Maribel is an engineer specializing in flexible piping for oil and gas recovery. She is a native of South America who has been working for many years at a global energy company. She is a small, lovely woman who struggled to be seen and heard in the male-dominated industry. Her feminine nature seemed to her like a barrier to career advancement, yet she was committed to being authentic.
Maribel approached me to work on developing a stronger voice and leadership presence. She shared that she wanted to be taken more seriously at meetings and to gain more visibility in her industry. We agreed that she attend my course called Gravitas for Leadership Presence in hopes of transforming how she showed up at her workplace.
The Gravitas course taught her to develop a more solid physical presence, to hold her ground when speaking and to project her voice to fill a room. She said she felt stronger, more in control and more able to assert her ideas with her voice.
Not long after completing the Gravitas course, Maribel planned and hosted a flexible pipe forum conference at her company. She asked me to coach her privately to prepare her to speak and to emcee the forum. We worked on her presence, voice, audience connection and the parts she was to speak as host and emcee of the event. In addition, we practiced her staging in the auditorium where the meeting would take place. This seemed to give her greater confidence to control the room.
Ninety experts attended and she showed up as a strong, confident and authentic leader. Her senior VP attended and later commented on what a great job she had done. Through this event, she gained confidence, credibility and visibility in her company and in her industry.
Maribel shared some comments about her experience of our coaching and the conference: