TIPS & INSIGHTS

There’s a lot to think about when you start a new job, a hundred things, big and small, that you don’t know but need to learn very quickly. Some things you can plan for, some you can’t. But there is one sure-fire way to make yourself unpopular and set you back on your path to success and it happens more times than it should - coming on too strong and trying too hard.

Want to look confident? Get to know your shine time and structure your day around your optimal schedule. Understand your windows of opportunity to maximise your effectiveness and impact.

Stop stumbling over "Tell me about yourself." Craft a concise pitch highlighting your role, key strengths, and the value you deliver, setting the stage for a powerful conversation about your impact and value.

A lack of confidence can be a very real barrier to career success and being fulfilled at work. It might stop you from putting yourself forward for opportunities, voicing your ideas or pulling back when faced with a new or challenging situation. It can also hinder how well you ‘sell’ yourself in interviews. For those who lack confidence and experience low self-esteem, there are things you can do to help you feel more confident. Here are the five steps I recommend.

You aren’t stupid or lacking because you can’t get unstuck in your career. Resistance is real. That’s why coaching helps. It lends another perspective, helps you recognise what is holding you back and what the scary really is - and how to tackle it. If you feel stuck, why not try tackling the problem with someone who knows how to help you, someone who can reach out the hand that will help you scramble up and over the barrier and stop you bashing your face against it.

Working isn’t just ‘doing’. Working is allowing your brain to process information and generate fresh thinking.

Over-apologising, saying sorry excessively, can be damaging, undermining a woman’s confidence, authority and credibility.

Is your glass half full, or half empty. Choosing to see the positive opens up possibilities and helps you build confidence and resilience. Thinking about how our brains work and how we change our behaviours, there is sound data to suggest that we can change how we perceive the world and react to it. By making a conscious choice to do or not do something and repeating that positive choice starts to create a habit, build momentum and seed more positivity.

I don’t believe the perfect job exists. And, even if it did, I’m not sure it would stay interesting for very long. Perfection can get boring pretty quickly. And as with anything that looks good on the surface, the story underneath can show quite a different reality. If you’d like to stop chasing an unattainable dream job and focus instead on what could make you happy at work, why not try a session of Career Therapy?

Tackling perfectionism to make more progress and be less of a perfectionist: The fear of not achieving perfection is strong enough to prevent them from starting in the first place or, if they do manage to start, not getting things finished. And not finishing causes a confidence wobble, which starts the cycle of self-doubt and pushing for perfection again. But it is vital to understand that perfection drains your confidence.

Confidence isn’t fixed — it’s flexible and shaped by context, experience, and mindset. If it can be lost, it can be rebuilt. Confidence grows through action, self-awareness, and reframing fear. It’s not who you are, it’s how you choose to show up. And it’s always reclaimable.

Our confidence understandably grows when we perceive we have control over what is happening. Conversely, that confidence shrinks when we feel like things are happening beyond our control and, even worse, get ‘out of control’. We feel more confident when we are in control because we know what we are doing and what is expected. We know we have the knowledge/skills/resources required by the situation.

Wondering ‘what if’ isn’t a bad thing. In fact, using analysis of factors and outcomes helps us play through different aspects of a situation, find novel/better options and generate new insights. Asking ‘what if’ opens a door to possibilities. What’s the worst that can happen? What if you did make the wrong choice? It could happen, but you would deal with it because we are also hardwired to survive. And you’d have learned something you could use to make better future decision

Connect with and articulate your passion in a way that is authentic to you so you can be happy and productive in your career.

‘Trust your gut’ is common advice when we are faced with a decision. But why would we do that? What does our gut know (intuitively) that...

Make networking easier by knowing how to ask great questions and make someone feel interested in what you have to say.

Decisions can be hard because they are full of unknowns and risks. Often, we don’t know what we don’t know, and that can be nerve-wracking and hard to accept. But we can’t know everything. Sometimes we have to take a leap of faith or, to put it another way, jump and accept that we might fall…or land gracefully. We can choose to think positively.

How many of us are good at faking active listening whilst our brains rush to devise solutions we can offer as advice? Two hard but vital lessons for me in my career have been to stop my brain racing and listen and think about the best solution, not the first solution.

Why questions create space to explore our motivation, assumptions, reasons and purpose - and challenge accepted thinking.

Do you know what motivates you to be productive? Does your interest in an activity rocket when it’s new then fall into a lull? Or do you...