10 Ways to Empower Your Voice in Any Conversation
10 Ways to Empower Your Voice in Any Conversation
I was thinking about the topic of sales for my webinar Thursday, March 13 on 3 Sure-Fire Tips to Close More Sales and reflecting on women’s challenges with speaking up, speaking out and asking for what they are worth. I see women struggling daily with the confidence to manage difficult conversations, to hold successful sales conversations or to talk to their significant other about a challenging subject like money.
We are faced with difficult conversations almost daily and learning to manage those conversations with grace and ease takes courage and confidence. Most of us are secretly afraid of one of the following issues:
- rejection
- not being liked
- not being approved of
- being judged
- losing love
- having nothing
I was talking to one of my coaching clients today and she is struggling with a relationship with a woman in one of her networking groups. She has tried to reach out and invite a conversation in order to work through the situation but the other person is unwilling to participate. It takes a lot of courage to ask for help and to be unwilling to put up with an uncomfortable situation. It often feels easier to avoid, ignore or walk away from a situation like this one.
After brainstorming some potential solutions (asking for someone to mediate the conversation and killing her with kindness were two of the suggestions) I acknowledged my client for her willingness to tackle this difficult situation and find resolution.
The truth is that there is only one thing we need to empower our voice in any conversation and that one thing is CONFIDENCE!
But if gaining the confidence we need to empower ourselves was that easy, we would all be successful now instead of struggling to find our voice.
Empower Your Voice with this Acronym
As a former school-teacher, I love acronyms. Here’s what the word CONFIDENCE means to me. I think anyone can emerge from fear to faith in ourselves by focusing on these 10 ways to empower your voice:
C – Courage
O – Openness
N – Niceness
F – Faith
I – Integrity
D – Decisiveness
E – Engagement
N – Know when to say NO
C – Commitment
E – Empathy
Creating confidence in ourselves is not a linear practice, in fact it looks more like the spaces in a mandala, each individual section contributing to the integrity of the whole. Some of us will feel more comfortable with different parts of this process and others may feel terrifying or make us feel too vulnerable.
I encourage you to get your journal out and create a dialogue with each of these words or even a piece of artwork that combines color with these words. I could tell you what they mean to me, but true empowerment comes from within. Trust your won inner guidance!
I also invite you to join me Thursday, March 13 at 9:30am for a FREE WEBINAR on empowering your voice to close more sales. Click here to register and get more details.
Lovely way to remember my confidence
The more we can make it fun and playful and not always so serious, the easier we can remember it!
Minette
Love the acronym. It provides a great visual and serves as guidance for delving deeper into the areas we matey need more work on.
Thanks Linda Joy!
Great acronym Minette. Enjoyed your post!
Thanks, Pamela!
Very nicely presented, we can all relate to this situation.
Thank you Carolyn!
Perfect, I will never forget this when I am doing anything I am so grateful you shared this I will be sharing it with my teen age daughter. Bless you and yours, Karen
Thanks, Karen, I love that you will be sharing this with your daughter, too!! When I see how much confidence my kids have today, I am so envious and joyful at the same time – wish I had been able to experience confidence in my teen years 🙂
It’s so nice to finally hear other women use their most powerful tool and that is our VOICE! Thank you Minette for sharing and posting this very important message. I have always been very boisterous (according to our opposite sex gender) but in reality I am just very blunt and straight forward. Once you can eliminate all the greys in between and just keep it black and white everything else comes together accordingly. I too wear many hats and drop many balls when it’s whining down time for me! Winkie..wink.. lol. Have a blessed evening and a great WEBINAR Session!
I just heard about a campaign called BanBossy that I think you would appreciate Rebecca! It’s about empowering women’s voices and stopping girls from being called “bossy” when they are simply being assertive and speaking up!
Good article. I like the use of the acronym to explain how to empower your voice with confidence.
Thanks, Paula, it’s the former teacher in me, I love acronyms!!
Love the acronym! In my work with my clients, I’ve learned that it is always best to share my insights and expertise, even when it contradicts what the client has been told elsewhere. Most clients appreciate my honesty and willingness to speak up and love me the more for it. Only once did I lose a client… and in that case, it was for the best.
It took me over 40 years to learn to speak up and share my voice. Once I started, I realized that my teachers back in school had been right, other people do benefit from my full participation.
So true, Lesa. Thanks for sharing!!