performance over time. In sales leadership roles, this combination is essential  for managing teams, influencing stakeholders and navigating complex deals.

For women aiming to progress in their sales careers, cultivating both skills is not just beneficial but strategic.

Taking your next step

Whether you attended the webinars live or are reading the summaries now, your next steps don’t need to be big or dramatic. Try choosing one small action to build your presence or resilience this week — perhaps defining your personal brand, reaching out to a potential mentor or experimenting with a new pause practice.

And remember, you’re not doing this alone. The inspir’em Women in Sales community is here to support you.

When women in sales have the tools to step into their presence and strengthen their resilience, they don’t just thrive — they lead, influence and inspire.

For more information on joining our Women in Sales network, click here