“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world.”
Marianne Williamson
A year ago I was invited to attend an event called I Am Remarkable.
Those of you that know me well know that there’s a pretty good chance I rolled my eyes at the title and was tempted to sit this one out. Self promotion is something that drives me absolutely nuts today. Everybody is so focused on building their personal brands that they forget that the essence of any truly great leader or mission is serving others, not yourself, and certainly not your ego. Plus, If I’m really being honest, I’m not all that remarkable. Because I was invited to this event by one of my best friends and former bosses, and it was hosted by Google, I thought, at the very least, it would be a good networking opportunity.
It’s funny how the universe works.
I Am Remarkable is a program created for people like us: women and other underrepresented groups in the workplace who aren’t very good at recognizing our accomplishments, much less celebrating them. It’s not about self-promotion in the arrogant sense as I assumed, but the very necessary confident and courageous communication of our achievements, when it really counts.
Within ten minutes of sitting down and listing to Leah Beltz, our I Am Remarkable Google facilitator, I was deeply entrenched in learning about the very complex dynamic created by cultural and gender modesty norms that prevent us from acknowledging our remarkable attributes and, even more importantly, expressing our achievements. And the problem with this is it holds us back. All of us.
One of the most powerful moments I had during the program was when a slide came up that said “Our accomplishments do not speak for themselves.” And then it hit me like a ton of bricks: My whole life I was taught that they do, or they should. But in reality, when you think about it, how could they? That was a real eye-opening moment for me. It made me think about all the times I chose not to share my work accomplishments because I didn’t want to appear braggadocios or overconfident. And I began thinking about how this effects our community of Administrative Professionals and how deeply engrained in the DNA of many Administrators, like my Mother, is modesty and humility, which are both wonderful attributes – until they hold you back professionally. And we’ve seen this too many times. Extraordinary career-Administrative Professionals who don’t own and share their success stories, but back away from the opportunity to be recognized for their accomplishments.
So here’s the exciting part. The same person who changed my perception forever about why this tendency to play small is something we need to change, Leah Beltz, is going to present the I Am Remarkable Master Class via Zoom to our Admin Awards Community, in two groups of 20 Administrative Professionals, free of charge, in mid November during Google’s #IamRemarkableWeek, November 12 – 19.
With more than 100k participants in over 100 countries, the goal of I am Remarkable is to improve self promotion, motivation and skills across the board. Here is an overview of what you’ll learn:
- Learn to identify and accept how uniquely gifted you are, and then put it to practice in achieving your professional goals.
- The 90-minute masterclass helps participants learn how to speak openly about their accomplishments.
- The masterclass is divided into three parts:
– Discuss: data and research about self-promotion and unconscious biases
– Practice: main exercises to help participants articulate their achievements and practice self-promotion
– Go home strong: discussion and take-home exercises
If you would like to be considered for participation in this Master Class, tell us about yourself and why this is interesting to you. We’ll circle back with additional details if you’re one of the lucky 40!
Please submit your interest below:
;