Sarah Griffen

She walked into the meeting feeling prepared. She knew the issue, cared about the outcome, and thought she was ready for the conversation.

Then the meeting started moving faster than she expected.

Questions came from different directions, people started interrupting with new points, and instead of slowing the conversation down, she felt pressure to answer everything immediately. By the end of it, she left frustrated because she knew she hadn’t actually landed the point she was trying to make.

In this coaching work, one of the biggest shifts for her was realising she did not need to answer everything immediately to be seen as capable. That habit was actually making her lose control of the conversation.

We worked on slowing the moment down, preparing her key points beforehand, and giving her permission to pause instead of scrambling for answers in real time.

A few days later, she approached things differently. She took notes with her, stayed focused on the main issue, and importantly - she stopped getting pulled into every side question.

The reaction she got back completely changed.

A lot of capable people assume they need to become quicker thinkers or better speakers in meetings, when often the bigger skill is learning how to slow the conversation down enough to hold onto the point you were trying to make in the first place.

Sometimes that means pausing and saying you need more information before answering. Sometimes it means bringing the discussion back to the actual decision that needs to be made instead of getting pulled into every question or side topic.

That’s often the difference between reacting your way through a meeting and leading the conversation with more clarity.
If this feels familiar and you want to work on how you handle high-pressure leadership conversations, feel free to reach out to me via DM. I currently have a few spots open for executive leadership coaching and would love to help.

The most powerful shift I see in coaching is when someone stops trying to become a different personality to succeed.

Most women I work with are not trying to become better leaders so much as they are trying to become a different version of themselves so they can finally feel like they qualify for the role they are already in.

So they end up managing how they speak in meetings, questioning whether they came across too quiet or too intense, and second-guessing decisions they were actually qualified to make in the first place. 🤷

What we end up unpacking in coaching is that a lot of what they see as weaknesses are actually already part of how they lead.

✔️Taking a moment before responding is often careful thinking.

✔️Noticing tension in a team early often means strong awareness.

✔️Caring about outcomes and people at the same time is often what makes them effective in the first place.

But because they have not been named that way, they start trying to correct it instead of trusting it.

And that is usually the shift. Not becoming someone different, just recognising what has been there the whole time and letting that be enough to lead from.

If this feels familiar and you are ready to stop second-guessing yourself at work, reach out to me for coaching support. I currently have a few spots open for executive leadership coaching and would love to help. 🤍

A lot of the leaders I work with do not feel confident in the way people assume they should.

They second-guess themselves before big decisions. They think carefully before they speak. They do not always feel “certain” in the room.

And yet, they are often the ones people trust the most.

Because they notice things others miss. They listen properly instead of rushing to respond. They think about the impact before reacting. They carry a level of awareness that does not come from performing confidence; it comes from paying attention.

Somewhere along the way, confidence got treated like the main requirement for leadership. But in practice, I see something different. The most effective people are often the ones who are more focused on getting it right than looking certain while doing it.

If this made you pause, it is probably worth thinking about what kind of leadership actually works in your world, not just what it is supposed to look like 🤍

Does this hit home for you?

You’re not stuck in your career because you lack options. You’re stuck because you keep choosing what feels familiar instead of fully trusting what you have already proven.

I worked with a client who had experience across multiple roles, but she described it as disconnected and random instead of seeing the pattern running through everything she had done.

She felt stuck, but the reality was different.

She had repeatedly stepped into complex environments and taken on high responsibility work. She had already operated at a higher level in real situations, but she did not treat that as evidence of who she is.

That gap changed everything. Because when she saw her actual track record, she stopped aiming from uncertainty and started noticing what she had already been capable of all along.

A lot of people are not stuck because they are behind. They are stuck because they are not reading their own experience clearly enough to move forward with confidence.

Where are you doing that to yourself right now? 🤍