Why Talented Women Don't Pursue Leadership, with Sheila LaMothe

After more than 30 years in manufacturing, my guest Sheila LaMothe has watched brilliant, capable women stay planted in roles they outgrew years ago. So I asked her the question directly: why do talented women not pursue leadership? Her answer was quiet, and it stopped me. Most of the time, she said, it is themselves.

Not their skill. Not their results. Not their work ethic. The story they carry about whether they are worthy of the bigger room.

Sheila is the Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at the Chemical Coaters Association International, a past chair of the Women in Manufacturing board, and the founder of Women in Finishing. Which makes what she told me next even more powerful, because the woman with that resume once sat frozen in a meeting, convinced she had nothing worth saying.

The Room That Almost Kept Her Quiet

Early in her career, Sheila was invited to join an advisory group that would eventually shape Women in Manufacturing. She walked in as a marketing manager and found herself at a table with senior women from some of the biggest names in American industry.

I looked around the room and they were very high level women from GE, from Ford ... and I felt so irrelevant compared to the other women in the room.

Sheila LaMothe

Here is what she did with that feeling. She did not fake it. She did not perform. She made herself one promise: you cannot leave this room without saying something. It took her nearly the entire day. And the comment she finally made was small enough that she cannot even remember it now.

But that one comment set the stage for everything that followed: the board seat, the chairmanship, the foundations she went on to build.

One sentence, said out loud, can change the trajectory of a career.

Why Talented Women Don't Pursue Leadership

When I asked Sheila what holds women back, she had clearly thought about it long before our conversation. Imposter syndrome is a buzzword in every women's group she is part of. But underneath the buzzword is something more specific.

They don't see themselves as worthy of an opportunity. They're nervous. They just don't take that step.

Sheila LaMothe

Hear me on this. It is not a talent shortage. It is a worthiness story. And a worthiness story is not a fact. It is a draft, and drafts get rewritten.

Meanwhile, the men around us simply take the step. Maybe because there are more of them in the room. Maybe because nobody ever taught them to wait for permission. Either way, the opportunity goes to the person who reached for it.

An Invitation Is Evidence

Now here is the part of Sheila's story I need you to sit with. She did not talk herself into the Women in Manufacturing board. Someone else saw her first. A business contact from her days at TRUMPF introduced her to WiM's founder with a simple endorsement: I think that Sheila would be of value here. When the board invitation came, her first reaction was disbelief.

Why would anyone ever want me to be on the board? But he saw something in me that I didn't see in myself.

Sheila LaMothe

Some of Sheila's most important allies have been men, and that matters. Mentors give you advice. Sponsors and allies give you advocacy: they say your name in rooms you are not in. The data says women are running short on exactly that. According to McKinsey and Lean In's Women in the Workplace 2025 research, only 31 percent of entry level women have a sponsor, compared to 45 percent of men, and sponsored employees are promoted at nearly twice the rate of those without one.

So when someone invites you onto the project, the committee, the board, that is not a clerical error. That is a sponsor showing you their evidence.

An invitation is evidence. Trust their eyes before you trust your doubt.

And when the opportunity arrives before you feel ready? Sheila has a rule for that, one she picked up at a women's business conference years ago and has lived by ever since.

If you don't jump in, if you don't step out of your comfort zone, you are never going to advance professionally or personally.

Sheila LaMothe

It might not go perfectly. Ask for the support you need. And if it does not work out, you learned something. That is the whole downside.

The Most Undervalued Career Resource

Ask Sheila where a woman who feels stuck should start, and her answer surprises people: trade associations. She calls them the most undervalued resource in a career, and she has the receipts. In 2017, she launched Women in Finishing with a small reception at FABTECH. She and her boss planned for 10 or 15 women.

That is what unmet hunger for community looks like in numbers. An individual membership typically runs around 100 dollars, and it buys you training, education, discounted conferences, and the connections that carried Sheila from one chapter of her career to the next. Every stepping stone in her story, from the utility company to TRUMPF to CCAI, came through a relationship.

But Sheila attaches a warning to all of it, and it is one of the most practical things she said. Do not collect memberships and board seats the way some people collect LinkedIn connections. She runs every opportunity, and every connection request, through a filter.

What I Want You to Take From This

At the end of our conversation, I asked Sheila what she most wanted you to hear. She started with this: you are stronger than you think you are. And then she named the habit she wants every woman to drop today.

No man apologizes for speaking in a meeting. You have to be strong and confident. And what you have to say and what you have to contribute is important.

Sheila LaMothe

Stop opening with I'm sorry. You did not do anything. Say what you came to say.

One more thing, because it is the part I care about most. Speaking up gets you heard once. Being recognized over time is a second skill. That is the Articulation Gap, the distance between the impact you create and the impact leadership recognizes and rewards. Sheila's promise to herself closed the first gap. The language you use about your work closes the second.

So here is your move this week. In your next meeting, make Sheila's promise your own: do not leave that room without saying something. One comment. One question. That is how it starts.

About Sheila LaMothe

Sheila LaMothe is Vice President of Strategic Initiatives for the Chemical Coaters Association International (CCAI) and Executive Director of the CCAI Finishing Education Foundation. She brings more than 30 years of experience in manufacturing, spanning both the private and public sectors.

A long time advocate for women in manufacturing, Sheila served on the advisory group that guided the formation of Women in Manufacturing (WiM), then served on its inaugural Board of Directors as vice chair and completed two terms as chairperson. During her eight year tenure she also chaired the WiM Education Foundation and founded the WiM Connecticut chapter. In 2017 she launched Women in Finishing (WiF) at FABTECH, a community offering professional development, leadership programming, and peer connection for women across the industrial finishing industry, and in 2018 she spearheaded the creation of the CCAI Finishing Education Foundation.

Sheila is also a member of the management team for the FABTECH trade show in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, and served for eight years as editor of Powder Coated Tough, the official publication of the Powder Coating Institute.

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