Issue 26 | Bloom with Ruth Penfold-Brown

Hello beautiful human

One of the biggest things I struggled with as a?first time VP People, was having the confidence to share my ideas in every forum.

Tell me if you’ve ever felt like this too.?

It's like you are stuck.

You are watching the action around you in the room, you know what you want to say, but it’s like you are paralysed, looking for excuses not to say something. Eventually, perhaps even someone else in the room says what you were about to say.?

As a first-time Head of or VP of People, it's natural to feel like you're treading water in uncharted territory.

But here's the truth:?You are not alone, and you are more capable than you realise.?

It's okay to feel like you don't have all the answers, like you're still finding your footing. In fact, it's a sign of growth and humility.

One day a colleague called me out on it. She said; 'I notice you don’t say very much in meetings'. I said; 'Yes, it’s like I am having the conversation in my head.'.

I decided to do three things:

1. Prepare ahead of meetings?to make sure I always had updates on my team to contribute - if you are in a People role, there is always people involved in whatever they are talking about.

2. Try to speak as early as I could?in a meeting, once you get started it is so much easier to keep going!

3. And?I asked her to work with me on speaking up more, and to invite me into a conversation if it looked like I was holding back.?

It worked, the more I did it, the more confident I felt doing it. Soon I was being invited not just into more executive meetings, but also to speak on stages as you see here in this picture. My world just started to open up.?

If you want any chance to build your career on your terms, you have to discover the reason you’ve been muting your intuition and find a new strategy to communicate in a way that feels safe and aligned.

That’s what we do in Bloom, giving you tools and frameworks that make it feel easy to communicate your value.?Find out more about joining us in Bloom by catching the replay of my recent masterclass here.

Big love, RPB ??

Ps. Here's the first call with some of the Bloom community this January - I am so blessed to get to share space with these amazing women ?? (in this picture Yasmin Chalmers Gemma Lockhart Leigh Scholefield Allison Anti, MSHR, MBA Krutika Srinivasan Hanna Smith FCIPD Olya Yakzhina Natasha Norman Joanne G )

Thank you to Kelly Vickery for your thought leadership in the clip below. Find the full episode here.

Thanks also to Jenn Fenwick , Jessica Z. , Dannique Blake, FRSA , Natasha Norman , Hanna Smith FCIPD , Allison Anti, MSHR, MBA and Gemma Lockhart for being involved in the other episodes so far this season!

Phewffff, we made it to the end of January. And breathe.?

Anyone else...??

On the topic of January... I'm not really much of a resolutions person, but I do love to enter each year with the intention of embodying a theme, or rather, setting an intention to embody it.?

Maybe you would like to have one too…??

I have had things like:?

?? Being over doing [this was a struggle until COVID came and made the world stop DOING haha]?

?? Living courageously [I will always be working on this!]

?? Learning how to be vulnerable [I was in warrior mode after my divorce, and this was when I was restoring a little softness into my world in order to make space for a partner... I am happy to say it worked!]

Since we entered 2024,?I've been pondering what feels true for me this year. And low and behold, a little bit of quiet space at a retreat centre in Northern California in January and boom...?luminosity.?

If I think about what I want to create with Bloom, is a magical chain reaction of awakening to who we really are as women. As one of us Blooms, our luminosity reaches other women on a soul level and invites us to Bloom also.?

How amazing would that be, tonnes of women in Bloom, inspiring us all to create, experiment and be courageous in how we show up.?

Okay your turn, what would you like to embody this year...??Drop me a note and LMK ????