Are women being held back by their lack of self-confidence? I think there is a broader perspective to consider.

A couple of days ago I had the pleasure to attend the ABSL Poland #WomenTogether meeting hosted by Google. It was a wonderful opportunity to meet with many inspiring women and exchange perspectives on three topics: Women in public speaking, in executive positions & succession planning and in the AI world.

In small discussions and when gathering final ideas, self-confidence was raised a lot as one of the factors that blocks women’s visibility and advancement.  

To me, developing self-confidence of women is not an individual task.

It’s a question that needs to be looked at systemically in our organizations:

1.     We need equitable and inclusive workplaces

… where our contributions, as women, are seen and valued, so that we don’t lose the confidence that we bring to the rooms, due to our ideas being undermined. This means more inclusive ideas collecting processes, decision-making processes, more awareness and responses to microaggressions that we experience when we contribute with our expertise. It’s a collective effort that needs a structured process.

2.     We need a continue a redefinition of leadership

…where the leader is recognized not by fulfilling the implicit requirement of having a certain level of demonstrated (fake or real) self-confidence but rather for their abilities to empower people and see the potential in others. There is much more to leadership than self-confidence and women lead incredibly efficiently thanks to their skill sets, not their level of confidence.

3.     We need diversified women role-models

…who are genuine, authentic and vulnerable WHILE being amazing experts and rocking their roles, so that other women can see themselves in their positions one day. And see themselves just as they are, without needing to “fake it until you make it.” The more we normalize imperfection and our uniqueness, the more women would feel that they belong in the places of power without needing to “fix themselves first”.

Building self-confidence comes from facing our barriers and convictions we have about ourselves and about our gender roles and powerful transformation of these convitions.

Step by step. On our terms.

Thank you Agnieszka Orłowska and Tina Sobocinska for leading by example and for inspiring such great discussions in the groups.

It was wonderful to connect again with xxx and to get to know xxx with whom I had a great and thought-provoking coffee break, hopefully not the last one!

What are your thought of elf-confidence of women? Are sometimes our own blockers?