Have you ever wrestled with confidence and self-doubt at work at the same time — and wondered if you could really have both? Holding confidence and self-doubt at work at the same time can push you to dig deeper and get more done. When a boss is too distant or too nice to give tough feedback, your own self-doubt can be exactly what motivates your next step. It’s a common problem: a boss who says the right things — “you…
Have you ever quietly fixed something a member of your team already turned in, instead of sending it back? Recently a client came to me second guessing herself and wondering if she was confident and delegating the right way. A teammate had turned in a quarterly report with a few real errors and some rough writing. So, she sat down that evening and fixed it herself — numbers, language, all of it. “It only took me twenty minutes,” she said.…
Do you trust your judgment, or do you wait until someone else confirms your decisions? Years ago, just after my first child was born, I called my boss to tell her I wasn’t coming back to work. I’d made up my mind. I was the first woman in my family to build a career outside the home, and the pull back toward the more familiar role — the one everyone around me expected — felt enormous. She didn’t argue with…
People often ask me what leadership coaching actually looks like — what really happens in those conversations, week after week, year after year. Here’s what leadership coaching actually looks like, in practice: it starts with confidence, and everything else grows from there. Over the years, I’ve worked with leaders across industries — biotech, pharma, finance, science — who came to coaching for very different reasons. But if you look closely at what actually changed for them, the pattern is the…
Do you hold back your best ideas in meetings because you’re not sure you’re good enough to speak up? A few years ago, a client made an admission in our first meeting that has stuck with me: “I’m a perfectionist. I want to be the best at everything.” The client was thoughtful, self-aware, and by every outward measure, successful. But in meetings, she often held back — not because she lacked good ideas, but because a quiet voice told her…
I’m hosting a live workshop on building leadership confidence — Stop Second-Guessing Yourself — on September 30. Do you ever second-guess yourself or doubt your leadership confidence because you’re not sure how to speak up effectively? Have you ever spoken up and found that others disagreed, only to later find yourself holding back for months? Do you hesitate and lose the moment to speak because you have a little voice inside that whispers ‘you’re not good enough’? If you’ve ever…
As I reflect on these customer journeys, I see leaders with different challenges — all learning the same lesson — that caring about people is at the core of leadership. The challenges looked different on the surface, but the lessons kept coming back to a truth I’ve believed from the beginning: leadership is more human than technical. Jim wanted leadership presence. Kami was navigating career growth. Marcus was searching for confidence. Susan was leading through change. Oliver was trying to bring…
What started as a desire to improve executive presence became a deeper understanding of leadership itself. Customer Journey Series: Jim This article is part of a customer journey series following “Jim,” a VP of Research and Development in a multi-national pharma company navigating shifting organizational demands, rapid leadership changes, and pressure to adapt and keep his team functioning. His journey explores leadership presence, empathy, decision making, managing low performers, and helping talented employees grow. Each post explores a real coaching…
Promotions get harder the higher you go. Doing 80% right won’t get you there. You need the whole package to move up. Customer Journey Series: Jim This article is part of a customer journey series following “Jim,” a VP of Research and Development in a multi-national pharma company navigating shifting organizational demands, rapid leadership changes, and pressure to adapt and keep his team functioning. His journey explores leadership presence, empathy, decision making, managing low performers, and helping talented employees grow.…
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