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Just say yes!
by Hayley James, FCIPR Chart. PR, CIPR Board Director

Working in Communications can sometimes feel like we are the ‘yes’ team….or rather the ‘can’t say no team’. It can be hard to push back, tricky to navigate the asks vs the capacity, and feel at times like others get the luxury of capacity management that we don’t.

So why would I suggest saying yes to more?

Well, this isn’t actually about saying yes to more. The idea that we say yes to the right things is where the opportunities lie.

And by right things I mean the activities and opportunities that help us grow and learn. Anything where you do something different, with different people who you’d maybe not otherwise work alongside gives you a chance to learn. And learning has been proven to help boost your mental health, confidence and adaptability. It also drives innovation and can help you grow your network.

Every organisation will have opportunities for you to say yes to something different– it could be through joining staff group for ED&I, becoming the health and safety rep for your part of the building, or offering to be on a working group for a new project at work. You could also offer to mentor or buddy a new colleague in a different team, or support someone who is still at the start of their career in PR.

Away from work you may be able to look into volunteering in your local area (I’d obviously recommend CIPR volunteering), joining a networking organisation or signing up to be part of a neighbourhood group. Organisations like the Media Trust help partner communications professionals with charities looking for support in a range of different specialisms. There are also charity trustee opportunities, local school governor positions, and ambassador programmes in the third sector.

For me, saying yes is about realising potential, growth, learning. You might not know what the ask is just yet, but hopefully you’re already considering the answer.

The power of self-doubt
By Nicole Kenny, CIPR North West committee member and Regional Development Manager at Cadent

The endless list of positive benefits that saying yes to new opportunities can bring are clear, but what’s stopping us from saying yes in the first place?  Is it time, capacity or that inner self-doubt that we all sometimes have?

Along with many people I know, I can be my own worst critic.  What if I have nothing to contribute, what if everyone else is more equipped and better and will judge me, what if that imposter syndrome kicks in and I regret saying yes to that new opportunity?

We all have self-doubt and that inner critic … some more than others.  However, it’s within our control to reframe it and switch it from a negative attribute to a positive.  It’s actually healthy to have some self-doubt, honestly it is!

Having self-doubt brings positive strengths, like high standards, strong work ethic, passion, compassion, being empathetic and working hard to get along with people because we care what they think.  Also, a dose of self-doubt is a great way to monitor ourselves, our behaviour and our progression.  

Living our lives online brings enough criticism and judgement and although sometimes it feels safer to think it’s better the devil we know, we could actually reframe the negative thoughts keeping us back and say yes and put that self-doubt and inner critic to some good use and see what happens!