‘I’m a failure.’

‘I’M SURE YOU THINK I’M A FAILURE.’

This is what my client said to me recently in our live coaching session. We were in his beautiful office, drinking gorgeously prepared coffee, and he looked so ashamed.

‘I’m sure you think I’m the worst manager in the world, to get to this position so high up in the company, and still not have a good level of English. It’s so embarrassing.’

I told him that he was actually the 3rd person that week who shared that kind of feeling with me in a coaching session. I saw him look surprised, then relax a little bit in his designer chair.

This is how I responded.

‘Actually, I think you’re an excellent manager. Because you decided to make a change. You were no longer happy with a skill, and you decided to ask for help. You could have easily delegated all of this to your team, forever. But you didn’t. Instead of hiding behind delegation, and taking the easy way out, you decided to tackle this headfirst. To me, that’s true vulnerability. That’s true leadership. And I think you’re a strong leader too. Because you are a living example of being vulnerable, being honest about what you’re not great at, and willing to make a change. That, to me, is true leadership. I’m inspired by your honesty and motivation!

So many of my clients are in high-performance positions. Several are native speakers of English. But does that mean they feel great about their communication skills?

Nope.

To me, it doesn’t matter how much grammar you know, how perfect your pronunciation is, or how many words you can use in your emails. You can have all of those skills, but still feel horrible about how you communicate. And this is a problem so many of my clients struggled with.

To me, your message doesn’t start in your mouth. It starts in your mind.

That’s where true confidence lives.

If you feel your English is holding you back, I welcome you to join me in my Zoom room for a free discovery call (and pep talk!). I’d love to hear more about your words and your world. (En we kunnen het ook in het Nederlands doen, geen probleem!)

I’ll see you soon!

Liefs,
Buffi

Click here for a free pep talk!