Championing Yourself – Challenge the stigma of Self Promotion.

The concept of ‘Championing Yourself’ is foreign to most women, because the reality is that it seems to be shameful to boast, promote or champion in yourself on the public platform.

Many women find it difficult to speak about their strengths and achievements and many have uncovered research that has demonstrated that whilst women find other women’s accomplishments motivating, they avoid talking about their own successes and even downplay their merits.

The accusation of being a ‘Self-Promoter’ seems to haunt the most confident of personalities, and in the ever-Australian way, it seems way too common to hear others attacking those who dare to strive to improve themselves, their livelihood and their futures by championing themselves in the public arena.

So how do we go about claiming our space as an awe-inspiring woman, without sounding boastful and being accused of being a ‘Self-Promoter”?

Respect yourself

It starts with self-respect. This is the most important thing that you can do. Know your value, your worth, your potential. Have confidence in your abilities and banish all thoughts of self-doubt.

Be Compassionate

When you look around at who is throwing out the Self-Promoter card at you, take a long hard look at their situation, what are they are experiencing and why they would perceive what you are tyring to achieve as “Self-Promotion.” Have they experienced failure or lack of attention for their achievements in life, are they frustrated and feeling spiteful because you are achieving and gaining recognition?

This always brings me back to my wonderful and ever so wise grandmother words, whenever someone was mean, nasty or spiteful, she would always say, ‘well until you have walked a mile in that person’s shoes, you do not know what they are going through’, those words have resonated with me my entire life and never a truer sentence has been spoken.

Help Other Women

Don’t forget you are not the only one working to break the glass ceiling!

If women don’t help each other out, then who will?

I have seen this firsthand and experienced this personally, women being overly critical of other women, discounting each other’s accomplishments, holding women to unreasonably high standards, and more, all so that they can be seen as the best.

We are all so busy fighting to break our own glass ceiling that we lose sight of what we are sacrificing to do it.

The biggest problem of all is that we end up perpetuating the stereotypes, the bias and preconceived notions we’re working so hard fight against.

We have inadvertently let our own unconscious biases and our fears stand in the way, we have created our own barriers and we don’t even realise that we are doing it!

We have become so focused on smashing the glass ceiling, that we forget there is room for more than one person at the top!

So, what should we do? Instead of pulling up the ladder, reach back and extend it to another woman, pull her up to your level, give her the support she needs to break her glass ceiling.

Be a Mentor & a Leader

Let’s remember not everything is a competition, my success does not equal the failure of another, we are much stronger when we work together, supporting each other, building success together. Being a champion for yourself and others. Lay down the path for others to follow, women need to help each other, do everything in your power to pave the way for other women to follow you.

Find ways to make women more visible within your workplace or environment, provide opportunities when you can, give feedback to help other women to achieve her goals, become a mentor, pay it forward. Just because it wasn’t easy for you, does not mean you can not make it easier for the next woman following in your footsteps.

If you are the first woman to hold a title, role or specific job, be sure to be on the look out for the next woman to keep your legacy going forward.

Work not only for yourself but for each other regardless of what you have faced, for many of us it has not been easy, but we kept on working towards our goals, overcoming obstacles to achieve success, that makes us all champions in my view, and if we surround ourselves with other champions, we are “Championing Ourselves” and paving the way forward for the next generation of female leaders.

Know your Audience

Knowing your audience – this brings me to a time when I was hosting a Girls in Aviation day event, I was speaking to 4 very young and impressionable girls who had just been up for a flight with me, they wanted photos with the lady pilot and we were talking about how it made them feel and how they could do anything they set their minds to in life, they were looking up at me with these faces of pure innocence, when a man approached us, his first thing to say to me was ‘Why are you filling their heads with this rubbish! They will never be able to afford to get a pilot licence, stop telling them they can do this, you’re setting them up to fail!”

Now my first reaction I must admit, was to fire up, how dare he accuse me of lying to these girls, I felt the hair on my neck stand up and the fire in my belly roar to life. But then I stopped myself, I took a long deep breath and I looked around at these four little girls looking up at me and in that moment I realised, that this guy was not my audience, these young smiling faces were my audience and it did not matter what he thought or what he said, because he was not going to be inspired by what I had achieved, but these young girls were.

Be the Inspiration for Others

Be the inspiration for others - You Can Be what you Can See!

Many times young women have approached me to ask about my career, how I got to do the things I have done, who inspired me to do these things? You never know who and when you may be inspiring others in your day-to-day life so always lead by example.