How to Stand Out in a Male-Dominated Industry: Lessons from Hall of Famer Cheryl Thompson
Women in Leadership
Hall of Famer Cheryl Thompson on sponsorship, self-doubt, and making AI your career differentiator.
Have you ever been the only woman in the room and wondered how to get recognized without becoming someone you are not?
Cheryl Thompson lived that question for 40 years in the automotive industry. Her story runs from the dish room in the basement of Ford world headquarters all the way to the Women in Manufacturing Hall of Fame. And every turning point in it is a lesson in closing the Articulation Gap: the distance between the impact you create and the impact leadership recognizes and rewards.
From the Basement of World Headquarters to the Hall of Fame
Cheryl Thompson, Founder and CEO of CADIA (the Center for Automotive Diversity, Inclusion and Advancement), is a fourth generation auto worker. Her great grandfather was a punch press operator at Ford Motor Company around 1913, and her grandfather was a pipe fitter. Then came her dad, a Ford engineer who came home every night talking about how much he hated his job.
So Cheryl wanted nothing to do with the automotive industry.
Then life rewrote the plan. At 19, she was a young mom waitressing when her dad suggested she apply to the food service operation inside Ford. They handed her an apron and asked if she could start right then. As a result, her first job was washing dishes in the basement of world headquarters.
Two years in, Ford wanted more women in the skilled trades, so Cheryl raised her hand. She completed a four year tool and die apprenticeship, worked as a journeywoman, and earned her manufacturing degree and MBA while working full time and raising her son. Then a superintendent pulled her aside: had she ever thought about engineering?
He introduced me to his network. He put his name next to mine, like saying, I'm vouching for her.
Cheryl Thompson
That superintendent was not just being kind. In fact, he was being a sponsor. And sponsorship is the first lesson of Cheryl's story.
What Is a Sponsor, and Why Does Every Woman Need One?
A mentor gives you advice. A sponsor, on the other hand, gives you access. In other words, a sponsor is a leader who says your name in rooms you have not yet entered, opens their network to you, and attaches their own credibility to your potential.
Sponsors moved Cheryl's career at every stage. First, the superintendent who saw an engineer in a journeywoman. Next, the tool and die veteran, 15 years her senior, who taught a scared newcomer how to be approachable on a factory floor. And later, when Cheryl got stuck at the supervisor level for nearly a decade, a boss who refused to accept her reason.
She told him, “I don't see any role models that I identify with.” So he connected her with Linda, a manufacturing engineering vice president, who gave her tough love: this is how you position yourself. This is how the men do it. You need to be more strategic.
Cheryl never pictured herself as an engineer until someone said the words out loud.
Introductions carry weight that applications never will.
They put their name next to yours in the rooms where decisions get made.
The Moment She Realized the Problem Was Never Her Ability
Cheryl eventually got the manager title. Then came the moment that reframed her entire career. She sat in one of her first manager meetings, looked around the table, and had a realization.
I thought y'all had it all figured out. They didn't either. That is when I realized I had just been holding myself back. It was my own self doubt getting in the way.
Cheryl Thompson
She had spent ten years assuming the people above her knew something she did not. They did not. So the barrier was never her ability. Instead, it was the story she was telling herself about the room.
Her message to every woman coming up behind her: “Don't sell yourself short. You have something to give. You need to be in that room too. We need to hear your voice.”
What Are Men Doing in Their Careers That Women Are Not?
When I asked Cheryl this question directly, her answer was immediate. Men are advocating for themselves. They are getting exposure and visibility, and they are not sitting at their computers waiting to be noticed.
And there is one more difference. Women people please.
Cheryl learned this the hard way. At one point she was covering two supervisory roles at once, finishing her MBA, and saying yes to every request that crossed her desk, including writing job descriptions that were not her responsibility. Then performance review season arrived, and she was certain this was her year for the top rating.
Instead, she got the mediocre one. The same rating 80 percent of people receive. When she asked her boss what happened, he compared her to Broom Hilda, the cartoon witch: flying around on her broom, bobby pins scattering, kicking up dust everywhere.
You are working on things I don't care about.
Cheryl's boss, in the review that changed her career
It stung. It was also true. She was working on anything anybody asked of her, but none of it was what her boss needed. Here is the Articulation Gap in action: Clarity is not only knowing your impact. It is also knowing which impact matters to your leadership.
Because hard work pointed in the wrong direction comes back average every time.
How Do You Stop People Pleasing at Work?
After that review, Cheryl stopped saying yes to everything. First, she learned what the organization's hot buttons were and pointed her effort there. Then she built a repertoire for declining gracefully.
“I would let them know whose responsibility it was to do that. Not mine.”
“I've been doing that for a while. I think it's someone else's turn right now.”
If the answer already exists somewhere, she names where to find it instead of doing the work herself.
She also made a mindset shift. Before agreeing to a favor, she asked herself one question: would this person do the same for me?
No one's gonna look out for you as much as you're gonna look out for yourself.
Cheryl Thompson
And she is honest that it takes practice. Saying no is a muscle, so you have to train it.
Is AI Really a Career Differentiator for Women?
Yes. Cheryl calls AI one of the biggest career differentiators available in this decade, and she has backed that belief with roughly 1,200 hours of AI training and building. She discovered it through a podcast, joined a free bootcamp, and completed a 12 week course twice. Today she brings AI education to the automotive industry by functional area through CADIA's learning labs.
Four Ways to Put AI to Work in Your Career Right Now
Here are four ways she teaches women to put AI to work immediately.
Upload your resume, then have the AI interview you about your experience, suggest positions you would be strong in, and identify the people you should ask for informational interviews.
Set a recurring prompt that reports the top trends in your industry every week, broken down in plain language.
Cheryl's team created a custom leadership communication coach. Similarly, you can use AI to role play a tough conversation or a boundary discussion before you have it for real.
Have AI mine your own emails for the year's significant wins, then organize them around one question: what is better because of me? Frame each win as situation, task, action, and result. Finally, turn next year's plans into SMART goals.
The Prompting Format Worth Stealing
Her prompting format is worth stealing: give the AI a role, give it context about your situation and how you are feeling, make a specific request, and then ask it to ask you clarifying questions. After all, the more it knows about you, the better it coaches you.
Why Hiding Your AI Use Has to Stop
65% figure as cited by Cheryl Thompson on the episode.
That hiding has to stop. As Cheryl puts it, her goal is no one left behind in AI. Meanwhile, the women who learn these tools now will be the ones defining what leadership looks like in five years.
Where Do Women in Automotive Stand Today?
CADIA ran a demographic study of the automotive industry in 2023, looking at women's representation by leadership level and by functional area. The findings were encouraging. Representation of women in senior leadership is now roughly on par with women's overall representation in automotive, around 30 percent on the high side. By comparison, a decade or two ago that figure sat closer to 10 to 15 percent.
Source: CADIA 2023 demographic study, as shared by Cheryl Thompson.
However, Cheryl also flagged the headwinds: strict return to office mandates that squeeze women juggling kids and aging parents, and a climate that has made companies skittish about women-led initiatives.
She pushed back hard on one narrative in particular. When reports claimed women had less ambition than their male peers, the underlying research told a different story. Women were reading the room. With less support available, they redirected their energy. But given real support, the gap disappears.
When women are given that support, their ambition is on par with men.
Cheryl Thompson
ROAR: A Word of the Year Worth Borrowing
Cheryl closed our conversation with her word of the year: ROAR. Each letter is an instruction.
And if the support never comes? Cheryl's final word: “If you don't feel supported, you need to find new people. Surround yourself with people who support you and see you for what your potential really is.”
What I Want You to Take From This
Look at the thread running through Cheryl's story. A superintendent named her potential. Then a vice president taught her to be strategic. Later, a blunt boss showed her that effort without direction reads as average. None of her turning points happened silently. Someone said the words out loud, and eventually Cheryl learned to say them herself.
That is the work of closing your Articulation Gap. Your results do not speak. You do.
Key Takeaways
- Find the sponsor who says your name. A mentor gives advice, but a sponsor gives access and puts their credibility next to yours in the rooms where decisions get made.
- The room is not smarter than you. Cheryl lost ten years to the assumption that it was. In the end, the barrier was the story, not the ability.
- Work on what matters to your leadership. Effort pointed at the wrong things reads as average, no matter how hard you work.
- Saying no is a muscle. Redirect the task to its owner, rotate it, or point to the resource. Then practice.
- Make AI your differentiator, and ask boldly. Use it to name your metrics, prepare for pressure moments, and answer the question that matters: what is better because of me?
Measure Your Impact
Ready to point your effort where it counts? Start by getting clear on the impact you already create. Then measure it and translate it into the language leadership recognizes and rewards with my Impact Clarity AI Coach. Finally, walk into the room and use it.
Measure Your ImpactFrequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a mentor and a sponsor?
A mentor gives advice. A sponsor, however, gives access: naming your potential, opening their network, and vouching for you in rooms you haven't entered yet.
How can women stop people-pleasing at work?
Redirect tasks to whoever actually owns them, rotate recurring asks to someone else, or point to a resource that already answers the question. Before agreeing, ask whether the other person would do the same favor for you.
Why does Cheryl Thompson call AI a career differentiator for women?
She has invested roughly 1,200 hours in AI training. Today she teaches women to use it to explore new roles, track industry trends, rehearse hard conversations, and prepare performance reviews backed by real metrics.
What does Cheryl Thompson's ROAR framework stand for?
Return to self, Oxygen, Ask boldly, and Receive: a reminder to reconnect with your own goals, take care of your body, advocate directly for what you need, and let recognition actually land instead of deflecting it.
Do women really have less ambition than their male colleagues?
CADIA's research suggests no. When women receive the same sponsorship and support their male peers receive, their ambition matches. The gap only appears where that support is missing.
How has women's representation in automotive leadership changed?
Per CADIA's 2023 demographic study, women's representation in senior automotive leadership has grown to roughly 30 percent on the high end. By comparison, it sat at about 10 to 15 percent a decade or two ago.
About Cheryl Thompson
Cheryl Thompson started her career on the floor at Ford and worked her way up through a tool and die apprenticeship into engineering and global manufacturing leadership at Ford and American Axle and Manufacturing. She spent eight years running CADIA, an industry organization serving more than 70 manufacturers, before turning her full attention to AI. Today she helps manufacturing leaders and their teams build practical AI capability using their own work, so the skills and tools stay inside the company long after she leaves. She's an operator first, not a technologist, which is exactly why the work sticks.
Connect with Cheryl on LinkedInAbout No Woman Left Behind
No Woman Left Behind is hosted by Rosie Zilinskas, a keynote speaker and certified high-performance coach who works with high-performing corporate women so they get recognized and rewarded for the impact they already create. If this episode spoke to you, subscribe to the podcast and share it with a woman who needs to hear it.
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