How to fulfill your diverse potential

Ever felt that you were not reaching your full potential?

Finding enough courage to fulfill your potential is a bold decision. Here are six steps to help you move in the right direction.

Twelve months ago I embarked on a courageous journey to unlock my potential ??

Definition: Being courageous means disciplining oneself to confront, eliminate, and act in spite of fear of the unknown. 

Working in Talent Acquisition, I've seen many 'amazing' talented women also with the challenge of intersectionality (like me) lacking the inner confidence & ability to rise above circumstances. There's a plethora of information out there on self-help, becoming a better leader, increasing your chances of being successful.

I needed this to be condensed and simplified with practical easy steps to navigate through this minefield of information.

Looking back, the simple steps & changes that I made enabled me to gain more confidence that surpassed my expectation. 

It was a small but mighty

shift in focus:

Stop ?? breathe ? and take a deep look ??

at yourself and embrace

Project You.

Project You is a career innovation lab that takes a scientific approach - a social experiment to see if all this stuff that you read and hear about on Ted Talks, Forbes, etc ?? holds any truth.

Finding (Your) Why 

Many career coaches start ‘Career Convos’ on finding your why and your life purpose, it’s also known as your unique Ikigai - Japanese ‘reason for being’. Such an ‘ambiguous concept’ how on earth do you find your why?! ?????♀?

A recent millennial diverse leader who can only be described as a ‘rock star firebrand ??’ recently conferred as though I knew.....Finding your Why (with quizzical ??‘s) of course is being in the footnotes of history - duh!!! 

I nodded wide-eyed with absolute comprehension and awe..."Fake it, make it, become it" - inside the concept felt like anathema!

Many Top Leadership Talents have their “Why’s’ well defined and they’re extraordinary pointing their careers always at the points of the chevrons of the next promotion. ??

I’m an average career squiggler so this was the wrong starting point ~ there was a lot of catching up to do!

Over the past 15 years, my personal circumstances have meant that I have pivoted industries and learned to become highly adaptable. This is a strength that I've developed with the unnatural ability to shapeshift ?? as I've sacrificed my career for motherhood and also being a military wife.

To top it off I have total ‘imposter syndrome’ ?? - 75% of men & women suffer from this..

This ‘Why’ business felt ?? a little bit far fetched. So I fast-forwarded and skipped this whole why business & decided to focus on what I knew best ~ My Strengths! 

For the past five years, I’d been helping to manage other people's careers - identifying potential talent and helping them to realise their potential. I have observed with awe & admiration at how they have overcome self-doubt & secured huge leadership opportunities accelerating their careers. Many tried to exit interview processes but eventually conceded with a little persuasion that they had the right transferable skills, capability & potential.

1. ‘Fake it, make it, become it’ ‘come on lean in’
2. ‘What have you got to lose’
3. ‘Say yes at every opportunity’ 

‘Don't forget some power poses at interview!’ - my personal fav are power lunges!

A friend did four at an interview as a teacher (she was returning after three mini-me’s) and she landed four job offers; interview feedback: they liked how she commanded the room ??...:

I’d been rehearsing this script with a razor focus on diversity. Convincing & cajoling future leaders and friends to participate in recruitment processes. Whilst watching from the sidelines...

Unwittingly knowing that at the same time I’d been awoken to the same belief....?????♀?

In my role at TfL, we were sitting on a hidden talent pool of internal talented women and we could not just rely on hiring leaders externally given the acute skills gap/skills shortage, etc.. It was clear that we needed to engage this talent pool differently,

My team started the journey of leading inspiring events in collaboration with our women’s employee resource group under the banner - Project You. ‘Project You’ enables you to take personal accountability for your career development ??. It’s best to see it as a bit of a scientific experiment emotionally removing yourself from the experience. That way you’ll be resilient & bounce back from being deeply uncomfortable! ??

We ran six events in 2019 focusing on the below practical and six easy manageable steps.

1. Finding your why (Big challenge)
2. Developing a dream skills mindset - on the path to the ?? job (Thinking big and defining your dream role)
3. Feedback (Digging deep - receiving feedback for continuous improvement) ??
4. Networking (This became my starting point)
5. Personal branding (I am creative so another possible strength) ??
6. Be in it for the life long learning (still trying to crack this ??) 

I looked at women leaders that inspire me, namely @Sherly Sandberg @Mary Barra @indra nooyi @Espino de Marotta @Greta @JKRowling. Women who had sky ?? ed their careers and importantly authentic. Amazing women leaders for different reasons that I’d be able to talk about at interview and or help to develop my own elevator pitch about leadership.

Did you know that Espino de Marotte wore pink high vis whilst building the Panama Canal? I love how she embraced stereotypes in a male-dominated industry. She set an example to be a visible leader!

Then I looked at my own North ??‘s in my own industry. What are they doing, how do they cast great leadership shadows and ?? it every day?! 

Be prepared to seek the uncomfortable as apparently if you’re too comfortable in a role then you are not going to gain a promotion.

From my experience the more uncomfortable you are then you are on the right track! 

I have cringed ?? at myself .

Looking back I’ve learned from every cringeworthy opportunity ~ developing the growth ?? mindset & challenging myself ! 

?So always say ‘yes’ to an opportunity even if it appears to be a huge mountain ?? to climb, you can climb slowly...

A reflection back I’ve totted up some great experiences: 

• Forcing myself to speak at three recruitment Industry Events in 2019 (with the most amazing peers listening to my passion for diversity, employer branding and pipelines)
• Volunteering with a women’s network - I literally insisted that I needed to be a facilitator owing to lack of representation ??
• Leading on an internal women’s sponsorship programme - I put my hand up to everything...
• Gaining external sponsorship myself onto the talent programme #RL100
• Judging two Industry award panels developing my growth mindset ????
• Ending in the Recruiter magazine with some pretty amazing leaders

But my best and far greatest achievement is my bravery in myself and taking my team with me. I have seen them flourish and thrive as well as many women at Transport for London on LinkedIn!

Often sense checking with them - reverse mentoring is something to rave about! 

Apparently these tiny steps give you ‘dopamine hits’ (I learned this from a 20 year old tech Entrepreneur with three businesses. What a revelation. The gen Z’ers are a future workforce to be reckoned with. 

Start small: 

1. A LinkedIn post per week
2. Seek some feedback from your manager
3. Attend an industry event to develop your subject and domain knowledge
4. Apply for a lateral job move (to develop depth & breadth) - this is developing the dream skills mindset 
5. Apply for a vertical job - my own experience tells me that if women apply they often do better than men, what is missing are the applications!
6. Give back and volunteer for your passion 
7. Be brave and bold, the more you cringe the better 
8. Develop your elevator pitch and test it 
9. Put a 100 day plan in your current role and see your manager as the client

I'm interested to hear if anyone else has embarked on Project You - if so please connect with me on LinkedIn and tell me about how it's going. I'll be cheerleading you from the sidelines!