Story Practice
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How to speak up and influence others when you feel you don't have the power
If you are a woman in tech, sales, engineering, energy or any male-dominated environment you've probably experienced:
- Not being heard when you bring ideas forward.
- Not getting a promotion.
- Not knowing how to set up boundaries at work and at home.
- Not knowing how to be assertive without feeling that you are aggressive or too direct.
- Been told that you are too nice when you are caring for others or showing ethical concerns.
- Or the opposite, that you are too bold and too direct when you are addressing issues clearly.
According to McKinsey report Women in the Workplace 2021, companies need to do the deep cultural work required to create a workplace where all women feel valued.
And in Women at Work report 2021, Deloitte states that women continue to deal with non-inclusive behaviour at work. What it is more shocking is that the report concludes that the majority of women are not satisfied with their job and do not see a long-term future in their current job.
Is this you?
Do you feel valued at work and recognised for your contribution?
Do you feel that your voice matters?
You can certainly wait for companies to catch up with more inclusive behaviours or you can be the person who start the change by leading different conversations.
There is a way to use your voice and influence others in male-orientated environments where uncertainty, massive change and complex scenarios are the norm.
You don’t need to fight your corner anymore, what you need is more collaboration in your corner.
The rules have changed and this programme will show you how to fight less and influence more.
Hi, I'm Natalia
I'm a former human rights lawyer and leadership communication coach and consultant.
I’ve worked for more than two decades as a human rights lawyer in VUCA ( volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) and male-orientated scenarios helping people to create trust and collaboration.
I’ve sat down with experts, members of government and individuals from different backgrounds, cultures and ideologies, to advance human rights agendas and successfully work together on highly sensitive issues.
I got used to being the youngest woman in the room, and I gained a reputation of being what Adam Grant called a "logic bully".
It took me some time to realise that insisting on being right, avoiding confronting hard emotions and producing a well-crafted list of arguments was not helping to me to achieve what I truly wanted: influence others and collaboratively progress the work.
Today, I work with individuals and teams to create a leadership communication approach that embraces diversity and difference to make innovation and high performance achievable and sustainable.
“ Having spent around ten years in my current company as a project manager, I was used to collaborating with co-workers in my team. We had a good communication standards and we worked well together, but I was struggling with certain projects and initiatives that required to engage coworkers more enthusiastically. Not to mention that I took a new role in business development. Overall, I was struggling to build new connections effectively.
I was worried about failing in my new role as I felt I didn’t have the skills to handle some tough conversations with clients.
Since I worked with Natalia, I have now a process that I can easily follow with prospects and clients.
Before, I always focused on talking perfectly because I was worried about being rejected. Now I don't need a script beforehand to speak as I know how to gain more information and create a deeper connection in every conversation. I’m confident that I have now the skills to create psychological safety with all stakeholders and a long lasting and trusted relationship with clients."
Nina Lai
Project Manager.
Why choose this programme:
Why this programme is different
There is plenty of programmes focused on making communication more effective and assertive for women. However, some of them haven't fully come to terms with the meaning of living in a world where volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous workplace environments are the norm.
You can learn to be more direct and assertive when you communicate, but this is not going to be to your advantage anymore because a VUCA world operates under different rules.
Communication skills for women working in VUCA and male-orientated environments need to take into account four important factors:
- People are irrational and make irrational decisions.
- Being right is not an advantage anymore. Nobody listens anymore to the smarter person in the room.
- You can’t convince people. You can throw data to people, scientific evidence and the most compelling facts that you can gather, and still, you will not be able to influence the room.
- Power is more than ever dynamic and contextual.
If you want to operate as a high-performance individual in male orientated environments you need to master communications in a VUCA world.
Communication Skills for women in a VUCA world is an approach to communication that helps you to overcome these obstacles by working with a process that is agile, adaptable and easy to implement in any industry or sector.
“I was a victim of abuse. Working with Natalia helped me tremendously turn around this mentality and empowered me to see my story through another lens. Natalia helped me to see how reframing my thinking can help me speak better about what happened and how speaking better and acquiring the right frame of mind and language helped me to bring the support of various parties to defend my cause and much more, start on my path hoping to help others. I highly recommend Natalia and her work if you want to acquire the tools and the right frame of mind to find indeed “the story that matters” to you and others whom you need to hear you. "
MB
Artist and writer .
What you will achieve with this programme
This process will transform your communication skills allowing you to:
- Face irrationality, opposition, resistance and uncertainty in conversations.
- Express your point of view balancing expertise, logic and rationality with empathy.
- Communicate to ignite action and collaboration.
- Being effective and assertive by bringing people together.
-Create an assertive and collaborative leadership communication style that gets the results that you want.
- Being perceived with more gravitas and authority.
- Use your voice more often at work.
- Handle difficult conversations confidently.
- Create meaningful conversations that will put your ideas forward.
“Natalia helped me craft a new communication and fundraising strategy, in a way that would stay true to the values of my project, my story and the community that was supporting us. Once we had crafted a way to communicate how individuals, businesses and community leaders could be a part of the project, our fundraising skyrocketed, our community grew and is now beginning to multiply. Working with Natalia has been my secret weapon and I would recommend her highly and wholly”
Fiona McIntyre
Founder and Director, Greyhope Bay .
30 days programme to reduce frustration
and start using your voice more effectively .
Go at your own pace
Access 4 pre-recording videos that you can download and watch at your own pace
Learn with others
Access 4 coaching group calls to answer your questions and meet other women working in male-orientated environments
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My role as a coach
My role is questioning, exploring and supporting your journey in achieving your goals, and when appropriate, and if you think it's useful, share insights, processes and tools to help you make a faster and more meaningful transformation.
I work with high-achieving individuals who want to:
- improve their communication skills,
- find new ways of influencing others,
- create collaboration around them
- get things done by empowering people rather than micromanaging them.
I use processes and tools based on social psychology, mediation, peace processes and international negotiation and conflict resolution that help people in all types of industries create collaborative communication and leadership styles that get things done.
Why me? You can learn more about my work here.
