Confidence to speak up - Wingwomen Podcast with executive Lian Hillier & Valerie Mocker

Build your workplace confidence: 

"Do you ever feel like your voice isn't heard in meetings, or struggle with speaking up at work?"

"Have you ever wondered how to address inappropriate behavior in the workplace while maintaining professionalism?"

"Did you ever wish you had a stronger support system inside your company so people proactively help you get ahead? 

"Do you ever feel held back by self-doubt or wonder how you become more assertive and build your confidence?”

"Are you looking for practical strategies that help women rise and succeed in your organization?"

Then this episode of the Wingwomen video podcast with our CEO Valerie Mocker and her guest, CPO Lian Hillier, is for you!

Practical tips to boost your confidence at work, navigate your organisation and build the toolkit to advance your career. 

Here are 5 practical tips and strategies for your personal growth that you’ll take away from this episode:

• Use your voice with confidence: Remember you were hired for your unique perspective; your voice and ideas are valuable - Valerie and Lian will share how you can get them across more effectively in difficult situations.  

• Call it out: It’s important to set boundaries. We practice how you address inappropriate behavior in a respectful yet effective way - including the: "Quick, factual, and move on” method!

• Speak up, it's a debate, not a disagreement: When you feel yourself tensing up before a difficult conversation, try to mentally replace the word "disagreement" with "debate." This small shift can help you approach the situation with curiosity and more confidence, rather than defensiveness and stress. 

• Build your toolkit: Prepare responses for common challenging situations so you feel more confident in addressing them. Have a few "go-to" phrases in your back pocket. For example, if someone interrupts you, say “I love your enthusiasm, let me finish my thought before I pass on to you”. Listen in to get more “go-to” phrases!

• Use HR to find your Wingwomen and Wingmen who can help you navigate challenging situations: Valerie shares in this episode how Lian (back then in her HR department) helped her successfully negotiate her roles, salary raises and promotions.

Key chapters in this episode

Defining Confidence (0:00:01 - 0:12:20) Let’s define confidence and the "handbrakes" that hinder confidence.  

Strategies for Speaking Up (0:13:59 - 0:20:52) Learn how to effectively communicate, reframe disagreements, and find out how to value and express your perspective in the workplace.  

Workplace Challenges Women Face and Solutions (0:20:52 - 0:30:40) Find out how to address the issue of women's lack of support for other women and learn practical strategies for addressing unsupportive behavior and building yourself the right supportive network.

The Role of HR (0:34:12 - 0:41:28) Learn how you can strategically use HR as a resource to advance, from guidance and conflict mediation to key policy explanation and help when you negotiate a salary or promotion.

Building Supportive Organisations (0:48:24 - 0:54:23) Find out what organisations can do to foster confidence and advance more women to the top, and dive with us into creating effective employee networks, implementing diversity training, and prioritizing succession planning the right way.

Meet your Wingwomen, CEO Valerie Mocker and CPO Lian Hillier

Our host Valerie Mocker is a leading expert in confidence building and career advancemen and the CEO of Wingwomen. With a mission to help more women rise to the top, Valerie and our Confidence Academy help women get confident at work and their organisations with the tools, coaching and trainingto become workplaces where women love to work and stay.

Lian Hillier is a seasoned executive and board member in people and culture strategy. Lian is currently Chief People Officer at the PRI and is building an empowering, inclusive organisational culture for people across its global offices. She shares with us what HR departments can and should do for you and why you’ll find a lot more support there than you might realise!