Leadership and Executive Development for women of all races, cultures and backgrounds
Issue link: https://diversitywoman.epubxp.com/i/510478
importance of what they say when they do speak up—even female executives in meet- ings with their peers. But being on the de- fensive appears as a lack of confdence. Wong quickly learned how to be more assertive. For example, to be taken seri- ously, she stopped starting sentences with "I think." Instead she'd say, "From my experience, this is what I have seen." "When you start with 'I think,' people may think you're trying to be polite, and polite doesn't cut it in the business world," she says. Why is it important for women to be as- sertive in the workplace? "When the tal- ent and ability of everyone on a team are fully utilized, we have better information and perform better," says Vikki Pryor, former CEO of insurance company SBLI, who is now a leadership development consultant in New York. Here's how to be more assertive and overcome the tendency to apologize. 1. Believe in your self-worth. Fostering self-respect is the frst step in becoming more emphatic in how you pres- ent yourself. Pryor calls this doing "self- work." In her experience, organizations may not always encourage active par- ticipation, and some people may have an unconscious bias against certain groups. "But no one in a leadership role is going to say 'I'm not going to consider that view because it's coming from a woman,'" she ofers. So don't personalize the situation if your voice is not being heard; instead, give yourself a pep talk. Learning to be assertive in the workplace. By Pat Olsen J ue Wong, CEO of skin care com- pany StriVectin since 2012, admits to being less than assertive when she started in the commodities feld. Ini- tially she was hesitant to speak up and try to get colleagues' attention, which she attributes to her Asian upbringing. "I had always been told to be respectful and let my seniors speak," Wong explains. "Learning to be assertive is counterculture for many of us." Tat's true for many females. Women are often less assertive than men in the work- place and tend to apologize or minimize the We Mean Business > d i v e r s i t y w o m a n . c o m S u m m e r 2 0 1 5 D I V E R S I T Y W O M A N 17 THINKSTOCKPHOTOS Accelerate Speak Up and Don't Apologize