By Anna Keen, Acre Frameworks
When asked to speak at a Women in Health and Safety event for 5 minutes, what do you cover? This was the question we pondered over at Acre HQ for the last week or so. I could talk recruitment trends (yawn!), push the amazing benefits of our new offering Acre Frameworks (sorry couldn’t resist!) or I could use the knowledge gained through development debriefs to empower a group of women to show the world what they are made of?
Acre Frameworks are on a mission to re-brand the health and safety profession from clipboards, red tape and an endless sea of hard hats to a group of people that enable, empower and drive change. We have worked with a group of industry leaders to define the competencies critical for success, developing a market leading psychometric tool which provides objective data on how someone’s personality will impact their effectiveness. in role not just their technical knowledge.
Over the past few months I have been running assessments and providing feedback to a number of women in health and safety, demonstrating how small changes in their behaviour will lead to a big impact in their effectiveness and ultimately how successful they are. The common theme of these development discussions has been a lack of self-confidence, not feeling comfortable expressing their opinions, feeling nervous before important events and even avoiding them all together. These women were amazing at a lot of aspects of their role but many didn’t have the confidence to self-promote or challenge existing behaviours.
So I decided to give back by sharing something with them that has had a big impact on my performance over the last few months. Working in recruitment for years meant I was comfortable meeting people and presenting to small groups, but put me on a stage in front of a bunch of strangers and something horrific happens. I shake, I can’t breathe and occasionally my mind goes blank. In developing Frameworks I have discovered that if you are passionate about something and you believe in it enough, you have to step outside your comfort zone to share the message.
After being introduced to a TED Talk by a woman called Amy Cuddy where she talks about the impact of body language, I learnt that this impacts the impression you make on others but also on how you feel. By adapting my body language and holding a high power pose for just two minutes before an important event, I can become more confident. But what is a high power pose I hear you ask? Well that’s where Wonder Woman comes in. By standing with your feet squarely apart, hands on hips and heads held high for just a couple of minutes you can give yourself a chance of being the best you can be.
It was this simple message and a link to Amy’s Ted Talk that I shared with 200 women (and men) at SHP Online’s Women in Health and Safety Christmas party last week. Even if just one of those women remembers Wonder Woman before their next important occasion and performs better because of it, for me that’s more satisfying than any placement I’ve ever made!
It’s not just for the ladies so gents please give it a go, it might just give you the confidence you need to make your voice heard too.
Anna Keen is the founder of Acre Frameworks
