Top 4 Must Watch TV Shows for High Achieving Women

When it comes to high achieving women we don’t have a ton of examples of how to conduct ourselves in situations we experience. Whether you are a woman that is climbing the corporate ladder or running your own business, it’s hard to find role models to imitate. I once had a male manager recommend that I “just do what he does.” Turns out putting my feet on the table and being super blunt wasn’t something teams expected from a woman, so that advice didn’t work out too well. I had to find somewhere else to learn, so I turned to TV. Luckily, we have more shows with women leaders. I don’t imitate one character, but at times I call on my inner Madam Secretary, Beth, Meredith, or Olivia Pope to get me through the day. Here are the shows I recommend, please share yours in the comments.

Madam Secretary

I learned the most from watching Elizabeth McCord as secretary of state. She strikes the right balance of empathy, caring, setting expectations, building connections, and strategic moves. I enjoyed watching how she set expectations and negotiated with global leaders. She was stern but graceful. I found courage watching her stand her ground to do the right thing. She builds community and camaraderie with her teams. She feels pain, failure, and hurt when things don’t go right. She cares about those she interacts with and can help. Through each scenario, she demonstrates deep empathy, something that is hard to come by in leaders and TV shows these days.

Grey’s Anatomy

Now, I am not a surgeon and have no aspirations to be one, but what Merideth demonstrates is admirable. She has guts and gusto to do the right thing. She’s known throughout the show to take risks, to fight for the right thing, and believe even when everything is going downhill. Meredith demonstrates grit, determination, and courage in almost every episode. She is also not afraid to ask for help. And when things go really bad, she taught me that I can always dance it out.

Scandal

Now, I wouldn’t recommend sleeping with your boss, but Olivia Pope gets s%&t done. Olivia doesn’t mess around. She gets what she needs and she doesn’t let anyone deter her mission. Her superpower is wearing many hats to accomplish her missions. Sometimes you need to pull out your inner Olivia Pope to get to “consider it handled.” And after everything is handled, you can find comfort in cashmere and a glass of red wine at the end of the day, just like Olivia.

Yellowstone

Almost every one of my high achieving female friends that watched Yellowstone connected with Beth. Simply put, Beth is a bada$$. She gets what she wants, when she wants it, and she doesn’t mind leaving a mess to get there. She thinks 10 steps ahead and her strategic moves are inspirational. She knows her priorities and she doesn’t let anyone get in the way. So when it comes to achieving success, there will be people who get in your way. And during those times, you may need to channel your inner Beth to get through.

All these characters also have their flaws, we all do. They also have super powers, ones that are demonstrated in each episode. There is a lot to learn there. Happy binge watching!

Photos Credit: Madam Secretary and Yellowstone from Paramount Press Gallery. Grey's Anatomy and Scandal are screenshots from Twitter.