How to get into the room where the real vote happens

By the time the steering committee sits down to vote, the outcome is already settled. It was shaped in a corridor, a group text and two brief calls held the week before, and the formal meeting simply records what was agreed. If you are polishing your strongest case for the meeting itself, you are really getting ready for the minutes. This is not cynicism. It is simply how organizations function, and it explains why sponsorship counts for more than strong performance once you reach a certain level. Per the 2025 Women in the Workplace study from McKinsey and LeanIn, 31% of women starting their careers have a sponsor, while the figure for men at that stage is 45%. In practical terms, a sponsor is the one who tips you off about a discussion while it is still being arranged, before anyone has sent a notice.

The checkpoint

Think back to the most consequential choice that affected your role or your group in Greater Baltimore. Mark each question yes or no, then tally how many outcomes you only understood after the fact.

1. You could name the two or three people whose opinion would settle it.

2. Before the agenda went out, you had a one-on-one with at least one person who held sway over the outcome.

3. You foresaw the toughest pushback and had already identified the colleague most likely to raise it.

4. Over the days leading up to it, you put the question "What's the word on this?" to a senior coworker.

5. You understood what the decision maker's own superior hoped the result would be.

6. Ahead of time, you lined up a trusted peer to back your idea first, so it would not stand alone.

7. You previewed your proposal with someone who would challenge it before the formal challenge arrived.

8. You knew whether the matter was still open or had already been decided.

9. Someone walked you through the plan over coffee rather than presenting it on a slide.

Item ten. Somewhere in Towson or Pikesville, a private exchange drew you in, though no invitation ever showed up on a schedule.

Reading your score

Eight to ten: fully integrated. You are in the rooms where the important choices are made. From here, your next step is to draw a second person into the circle beside you.

Four to seven: near the center. You often hear about developments, sometimes early enough to act. You do the substantive work and part of the political work, yet you are still caught off guard by a vote now and then.

Scores from zero to three suggest a formal stance. You put careful preparation into meetings that were effectively settled before anyone entered the room. This is not a personal failing. No one told you that the agenda is the final step rather than the first, and women are more often left to figure this out on their own, since fewer of them have a sponsor who would have explained it.

First steps

Between eight and ten years in, pick one woman two levels beneath you, perhaps in Catonsville or Pikesville, and give her the real picture before the next big decision lands. Doing this is exactly what a sponsor does, and by now you are well placed to become one yourself.

At four to seven years, prior to presenting your next proposal, carve out twenty minutes with whoever is most inclined to disagree and invite them to point out the gaps. Criticism voiced in private often turns into endorsement in public, since people stand behind what they had a hand in building.

In the first few years, this week, direct a single question to someone senior in your Baltimore organization. "What's the conversation around this before it reaches the committee?" Then listen closely. The answer will show you whom to speak with next, and the fact that you asked signals that you understand how the organization really works.

Tally how many times you were in the know, and share this with the woman in Owings Mills or Essex who always seems to learn things first.