Using Passive Language Is Holding You Back at Work
When you are confident with your words, nothing can stop you
I have been a serial apologizer, an overthinker of emails and a phone call cringer for most of my working career.
I’ve found myself on more than one occasion, sitting in meetings, agreeing vigorously with ideas that I knew were bad. Why? I hated confrontation and any kind of self-promotion. I was eventually told that I was being overlooked for a higher role for sitting on the sidelines. The reason was not my work; my communication style (or lack thereof) was keeping me from progressing in my career. Ouch.
It shouldn’t come as a shock to read that women are “four times more likely” to tone down their language with the intention to mitigate the risks of their opinions. Referred to as “Out-of-power” language, these patterns of speech, that focus on reservation and apology, are holding women back in the workplace. But as we place collective cracks in the glass ceiling and more women are in the driver’s seat of their own businesses or getting promoted into positions of power, why isn’t our language reflecting the confidence and elevation these roles require?
And why do we keep apologizing for ourselves?
