Is your head above the parapet?
🙋 put your hands up if you’re playing small!
If so, then I guess you're avoiding risk and staying safe within your comfort zone?
I’ve played small - worrying what others think or say!
📆 Playing big or small, I hope your year started well?
...and, hopefully, without making some resolution that's tipping you over the edge, setting yourself up with a stretch too far?
My year started well, thank you. Ranked in the UK’s top 100 inspiring female entrepreneurs.
Shocked? Me too!
🚀 In case it's a one-off, I’d better use the PR platform.
⚠️ But (a BIG but) .. I’ve shied away from recognition!
Imagine:
‘OMG it’s her, she of ...
🤣 ... the bowl haircut’ (I was 8 and powerless!)
🤣 … that hideous green skirt and red bow tie at Pizzaland' (no wonder they went bust!)
🤣 … the sixth form foot-in-mouth episode’
why am i telling you this?
Because I need to get past the Press-Release-heebie-jeebies and raise my head above the parapet!
🎪 And when it comes to conversation, YOU! 🫵 have to raise your head above the parapet sometimes, to get what you want and to say what you need!
You need to get your words out there, into the open!
...And open to possible criticism!
Any maybe the bowl haircut or wardrobe malfunction verbal equivalent is..
❎ Messing up facts, looking incompetent?!
❎ Dropping your professional guard, with vulnerable unwanted emotion trickling through?!
❎ And foot-in-mouth speaks for itself (or doesn’t - but you get my drift!)
🆘 BUT - if we don’t get across what we need, then we don’t just not grow in confidence, we start losing it!
Always backing down does the opposite of building us up!!
😶 So, you want to stick your head above the parapet! Because, if Little Miss Tiny here can stretch a bit - then so can you!
👀 Besides, most of the time no-one’s paying as much attention as we think! They’ve got their own stuff going on.
So, if you’re suffering sweaty palms, before-during-and-after overthinking or tripping over words...
…. It often goes completely unnoticed or is fast forgotten!
👉 And here’s where you start:
1️⃣ Keep asking yourself ‘why?’ - and if the answer is ‘doing the right thing’ and isn’t deliberately damaging, then find a way to get it across.
2️⃣ Describing factual events and using 'what' and ‘when’, rather than finger-pointing at ‘who'.
➡️ Staying comfortable keeps us uncomfortable!
So no excuses, especially when you have me, your courage-creating (gentle) kick up the backside 🧡…
So, hands up to playing bigger, raising heads above the parapet, and simple steps to confidence-building in 2025!
P.S 🎪To put your head above the parapet:
If you need help assessing your team dynamics or a specific conversation, get an ASSESSMENT HOUR with me, including character profiling who you’re dealing with and giving you immediate specific actionable steps.
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