My Blog

Over the last 18 months or so I have had to pleasure of meeting and interviewing real Quietly Powerful Leaders from a range of sectors. I am still interviewing more as I find out about these extraordinary leaders who lead to make a difference. I thought to showcase a few from time to time in the Quietly Powerful newsletters so you can see the power of a quietly powerful approach in real life. They have inspired me to continue to learn what it takes to be quietly powerful - I hope it inspires you also. To watch the whole interview, please join the Quietly Powerful Members LinkedIn Group at https://www.linkedin.com/groups/7065506/. You will also start to see snippets of these interviews on LinkedIn, so please keep an eye out and help to make these quietly powerful leaders more visible by sharing/liking!Read more...

What started as a little experiment with 15 women for breakfast is growing up – Quietly Powerful is now 2 years old and have now reached thousands of people from around the world. I feel grateful for the memorable moments, inspiration and support from a range of people!Read more...

Have a laugh.Read more...

And where are they taking you? To dark places you don’t want to be, where you feel anxious, afraid and small? Or to places where there seems to be big thick walls and ceilings to keep you locked up? Or to places where you feel frustrated and annoyed with yourself, that you can’t reach your own standards? Or to places where positive voices are drowned, belittled or mocked?Read more...

There have been plenty of discussion and writings about sexism, racism and age-ism. Have you noticed personality-ism, though?Read more...

Recently I heard two cases where leaders with track records were unsuccessful for roles they applied for, and they were unsuccessful because the hiring manager was looking for a ‘strong leader’.Read more...

There seems to be an automatic assumption that when we talk about quiet people, they are introverts. In many cases this is true, but not always. Having worked on the Quietly Powerful movement for a while now, this is definitely not the case and worth keeping in mind.Read more...

Many have spoken and written about the War for Talent. I wrote an article Let’s stop the war for talent nearly 3 years ago. My thinking has evolved, but my message is largely the same. In fact, I shared at the EEON (Equal Employment Opportunity Network) lunchtime talk on 20^th March that if organisations are serious about talent as a key driver of performance and growth, they need to focus on the War on Wasted Talent.Read more...

Speaking to a senior executive recently, he told me about a change he saw in a team member he ‘inherited’. He described how this team member had shifted from being pretty much mute, with no opinions of their own, waiting for instructions and lacking initiative to being quite feisty, unafraid to express their views and showing passion for their work. Discussing what had happened and exploring our own experiences, we saw a few common things managers do which crush team members’ confidence and ability to speak up and contribute.Read more...

In My 5 Tips for being BRAVE in 2018 I shared some of our adventures in New Zealand and insights around being brave. On reflection there is something else I learned.Read more...

My first article of 2018, Stop trying to be confident... do this instead in 2018 had people feeling relieved that they don’t have to be or appear confident to get ahead. For those of you who are ready to be brave this year, here are my tips based on my recent trip to New Zealand.Read more...

If you have been told to be more confident or have been working on your confidence – STOP.Read more...