Women backing themselves and claiming space
Women leaders talk about self-doubt, feeling like they are wearing someone else's coat, being called bossy, and stretching their 'fear muscle'. They focus on self-knowledge and self-belief rather than diversity debates. It is concentrated in the Powerful Women series from #043, with Petro naming self-belief as what she sees most in female leaders.
How it developed: It starts from one mining executive's career lessons (2022). From #043 it widens into a dedicated series about self-belief, fear, ageing and money.
The thread's title and description are AI-written, drawn from the episodes below. The quotations are verbatim from the episode audio, each linked to the moment it was said.
What was said
“as a leader, number one, you need to know yourself. You need to know yourself. You need to know your strengths. You need to know what challenges you. If you don't know yourself, somebody can tell you who you are.”
“I felt like I was wearing somebody else's coat.”
“And for me, what I would share then is around that fear and the self-leadership is a muscle. And it's a muscle, like any muscle which you've got to take to the gym, it's a muscle that needs to get stretched.”
“I wish somebody had told me, first of all, that it's okay to be bossy.”
“I think probably my biggest barrier has been myself. And it's, it's been a lack of confidence.”
“I mean, it's probably the biggest thing that I see with female leaders is that we just don't believe in ourselves. We've got all the qualifications and all of the credentials and we've done so much work.”
Episodes in this thread
- #025 Unleashing my superpowers | Patience Mpofu 29 August 2022
- #043 We Need New Leaders | Charlotte Otter 9 September 2025
- #045 Lessons from Everest | Jeannette McGill 7 November 2025
- #046 Lessons from a serial entrepreneur | Catherine Wijnberg 24 December 2025
- #047 Owning Your Financial Future | Ann Wilson 5 March 2026
- #048 The Accidental Entrepreneur | Carmel Peinke 2 June 2026