Claim While You’re Accomplishing
Why executive women must claim their work while building it, not after it's complete.
Claim While You’re Accomplishing
By Melissa Lewis
There is a pattern I have observed repeatedly among high-performing executive women:
They wait.
They wait until the initiative is complete.
Until the numbers are final.
Until the board approves.
Until the press release is written.
Until the win is undeniable.
Then they speak.
The problem is that by the time the milestone becomes visible, the narrative is already owned.
And in executive leadership, narrative is leverage.
The Visibility Lag
Many women in senior roles operate with an unspoken discipline:
Deliver first. Speak later.
It feels professional. Measured. Responsible.
But in complex organizations, visibility does not automatically follow value creation. In fact, the larger and more political the environment, the more likely impact becomes diluted, reframed, or attributed collectively.
Silence during execution creates a visibility lag.
And lag erodes influence.
If stakeholders only see the outcome, they miss the strategic judgment, the risk management, the trade-offs, and the leadership that made the outcome possible.
By the time results are announced, your role has already been compressed into a bullet point.
Claiming Is Not Self-Promotion
There is a persistent misconception that claiming your work while it is in motion is self-promotional.
It is not.
It is governance.
When you articulate what you are building, why you are building it, and what decisions are shaping it, you are:
- Framing strategic intent
- Clarifying executive judgment
- Establishing authorship
- Reducing narrative ambiguity
This is not about ego. It is about structural positioning.
Executives who consistently shape the narrative of their initiatives are perceived as architects.
Executives who remain silent are often perceived as operators.
The distinction materially impacts authority.
Influence Happens in Motion
Many leaders believe influence is strongest at the finish line.
In reality, influence compounds during the build.
When you communicate while you are:
- Restructuring a division
- Deploying new systems
- Entering new markets
- Navigating risk
- Reframing governance
…you allow stakeholders to see your thinking in real time.
That visibility does two critical things:
- It builds trust in your judgment, not just your results.
- It positions you as the driver of direction, not the beneficiary of outcome.
By the time the initiative succeeds, there is no ambiguity about ownership.
It has been clear all along.
The Cost of Waiting
When executive women defer visibility until completion, they unintentionally create three risks:
1. Attribution Drift
Credit diffuses across departments, committees, or louder personalities.
2. Strategic Misinterpretation
Your intent may be reframed in ways that do not reflect your original design.
3. Reduced Mobility
Future boards, investors, or organizations evaluating you see outcomes — but not authorship.
Leadership progression depends on documented authorship.
Claiming while accomplishing ensures it exists.
Practical Application at the Executive Level
Claiming does not mean broadcasting daily updates.
It means strategic signaling.
- Briefing the board on directional philosophy, not just metrics
- Publishing insight about industry shifts you are actively navigating
- Speaking publicly about frameworks you are deploying internally
- Naming the strategic problems you are solving — before they are fully resolved
This signals foresight.
It signals command.
It signals that you are not reacting to circumstances — you are shaping them.
The Standard We Should Set
Executive women are often taught to let excellence speak for itself.
Excellence does not speak.
People do.
If you are building something consequential, define it while it is being built.
Not loudly.
Not defensively.
Not performatively.
Deliberately.
Claiming while you are accomplishing is not about visibility for its own sake.
It is about ensuring that when the results arrive, the authorship is unquestioned.
In executive leadership, that distinction is not cosmetic.
It is career-defining.
