Claudia Sosa

Over the last decade, GBS & Shared Services has undergone a massive transformation. It's started shedding the "back-office support" label in favor of a strategic, value-driving engine for the enterprise. As a woman leading in this space, your personal brand must undergo the exact same evolution. Women already drive undeniable business value, yet research from McKinsey & Company's Women in the Workplace report shows that as women move up the corporate ladder, they are systemically overrepresented in support roles and severely underrepresented in the P&L "line" roles that traditionally lead to visionary business ownership and the C-suite. 

To break through to the highest levels of enterprise leadership, women must master translating intrinsic value into the language of the C-suite. As you rise, the rooms skew heavily male, and the currency of influence shifts to aggressive SLAs, tech architecture, and financial modeling. However, foundational research by Catalyst reveals that women often face a likability penalty when adopting the assertive, business-first negotiation styles rewarded in these environments. For women, "bringing your authentic self to work" doesn't mean compromising your identity; it means calibrating your unique strengths to the commercial language that CEOs, CFOs, and IT leaders respect. This session uses the GBS transformation as a blueprint for repositioning your professional identity, giving women leaders the tools to command the room, navigate male-dominated negotiations, and be undeniably recognized as strategic partners. 

Key Takeaways: 

• The GBS Parallel for Women in Leadership: Mirror the evolution of GBS by transitioning your personal brand from "functional executor" to "strategic value creator," ensuring your expertise is directly tied to enterprise P&L and margin protection
• Own Male-Dominated Rooms: Discover strategies for driving high-stakes, "business-first" negotiations by anchoring your voice in data, removing conversational qualifiers, and holding your ground on the bottom line
• Command Respect, Avoid the Backlash: Learn practical communication tactics to say "no," negotiate hard, and challenge ideas effectively