Nobody is holding a red pen

Someone asked me recently what my work feels like after 25 years.

The honest answer is that it doesn’t feel like work. It feels like conversations.

A lot of people arrive at a first session braced for the red pen. They sit down expecting to be corrected, because that’s what happened the last time anyone talked to them about their English.

Then we just talk. About their board, their budget, the colleague who never answers emails. Twenty minutes in, they’ve forgotten to be careful.

(That’s the part I still find quietly remarkable, after all this time.)

Nobody in your meetings is marking your English either. They’re in a conversation with you, and they want to know what you think.

Quick win: Before your next call, write down one question you actually want answered. Start there instead of with your first sentence.

I said some of this out loud recently, on the Womansphere Momentum Podcast with Noëmi Caruso. Fourteen minutes, in German, if you’d like to listen here.

💬 Who was the last person who made English feel easy?