Welcome to the Everyday PM Podcast.
The podcast will rediscuss project management principles
for your everyday life. My name is Anne Campia and I'm a
certified Project slash Program Manager with over a decade of
experience working for healthcare, retail, consumer
goods, tech marketing. You name it, I think I've been
all across the industries as a PM today we are speaking with
Laura Chattington, founder of Talking Shop Co and Laura
carries such an impressive resume and has been on the
podcast previously for a few episodes now Laura, so welcome
back and we are here today to talk about having the confidence
to communicate effectively with senior stakeholders.
So Laura? Welcome back to the podcast.
I'm so excited to host you again, especially in this month
where we are celebrating Women, Women's History, International
Women. This is such a great honor for
you to come back and grace this with your presence.
So for those who have not met you yet or listened to a
previous episode that you've been on, please take a brief
moment to introduce yourself to our audience.
Thank you very much and thank you for having me again and as
you say on a on a great month for Women International Women's
Day. My name is Laura Chattington and
I'm the lead trainer at talking shop and Activate My Career
live.com and we actually help professionals who feel like
their careers are plateauing or not progressing fast enough.
And we help them elevate themselves in the workplace,
project managers, program managers, so that they can
really fast track their career. And actually my background is
tech and project management too. So I have experience in the
challenges that your listeners are constantly facing on a day
by day basis. And I love when you are able to
come on here and kind of share those experiences with us,
Laura, and as I get to know you as a person and as a
professional, you have been able to influence from.
You know your project teams to to the C-Suite level executives,
you've done a lot of coaching in that area as well.
So before we get into today's topic, I just want to really
call out or shout out to you and all the great work you've been
doing to try to help people progress their careers and
really activate and advance their careers as you've been
saying. And so can you talk a little bit
about some of the maybe you have some events or anything going on
that people can tap into if they're interested?
Yes, for sure. And and actually the the, the,
the the thing to do is is attend the master class that we run at
Activate My Career live.com. There we will take you through
the the concepts, the training, the tools, the systems that
really enable you to elevate yourself and move into being
that strategic professional that you need to be as you progress
through your career. So that is just to go to the
master class, that's the best way to find out.
And have some experience the type of training that we do at
www.activatemycareerlive.com. Well, there you go.
I mean, learn from the best Laura's here.
She's providing her her knowledge and her experiences,
and today we're going to tap into just probably just a little
piece of that. So we're not going to give away.
I don't even know if this is covered in your master class or
not, but we're not going to give away the secret sauce yet.
But I think it is important to talk about when you're
activating or trying to elevate your career.
Communication is really a big piece of that and understanding
how you communicate, whether it's as a project manager or if
you're a part of a project team, but understanding your
communication style as well. So I think communicating in
general can be challenging, communicating up can be
challenging. So Laura, why don't you kick us
off with this topic and and kind of some of the guidance and tips
that you you want to portray to our audience.
Absolutely. And I think communicating up.
Is one of the kind of key skills that you need to have in in your
toolbox when you're no matter you know what job you do and I
and and if you're if it's okay with you.
I'd just like to share a little bit of yes sort of my experience
and and really why it is so important to be able to
communicate upwards and be able to communicate to senior
stakeholders and then we can talk about how to do that and
also how to do that with with confidence.
Absolutely. And and and so one of the
stories that that I share is about sort of walking in,
getting an e-mail from my boss, my my number, my first senior
stakeholder, getting an e-mail from my boss and being asked to
attend an unexpected meeting, 2:00 o'clock his office.
And I sort of walk into that meeting and I'm sitting
uncomfortably on that chair. You know, when you're you're
you're trying to look relaxed. And I'm, I'm going to guess the
the e-mail you got. Laura probably just said meeting
with no contacts about what it's about or anything.
Okay. Yeah, yeah.
So nothing 2:00 o'clock my office.
I walk in. Trying to look calm, but
actually inside I'm feeling like this sort of like teenager,
awkward, sitting there, not knowing what to say, where to
look. And you know, and with
experience, with experience, and you sort of feel your heart
pumping, your hands are sort of sweating.
My boss starts talking and he says to me.
They're making redundancies. They're sorry, but they're going
to have to let me and 1920 other people go.
And he has decided he's very sorry, but he's decided to keep
my colleague James, who was the other.
He's decided to keep him because he had connections in in the
industry. And have you ever had one of
those moments when you sort of sat there and it kind of takes a
few minutes for? What they said to sort of
realize what they said. And yeah, and then you sort of
realize that you're confused and then like what?
And then it sort of sinks in and you start thinking, hold on a
minute. I just don't understand.
That sort of realization turns to frustration because you've
worked. And worked and worked.
And like this, this wasn't my plan, right?
This wasn't my plan. And I wanted to progress my
career. I wanted to have a successful
career and I certainly wasn't expecting my boss to to make me
redundant. I've been working crazy hours.
I've been taking my work home, I've been working at the
weekend, I've been sort of missing out on friends and
family, and I just. Felt like I thought I'd be
further ahead and I'm being made redundant.
And I was sort of asking myself, you know, what am I missing?
What am I missing here? Because I knew that I was a very
competent manager. I knew that I was delivering on
everything that I needed to do. And actually I don't know if
it's the same over there, but in in in, in the UK, you you the
the end of the year is sort of end of the year and so they make
redundancies just before Christmas.
Usually. Sure it's the same that, right.
But it's the same same here and and and I sort of I was at my
parents house and I was sitting at my parents house thinking why
am I, why was I made? Why?
Why I was running the the biggest project.
I was managing the biggest project.
I was confused why was I the one that got made done it.
Why did the senior team want to keep James and and why not me?
And I've sort of mulling this over because actually James kind
of rocked up at 10:00 AM in the morning.
He would have a coffee, take a few phone calls, write a few
emails. He'd sort of get up, walk around
the office, chat with our boss, chat with the other senior team.
He'd leave the office at three and like, what?
It just makes no sense. And you know there's people,
right? You just don't.
You don't. They seem to just get away with
it, don't they? They seem to just get away with
not putting, putting the time in.
So I was sort of walking around my parents' garden upset, whilst
everyone else is cheering and having a great Christmas and
thinking, hold on a minute, what was it that I wasn't doing?
And I was thinking about James's working day compared with mine.
And it suddenly dawned on me. And I remember I was looking at
my mom's, my mom's rose, just this rose Bush.
And I'm thinking, you know what? Actually, it's not.
He's not being lazy. He's not being lazy.
He is actually doing something that I wasn't doing.
He was spending time with those senior stakeholders, interacting
with those senior stakeholders so that he could be seen.
Right. And those senior stakeholders
weren't seeing my hard work because they weren't seeing me
at all. They were seeing James.
And it kind of dawns on me at that moment that actually.
So I sort of stood there in the garden that actually.
Everything that I wanted in my career, all that hard work, all
that, everything that I wanted to progress to and do, was not
going to come from just hard work.
It wasn't, you know, that wasn't everything I needed to do.
And if I wanted to make all that hard work count, I needed to it.
It's as important for me to communicate up.
Can communicate with those senior stakeholders because
otherwise they're not going to notice me.
They're not going to notice. Why would they?
Why would they be paying attention?
They're not. Yeah, agreed.
And I hate to say it, but it's it's it's it's very true what
Laura is saying. The story is it couldn't be more
real, what you're saying. It it's it's just a fact of
life, isn't it? It's not an opinion.
It's just that that that everyone has their own stuff
going on. And there there was me slogging
away in my job and waiting for the world to come to me.
On the other hand, James was actively going and communicating
in whatever way he did, and he wasn't waiting around for people
to notice his hard work. He wasn't waiting around for
people to come to him. He was actively going to those
senior stakeholders, building relationships, creating
relationships. And he was doing that every
single day. And and and really that's what
we're talking about today. And I I just wanted to sort of
start with the reason why you need to get get good at this,
get good at it and get sort of I I know that we all have our sort
of hang ups and nervousness and and everything, but but being
good at communicating up and communicating senior
stakeholders is key to progressing your career and
that's why we're talking about it today, right.
Absolutely, absolutely. And that story just resonated
with me. I'm sure it resonates with a lot
of our listeners and it is absolutely true what Laura is
saying. This happens quite regularly and
it's unfortunate, but at the same time to Laura's point, many
times these senior stakeholders, they they don't have any time,
you know to to really focus in on.
Who is each individual on this team?
And so in her story when she's talking about the differences
between herself and the her counterpart and how he was more
made, more visible than she was. I think that is kind of a
turning point for people when you realize make that
realization for yourself in your own career about the need to
advocate for yourself, the need to to Laura's point when and
we're going to get into that. The need to communicate to
senior stakeholders and how exactly to do that so that it's
effective and make it meaningful as well for yourself as well As
for those around you. It's not just a kind of a what
do you what's that saying, dog and pony show.
This is this is legitimately this is your professional career
that you have to be able to advocate for yourself where you
want to be and let those that are in a position to help uplift
you and bring you there. See, you really, really see the
value of you. So I love that story, Laura.
I think it's a great way to set kind of the foundation for what
we're going to dive into. So are we.
Do you think we're at the point where we can, I can start
bugging you about how what are the techniques?
What is like the, what is the secret things that we need to be
doing to be able to effectively communicate with these senior
stakeholders? For sure, For sure.
And I think just to touch on one thing you said about having to
communicate and promote yourself, there are obviously
hang ups people have about that, about it being cheesy and we're
not gonna go into that today and maybe that's something we can go
into on another. At another time, but I think
it's important the point you make about the senior managers
are extremely busy. In fact they're probably more
they've got more responsibility more going on.
And so it's it's not about waiting for them to pay
attention to you and when you do it tactfully you can really get
in front of them and use those opportunities to.
Be visible progress your career build relationships and do lots
of good things that it it's it's an intention of doing lots of
good things for everyone in in that environment.
So let let's let's talk about so how do you talk to senior
stakeholders and then what are some of the tips that that I can
share to on how to do that. And I think the first the first
key thing to think about and I think we we've spoke about this
before but it's about starting from.
The senior manager's perspective and when, when we were in when,
when when you're working on a project and you're in it 24/7
and you know exactly what's going on, There's a tendency to
walk into these meetings with senior stakeholders and go from
your perspective. You know this is what's going
on, This is what I need. Now The thing is, is that a the
the senior stakeholders probably.
You might be the 11th meeting of the day, you might be the 25th
work stream, you might be the 108th e-mail.
So actually going in with a with A-frame of reference that a
they're super busy and BI need to be thinking about what is it
that they're interested in about my project, what is important to
them. Because actually when you think
like that, when you think about whether it's senior stakeholders
or or anyone else. When you're thinking about, I've
got to meet them where they are first.
What are their priorities? What are their pain points?
What are they looking to achieve?
What do they care about? And if I go in and start talking
in those terms a, they're going to know exactly what you're
talking about because you're going to give them the heads up.
This is what I'm here for. This is what I need you to do.
This is what I need you to decide.
Here are the key points you need to know.
And that means that you eventually get what you want out
of the conversation. I've done it myself in the past
1000 times I've walked in and gone right.
We've got this. This is what's going on.
This is. And they're kind of like hold on
a minute, you know what do you need me.
What what do you need me to decide.
You know what do you need me to do?
And and and their their point of view is going to be different
from yours because you see the world from your.
Frame of reference. And they see it from that they
will have other priorities, they will have other experiences and
they will have different questions.
So I think the first key is to go in and think through what is
it that they need to know to make the decisions that I want
them to make? And if I want to get them to
listen and pay attention, what are the things, What are the
buttons I need to press that they're going to pay attention
to? Absolutely.
Yeah, I think that's kind of like the first place before you
even walk in the room or into the call or into the online
interaction is, is starting there.
And I think if you've got that clear in your mind and actually
it's the same if you're going into an interview, it's the same
if you're in a presentation, it's the same if you're
presenting to anybody. If you think.
What is it that that that they care about?
You're going to get much more. Interaction from them and
they're going to be listening to what you've got to say.
So that's. Yeah.
I love that analogy you just made about think about it as if
you were going into an interview.
I think that is such a great correlation to make with any of
these types of meetings and that in an interview you are
preparing, at least I would. I would think you're preparing
well in advance right. You're not just you're not just
going through your. Professional journey, but you're
also trying to anticipate what you might be asked.
And so there's a lot of the aspects that you do or those
techniques that you would do to prep for an interview that you
would, as Laura's saying that you would similarly use to prep
for a meeting with senior stakeholders.
And I have to tell you as you're as you're talking through this
tip. I was just reminiscing in my
head about all the various times in my career, early on in my
career and even today where I've failed to do that.
And it's just makes such a huge difference between the memories
that sink in with me because there are memories that are
there because I learned from this experience and not having
done the prep work to be ready for that versus the experiences
that I've had, you know, I think after I've realized that
preparation is key. The experiences I've had talking
with senior stakeholders and how effective that was, so
absolutely, Laura, I love that first technique.
I think that that resonates with me.
I'm sure it resonates with everybody.
I think also I'd add to and I've had the same experiences years
ago and more recently. So it's not that you mustn't
forget it and I I think what I just add to that you cannot go
into those meetings unprepared. Because they you will be eaten
alive. Because there are, they are
smart, they haven't got there because they're, you know, they
are there, they're smart, they have experience.
They have a lot of visibility and if you go in and unprepared,
usually just there's nowhere to go.
So I think preparation is key for for survival maybe, but also
to. You get you know influence them
to where you want to get them to as well.
So you absolutely. I think that is whoever I'm sure
someone said to me years ago you know we'll just go in and see
what happens. I think at that level you really
need to be prepared and and and it's something to think about
that it's just the the the what, what are they worth?
By the hour, you know it's to to actually get it down to you know
what are they worth by the hour and you're taking the time and
you want to use that time as valuably as you can.
So, so definitely prepared and think about what it is that
there that what are their priorities and normally it's
things like finance. Risk.
Reputation and things like that just as a.
Great point, Laura. Great point.
So we're going to, we're going to talk about and we're going to
talk about confidence sort of at the end of and there's just a
couple of other points I wanted to make before we get to the
confidence bit, but. The other point I would make is
that is to respect the egos in in the room, respecting the fact
that there are big egos in the room.
I'm not saying that every senior stakeholder has a huge ego, but
actually, especially if there are more than you know there
are, there are a number of them in the room.
One of the things that really matters as you go up the the
ladder is reputation, right as much as.
Doing the work, it's reputation and peer reputation and sort of
other people in the room. And I think if you go into that,
into that interaction and think about that, it's not that you
should say yes to everything. But you certainly need to
respect that you're not going to win the the the argument you
know if there if there is some confrontation you need to do it
in a way that enables you to to respect those egos in the room
and and tap those egos in the room so that again you get your
end result. And I think certainly in the in
the senior stakeholders, in the board meetings that I've been
into there is I don't think I've ever been in the board meeting
where people sort of. Openly saying, yes, I made a
mistake and anything like that. So I think again it's something
that perhaps you don't think about from a project perspective
so much, but there are definitely big egos going up,
going up the up the company for sure.
And for those that aren't really exposed to each individual,
right, because sometimes a, a board or the C-Suite level could
have what, three to four to five, maybe even more.
What are What are some of your experiences in?
How do you get to know these people without having had any
interaction with them? Is it colleagues, Like where?
Where are you going to get this information?
I mean I would again it depends on time and capacity and
resource. I would want to go in with as
much as I could ideally so. If you've got colleagues who who
have experience with them, you can I I would always be looking
them up online seeing, yeah just just having that information
like oh you came from this company you're you're you were
the you know the senior guy on or girl on that project you know
having some again, it just helps build rapport, right.
It's great it helps. Build rapport.
And there are things that perhaps other people in the
business know that don't mention XY&Z because that always gets a
negative. You know, do do your diligence
to your diligence. And I think when you did go into
that room, having that again in your pocket, it just gives you a
bit more confidence and I don't think.
Going again, it depends on how senior you're at and you may
only have like 5 or 10 minutes. You might have had a hour
schedule, but you might have to go in and you've got 5 minutes
and they're not there to to. Because you know, build
relationships with you first and foremost that are there to get
that job done. And being concise with the way
you communicate is important. And again, being focused comes
back to a point being focused on exactly you want.
What you want to get out of there.
So I think you have to judge the room, the virtual room or the
room and if everyone's like chat, chat, chat, chat, chat
away and build that report. But it it isn't going on which
is lots of time the case walk in and having that kind of hey how
are you chat is not so you kind of need to match the tone.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think that's where those power
skills, that emotional intelligence, the kind of to
your point, read the room right and adjust to that, that's where
all that comes into play for sure.
That's great. Thank you Laura and I think if
you I used to work with a guy and.
He supported the same football team as me and I remember
thinking, well, you know, we're going to connect on that.
But again, they might see that coming.
You know, they might see it. They are, most of them are
credible, experienced and again, they just don't want all that
banter necessarily. They just want you to go in and
give them the information that you need.
So you definitely need that emotional intelligence for sure.
To match, I'd be looking to match the the conversation and
and how it was going. But actually taking and sort of
going on to my next point, there is opportunity, there's an
opportunity to build your credibility in those
interactions. Now you don't necessarily,
you're not going in there to to become best buddies with them
because I'm sure that probably isn't at the right place at the
right time, but there is an opportunity to.
Give them some. I always say give examples, you
know, give your answers of the questions you get asked.
But then give examples that build your credibility.
And we talked about preparation before you go in.
I would have in my pocket I'd be thinking if they're interested
in tech projects, I don't know a I tech projects and I'd worked
on a I tech projects I would have.
My examples in my pocket, which I will be able to refer to, that
builds my credibility. So the answer is this.
And for example, I worked on a similar project where I worked
for this client, it was this size, it was did this, it had
these outcomes and what you're doing is you're kind of filling
in. Some color around who you are,
what you do, what experience you have, and you're able to kind of
filter that through the conversation.
And that's a much better way of telling them how good you are
and the experiences that you have.
And again, if you're sort of pressing those buttons and
aligning it all up, they'll be like, oh, OK, so she's the one
that did that project. When that comes up, I want her
on my project. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
Taking those opportunities to build your credibility in a
tactful way. And one of the ways you can do
that is using examples so that you don't, you know, you're not
like I did this and I did that. It's just like it reminds me of
the project where let me give you some reference, let me back
up what I'm saying and things like that because they will
want. Credibility and to to buy into
what you're saying because they're going to have to make a
decision. Yeah, absolutely.
And I think this is, this is this technique in particular
reminds me of the story you told at the beginning of the podcast
where this is an area where those that are kind of faking it
till they make it, people will, will be exposed, right, Because
they won't have examples to furnish that will, you know,
coincide with the conversation that's happening in the meeting
or if they are. Also faking it, but also really
good communicators and maybe they do have 1000 stories, but
none of them are theirs, right. So there's there's this kind of
and and that's that's part of what happens when you're in a
room with people as they kind of quickly pick up on what what you
are, what type of person you are.
And so I think this is a really good area where the more you
kind of build up your history of what you know and make it
meaningful and valuable to part of the conversation, I think
that will really help amplify. You in that in that conversation
and in that room. So thank you Laura.
That's another great technique. For sure and and the and the and
the key is to be specific because it is more believable
and it's where you can build your credibility.
And and I I mean it depends on who you're talking to obviously,
but in in certainly in my experience when you're getting
very senior people in very big companies depending on where you
were they. You know you're not going to get
anything past them, so if you're blagging you're going to be
found out. So depending on who it is you're
speaking to, I would want to have very concrete advice and
all my opinions backed up by credible experience because I
just think they ask questions and go straight through it
otherwise. Absolutely.
And you're instantly someone if they don't have time to give you
a second chance, you're instantly sort of right now we
don't want them on the on the project.
And I think that again, it depends on the environment
you're in and obviously in sort of less sizable companies then
perhaps people aren't as experienced as some of those
boards that we're talking about. So maybe there's a little bit of
room to. Exaggerate.
That's a great word. Yeah.
We're we're using very friendly words for for probably the the
images of the folks that we've worked with in the past that you
know, give us this example. But yes, absolutely Laura, I
think that's that's a great way to put it.
And then I I think one of the the kind of core and we're going
to talk a bit about confidence, but I think one of the things to
be thinking when you're going into the senior stakeholder.
Interactions and we become very self-conscious, don't we do what
if they ask me questions I can't answer?
What am I going to say? What if you know And then never
go through a presentation in the order you want them to.
They will always jump to wherever it is you need to go
and you need to go with that because they are coming from
their perspective and they need an answer to certain questions
that they've got so that they can.
Say yes to the budget. Say yes to the project, say yes
or no to whatever it is. And so you have to sort of shift
and flow with the conversation whilst keeping calm.
And I think one of the key things to remember when you're
going into these senior stakeholder interactions is to
remember to focus on the value that you bring to the table
because you're hired to do a job.
And they're not expecting you to do their job or be where they
are in their careers or even have the same comments or
experience as them. They've hired you to do a job.
And they want you to go with that value so that you can add
value to the interaction, to the conversation.
So when you feel yourself like you can think, well, actually I
know that. I do this.
This is the value I bring in and that is what I'm gonna focus on
in this conversation. So really focus on the value
that you bring to the table. I imagine doing that kind of
swings us into the topic of confidence as well, right?
So when you understand your own value, I know for myself when I
see that and. I think as as women in
particular, we struggle with that, right.
I think it's just there's studies on this.
There's entire studies about how the mechanics of our brain work
as women and how it's really hard for us to recognize the
value in ourselves. And but once you do, and even if
that is a believe me, this is a practice, this is not just a one
time aha moment, I see the value in myself.
This is day-to-day reminding yourself of the value.
And so I'd love this technique, Laura, so much just because
there's a lot. It's, it's a very simple
technique. But I think of all of them this
people might struggle with this one in particular, maybe women,
just because this is not something we're used to doing.
And so to get yourself there could be a challenge.
But I think when you do, it will definitely pay dividends for
you, especially if you're going into a meeting like this where
you're surrounded by. A senior leadership team that
all the confidence in the world would be exuding from you if you
could figure that piece out, yeah.
Absolutely. And let's talk a bit about how
do you do that. So one of the things is.
Is the value and and I think you're you're absolutely right
and I again we could we we can talk for hours about the
differences between men and women and and all of that stuff.
But whether you're male or female, focusing on the value
you take into that meeting is a good way to get out of your head
and focus on what's in the room. But one of the things that is
key in these interactions is confidence.
And it's always going to be confidence.
And I know that in sort of when we're starting out in our
careers, people are encouraging. And you know that there's
there's room to not show that you're nervous so much and
things like. But I think once you get to a
certain level, that confidence is key to the interaction that
you're going to have because. People pay attention to
confident people, right? We we naturally it's in our
genes to pay attention to confident people and confident
people have that authority and really confidence enable what's
going through us. It enables us to take action and
it enables us to think clearly so.
They want you to be confident because then they can trust the
signals that they're getting is that they're like, yeah, she
knows what she's talking about. We're going to make this
decision and then we're going to do XY&Z.
And as soon as you as soon as that sort of confidence isn't
there, they're kind of distracted and off to the next
thing because you've lost that credibility.
And I think one of the sort of key things to remember is
whatever is going on inside you. So however you're feeling inside
is what you project outside. So if you're feeling like
generally it's going to be showing, it's very hard for any
period of time certainly. In in that interaction to hold
down feelings that you're like freaking out now they expect you
to be nervous because it's that hierarchy thing, but you need to
have confidence in what you're saying and I think there's a
difference there. They don't expect you to be like
ice cold and walk in and not be intimidated by that meeting, but
they expect you to be confident in in what you say and I think.
You've got to think about what is going, what is going on
inside, and therefore what am I projecting outside?
You're not. And I love that you you know you
summarize the all the techniques with I love that we're covering
confidence last because I I imagine if we flip this in
reverse and we went with confidence first, people would
be like well if I'm not confident and what does the rest
of these techniques mean for me but.
Very nicely. You have woven the end point of
this kind of the bow is that if you do all the techniques that
you've outlined before, we got to this piece on confidence that
will absolutely help you kind of build to get to that area where
you feel confident. Yeah.
Everything we've talked about is about giving you more
confidence. And I think one of the other
things that everyone can do, and I do it right, I do it before I
I, I interact in when I'm going into important meetings, is that
I always talk about confidence as a muscle.
It's like a muscle. And what makes confidence is how
you're breathing, how your, what your posture is, your body
language. What is going on in your head?
What how you know the emotions that are going through all that
connected up is how confidence you're how confident you're
feeling. And when you practice feeling
confident, then all that stuff starts linking up and you are
more confident. And actually the point is that
your brain cannot work out the difference.
Between what is made-up in your head, what is a made-up
experience and what actually is real.
So it makes sense that if you practice and if you tone your
confidence muscle, then you you, you develop this and your brain
is like okay, That's quite okay. That's what I need to go in
with. I need to go in with that
feeling and one thing that you can do and I do it.
I do it every day and I do it for slightly different reasons.
Is to go through take a few minutes every morning.
Take a few minutes every morning and visualize that interaction
going well. Visualize yourself being
confident. It may be a made-up interaction
if you just want to feel confident, or it may be
something that's coming up, or it may be something in the past,
but if you just close your eyes and go through that experience.
Seeing what you see, hearing what you hear, feeling what you
feel and get connecting those emotions.
Your brain doesn't distinguish between what is real and what is
imaginary. And that is why visualization
work and why you can kind of build this confidence muscle.
And I always get all my clients to, that's one of the first
things I do for them or or get them to do is I say, you know,
this is how confidence is made-up.
This is all the components of confidence.
And yes, there are other factors that give us confidence like
we've discussed today. At core, you want to build your
confidence muscle on a daily basis and you know what's great
when you do it, it makes you feel good until you go into your
day going, oh, okay, I'm ready, I'm on it.
And okay, when you go into those senior stakeholder meetings,
they are more challenging for sure.
But if you're going in and flexing that confidence muscle.
Then you're just going to perform much, much better in
those interactions. So take a few minutes of your
morning and go through that visualization of any interaction
where you are on top of your game feeling really confident
and I promise you it, it would shift and create that habit for
you so that you can go into those interactions being.
Much more confident and when you're feeling confident it just
helps you perform better as well.
So if people are listening to this alike, I'm already
confident I do it so I perform better and I'm I'm you know I'm
on my 8th game. People who struggle with
confidence do it to be more confident and there's a kind of
transition through that process but it it makes you feel great
too. So part of the morning routine I
always like it to go go through. I love that you've portrayed the
different aspects of confidence, right?
Because I I at least feel like when I was growing up
professionally, professionally, the word confidence meant you
were arrogant or you know, you you knew more than everybody
else. And that's not necessarily what
we're saying here. I love the way that you said it.
It's like you go through these progressions of what confidence
means for you. And it may be starting out in
your career, it's just kind of building to be confident.
Whereas later on in your career, because you've had the
experiences and because you've practiced and given yourself the
space to remind yourself that you should be confident in the
value that you bring to the table.
That it eventually kind of transitions to this other space
where it's just how do I I'm confident, but how do I build on
that? How do I make sure that it
continues to add value and that and so.
Yes, Laura, I love that you kind of tied this all up in a pretty
bow with the this conversation around confidence, because I
think without that the rest of the techniques kind of they're
there. But I think that it just all
ties together very, very nice and neat.
So Laura, I think this has been a great conversation around how
you can bring all those things together, techniques,
confidence, build yourself up. And I I appreciate that you're
bringing it to us in this month as well for for women's history
months. It's like I think it's just a
very relevant topic. But no matter which gender is
listening right now, I think that all of these tips and
techniques can apply to you and how you would effectively
communicate with senior stakeholders and do that with
confidence. So Laura, thank you so much for
your time today on this installment of the Everyday PM
podcast. If folks want to continue the
conversation, I know we talked a little bit earlier about.
Your master class, but if there's any other avenues that
people can reach you on, please feel free to plug them now.
Yeah no I would you know confidence is part of the the
the training at the master class as his senior stakeholder
communication and how to really progress and and build
relationships in the master class.
And I I, I I just say to everyone come to that master
class and then have some experience the types of things
that ways that we can help you. And then we can carry on the
conversation from there. So that is at
www.activatemycareerlive.com and I look forward to seeing you
that. I highly encourage everyone to
check it out. I've I've worked, obviously
Laura and I are still going to know each other, but you've been
on a few podcasts, you've given us a lot of great knowledge
through those podcast episodes and I've worked with in my
career other professionals, people who are experienced, who
can help, and so this is an area that you're looking for.
Help in or if it's something else in your career, then
definitely please feel free to reach out to Laura and attend
that master class. So for the everyday PM, you can
support us as well support us on Spotify.
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Thank you for those that are following the podcast, but if
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everyday PM. So that will do it for Laura and
I in this installment of the Everyday PM podcast.
Thanks everybody for listening today, and until next time, take
care.