Have you ever been turned down for a promotion? A habit to adopt to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Every single fricking day people. I read in the book Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg two years ago that women are turned down for promotions or next level positions because they cannot speak about the great things they do. Women struggle to accurately own, recall and speak about their contributions.
I didn’t really believe this right away and then I thought about the last interview I had done. Then I remembered leaving feeling as if I had killed it. I didn’t get offered the position. So I after reading this I started reflecting on what I actually said. EVERY SINGLE THING I SAID I willingly chalked up to the team and told stories of how myself and everyone else accomplished everything. That moment I thought how do we stop this. How do I grow my own confidence to ensure I do not do this.
At that time I was coaching high school volleyball and I thought well maybe I could change the 100 girls I had with me every day. So we started our day with great things. Every day we started our day stating with our great things. It could be anything the only stipulation was that it had to be something they did and it had to be voiced confidently. Each day we showed up looking for greatness in our day. That practice transformed our work together.
Here is the deal the more we do this confidently speak to our greatness the better we can show up when it is called on. I am no longer willing to sit here and let women get handed the short stick because we are “team players”. If we know owning our greatness is a struggle then we can’t get past it unless we start showing up to reverse it. Practice makes perfect.