I’m a leadership expert obsessed with creating outstanding female leaders in the field of engineering.
Session 2 of the 2017 Women in Hard Hats Group mentoring program completed last week with talented female engineers from all areas of engineering. All sessions are based on my ‘curating confidence‘ model. Each session we cover elements of mission, mastery and mindset.
Mastery for session #2 is focused on how to deal with difficult people. We built confidence in dealing with people when they are upset or angry so that their rational brains can be re-engaged and solutions that work for everyone can be developed, enhancing relationships in the process. The session included a significant element of practice and is followed up by phone call coaching to support putting skills into practice.
Mission session covered Richard Bolles model on the mission on life:
a) To exercise the Talent that you particularly came to Earth to use – your greatest gift, which you most delight to use
b) in the place(s) or setting(s) that appeals to you the most
c) and for those purposes that most needs to be done in the world
Finally we covered off the Mindset element of the model with a session on understanding the origins of fear, why it exists and how it limits us. We identified multiple options for dealing with fear to enable us to keep playing bigger and not limiting ourselves.
It is becoming more and more clear to me that there is an issue of how female engineers stand out in their workplaces. My theory is that female engineers have spent so long hoping to not stand out and be ‘one of the boys’ that they have become masters at being invisible. Hence, they are regularly overlooked for leadership positions. (This is but one of my many theories on why so many talented women are not in the leadership positions that they should be!)
In the coming sessions we will be exploring how women can step up and ‘occupy their space’ for greater visibility and dramatically improved influence.
