Breaking Through the Inner Glass Ceiling

Reclaim Your Power as a Creative Leader

Are you a creative leader, and you feel stuck, burnt out, or unfulfilled despite your professional success?

Let me assure you, you’re not alone. For many women in leadership roles, the invisible barriers to joy and fulfillment are not external but internal. Dr. Claire Zammit describes these barriers as the “inner glass ceiling”—a concept that resonated deeply when I first encountered it in 2020.

In this blog, we’ll explore the inner glass ceiling, how it affects women creative leaders in particular, and how you can begin breaking through it to reclaim your power and purpose.

By the end, you’ll also have the opportunity to take the first step toward transformation by joining a free 1-hour workshop.

What Is the Inner Glass Ceiling?

The inner glass ceiling is an invisible barrier of self-doubt, guilt, shame, and limiting beliefs that hold many women back from fully embracing their power and potential. Unlike external barriers like discrimination or lack of opportunities, the inner glass ceiling is … well … internal.

It is usually not even conscious because it’s so deeply ingrained in our psyche that we believe it’s just how life is. However, it can manifest as a persistent feeling of being spread too thin, an unnatural drive to excel, and an inability to truly experience and enjoy the life you’ve built.

For years, I felt like I was living behind a pane of glass. I could see my life, my family, and all my accomplishments, but I couldn’t fully experience or enjoy them. It was as if I were observing from a safe distance, disconnected from the joy and fulfillment that should have accompanied my life.

This disconnection is not uncommon among women creative leaders. Societal conditioning often teaches us to prioritize others over ourselves, to seek external validation, and to equate our worth with our productivity. These patterns are so innate and feel like something we have to accept, which is why it creates a cycle of burnout and dissatisfaction that feels impossible to break.

My Story: Living Behind the Pane of Glass

Throughout my career, I was known as the reliable one—the person who would get the job done without my boss ever having to worry. I was and still am very proud of that. I was highly capable and respected, and worked alongside industry leaders and decision-makers. But despite my outward success, I faced three significant setbacks where I was passed over for promotions three times in a row:

1. At Adidas, I was verbally promised the Design Director role for the Graphics department in the US. Weeks later, a male candidate was chosen instead. I was offered the position as his right-hand person, which I declined, knowing I’d do the work without the credit and would grow to resent the role.
2. At Nike, during a restructuring, I was completely passed over despite already leading other designers as a Senior Designer. My manager’s rationale? “You need to do the work without the title to prove you’re capable first.” When the restructuring occurred, Since Senior Designers at Nike “don’t manage a team” my direct reports disappeared, leaving me to manage salary administration through a counterpart instead.
3. At Columbia Sportswear, the Head of Design who wanted to retire, repeatedly encouraged me to apply for the Design Director Women’s position. However, when another designer applied after learning about my application, the business director, who had already offered me the job, rescinded the promise to offer the role to her instead.

Even though these experiences involved other players and left me resentful, I only learned years later that this is where my inner glass ceiling – my worldview and beliefs showed me my inner limitations through external experiences. My internalized belief about sacrifice and a sense of unworthiness kept me locked under the inner glass ceiling. I believed my work was my self-expression, self-care, and reason for being. It wasn’t until much later that I realized how much societal conditioning had influenced my mindset.

The Cost of Staying Stuck

Living behind the inner glass ceiling comes at a high cost. For me, my constant companions were shame and guilt, which drove me to put myself last, overcommit, strive for perfection, and ultimately make decisions I later regretted; for example, I signed a lease for an office space even though my intuition shouted at me to rethink this decision. However, my urge to be ‘reliable’ and ‘true to my word’ was more powerful back then than my inner knowing.

This cycle of overwork and self-sacrifice is all too familiar for many women leaders. We’re often wired to consider the impact of our decisions on everyone around us. We shield our teams from discomfort, take on their burdens, and avoid difficult conversations to maintain harmony. However, these patterns lead us to burnout and, ultimately, loosing our effectiveness as leaders who can keep perspective.

Breaking Through: Key Strategies for Transformation

Breaking through the inner glass ceiling requires deep, intentional work—work that cannot be done in isolation. Here are three key strategies that helped me transform my life and can help you too:

Step 1: Awareness

The first step is recognizing the limiting beliefs and patterns that hold you back. These beliefs stem from societal conditioning, childhood experiences, workplace dynamics that form a worldview. For example, many women leaders struggle with the concept of the “Power Penalty”—the idea that being assertive or taking charge as a woman makes them less likable when the same qualities in a man are seen as charming and affable. Identifying these patterns is the first step to breaking free.

Step 2: Connection

Transformation doesn’t happen alone. For me, the most impactful experiences came from deep connections with other women in supportive, judgment-free, facilitated environments. These environments allow your true self to a) express your thoughts without judgment and b) create the space for wisdom, intuition, and solutions to come through and be expressed without a filter.

Step 3: Re-Direction

Once you have reconnected to your inner wisdom, you can reframe your beliefs and redesign or reengineer your actions. Based on what you have learned, you can decide how you want to present yourself in the situation.

This is the most direct way to remove the sense of stuckness.

Lessons from the Caterpillar and the Butterfly

One of the most profound lessons I’ve learned is the importance of holding space for others to grow. As women leaders, we often believe that helping our team members is the best way to support them. But this mindset can be counterproductive.

I like to share the story of the butterfly. A butterfly must struggle to break free when it hatches from its cocoon. This struggle is essential because it strengthens the butterfly’s wings, enabling it to fly. If someone uses an Exacto knife (a little scalpel-like precision tool designers use to collate their design work) to cut the cocoon and make the process easier, the butterfly won’t develop the strength it needs and will ultimately die.

As women, leaders (and mothers), we have to be able to hold space for others’ struggles without rushing in to make things easier. As the mother of a daughter with chronic pain, this lesson especially hit home. I had to step back and allow her to navigate her journey while giving her loving support, even when it was hard to watch.

What to Expect from the Workshop

If you’re ready to break through your inner glass ceiling, I invite you to join my free 1-hour workshop. Here’s what you can expect:

1. Deeper Understanding: Learn the nuances of the inner glass ceiling and how it manifests in your life.
2. Self-Exploration: Reflect on what you want to experience as a leader and in your career. Question long-held beliefs about leadership and success.
3. Breakthroughs: Identify and begin to dismantle an aspect of your inner glass ceiling.
4. New Pathways: Discover actionable steps for your new leadership.
5. Community: Connect with other women creatives and leaders.

Your Future Is Waiting

Breaking through the inner glass ceiling is sounds complicated but it doesnt’ have to be. It requires time, dedication, and willingness to grow, but it’s worth it. When you release the shame, lack, isolation and it’s accompanying limiting beliefs, you create space for joy, fulfillment, and more authentic leadership.

Plus, your life won’t feel so darn overwhelming anymore. You deserve to experience all the riches of the life you’ve built and make an even more significant impact and have more influence. Yes, this work will show up on your income statement, too.

Ready to dig in? Join my free 1-hour workshop and start breaking through your inner glass ceiling later this month! 

Click here to register now.

Feeling stuck and need some actionable advice right away?

The feeling of stuckness is stuck energy in the body and the brain.

There are three ways to move energy – move (dance, run, walk), breathe, or journal your thoughts on paper.

These methods create more space for new information to come in. This can involve physical activities like walking, running, or yoga and reflective practices like journaling. However, a conversation with a professional coach is the most effective way to move stuck energy since a trained coach can help you reassess your thoughts and identify new pathways forward, free from judgment. Ready to dive straight in? Schedule your Quantum Leader Accelerator Call with me here.

Let’s shatter this barrier!

To a breakthrough 2025!

Daniela