In the dynamic world of professional leadership, the ability to communicate with clarity, confidence, and concision is paramount. As ambitious and self-aware women, whether mothers or not, we often find ourselves toggling between different roles and environments, which can sometimes leave us feeling less confident and self-assured. This coaching challenge is designed to help you uplevel your communication skills by tapping into the confidence you already possess in other areas of your life and channeling that energy into your professional interactions.
Insights on Confidence in Communication
Many leaders feel like a smaller version of themselves when faced with different teams or challenging environments. It’s common to feel most confident in roles where you are deeply rooted, such as being a mother with your children or sharing openly and vulnerably with your life partner. The opportunity here is to notice what gets lost when you shift between these environments and people. What elements of your confident self are not translating across these contexts?
Tune into your body to recall what it felt like to be your most confident self. Give yourself the space to remember your radiance—relive for a moment when you danced with abandon on your wedding day, when you argued for and won that raise at work, when you celebrated your baby’s first year or 18th feeling sure that you got it from here, when you made the first move with your lover feeling as sexy as you looked in your dress.
Confidence is an inner light shining through. It’s knowing and trusting yourself to act with a conviction that aligns with your values and purpose. It’s an expression of an inner authority resourced by self-love and self-trust.
To consciously tap into your confidence, consider what it would look like to bring that same level of self-assurance into your professional life. Imagine feeling as confident in a boardroom as you do in your most secure personal moments. The goal is to radiate confidence from within and let that unwavering assurance light up every corner of your life.
Skill Build: Being and Doing
To build confidence, we need to address both being and doing.
Being involves setting the foundation for how you want to feel and who you want to become. Start by asking yourself these two crucial questions:
How do I want to feel?
Example: I want to feel confident.
Who do I want to be? (Who am I becoming?)
Look for role models for inspiration. For instance, you might aspire to be a confident manager who speaks off the cuff with authority based on your own experience.
Doing focuses on translating that way of being into action. Ask yourself this question:
What does this way of being look like in action?
Example: Confidence in action means practicing trusting your intuition and decision-making, speaking from the heart, following your urges, and being willing to risk looking foolish or being wrong to honor your value to grow and learn.
Inquiry: Deepening Your Understanding of Confidence Build: Being and Doing
To cultivate confidence, engage in a reflective inquiry process. Consider the following questions:
What does confidence look like?
Why is feeling more confident in all areas of my life important?
When in my life has my confidence taken a hit or been at its lowest?
What misbeliefs am I still holding onto about myself that are getting in the way of feeling my most confident?
What is an example of a time when I felt electric with confidence?
Tell that story to someone. Relive the memory and the feeling. What do you remember about how confidence looked on you back then?
Action: Implementing the Practice
Take the insights and inquiries and turn them into actionable steps:
Ruminate, Write, and Talk Through the Questions:
Spend time reflecting on and writing about your answers to the above questions. Discuss them with a trusted friend, coach, or mentor.
Explore the Being + Doing of Each Intention You Set for Yourself:
Being: Define how you want to feel. For example, “I want to feel confident.”
Doing: Define what actions you’ll take to live in alignment with this intention. For example, “I will practice speaking from the heart and trusting my intuition.”
Anticipate and Prevent Self-Sabotage:
Consider how you might get in your own way and proactively plan to prevent it. Identify potential obstacles and think about strategies to overcome them.
Structure the Support You’ll Need:
Think about the support systems you can set up in advance. This could be regular check-ins with a mentor, joining a supportive community, or setting reminders to encourage yourself.
Allow this process to be a daily ritual of inner dialogue that foments self-trust. In time you will be being and doing as one, aligned with your highest self—confident, happy, and connected to your joy.
By engaging in this process, you’ll create a powerful roadmap for living intentionally, allowing you to tap into the confidence you already possess and infuse it into every aspect of your life. In time, you’ll find yourself on the path to realizing your fullest potential, leading with clarity, confidence, and joy. Embrace this opportunity, trust yourself to take bold action, and watch as your ability to influence and engage others in your vision grows. You deserve to shine in all your endeavors, and I’m here to support you every step of the way.
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