Episode Transcript
You’ve already been taught the importance of confidence and resilience, of body language and word choice in owning your personal power. It’s a common topic for professional women, and especially for engineers.
This is what we’re exploring today. But with a slightly different twist.
Maybe you think personal power is an overdone topic. I have to agree. But you see evidence all over the place that it’s still very much needed.
Women engineers can always improve on their personal power. And they need reminders to do so. I know I do.
But today you’re gonna get a fresh look at owning your personal power. A view from the theater. From an actor’s perspective.
As a woman engineer you can learn some nifty skills from actors. When you think about it, they know the importance of stance and voice. Of commanding the stage.
They’re experts at ruling their inner critics. And to withstand all the rejections that actor’s typically get, their resilience is mighty strong.
How Acting Best Practices Can Improve Your Engineering Career
Since these are things that serve you well in your engineering career, you can benefit by borrowing a few best practices from actors.
If you stay small and powerless – that is, if you don’t own your personal power, you’ll be ignored and overlooked.
Owning your personal power has positive effects on your engineering career because your strengths and authenticity are seen and appreciated. And then what happens is:
- your confidence cycles up
- your outlook becomes more optimistic
- your risk tolerance grows
- your network expands
- you get more visibility
- you get connected to more opportunities.
The end result is that you reach your goals and manifest your vision faster. And you have the potential for more influence, more impact and thus more career fulfillment.
An Actor’s Best Practices for Women Engineers
There are 5 best practices that you can leverage from your colleagues in the acting business. Let’s dive in:
- Pre-Performance Preparation – aka the power pose. The wonder woman pose is a popular example.
The idea is that you stand strong and confident. Take up more space. And your imposing stance translates from a physical attitude into a mental one. It’s a necessity for getting you ready for your next performance.
Not only does it work, but it works instantly to give you confidence. I regularly use this tactic myself. Before presentations, interviews or client meetings.
Actors have their own power poses. (Google “Rebecca Power Pose on Ted Lasso” for a great example.) And you can have your own, too.
- Stage Presence – This is how you present yourself. How you carry yourself in front of your audience.
Your stance is open and tall with your arms at your sides. Don’t fold your arms or clasp your hands. Your feet are apart and your chest is open. Don’t pace or make any other nervous movements.
I like the idea of walking tall like you just fought off 6 ninja assassins.
If this is not your natural stance, it might feel exaggerated. You might feel that it’s too much. But just like for acting, the exaggerated quality gives the right effect on stage.
Speaking stereotypically here: Engineers are stoic. Women are demure. If you’re an introvert, introverts are quiet and reserved. So you might feel like you’re stage presence is going a bit overboard.
But it doesn’t look that way to others. Instead your stage presence is impressive and masterful. Others can see that you’re strong and balanced, which brings an element of credibility and trustworthiness. With practice you’re stage presence will become more natural to you.
- Speaking to Yourself – No matter what your profession, self-talk can be a challenge. For actors it might be after an audition or a performance. For engineers it might be after a presentation or high profile meeting.
You second guess yourself and you get plagued by your inner critic.
Instead you want to speak to yourself in the affirmative. You want to keep your sense of optimism. And be kind to yourself.
Pay attention to your self-talk. And speak to yourself exactly how you would to any other strong, successful woman engineer you admire.
- Speaking to Your Audience – This refers to how your audience hears you, both audibly and literally.
From basic actor training, project your voice by speaking from your diaphragm, not your throat. And breathe to support your vocal sound through the end of each phrase.
You want to eliminate things like upspeak and vocal fry. These have a way of showing insecurity and weakening your professional integrity.
Upspeak is a rising voice inflection at the end of sentences or phrases so they sound like questions instead of statements. Vocal fry is a way of lowering your register so that your voice makes a creaky sound.
And like we talked about in Episode 37 on crafting your message of impact, learn to speak without apologies and eliminate diminishing language. Examples of diminishing language are words like just, actually, maybe, sometimes, and probably.
Intentional word choice helps you communicate clearly and succinctly. Unfortunately it can also carry the perception of being too forward and direct. Not “soft” enough for a woman.
This is an example of tightrope bias. Where women are perceived either as too soft or not soft enough. It’s a bias that many professional women face.
I recently saw a brilliant example of a woman speaking to her audience. It was an interview with Esther George, President and CEO of Federal Reserve Bank Kansas City.
I was drawn to her voice and engaged in what she had to say, even though it wasn ’t my intention to be. She had a smooth confidence and came across as commanding and trustworthy.
Her communication was direct and clear, and genuinely responsive. She walked that tightrope masterfully.
- Accepting Rejection – Actors face many rejections in their line of work. And consequently have remarkable resilience. They’re a good role model for women engineers in that respect.
Following their example, you can build your tenacity to withstand rejection. You can hone your ability to bounce back, for instance, by
- learning and improving from your mistakes
- releasing the idea of perfection
- using humor and whimsy to survive setbacks.
I invite you to incorporate these best practices to own your power in your engineering career. You can discover what actors have known for ages. Some tricks of the trade to command your audience, radiate confidence, and ultimately ace your engineering performance.
Have you gotten your free copy of my guide yet? It’s called “4 Steps to Start Commanding Greater Influence and Impact as a Woman Engineer.” And it’s got some great tips and insights to complement today’s episode.
Next time on Her Engineering Career Podcast we’ll talk about thinking time and how to make room for that in your engineering career. I hope you’ll join me for Episode 87.