Quietly Powerful

April Event Review: Quietly Powerful – How to Stop Wasting Talent and Ignite it Instead

For our first face to face event since early 2020, the insightful and talented Megumi Miki led us through a deep dive into her work on being Quietly Powerful – how to stop wasting talent and ignite it instead

 

ODA’s live event on 29 April was a liberating experience for all involved in so many ways. It was the first time we have been able to come together since February 2020 to meet, greet and chat free from CV-19 restrictions on social gatherings. It was also about learning how to liberate our own capabilities, free from the constraints imposed or assumed about us by others in the external context in which we work but also from internal constraints on our capabilities to which we can be conditioned. 

 

The topic was “Quietly Powerful – how to stop wasting talent and ignite it instead” and our talented presenter, Megumi Miki, introduced us to the first type of constraint through an insightful discussion of a phrase we often hear, “She’s a bit quiet” and the unhelpful feedback often received “You need to be more confident…. You need to believe in yourself”. Miki explained how, if repeated often enough, such feedback can generate a conditioned internal constraint, generating anxiety and frustration. Miki termed this “internalised marginalisation “– we feel there’s something wrong with us. This waste of talent was recalled in a quote from Benjamin Disraeli, “Most people die with their music still locked up inside them.”

Miki then led us on a pathway which could “unlock the music you were born to play” by recognising how being quiet is often powerful and how especially during the pandemic loud, so-called “strongmen” have been discredited. 

 

Miki is a great facilitator; engagement was high and discussion flowed freely and the skillful use of Mentimeter allowed us to explore the dimensions of quietly powerful leadership within the group in real-time.

 

Geoff McGill

Leadership Group