When you're the only one in the room
Meredith Wilson
Shift your leaders. Shift your Culture. | Cultures that work | Speaker Author Mentor | #cultureshift #leadershift #creatingcapacity
When you’re the only one in the room, something happens.
Yes, you relax sometimes and forget for a while, especially when you know and like the others in the room.
Still.
You’re the only one in the room.
It’s hard to be unaffected.
It’s important not to be ineffective or to waste the opportunity.
It’s exhausting bearing the weight of representation and expectation.
Some topics pass by or are easy to contribute to. Others are fraught. Your question, or your answer, may be weighted or seen as representative, because you’re the only one in the room.
You may be asked to speak for all of your kind, when you’re the only one in the room.
You may not be asked to speak, when you’re the only one in the room.
You may feel like the token or under the spotlight, when you’re the only one in the room.
And sometimes you can relax and enjoy the conversation and forget you’re the only one in the room.
Still.
The best thing to do is keep showing up and giving your best.
The next best thing you can do is to forge the path and lift others up,
so you are no longer, the only one in the room.
Partner at Deloitte | HR Advisory Leader | Human Capital Management | HR Technology Expert
2 年Perfectly said Meredith Wilson I totally resonate with this, especially early in my career, except for the times when you were in the room with me ??
Chief People Officer | COO | EVP | Strategy | Transformation | Employee Experience + Customer Experience | Transformation | Program Leadership | Operational Excellence | Communication | Brand + Marketing
2 年Beautifully said. Thank you.
Executive Leadership Coach | Accelerating and Elevating Leaders and Teams | Accredited Strengths and EQ Coach | Marketing Strategy Consulting for a Lucky Few | Marketing Coach | Marketing Workshops |
3 年Great read Meredith! Very poetic and poignant. Thanks for inviting this conversation into our feeds.
Finance Specialist at Pope Layton LLC | Part Time Lecturer at University at North Carolina at Charlotte
3 年I like the last part...it is what we have to do - believing that our best can be as good as anyone else's in the room! "The best thing to do is keep showing up and giving your best. The next best thing you can do is to forge the path and lift others up, so you are no longer, the only one in the room."
Senior Manager, Human Resources | Business Partnering | Leadership Development | Employee & Industrial Relations | Strategic Planning | Employee Engagement | Talent Management | Training & Development | People & Culture
3 年Great read Meredith