Take the Stage: Leadership Confidence That Builds Trust and Connection

Key takeaways

• Exploring who you truly are is the first step toward “playing you” in your career and life.
• Embracing incremental change is key to making a career move, reinventing yourself or pursuing a dream.
• An actor’s mindset can help you manage impostor syndrome, which can undermine creativity and innovation.
• Communication creates connection across environments, from in-person to remote work.
• Closing the gap between your personal, professional and social selves can result in greater believability and confidence in all areas.

Pam Sherman – actor, writer, leadership consultant and lawyer – joined us for a practical session on showing up with trust and powerful presence at work. Learn to close the believability gap, quiet impostor syndrome and use storytelling to lead with more humanity. Pam shared tools from her new book, Play You, the Role of a Lifetime, including acting-based techniques, to help you build credibility, connect deeply and communicate with confidence. 

 
Pam Sherman shared insights from her book, Play You, the Role of a Lifetime.

Summary

What did we learn? Here are the top takeaways from Take the Stage: Leadership Confidence That Builds Trust and Connection:

Exploring who you truly are is the first step toward “playing you” in your career and life.

You can start building self-awareness with this simple exercise: Identify your power word. “Think of one word that defines you at your core,” Sherman said, adding that she recommends avoiding situational words such as “late,” “tired” or “hungry,” and that your family and friends should agree with your choice. This approach shares similarities with acting, she said. “Understanding the vision for my character, how I fit into the world of the play, of my business, of my community and of my family, is critically important to articulate and share,” she said. Watch at 11:30

Embracing incremental change is key to making a career move, reinventing yourself or pursuing a dream.

For example, Sherman took an acting class to feed a childhood dream while still working as a lawyer at a large firm. “Dreams are great, but we also have to adjust them for real life,” she said. Sign up for a workshop or join a community of people who share your dream, she suggested. You can also take your dream to work, she said. For example, if you dream of becoming an event planner, organize an event at work for your teammates. “You can recalibrate your dream for real life,” she said. Watch at 21:58

An actor’s mindset can help you manage impostor syndrome, which can undermine creativity and innovation.

You might want to think of your impostor as a character, “the bad guy in a movie who’s always getting in the hero’s way,” Sherman said. What can you do about it? First, you can give your impostor a name and have a conversation with it, she said, adding that she addresses that doubtful inner voice before going onstage, saying, “I’ll see you later.” Second, turn your focus away from yourself to your audience: “When we shift to really thinking about our audience and what’s important to them, that quiets the imposter down.” Watch at 28:08

Communication creates connection across environments, from in-person to remote work.

First, it’s crucial to be fully present, Sherman said, adding, “So many people are multitasking.” Next, truly listen without thinking about what you’re going to say next. Then, get curious. “Trust is built through curiosity, asking those great questions that can make a difference,” she said. Finally, for remote work, having one meeting a week with cameras on can help a team truly connect. “It really makes a difference in growing the energy in the room,” she said. Watch at 44:42

Closing the gap between your personal, professional and social selves can result in greater believability and confidence in all areas.

“Consistency creates trust,” Sherman said. “You have to be thoughtful about how you want to put yourself out in the world.” That includes your career, your personal life, social media and even new technology like AI avatars, she pointed out. One way to get authenticity across platforms is to focus on your core values, she said, adding that great leaders go even further. “To really have understanding, generosity and believability, they care deeply about their audiences and the difference that they want to make.” Watch at 31:08

Webinar resources

• Visit Pam Sherman’s website to learn more about her and sign up for her newsletter.
• Follow and connect with Pam on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn^®.
• Purchase your copy of Play You, the Role of a Lifetime by Pam Sherman.