By ELAINE DONG

VIMMELA Bendall is a trainer who specialises in communication coaching. Her areas of expertise are business and sales mentoring, relationship coaching and leadership coaching.

She has conducted training worldwide, challenging her clients to rethink their capability to achieve their dreams and goals.

Born in Johor Bharu, and now based in Sydney, Australia, Vimmela has been helping people achive their full potential for over 20 years.

She founded two training companies, Get Your Competitive Edge and Relationships Coaching, and also co-founded Transformational Training Centre in Malaysia.

Vimmela shares 10 tips on positive empowerment.

1. Be tough but not macho

Toughness means being willing to make decisions, call the shots and take a tough stand without being aggressive. Demand results from your subordinates, fight for a bigger budget, say what you need to say and do what you need to do without compromising on your integrity.

2. Be brave

Workplace courage is about taking a stand or a risk. Take credit for accomplishments. On receiving a promotion or a pay raise, respond to it by stating the qualities and strengths you bring to the table.

Describe how you intend to use those strengths to better the company or the project at hand.

Getting a promotion isn’t a gift.You have worked hard for it and deserve it. When you fail to insist on credit for your accomplishments your spirit slowly shrinks.

The more women display courage in the workplace, the less such behaviour will be viewed as unusual.

3. Take charge

Stop complaining and do something about things you are not happy about. Be sure that you complete every conversation feeling empowered and at the same time leave the other party empowered too.

4. Update your skills

Pursue educational opportunities especially in communication, self-management, and decision making. Continue your education so that your skills don’t “grow old”, especially in the area of speaking and communication.

5. Speak up

Do a lot of different things, live life to the fullest, expand your knowledge and experience. Be interesting and have the ability to discuss most topics.

Go on job interviews even if you don’t want the job, make lateral moves. Opportunities are unscheduled and often disguised.

Commit to making one contribution at every meeting. Some women wait to be called on or have difficulty taking the floor. It may be necessary to interrupt to have your say. Do it. You must be heard to be counted.

6. Focus on the big picture

Micro-management is managing with excessive control or attention to detail. Micromanagers are control-obsessed, or they feel driven to push everyone around them to success, thus risk disempowering their colleagues. They ruin their colleagues’ confidence, hurt their performance, and frustrate them to the point where they quit.

Avoid falling into the perfectionist trap by keeping the big picture in mind. Eighty percent of output can be achieved in 20% of time spent.

Knowing where to focus your efforts is an advantage if not an outright requirement for managers.

7. Build confidence

True self-confidence includes the willingness to listen to feedback, admit mistakes and accept fallibility. Take on risky new jobs and projects and perform well at them.

8. Don’t use tag-lines

Eliminate tag-lines at the end of your sentences. For example “This is a good idea, don’t you think?” “We have the best team, right?”. What tag lines do is they weaken conviction and authority. Also eliminate words such as some, just, only, hopefully, and guess. This type of language minimises both the message and the messenger. “This is just a thought,” “I’m only a beginner,” “Hopefully, I’ve done a good job,” “I guess I have a question,” are weak statements. They signal a lack of confidence and tell the listener that it is not very important. Constantly apologising will have the same effect.

9. Take control of your career

Don’t sit passively waiting for opportunities to drop into your lap. When you set yourself a goal, try to be as specific as possible because it gives you a clear idea of what success looks like. Think of specific actions that need to be taken to reach your goal. Be clear and precise.

Take charge of your own public relations campaign so that your accomplishments are noticed and rewarded.

To achieve advancement, dress one level above your present position. If you are a supervisor, dress like a manager.

10. Learn to speak in public

One of the biggest mistakes women can make in their careers is not taking on public speaking. Public speaking is an opportunity for visibility and equal exposure. Confront your fear, get some coaching, and get out there and shine.