Wouldn’t it be nice if the steps to becoming more self-confident were explained as simply as, say, the steps to making chocolate cheesecake? Well, my Métamorphose partner Dorcas Lasme-Adou and I think it should be. That is why we put together a short instruction manual, specifically for women, with instructions on how to increase your self-assurance. Read the condensed version here.

Self-Confidence Instructions c_v 06_12 (pdf)

What techniques work well to boost your self-confidence? Please let us know!

Throughout this excruciating process of creating a new web site focusing on women’s career development and leadership, I have been asked repeatedly: Why? Don’t you like working with men?

Well, I do. That’s not it at all. It’s just that after facing the challenges firsthand that so many women meet as we try to lead fulfilling professional lives and at the same time have decent private lives, I realize that this experience can be especially helpful to other women. Whether it’s the external challenges, such as working long hours and foregoing friends and family or not understanding the importance of networking and company politics until it’s almost too late, or the internal conflicts, including being uncomfortable with self-promotion or battling to overcome those insidious inner voices on subjects such as inadequacy, rejection, and guilt, I have faced my share and then some. It’s this understanding and empathy that has led me to focus on women and diversity issues.

I have also been asked on numerous other occasions: When? When are you finally going to publish your new site? And, considering that I could have had another child in the time it took me to finish this project (hence the word “excruciating” above), I’ll leave that question for another time.