20 Comments
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Dr Lauren Ingram's avatar

So good! Wish someone had explained these things to me so much earlier in my career.

This could have been about 3 posts, so many gems in here thank you.

Soph Hirst's avatar

I'm glad you said that! I really do have a problem with cramming too much in hahah. Prob why I can only manage to publish money 🙃

Dr Lauren Ingram's avatar

You should totally break them out a bit! I really liked the Ugly Baby example, instantly made me cringe with recognition of things I've sat on and then suddenly you're sharing the unpleasant result 🥴

Alanna Lynch's avatar

Really great post, thank you! All on the money, especially the first one. Thinking like a business owner is critical to get promoted into snr leadership roles.

The Stories We Carry's avatar

This was amazingly helpful. Thank you for this.

Ooof! The way I struggle with being concise. 😂 Actually, here’s one way I’ve been using AI to practice: every day I have an Executive Room Challenge automated to ask me questions within my industry. I only have 60–90 seconds to respond, then it hits me with a follow-up and I have to answer as concisely and impactfully as possible.

I also use the audio feature so I have to answer in real time. And the feedback will be like, “Okay, that was a strong start, but you could’ve stopped here. Trust the silence. We didn’t need this filler word or sentence.”

It’s been such a good exercise but so hard!

Gustav Högberg's avatar

Such a genius way to practice, can you share how you enable this?

The Stories We Carry's avatar

Here is an example of the prompt I created. Every day, give me one realistic executive-room scenario from the media industry that requires me to make a decision or defend a position. Give me 60–90 seconds to respond. Then challenge my answer. After I respond, critique my reasoning, clarity and conciseness. Don’t go easy on me.

You can obviously swap media industry for whatever field you work in.

It’s stress but good stress 😂

Gustav Högberg's avatar

Thanks! It was a stress but such an impressive way to actually get exposed to scenarios.

Tim Whiting's avatar

One of the clearest ‘how to’ pieces I’ve read, and absolutely on the money in terms of the traps it’s easy for people to fall into - thank you!

Soph Hirst's avatar

I love this message, Tim. Thank you. I spent so much time on this to make the advice actionable and also hopefully not too boring haha

Ana Isabel's avatar

Amazing!! I will print it out and have it next to my laptop as a reminder on how I should handle situations

Soph Hirst's avatar

Thank you so much Ana, I love that

Zachary Perez's avatar

extremely useful ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Soph Hirst's avatar

High praise coming from you!

Liz's avatar

really great read. agreed this information would have been sooo helpful with I was just starting out in corporate - thanks for sharing 💌

Nanda Serrate's avatar

"One of the most direct pieces I've read on this! Some of these traps seem to tap into even more complex for us women.

Notes By Frannie's avatar

So much practical advice. Thank you!

Soph Hirst's avatar

Thanks so much