One of the greatest challenges when it comes to being heard at work is often communicating with clarity and confidence in the moment.

Those times when you’re put on the spot.

You enter a meeting with something valuable to share, but one or two voices take over — driving the discussion, filling every pause, leaving no space for anyone else to speak. And so you wait. You hesitate. And eventually, you let the moment pass.

You’re in the middle of speaking — sharing an idea, offering a perspective — and someone cuts in. They might not even realise they’ve done it. But you do. And in that moment, a subtle decision gets made: Do I keep going? Or do I shrink back?

To progress to leadership, speaking up at work is not enough. Your message also needs to be heard.

Treating yourself with grace and compassion is a superpower when it comes confidence and voice.

Read on for more.

Rumination is the act of going over and over thoughts in your mind and it keeps you stuck in inaction. Read on to find out how to create a shift from the stuckness of rumination to the confidence of action.

Confidence is the stuff that turns thoughts into action and one way to access this is by getting comfortable with failure.

Self-acceptance is not only an access point to confidence, it’s an access point to greater connection with yourself and others, which in turn enhances happiness, health and wellbeing.

Human thought is one of the most powerful forces on Earth.

To use this force to your advantage, all you have to do is choose to change your mind.

While you may think of confidence as being a state of mind, it’s useful to also consider how it is emanated and communicated by the body.

If you took a moment in observation, you would notice that confidence is communicated by physicality.

Quietening the mind is an access point to confidence.

When you feel the absence of anxiousness, fogginess and separateness and the presence of calmness, clarity and connection you will feel more confident.

Stretching yourself is how you grow.

It’s by nudging the edges of your comfort zone that you experience something new.

Over time, expanding yourself in this way provides an accumulation of evidence that you can do, say or be more than you otherwise thought possible.

Decision making is critical to creating the life you want.

Making informed choices is all about YOU taking responsibility for your life.

Being true to yourself is important - and it takes effort. One of the ways to nudge toward it is to spend more time thinking about, and doing, what you want.

Thinking for yourself is a skill that requires cultivation and practise.

That’s because it’s likely you’ve never been taught how to do it. However, the mental exertion is worth the effort.

To speak up, create ease to share more of yourself and to get more of what you want and need, confidence is key.

Knowing you can rely on yourself means feeling more certain and with that, you become more stimulated to take action. This is the first blog is a series of 12 Access Points to Confidence.

As 2023 draws to a close, this final blog post for the year is a reflective look back at the key messages shared in the various posts distributed and shared with you. 

I've pulled out ten key messages and summarised them.

Read on for more.

Women's voices have been muffled for centuries.

Consider the nymph Echo who, in Greek mythology, had her voice manipulated as punishment for talking too much. All she could do was repeat the last few words spoken by somebody else.

And consider also....the story of Eliza Turner

In an online session last week I noticed the presenter speaking very quickly - fast enough that within the first 5 minutes, someone was asking for clarification as they had already become lost in the content.

You can probably relate.

Listening to someone speak quickly requires a great deal more focus and concentration than listening to someone speak at a more moderate pace.

Conversation domination is a common way your voice, and self expression, are silenced.

When someone talks on and on without stopping for breath, or to acknowledge you might have something to say, it's like they're over-stuffing a suitcase.