Women and Leadership

Do you find yourself apologizing for things that are not your fault, that might not even happen, or that aren’t even worth an apology? How often do you say things like, “I’m sorry to ask,” “I’m sorry I’m late,” or “I’m sorry if this doesn’t make sense, but…”?

If you are a woman, you are more likely to have this VERY BAD HABIT ingrained in how you communicate with others, especially at work. Research has shown that women apologize for their words and behaviors way more than men. Possible reasons for this are many: our social conditioning, a desire to avoid conflict, a fear of appearing impolite, and having a lower threshold for what constitutes offensive behavior.

Whatever the reasons, we fill the airtime with self-deprecating statements that minimize our competence, rather than using our voices to advocate for what we want, share our brilliance, and connect authentically with others.

Clearly, this needs to stop! To help get you started with the stopping, we’ve created the three-day No-Apology Challenge, Click below to request your playbook with guidance on how to participate and break the habit.