{"id":1488,"date":"2021-01-28T02:16:13","date_gmt":"2021-01-28T02:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/illuminategrowth.com.au\/?p=1488"},"modified":"2021-06-25T07:12:51","modified_gmt":"2021-06-25T07:12:51","slug":"workplaceconfidencebeam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/illuminategrowth.com.au\/staging\/workplaceconfidencebeam\/","title":{"rendered":"VIDEO Interview: How to Build Workplace Confidence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you ever felt rock bottom with your confidence?<\/p>\n

I distinctly remember being in one of those weekly meetings in my early days, working in advertising, and feeling very unconfident indeed.<\/p>\n

I felt out of my depth, like I didn’t have any value to add and scared to speak up.<\/p>\n

What if my colleagues laughed at me?<\/p>\n

Or judged me?<\/p>\n

What if they challenged me and made me feel stupid?<\/p>\n

I remember feeling that really icky stodgy sickness, churning in my stomach. And it came every time I attended this meeting. Sometimes even before I had even entered the room!<\/p>\n

It was embarrassing and I came to loathe attending that meeting, the problem (and my confidence) getting worse every single time.<\/p>\n

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I was starting to tell myself that I ‘had a confidence problem’.<\/p>\n

But then, I had this epiphany. Literally!<\/p>\n

It was like a heavenly choir emerged from the clouds and started singing a wild, grateful ‘Hallelujah!’<\/p>\n

Here’s how it happened…<\/p>\n

There was this particular meeting when I looked around the room and I realised that my rock bottom confidence wasn’t because I didn’t know my subject matter, nor was my confidence being broken by the (majority of) the people in the room…<\/p>\n

It was one particular colleague<\/em>, who had this horrible habit of talking over people, shouting their ideas down and making them feel like… well, dirt.<\/p>\n

I realised I didn’t have a confidence ‘problem’<\/strong>… but this person’s obnoxious behaviour was making me feel unconfident<\/em> in this particular situation<\/em>.<\/p>\n

And that was all!<\/p>\n

That’s all<\/em> it was!<\/p>\n

You can imagine the sense of relief I felt!<\/p>\n

This was suddenly a fixable<\/em> problem… I just needed to work out how to share what I knew and to add value to this meeting in a way that broke this corrosive pattern I was in.<\/p>\n

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So the first thing I did was outline what content I wanted to share at the next meeting and…<\/p>\n

Knowing that this man was going to interrupt me, I prepared a response to assume my own authority and to make myself heard.<\/p>\n

It was amazing!<\/p>\n

At the next week’s meeting, I was already walking into that room with a renewed confidence in my step and a twinkle in my eye knowing that this time<\/em>, the conversation was going to be on my<\/em> terms! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

When it was that moment to speak, I just did it.<\/p>\n

And unsurprisingly, he interrupted so I just said, “Hey (name who shall remain anon), I need to finish my point – I’m not quite done so I’ll do that and then let’s discuss it.”<\/p>\n

It was so liberating!<\/p>\n

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And the most amazing bit was, it became easier and easier to do this again and again and then, his behaviour changed towards me too.<\/p>\n

He stopped interrupting and starting listening…<\/em><\/p>\n

I know you <\/em>can appreciate what a game changer that was for me!<\/p>\n

And of course I still had to remind him every so often, to ensure he and I didn’t fall back into that old pattern…<\/p>\n

And I had to remind myself too that my opinion mattered and that what I had to say was valuable<\/em> (that little critical voice still creeps in doesn’t it… even when you’re making such progress)?!<\/p>\n

But hey… it was fine because I was on a renewed path and it felt incredible!<\/p>\n

I met up with El Kwang recently from BEAM Media and we talked some more about workplace confidence.<\/p>\n

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And, if you’d like the freebie download that I mention in the interview, 17 Creative Strategies to Own Your Value & Steer Your Career<\/a><\/span>, click here and your copy will wing it’s way to your inbox and be waiting for you by the time you’ve watched the video below! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Rebecca x<\/p>\n

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