“The average office worker checks their emails 74 times a day and switches tasks on their laptops 566 times a day. No wonder there’s no time for self-reflection.”
Introducing her interactive coaching session at the Women in Insurance Summit in London, Louise Meyer (pictured), executive coach at Meyer Harrison, encouraged the conference’s attendees to take a moment for some self-reflection.
Having started her career as a broker in the late 80s, where she can attest that “all the stories you have heard about the 80s are true”, Meyer reflected on how the profession has made great strides forward for women within the industry.
“It would have been a struggle to get even 18 women to a similar event in 1987,” she said. “So to see so many women come together to talk about what it means to be a woman in insurance was an incredible experience.
“There were over 200 women in the room, all championing and applauding each other. And that was my biggest takeaway from the event –how there is such strength in our network of women working together.”
Having been on the sharp end of the insurance profession for 14 years, Meyer is no stranger to the somewhat daunting spectre presented by the idea of self-advocacy and negotiating on your own behalf. She led the room in an exercise that had 200 women actively close down their phones, put down their notes and focus solely on themselves. She led everyone through a process of starting to look inside and find what is important, looking at what success means to everyone individually.
“Let’s imagine there are no boundaries to your success,” she invited the room. “Wouldn’t that be great? What if blue sky thinking could be as outrageous as you want it to be, or dare it to be? Because we are the only limitation in our vision of future success. We need to really know ourselves and have clear goals before we are ready to talk about self-advocacy and negotiation.”
“When I was broking in the 80s and 90s, self-advocacy wasn’t in my dictionary. If we, as women, talk about ourselves we are seen as arrogant, unpopular and self serving, and yet when men talk about themselves they are often seen as confident, strong and successful.”
Meyer clarified that, in essence, “self-advocacy is the effective communication of our interests, abilities, achievements and aspirations” and she invited attendees to shake the status quo and let go of the discomfort of talking about themselves.
“We’re all great advocates of our businesses, our friends and our children,” she noted. “But when it comes to ourselves, it goes completely against our coding, and it makes us feel a little uncomfortable. Self-promotion needs to be learned, it needs to be developed, and it needs to be continually worked on.”
Meyer added that: “While everybody is individually responsible for making this change, we all need to support each other, and get comfortable applauding each other’s achievements. This is where coaching can really make a difference, because it allows you the space to extensively review yourself and get wholly comfortable with what you are really great at and, on the flip side, what you need to improve on.
“Coaching offers you the opportunity to tap into your gut instincts and to develop your confidence and start to live more intentionally, and not be taken off course like a yacht in a strong wind. It is so easy to get off course in life and your career - regular attention to your own compass is essential.
“Self-advocacy is about digging deep and understanding yourself, and it’s very difficult to do on your own, it is impossible to see your blindspots. In a lot of companies, when you get to a certain level, you are encouraged to work with a coach because your business wants to make sure you’re honing your skills and as your role develops a coach keeps you focused on what is important.
“It’s a sign that your company backs you, but having a coach is also recognition that you are backing yourself.”
For attendees, it was clear how much Meyer loves what she does and the impact it has. In discussion with Insurance Business after the event, she highlighted her recognition of both the responsibility and the privilege she has in working so closely with her clients and becoming an instrumental part of their toolkit for success.
Her confidence aside, however, Meyer noted that the Women in Insurance event was the first time she had coached a room of 200 women all together. It was great to see how readily everybody connected with the coaching experience, she said, and to see everybody really begin to think about:
At the conference, Meyer finished by asking the summit’s attendees to “pay it forward” and be an ally or mentor, to view each other as colleagues and not competitors and continue to communicate and share as “there is great strength and power in supporting each other.”
“Get yourself a coach, who really gets you,” she advised the room. “But my message today is simple… most importantly be you, YOU are great.”
Meyer coaches women in insurance to “Lead as themselves”. For more information, you can connect with her at [email protected] or find out more at https://meyerharrison.com/
