Women and Leadership Communications

Three Ways Women Undermine their Authority When they Communicate

No Mansplaining here! This article is by my partner, Teresa Erickson (above, addressing the Asia Women Leaders Program, Manila, 2018). She is president and co-owner of Intermedia Communications,and co-author of The Master Communicator’s Handbook. Teresa has been teaching women leaders to communicate with authority for over 15 years. I’m publishing her article on my Medium blog with her permission, in honor of International Women’s Month.

As a communications adviser, I’ve worked with women leaders and government officials all over the world on how to enhance their authority when they speak, especially when they’re working in male dominated environments plagued by implicit gender bias. While many women have natural advantages when it comes to communicating for rapport and relationship building, I’ve found over the years that regardless of nationality or culture, women have some common, universal communication patterns that detract from their authority.

Here are the top three undermining habits I’ve observed:

The use of self-diminishing qualifiers

“I’m not the expert on this, but…”